PhotoVoice Action Plan

Constructed By: Casey Bohnenblusch, Christine Kim, Cristina Lane, Lauren Stone

Introduction

Unfortunately, social issues can be found within every school, and Conn Elementary is no

different. Throughout the school, the most prominent social issue seen is bullying. Bullying is

present within the school and includes but is not limited to, tattle tailing, teasing, threatening, and

violence. In the third grade, all four of these forms of bullying have been noticed. Furthermore,

from our experiences working with the third grade students, we have concluded that by engaging

students in activities and experiences that lead to alleviating bullying and by supporting students

on this journey to a positive school, will benefit the school as a whole.

We first noticed an atmosphere of bullying through the day-to-day interactions students

were having with each other. The conversations between students often came in the form of

arguments. Additionally, during instruction, some students take it upon themselves to pick out

and announce the faults of others. Plainly stated, these third grade students are disrespectful to

one another. Our suspicions were confirmed by the administering of a survey to the students.

This survey was part of the fostering critical competence project. One question on the survey

was: Do you feel comfortable at this school? Student responses to this question were shocking.

Many said they felt uncomfortable due to the level of cursing and violence seen between their

peers. We feel that this is due to an underdeveloped classroom community. In other words,

students do not view their peers with acceptance or respect.

From the exploration of bullying through videos presented in our Connections Seminar

course, we know this is a pressing topic that needs to be addressed. In the video, many students

felt helpless and alone due to being bullied, along with a lack of support from school
administration and the community. In an effort avoid students feeling this way, we have devised

a social action plan to implement at Conn Elementary.

To respond to this concern, we plan to involve the school community, speakers, and the

public as a whole, to address specifically the third grade classrooms, but ultimately the whole

school as well. It is important to note that expectations and a sense of safety and community

should be cultivated and implemented from the moment that the students enter the classroom.

Steps:

1. Teacher training will take place in order to inform them on advocating for their

students on the issue of bullying. Counselors and other mental health professionals will

lead this teacher training.

2. We will also send out parent awareness newsletters to keep parents informed

about events and activities related to this topic. Providing parents with additional

resources to encourage additional discussions and support outside of the classroom will

help keep this action plan in place.

3. Inviting and hosting a guest speaker to talk about their personal experiences with

bullying and action steps that involve students taking a stand and making a difference.
 4. All teachers in the third grade will read The Juice Box Bully and/or Bully

Beans to initiate a positive classroom building exercise. Teachers will be monitored on

their classroom management strategies in order to show the importance of this issue.
5. Teachers will collaborate to create a Tootling Board for students to leave

positive shout outs and acknowledgments about their classmates. The teacher should read

aloud these comments at the end of every school day to reinforce the impact of a positive

community.
6. The third grade as a team will have a safe, locked box in the hallway for students

to leave concerns. These comments and questions can be anonymous to keep students

safe. The individual teachers can also have their own locked box inside their room for

concerns pertaining specifically to their class. It is important for teachers to check these

boxes regularly and address concerns as they are raised. They can be addressed to the

whole grade level, to the class, or privately with individual students when appropriate and

necessary.
7. Bulletin boards will be made and displayed around the hallways as gentle

reminders to students about expectations.

8. All teachers will emphasize a zero tolerance rule about bullying.

The primary reading/media that we reflected upon when designing this action plan was

the Bully Movie. The Bully Movie illustrated the impact that apathetic teachers and negative

classroom climates have on the students. Bullying is an issue that affects all schools, but the

difference is the level of support that the schools offer. Students all need an ally and they may not

receive the support that they need at home, so the teachers and administrators may be the only

source of support that they can seek. With a loving and respectful community, the students will

feel safe among their peers and they will trust their teachers to be there to advocate for them.
This action plan is designed to ensure a positive, encouraging atmosphere and to make sure that

students and teachers cultivate a relationship of trust.

To implement this action plan, we will be collaborating with the team of 3rd grade

teachers, teachers across grade levels, the administration, the students parents, the school

librarian, and most importantly, the students themselves. The constituents that need to be

engaged are the teachers and the PTA. We will have a grade wide faculty meeting to discuss the

action plan and to inform the school on the purpose and desired impact of this plan. Once all

teachers are engaged, the third grade teachers will meet with the schools PTA to outline costs

and needed resources. Costs will include payment for the speaker, training sessions led by

professionals, books, bulletin board materials, and the lock boxes.

What individuals may resist social change, and how?

