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One of the most effective teaching tools available to educators are the students themselves. Within the context of a service-learning environment, students reinforce with each other the skills taught in the classroom. In this module, students provide community outreach to their younger peers on the topic of bullying. Bullying behavior often begins early in a student's school experience and can continue for years if not addressed properly. Bullying behavior can often be ascribed to prejudice, racial, religious, ethnic, ability-based, physical size or appearance. Anyone can be a victim of bullying, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry up to half of students will be bullied at some point in their school lives with 10% being victims on a regular basis. This module takes students from the high school level and teaches them important information about bullying. The curriculum used in this module's original implementation addresses bullying behavior, building empathy, motivating awareness, and teaching assertiveness. Students then take this information and teach the curriculum to fifth and sixth grade students (you may alter the grade level the students are teaching to your individual needs). In teaching the material, it is reinforced in the minds of the high schools students reinforcing their awareness of the issue. In this module you will find several handouts/fact sheets that were used in the original implementation and were provided by the projects major partner. Working with their community partner, teachers were instructed on the use of the anti-bullying curriculum. The service-learning class is then instructed on how to teach the lessons themselves and schedule programs in classrooms of younger students. Because the material is presented from high school students, elementary school students are more likely to pay attention and take the matter seriously. As you begin working on this project you will quickly realize how prevalent a problem bullying can be, and how important it is to stop it early. (authors)
