Penny Bisignano, Olweus coordinator for the state of Iowa, and other experts will discuss bullying and its effect on children in a podcast on Sept. 7. The Whole Child Podcast will also feature Kevin Jennings, assistant deputy secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education, and Rachel Cole, high school guidance counselor at Malcolm Price Laboratory School in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
A school and community that do not address bullying cannot ensure that each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. Bullying affects each critical dimension of a whole child approach to education because it compromises students' physical and emotional health and safety; affects their relationships with peers and adults in the school; creates barriers that prevent them from engaging in learning and connecting to the school and broader community; and affects their academic performance. When bullying goes unaddressed, it can create a negative school culture and organizational patterns that shape students' learning and development.
Join the the Whole Child Podcast to learn how to address bullying locally and nationally so that all students learn in a positive school climate that ensures they are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.
Jennings will talk about what works in addressing bullying in schools and how the Education Department plans to help schools and communities combat bullying and create healthy, safe, and supportive school climates.
Bisignano will share her work supporting over thirty Olweus consultants and trainers across the state to deliver this comprehensive, school-wide program to reduce bullying among children, improve the social climate of classrooms, and reduce related antisocial behaviors, such as vandalism and truancy.
Cole, winner of the first-ever Vision in Action: The ASCD Whole Child Award, will share how and why her school created a bullying prevention program—Be a Buddy, Not a Bully!—for its elementary students. The program has since been adopted by schools worldwide.
For more information, go to the Whole Child Education Blog.
