Settlers Way Elementary

SWE is No Place for Hate

Settlers Way Elementary is proud to be an Anti-Defamation League "No Place for Hate" school since 2014.

We are committed in making our campus a safe school with a culture that values all students and staff. We encourage you to visit this page often to see the amazing things that we are doing to:

• Build an inclusive and safe community in which respect is the goal, and all students can thrive.
• Empower students, faculty, administration, and family members to take a stand against hate and bullying by incorporating new and existing programs under one powerful message.
• Engage our school and community through the implementation of atleast three campus-wide anti-bias activities per year, which ADL helps to develop. 
• Send a clear, unified message that all students have a place to belong.

Activity #1 Book Study – Each Kindness by Jaqueline Woodson

Lesson: Students will separate into small groups and read, “Each Kindness.” Students will then share out to the group the different instances in the story that are considered unkind behaviors and what could have been done instead. Students will then work in small groups to create their own school related scenarios of unkind behaviors. Students groups will then exchange scenarios. Student groups will be asked to identify the unkind behaviors in the scenarios and write a response applying kind behaviors in place of the unkind behaviors. Students will then participate in a gallery walk to read how the different groups responded to the scenarios.

Activity: Students will decorate small pebbles with a kind action. We will create a campus rock garden full of pebbles with kind acts on them for students to refer to throughout the year. as constant reminders throughout the year

Learning Intention: The purpose of this lesson/activity is to make students more aware of their behaviors and the impact they have on the people around them. Students will be able to identify unkind behaviors and replace them with appropriate and kind behaviors.

Success Criteria: We will know that the lesson/activity is successful when the students are able to work together and create alternative kind responses to the unkind scenarios. Also, students will create a rock garden.

Evidence: Pictures of students engaging in gallery walk, student responses on chart paper, and pictures of rock garden.

Activity #2: Bully Prevention Guidance Lesson with Pledge and Morris Brothers Assembly

Lesson: The Morris Brothers Anti-bullying presentation was performed to all students. This show demonstrated to students different ways to respond to bullying behaviors. Students then watched a Bully Blocker Short video defining what bullying is. Students then discussed the changes in the definition of bullying to include one significant event and the addition of David’s Law. Students then took the pledge to do their best to report and stop bullying on our campus. Students were given information about how to report bullying if they witness it via the resource Talk Line.

Activity: Students engage in a bully prevention activity. Students decorate small pouches that will hang on the wall to collect the kind notes that people leave for them. (Hang to substitute pouches for the cups because the cups would not stay mounted to the wall.

Learning Intention: The purpose of this lesson was to inform students of the changes in the law and definition for bullying. It was also to provide them with a resource to use if they find that they need to make a report. The assembly taught them different actions to take if they were ever confronted by a bully.

Success Criteria: We will measure the success of this lesson by monitoring how often students utilize the kindness mailboxes set up for them to write kind notes of encouragement to each other.

Activity #3 - SWE Multicultural Celebration 2018

Lesson: Students are asked to decorate little paper dolls and to complete a fun facts worksheet to provide information about their culture. Students present their fun facts and decorative dolls to the class for a speaking grade. The third grade class performs a show filled with songs and dances from the different cultures represented on our campus. Students are asked to dress in the either their cultural garb or that of a culture they are interested in. When the third grade students perform they learn songs and dances from cultures outside of their own and the meanings behind the songs and dances. The entire campus participate in a parade to show off the different cultures being represented.

Activity: The cultural dolls, the presentations, and the parade.

Learning Intention: Students will learn to accept and tolerate differences by seeing how our differences can be celebrated together. They will learn interesting facts about different cultures and participate in the activities together.

Success Criteria: We will gauge success by student participation in and completion of the culture dolls and fun facts worksheet.

Activity #4: Revisit the Hurricane Harvey Discussions - Previously we had our students focus on how the storm did not discriminate when it hit Houston, and how we were stronger together during the hurricane crisis.

Lesson: Students will revisit the Hurricane Harvey topic and reflect on the recovery process. We could talk about how some issues divide us as a society, and how the storm brought us together. Students could create list of the pros and cons to working together and to being divided.

Activity: Students will be divided into groups that have one resource assigned to them. The groups will represent when society is divided. They will be asked to compete a task that requires the use of their groups resource, as well as resources assigned to the other groups. They will have to figure out that working together will get the job done faster than remaining divided.

Learning Intention: The students will learn about the different forms of discrimination and how it effects our society as a whole. They will be able to discuss the motives/intentions for both sides. (those who want to be divided and those that do not)

Success Criteria: Students will be able to form alliances with different groups to accomplish a common goal.