As the kids came into class they were talking all at once. Ms. Gilmour stood there and waited. One by one, Tanner, Nicole, Stephen, Carmen, Rudy and Truman the Dragon noticed that Ms. Gilmour was watching them. Then they each dramatically greeted her with “Hello,” “How are you?” “It’s good to see you again” and other greetings. She greeted each in return.
As the kids settled down, Ms. Gilmour asked what they were all talking about when they came in. They each took turns telling her about the response at their schools to the posters they did last time. Tanner shared, “When I took my poster to my class, the kids all wanted to add new things to it.” Nicole was excited when she said, “Kids in my class did that, too!” Rudy added, “Some of my friends made jokes and said things that a Cool Kind Kid wouldn’t do, but the other kids corrected them. That was cool.”
Truman the Dragon was quiet for a while, and then said, “My teacher put the poster where we could all see it. During the day, if someone did or said something that a Cool Kind Kid wouldn’t do, he asked the class if that should be on the poster or not. That made the kids think about what they were saying or doing.”
Ms. Gilmour looked around the class and asked what the kids thought that meant. Stephen said, “The teacher was using the poster list of who and what a Cool Kind Kid is to teach the difference between cool/kind and uncool/unkind behavior.”
Everyone then high-fived Stephen.
Carmen was waving her hand and asked Ms. Gilmour if she could share an idea. She said, “I think we could get more kids involved and make them more aware of how Cool Kind Kids act if we ask our art teachers to let us make more posters. We could make it a contest with each classroom adding new ways that Cool Kind Kids talk, act and think.” Ms. Gilmour agreed that was a great idea. All the kids said they would go back to their schools and present this idea.
One thing Ms. Gilmour reminded them about was, “When you present your ideas to your art teachers, or classroom teachers, be sure that you tell them how excited kids were to get on board with this and offer their own ideas for the posters.”
The kids all agreed that they could do that.
Ms. Gilmour then said, “Here’s an idea for the next time we meet. The posters are about what Cool Kind Kids say, do and think. Let’s add the Challenge in. We’ll take all the content on the posters, what you have added at your schools, and think about how to make Cool Kind Kid Challenges out of them. For example, ‘I’m a Cool Kind Kid, so I’m tough enough to not be mean or rude to others.’”
Everyone thought that was a great idea.
Note to Parents From Ms. Gilmour:
In response to parent focus groups, Cool Kind Kid® has just introduced new products to help parents (and educators) provide the social skills tools necessary for their children (or students) to reject bullying. These include three books, flash and game cards, a Bullying Prevention Resource Kit and more. All can be found at www.CoolKindKid.com.
