My students LOVE the new Flocabulary Week in Raps that come out on Fridays.
Because we were out on Fall Break last Friday, I showed them Friday’s video today.
If you’re a teacher and have never heard of Flocabulary, I INSIST that you visit this site. There are so many wonderful videos. Students absolutely adore them!!
Anyhoo…now that the commercial is over…
😉
The weekly news raps help students stay abreast of what’s going on in the world, and there are links to news articles for further discussion.
Once again, this site is WONDERFUL with so many potential extension activities.
So, one of the stories last week was that of Whitney Kropp, a sophomore whose classmates voted her onto the Homecoming court and later revealed it was done as a joke.
Talk about cruel, eh?
She decided to go to the ceremony anyway, and as word leaked out about how she’d been treated, her supporters showed up in droves.
This story opened up a bit of discussion as I admonished my students to be very careful about what they say to others. I told them that words and actions are very powerful and can affect a person for an entire lifetime, as evidenced by my own insecurities.
My third class asked me why I wasn’t popular in high school, and I told them that I was not pretty back then.
One of my girls sat, shocked, and said, “How could you say that about yourself?”
I told her that simply put, I was ugly. I was also a nerd.
Those don’t have the makings for a good high school experience.
I remember one especially bad experience when I was in the sixth grade…new to the school and, apparently, new to the high school mentality of teenage boys.
One boy, known to have a mean streak, used to stand behind me as I retrieved items out of my bottom locker, and made lewd gestures behind my back.
Although, at the time, I didn’t understand exactly why everyone was laughing, I understood that I was at the butt of their jokes.
That is why the news story touched me, and that is why I feel the need to get out the message to my students that being kind to one another is imperative, despite whatever drama may be going on around them.
It is my prayer that my students will not grow up and think of themselves as being ugly way back when they were in high school.
I pray that those around them make them feel beautiful and worthy.
Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: bullying, flocabulary, teaching | Leave a comment »
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