As we begin the implementation of this action plan to reduce bullying within the

classroom, some students may resist our efforts. Introducing bullying as a social issue present in

the classroom may be seen as an accusation. We anticipate students becoming defensive on the

issue and feel the need to deny their contributions to bullying and disrespect within the

classroom. Many of these students have experienced a society and community that is accepting

and sometimes even supportive of these behaviors and it is important to encourage them to look

past peer influence and see how their actions affect those around them. Getting students to come

to terms with the fact that bullying is a problem that needs to be faced and addressed will take

time. We will need to find a way to encourage students to become invested in the idea of a

positive classroom environment and show them that with that community comes acceptance and

respect.

What resources exist in your school/community, and what resources will you need?
 In order to ensure we are implementing this anti-bullying action plan to the best of our

ability, we will need to make effective use of our resources. Incorporating the use of texts

focusing on the ideas of respect, acceptance, anti-bullying, and classroom community will help

to introduce and reiterate the ideas being addressed. Having access to a large bulletin board

located on the third grade hallway will allow us to implement our Tootling activity. This

activity requires student and teacher participation to highlight the positive actions and words

shown by the third grade team. Making use of school resources such as the Conn Elementary

guidance team will also help move this plan in the right direction. Involving the guidance team

in school community building exercises will increase awareness of the issue and will show

students this issue is important school wide.

1 photograph captures the resource that could use to address the social issue

What are your desired outcomes that would support social change?

Through our anti-bullying action plan, there are a few key desired outcomes. Raising

awareness of the issue and the importance of intervention around bullying is definitely

something we want to stem from this plan. Helping students, parents, teachers, and

administration to accept the fact that bullying is a concern within the school and giving them

ways and resources for change will encourage the school community to work together in
building a more positive environment. For teachers in particular, we hope to leave a lasting

impression of the impact bullying has on their students socially and academically and inspire

them to continue to build classroom community and acceptance among their students in the

coming years. We hope that involving the entire grade level will inspire students to carry this

positive outlook with them throughout their schooling experiences. Overall, our goal is to instill

a desire for positivity, respect, acceptance, and community that in turn creates an encouraging

and welcoming school environment for all students.

After identifying bullying as the issue that we wanted to address, we started asking

questions. We wanted to know what our Cooperating Teachers thought of bullying, among the

grade-level and particularly within their classrooms. We found a united front. All of the teachers

in this grade level agreed that bullying and general hostility among these students was a

prominent issue. They acknowledged that their efforts to alleviate the situation had gone with

little noted success. In doing our own research, we found that this is in fact a really challenging

problem to effectively diminish. However, we came up with a few ideas to get the ball rolling.

First off, our Cooperating Teachers gave us some literature resources to help start conversations

with students about bullying; books like Bully Beans, The Juice Box Bully, The Bully

Book, and The Hundred Dresses, all introduce bullying in a kid-friendly way. We thought

that reading these books, and others, followed by activities, small-group discussions, and whole

class debriefs, would help get the students thinking about bullying and how they have power to

help stop it. We also wanted to discuss the idea about how acts of kindness, no matter how small,

can make a huge difference. We will make an effort to focus on the manageable positive impacts

students can make rather than emphasizing the removal of negatives.

 After introducing the issue to students, we would introduce our Tootling Board. The

Tootling Board is a new and improved version of the concept of tattling. Students will report

acts of kindness, thoughtfulness, generosity, etc. in the form of sticky notes posted on the bulletin

board. The notes can be anonymous, but they must recognize a specific person doing a positive

thing. We have considered the idea of adding incentives since this particular group of students

often responds to incentives, but intend on discussing this with our Cooperating Teachers. The

Tootling bulletin board will encourage collaboration of the entire grade-level. In order to ensure

the effectiveness of the plan, the entire grade-level will meet once a week to celebrate the

students that have received the most Tootles. Another idea that we have considered is putting our

best minds on solving this problem - the students. In addition to the Tootling Board, have

students start an anti-bullying project in small groups. How would they go about solving this

issue? What is the most effective approach? What can we as teachers do to help? This would help

build critical consciousness and allow students to have a voice about an issue that is very real

and very important in their lives.

Ideally, we would be able to enact an anti-bullying action plan school-wide. Bringing in a

speaker to talk to the students would help make the issue very real to students who may not have

personal experiences with bullying, as well as hopefully resonating with students who find

themselves in the category of being a bully. Speakers such as students from The BULLY Project

would have a great influence on the students. We would aim to have this speaker funded by the

PTA. By spreading this action plan to the whole school, our hope is to have a lasting effect on

these students that contributes to the prevention of bullying in and beyond elementary school.

This issue deserves the attention of faculty, staff, and all of the students in order to create a team

of positive, respectful, and aware individuals ready to make a change.

Additional Resources:
http://www.thebullyproject.com/tools_educators