GSA Monday Topic: No Name Calling Week... and a CONTEST for you!!!

Inspired by the James Howe novel, "The Misfits," a real-world event is taking place this week...




No Name Calling Week!!!

Here's the scoop:

No Name-Calling Week (January 26 - 30, 2009) is a week of educational activities aimed at stopping name-calling and verbal bullying in schools. The Creative Expression Contest is an opportunity for students to submit essays, poetry, music, original artwork, or other pieces that convey their experiences and feelings about name-calling, and their ideas for putting a stop to verbal bullying in their schools and communities. This year’s contest has been moved to coincide with No Name-Calling Week. The goal is to have students working on their art pieces during the week as a way to learn about and deal with name-calling and bullying.

For details on entering the contest, (there's a 5-10 year old category, and an 11-15 year old category) go to the GLSEN site, here!

Last Year's Winning Drawing in the 5-10 year old category,
by Mark Zwick, 3rd Grade

One really powerful thing you can do in your GSA meeting is to make a list of the names kids in your school have been called. Ask for a show of hands on how often they hear these words. It's a powerful way to see just how big this problem is, and can really motivate everyone to want to be part of stopping it!

And of course, no matter your age category, if you want to write poetry, music, create some artwork, or make another piece that conveys your experiences and feelings about name-calling, I'll be happy to put your work up on this blog, and we'll share it here, virtual GSA style!

You can submit your work to share here by sending me an email, jpeg attachment, or a link to your youtube video! Send it to me here: leewind [at] live [dot] com!

Ready? Set. Let's Go STOP THE NAME CALLING!