Ways to Get Along and Grow

Dear Teachers,

As most of you know, I will be visiting your school between September 10th and the 21st to facilitate the development of a ‘Code of Conduct’ for the Middle School.

I just wanted to provide this page to prepare you for my visit, to provide you with reference material and to keep you informed as we get the project underway.

My philosophy is to empower students to discuss and to make choices about the kind of peer environment they want to be surrounded by. Through my stories, I hope to stimulate discussions around the following topics.

• Bullying
• Teasing
• Forgiveness
• Prejudice
• Boy/Girl Relationships
• Taking Responsibility for one’s actions
• Cooperation
• Is there such a thing as being ‘passive’?
• Gossiping

I am hoping that these discussions will lead to ideas about how to create a code of behavior, how to publicize it, how to maintain it over years and what to do if it is not always adhered to. We will create a ‘Congress’ of student representatives to take the suggestions gathered during the brainstorming sessions and create a formal ‘Code of Conduct’. My hope is that not only will students understand that they have a stake in creating a peaceful school environment, but that our democratic process of getting there will help them learn to cooperate, negotiate and find consensus in their future activities.

Please write to me (MarcLevitt@aol.com), stop me on campus or call me where I’m staying, if you’d like to get together to discuss this project or other activities that I do. My web site is: www.marclevitt.org and my new web site for collecting Third Culture Stories is: www.thirdculturestories.com


Resources
1. National Youth Violence Prevention Center: http://www.safeyouth.org/scripts/index.asp
2. Respect for All Project:
http://www.womedia.org/respectforall.htm
3. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory; Anti-Bullying:
http://www.nwrel.org/request/dec01/schoolwide.html
4. ERIC Clearinghouse Urban Education:
http://www.ericdigests.org/2000-3/children.htm
5. Bibliography of Peace Resouces: http://www.leaonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1207/s15430421tip4404_11?cookieSet=1
6. Workable Peace Project
http://www.workablepeace.org/project.html
7. Workable Peace Curriculum
http://www.workablepeace.org/curriculum.html
8. Appalachian Peace and Justice Curriculum
http://home.frognet.net/~apjn/library.htm
9. Peaceful Schools
http://www.nwrel.org/request/oct98/

writer | storyteller | educator | radio host | filmmaker | contact marc