Students at the Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School dress like heroes, but more importantly, they act like heroes.
The Middle School produced a full schedule of activities, messages, and themes when the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District and all public schools in New Jersey recognized the Week of Respect from Monday, October 7 through Friday, October 11.
The Week of Respect is in accordance with the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act, a New Jersey law that was signed into effect in 2011 to combat bullying in public schools.
The law requires that New Jersey public schools acknowledge the importance of social and emotional learning while emphasizing age-appropriate instruction that will focus on preventing harassment, intimidation, and bullying (HIB).
On this Wednesday, October 9, the Middle School’s theme for the day was Real Heroes Stand Up for One Another, which led to the students and staff wearing superhero apparel.
That day, students in the Social Studies classes learned about how they can be a hero for others by being upstanders.
Erin Casey and Mary Healy educated their pupils in the Social Studies class on that crucial message.
“The Social Studies lesson for the Week of Respect centered on teaching students strategies to help them to be upstanders and advocate for others when someone is being unkind or bullying,” Ms. Casey explained. “We discussed what it means to be an advocate and shared examples of when we have advocated for someone. Then we discussed what makes being an advocate for someone challenging. Oftentimes this has to do with the fear of being bullied ourselves or having to stand up to our friends.”
She continued to share the teachings that she and Ms. Healy impressed upon their students.
“To help students be upstanders, we talked about strategies to use in those situations, giving us tools to advocate for others. These strategies are being a distracter, confronter, reporter or supporter. To help students get comfortable with using these strategies, we looked at six real-life scenarios that middle schoolers encounter in their everyday lives. Students took turns acting out these different scenarios using one of the strategies and we discussed them as a whole class.”
Ms. Casey concluded:
“It is our hope that when students face similar situations at the Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School, they will have the tools and the courage to be the upstander and help make Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School a place where everyone feels comfortable and supported.”
The Middle School launched the Week of Respect when students and staff were encouraged to wear pajamas on Monday, October 7, to represent the theme of the day—Put Bullying to Bed.
During cycle classes, students were instructed to take out the trash for disrespectful behavior.
Tuesday’s theme—Wear Blue To Combat Bullying—resulted in a sea of blue throughout the hallways. During homeroom on this day, students responded in one to three words on their counselor’s Google Classroom: Describe how you show respect.
The theme for Thursday was We’re All Stronger Together–Twin Up Against Bullying.
Students then write down the ways that they can be an upstander during their English Language Arts classes.
Capping this productive Week of respect at the Middle School was the theme “We are B-R, Be Respectful.” The clothing of the day was BR wardrobes.
Also on Friday, a tasty activity was held when the Middle School Student Council members visited the homerooms to track how many pieces of B-R clothing and gear each student was wearing. The homeroom in each of the two grades that compiled the highest average number of B-R gear will win a donut party.