I like Brilliant Minds because we planted plants, ate snacks, and played with our friends. It was better than recess. Ms. Smith taught us that we should compliment ourselves and others.
Parent Presentation May 12, 2010
Welcome to our new and fresh take on parent presentations!
Enjoy this collection of articles and video presentations written by Level 4 and 6 Brilliant Minds students on the topics of bullying, types of communication, the importance of communicating respectfully, and the importance of taking responsibility for your actions. This blog of social skills may be accessed at anytime to be shared with relatives or to reinforce prior knowledge of learned social skills. An informed parent is an empowered parent when it comes to guiding their child through challenging and unique social situations!
In this issue:
Respectful Communication, by: Max Melendez
When Do Put-Downs Become Bullying, by: Julia Delborello
How You Communicate is Important, by: Lexi Fleury
Taking Responsibility for Your Actions, by: Siearah Brousseau
The Importance of Being Assertive, by: Samuel Berens
Respectful Communication
By: Max Melendez, Grade 5
Communication can make a problem more easy or more difficult. Respectful Communication can be made easier when your actions show that you are staying calm, actively listening, considering the other person’s perspective, explaining your perspective clearly, and acting nonjudgmental. Then, there are actions that make communicating difficult. Actions that make communication difficult are blaming, being judgmental, interrupting, mocking, and generalizing, or saying “you always” or “you never.” Also, your voice, face, and body expressions can make communication easier or harder. Ways your voice, face, and body expression can make communication easier are being curious, respectful, relaxed, thoughtful, considerate, open to perceive, and balanced. Then, there are voice, face, and body expressions that make communicating difficult. They are being aggressive, dismissive, frustrated, loud, or moving or jerking forward.
Communicating can be for the better or for the worse, good or bad. But, respectful communication, if done right, will always be for the better.
When Do Put-Downs Become Bullying?
By: Julia DelBorello, Grade 3
Bullying is when one or more people harm, harass, or leave someone out over and over. It is also unfair and one-sided. Unfair means that the other person can’t fight back. If it doesn’t happen repeatedly, it isn’t unfair, and it isn’t one sided, then it isn’t bullying.
There are two different kinds of bullying and they’re called Face-to-Face and Behind-the-Back bullying. Face to Face bullying is when the person bullying you is right in front of your face. Behind the Back bullying is when somebody is bullying you without you knowing such as gossip.
One time, I saw this movie called Aquamarine. In the movie there was a girl, Sasha, who is always mean to another girl, Jessica. Sasha is indeed bullying because it is unfair and one-sided. It’s unfair because Sasha has her friends around who say, “Yeah” to back her up when she is bullying Jessica.
An example of bullying in the movie Aquamarine is when Jessica, a high schooler, is at the park by herself when Sasha and her friend grabbed Jessica and locked her in the top of the water tank. This is definitely bullying because it harmed Jessica, it was unfair because Sasha’s friends were helping her and Jessica was alone, which made Sasha more powerful than Jessica, and it was one-sided because Jessica was unable to defend herself.
If you happen to be bullied, here are some tips to help deal with it. 1. tell yourself it is not your fault. 2. Stay in control by not fighting back. Two bads don’t make a good. 3. Tell the bully to stop if you feel it’s ok to do it. 4. Stay away from places or situations where bullying happens, if it is impossible to keep someone you know nearby. 5. Get help from a trusted adult.
Watch the video here!
How You Communicate is Important
By: Lexi Fleury, Grade 5
Communication is important because it tells other people what you want and need. How you communicate is important because it shows if you respect the other person’s needs or wants or not. Three types of communication are assertive, passive, and aggressive.
Assertive communication is when you have a serious face, have eye contact, your tone of voice is firm, and you are sitting up straight, and you are calm. Assertive usually works because you are calm, you get your point across and you show the other person that you and they are important.
Passive communication is when you are frowning, looking sad, or overly happy, your voice is soft and shaky, and you are slouching and looking down and away. Passive communication makes the other person feel more powerful and tells them that you are as important as them. It doesn’t always work because your voice is soft and people can’t hear you and it looks like you are trying to hide yourself.
Aggressive communication is when you are frowning, mad, tense, very very loud, or really really soft, and your shoulders are scrunched up and your fists are clenched. This doesn’t always work because you usually scare the other person off with a loud voice and can make the other person feel less powerful and could make them sad or defensive.
Assertive communication is the most effective way to tell someone your wants and needs because it usually ends with you getting what you want.
Watch the video presentation here!
Taking Responsibility for Your Actions
By Siereah Brousseau, Grade 4
Taking responsibility for your actions means that you admit that you made a mistake, apologize for it, and take the consequences. It is important because people will know you care about them, and that you are honest, and trustworthy.
I remember one time when my sister and I took responsibility for our actions, everything turned out ok. When my sister, Jette, and I were in Tallahassee we went shopping. We shopped for 3 or 4 hours. We were spending our father’s money and after the second hour, we had spent more than $100. When we got home, we realized that we had spent more of our dad’s money than we were allowed to. We knew he would not be happy because we spent to much money than he would have aloud us to . We thought we were allowed to spend the money because he said to spent $400 but we spent $450. As you can see, we took advantage of the situation. Even though we knew he would get angry, we decided to take responsibility for our actions by telling him the truth. We were definitely wrong to spend $450.00 because he told us to spend $400.00 and we broke our promise to him. We apologized by saying “Daddy, we spent $50 more than we allowed to when we went shopping. We apologize for being irresponsible and careless.” Looking back, I could have offered to make up for my mistake by earning the money and paying my daddy back. Our consequences were that we were not aloud to shop together for a month. I think our consequences would have been worse if we had told him a lie.
Jette and I took responsibility for being irresponsible with our dad’s money by spending it all. My dad might let us go shopping again one day because we were honest with him about spending too much of his money and he gave us tips on how not to do it next time!
Watch the video here!
The Importance of Being Assertive
By: Samuel Berens, Grade 4
Assertive communication is affective because you are including yourself with everybody. Passive is saying you don't matter. Aggressive is saying only you matter and no one else does. It is also affective because you are looking at them, keeping your head and shoulders up,using a calm voice, and a clear, respectful language. That gives them a sense that you are including them and yourself in an opinion. When you use assertive communication you look at the other person, keep your head and shoulders back and up. You also use a calm voice, and have respectful language. It sounds bright and happy which makes the other person aware of your feelings and know your way of communication.
Chloe Hart