This is the moment where the Core team takes time to reflect and share their learning and findings with the MBIS community.

We would like to give you an overview of what our students in the middle school achieved, as we did last month, on our recently finished module.

During the month of October (which is considered Bullying Awareness month around the world) Core classes covered bullying through different lenses across MYP 1 to MYP 5. In this article, we would like to give you a snapshot of what the different classes learned and how they used the knowledge to spread awareness and make change.

MYP 1 looked at the different types of bullying with focus on features and underlying factors. It was interesting to note students make connections between the information provided and their real lives. They inquired about the difference between subtle and obvious manifestation of bullying with emphasis on the power of a bystander. Strategies of prevention from the bully, victim and bystander were then discussed.

MYP 2 studied all the above information with the lens of emotional understanding. With being aware of ones emotional state while devising strategies allowed the learners to come up with practical and usable strategies that they can employ whilst dealing with the same.

Both MYP 1 and MYP 2 created posters or info graphics on a related concept that they took back from the lessons. These included, ‘How a bully is formed’,’power of a bystander’,’exclusion in the cyberspace’.

The students of MYP 3 were asked to write about their experience in the module and this is a brief account of what they wrote:

“In MYP 3, Core covered Bullying with a focus on anger and cyber abuse. The lessons were spent learning how to control anger and how to avoid “bottling it up” as it could result in a complete outburst. The students also learnt about the negative effects of not being able to control anger such as bullying (particular in the form of cyber abuse) – another major topic in the unit.”

The students of MYP 3A learnt about both the types of cyberbullying and the concept as a whole with valuable help from Ms. Fanny. The students were introduced to a flow chart which provided advice on sharing information online. The students also created their own flowchart showing how to deal with a conflict online without losing control of their anger.

They also segregated the different kinds of cyber abuse into levels of intervention required and understood the implications of each level.

At the end of the unit, some of the students displayed their learning by writing and enacting a skit on bullying and its consequences, making brochures and developing a blog with information on bullying. The rest of the class wrote this article.

(Written by Ishir Talapatra, Miheer Potdar, Akshat Chattaraj, and Bahar Kuerekci from MYP 3A)

In MYP 4, we focused on building resilience and “bouncing back” after adversity, mistakes and failures. They reflected about specific moments where resilience can help you to standup to bullying. We helped the students build skills of problem solving, changing negative self talk and being more compassionate towards themselves. They also learnt what might happen to a person being bullied and their impact on others.

Students also learnt about the different types of cyberbullying and its impact on our young community.

Students were invited to display their learning through a presentation to PYP, video or comic strip. MYP 4A for instance decided to do a presentation that will be displayed during  PYP assembly. Other members of MYP 4 designed a comic strip which will be enclosed here.

In order to cover as many aspects as possible and to make sure the students needs are covered in each year group, MYP 5 focused on  listening actively to other perspectives and ideas, considering ethical and cultural implications as well as tolerating and respecting diversity.

This strand was challenging and students were invited to make a connection with the bullying topic. They were given opportunities to reflect and act towards specific life situations where it is essential to have the skills mentioned above; “listen actively to other perspectives and ideas. Consider ethical, and cultural implications.” The MYP 5 students were also introduced to the MBIS bullying policy and their thoughts and opinions on prevention and intervention were taken into consideration.

Overall from the  Core teacher’s perspective we think students did really well with this very challenging material. Students were very supportive of the prevention of bullying and agreed to contribute towards actively eliminating it.

Written by Shambhavi Singh, Tanya Mangwani and I.Martin