By Class 2A Inspiration for the Project This activity was created to involve students in understanding what bullying is and its effects on those around them, improve their English language through writing and speaking activities and incorporate the use of 21 st Century Skills. By understanding the effects of bullying, students promoted an anti-bullying environment and attitude within the school and will carry it with them into the future. They also engaged in creative writing activities to promote their language and expression in English as well as used technology. They collaborated with their peers and in addition acted as mentors to younger students, teaching them about appropriate behaviour towards others. These are the stories students wrote together to raise awareness of the problem. Dear Diary Freedom Day! pages 2-3 (Orange Group) pages 4-5 (Green Group) pages 6-8 (Blue Group) page 9 (Pink Group) pages 10-11 (Red Group)
P A GE 2 M Y B ULLY IN G S TO RY As I stepped off the bus and made my way towards the classroom, I knew that today would be just as the other days a nightmare! My hands were shaking like dry leaves on the trees in autumn. When I finally arrived in my classroom, I faced the closed door. I could hear my other classmates laughing at my name. My heart sank but I needed to go inside. Guys, put your books on the desk, the teacher said. I stepped into the classroom. When I opened the door, they were all staring at me and pointing at me. You are late, John, the teacher said. I sat at my desk, trying to follow the lesson which was going on. At some point the teacher shouted, Come here John. It s your turn to present your project. My heart began beating quickly, so much so I could hear it thumping in my ears. Everything seemed to slow down, it felt like a century but as if by miracle, the bell rang. I quickly got up and escaped the classroom. As I was walking near the benches in the schoolyard, I saw all my classmates sitting next to each other. They were all together, playing a game and laughing. At some point, George stared at me, laughing and making fun of me with my other classmates.. I heard them saying, Look at his shoes, they are old fashioned and they are ripped. I was thinking in my mind Why are they judging me? Have I done something to them? All these thoughts were driving me crazy. Suddenly George appeared in front of
P A GE 3 me. He was looking at me with a threatening face and without realizing it, I was on the ground. George had punched me hard in the face. A teacher immediately came there and saw me on the ground. She asked what happened and when I told her the whole story, she looked so disappointed with George. George remained speechless. He started thinking about what he did and felt sorry. However, it was too late The teacher looked at me and said, You are not alone John, we will help you. Bullying is wrong. The next day, George was punished. The teacher told George that was not correct what he did, and that s why he was punished. Judging people because of their appearance, their personality or any other reason is wrong. All in all George learned his lesson and he never bullied again. I was not afraid of going to class. In addition, I was very happy because George would never bully me again. While the memories will be in my mind forever, I truly am a stronger person!
P A GE 4 M Y B ULLY IN G S TO RY Dear Diary, Maria here! I woke up January 12th, dreading my return to school. Christmas break was such a wondrous break from the living hell at school. Oh my God! I have to face once again my rude classmates. Their words hurt and cause me insufferable pain. I am not as pretty and fit like the popular girls at school. I feel so alone. Everybody laughs at me and I don t have a friend to talk to or to spend time with during breaks or even afterschool, except Tania. She is different and awesome. She has stuck with me through all the pranks the "cool" kids at school pulled on me. Now, Tania won't be there to support me- she went back to her home country. I cannot live another moment of embarrassment. People don t accept people who are different. They don't respect other people and they cannot understand that we cannot all be the same. Each person is unique and has the same rights. As I think back to my years at school, I am haunted by the memories. It's like a monster, who comes in my dreams every night. I hear voices calling me fat, nerd I am so sick of never being beautiful enough; never being stronger, or better. I am sick of going home every day, and wishing I were someone else. For once, I want to look in the mirror and be happy at what I see in the reflection. They used to steal my food because they said that "dino" doesn't need any more food. No one joined me in group pro-
P A GE 5 jects. No one spent time with me during break time. I remember sitting alone at the bench and my tears were unstoppable. I am afraid to go back. I don't want to go back. I don t want to smile and I don t have any reason to. How can I face them? Why it is acceptable for someone to make another human being's life a misery! I live with bullying every day, I am afraid, and I feel embarrassed to talk to anyone. I only trust you, my diary. I remember all this and I feel angry. I don t want to be a victim anymore. I deserve respect and a life. I have decided it. Today, I will change my whole life. I will talk to my mom. Mom is always there for me and I am sure she will help me. As she always says, God made everybody the same and He loves us all the same. I believe Him. I will gain myself respect and I will not allow anyone to treat me like this again. I will not allow other to say things about my appearance or my personality. If I talk to Tania, I am sure together we can make a site about antibullying to help me and help the thousands of children who are in the same situation as mine and suffer from bullying. I will not let this happen to me again! I won t come home and cry every day and I will finally be happy to go to school because everything will change tomorrow. I have to go now, as Mom is calling me I m late and it's a brand new, special day tomorrow and I will have to take a deep breath and hope that everything is finally going to be.okay. Bye diary, Maria
P A GE 6 M Y B ULLY IN G S TO RY Freedom Day "Monkey, go to the end of the queue! I think at the end of the break there will be a lot of bananas left for you in the canteen. Everybody was laughing at him. As I watched that horrible scene, I knew that I had to do something about that since I was the only person in the class who knew what was going on with my classmate. This happened almost every day.i felt so sorry for him because I could not help him, as I was short and slim, the exact opposite in size as the bully. Even though he was afraid that the bully was going to react and try to get back at him; even though he was being threatened by him that he was going to kill him; even though he was shy because everyone would learn what was going on and make fun of him; he finally took the brave decision to go and talk to his teacher about his problem. As he spoke to her, he allowed the truth to float out of his mouth like a poem. That was the only way he was going to turn his life around, for a better future. What was happening, how long it was happening, who was at fault and how it occurred all these things needed to be told. I would go with him for support because he was anxious. At break, while we were walking towards the main offices where our teachers were, he seemed stressed. His mind was flooded with bad scenarios. He was constantly asking me, What if she also laughs at me? What if she cannot do anything either? What if the bully finds out that I told on him? You know that he "promised" me that if I said anything to anyone he would kill me? I tried to encourage him and calm
P A GE 7 him down by reminding him of some examples of people that were in the same situation as him who at the end "won" that battle fairly easy. In addition, I reminded him of one phrase that we had learnt in English lesson earlier, in the morning, that day. As Alexander the great, once said, "What cannot be solved is cut ".That was the only case that I was afraid of. We were going to speak to my friend's favourite teacher, our English teacher she would understand, she would help. When he had finally told her everything, the teacher stared at him! I wasn't surprised. I think that anyone, who had heard the shocking news, would have done the same. Suddenly her face turned blue and she lost her voice. She could not believe that she did not realize what was happening for so long now and that if the boy had not told her anything she was never going to know. Regaining her senses, we tried to devise a plan to expose him in front of the headmaster. The next break we went back to the office to explain our plan. At the end of the second break all three of us knew very well, what we had to do and the most important now we were all sure that the next day was going to be fateful for both the school and the bully but most of all it was the "FREEDOM DAY" of my best friend. The next day, in the morning my friend was being bullied as usual in a physical and verbal way by the bully and his "gang". This time though he had a completely different expression because he knew eve-
P A GE 8 M Y B ULLY IN G S TO RY rything were predesigned. My teacher along with the headmaster of the school were in the yard, behind a wall, watching with their own eyes what was happening. The headmaster of course did not know why he was there. The only thing that I was sure of was that he was going to see something he could never imagine in our school. Suddenly he "sprang out" and walked towards them. Our teacher told my friend that they had seen everything and that the bully was going to be suspended for it. My friend was pleased. They led the bully to the headmaster's office and as anyone would guess, he was suspended from school for about one week. In addition, he was punished. He had to clean the school's toilets for one month. The next day my friend was happier than ever. The bully was gone and no one else dared to bully him again because they knew what their punishment would be. Hhhhhhhhhh...Toilets!
P A GE 9 As soon as the bell wailed for break time, the students flooded out of the stifling classrooms eager to get fresh air. While I was ordering food, I heard someone crying. I walked out the door to see what was going on. I could hardly believe my eyes.five students; the bullies of the fifth class were kicking my friend. I froze. My heart was beating so fast that I thought it would jump out of my chest. I didn't know what to do, but the view was so horrible that I had to do something fast. I ran to the teacher s staff room and explained what was happening. Then a few teachers came with me and took the bullies to the office. Another teacher took my friend Jim to the nurse. The hall became quite again and everything seemed to go back to normal. My friend was so scared and was crying as I tried to calm him. Suddenly, a boy from the fifth grade came and threatened me that I would be in big trouble. I went to Jim's house after school and we both explained what happened at school. The bullies learned from their own sources that we had betrayed them and we were really in big trouble. From the first moment, I knew the next day was going to be a lot harder than any other day. And it was. I couldn't take my eyes off my watch, worrying about my best friend and myself. As the hours and minutes passed, we heard the bell ring, increasing our heartbeats. Before we could get out of class, the group of bullies were waiting for us to go outside. I could tell from their expressive faces and with a blink of an eye, they took rocks out of their big baggy trousers and aimed for us. Only god knows how we managed to get out of this situation, but a group of people came at the last second to save us. I was so pleased to see them I felt immediately so safe and relaxed. Someone called the police so they came and took the bullies to their office. After that, we never heard of them again. This was a beautiful ending to a bad story.
P A GE 10 M Y B ULLY IN G S TO RY Class, I would like to introduce you to the new student Ivy Chester. She is starting now since she has passed the exams. She just moved here, and this is a totally new world for her so I want you to treat her well. You can sit here, next to Mary. Ivy sat next to her because Mary was one of the girls who was happy about Ivy's presence. As Ivy stood up, she could see their faces and some of them were not as pleasant as Mary s was. Ivy knew that these girls didn't seem pleased with her. However, that didn't stop her from being positive about her new school. Her first day at school passed quickly. Fortunately, she didn't have any problems with the other girls, until the next day arrived. Ivy went to school with a red t- shirt and jeans. Every the outfit she chose to wear, was cool, but her school bag wasn't. She actually didn't buy a new bag at all. Ivy had that same bag, for almost four years. It was grey and didn't suit her outfit at all. As she was passing through the hallway, suddenly two girls blocked her "Hey Ivy, Oh my gosh, I love with your bag!" one said sarcastically." And I love the colour of it grey. The colour of dirt! By the way, the cleaner said she wants you to help her with her work or something like that.'' ''What work?'' she questioned. ''I don't know. She said you took everything out of the bin and threw it in the class'' ''What? No, I didn t. ''Yes, you did. You were the last person that left the class, yesterday. You are responsible for what happened and you know that". "Now, excuse
P A GE 11 me, but we have to go because the bell is going to ring. Now, please make way. You see, the hallway doesn't fit us". Those two girls were so mean. Ivy had no idea what they were talking about. She hadn t been the last to leave the class. The next days, were hard for her. She got detention for something she didn't do. She felt bad. Jane and Nicky took the bullying to the next level. They even started making jokes about Ivy's body shape. You see, she wasn't that slim. Every day, it was the same story. Ivy tried to fix the problem by herself. She didn't make it. Until one day... Jane and Nicky started bullying her in the cafeteria, in front of all the students. Mary, saw that and talked to Ivy, and told her that they would face those two girls together! And they did. Two days later, after what happened in the cafeteria, Ivy and Mary talked to Jane and Nicky. They told them to stop, and that if they wouldn't, they would tell everything to the Headmaster of the school. The two girls accepted the deal and finally, stopped. Ivy and Mary became best friends. Also, Ivy decided to make a few changes. She lost the appropriate weight and felt better. Yes, she was black, but that didn't stop her from making new friends and meeting new people.
Class 2A Orange Group Marina Antoniadou Evelina Apostolou Chara Georgiou Andreas Partellas Green Group Christina Filippou Christina Kokkinou Agathi Xyda Christos Zaphiris Blue Group Theodosis Charalambides Papapavlou Dorotheos Charalampous Christos Stylianou Evanthis Vacanas Sotiris Vacanas Pink Group Josephina Louisa Chatziiosif Nadia Iacovou Kristina Theodosiou Red Group Chrysa Ioannidou Kyprianos Iacovou Andreana Ioannidou Teacher Ms H. Savvidou