Article 3 Notes

Gold, Claudia Meininger. "How We Can End the Cycle of Bullying." Boston Globe (Boston, MA). 14 Sep 2009: A.11. SIRS Researcher. Web. 27 Sep 2010.

Pasted from <http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-clean-copy?id=SMD0067H-0-8705&type=ART&artno=0000297741>

·         Bullying leads to violence.(1)

·         Parents should discipline their kids more to help stop bullying.(1)

·         Children who have been neglected have a bigger chance of becoming bullies because they don’t know the difference between right and wrong.(1)

·         Parents should treat their kids with respect and vice versa in order for the kids to behave well.(1)

·         Bullying is a symptom when a person has trouble with controlling their anger.(1)

·         One of the most important times when a kid needs to be taught the difference between right and wrong is when they are a toddler.(1)

·         If bullying is not addressed to the kid who is doing it at a young age the behaviors that go with a bully might even be carried into the years as an adult.(1)

·         We need to find a way to help the kids who have been abused by their parents to help keep them from becoming a bully.

Article 2 Notes

"How Can We Stop the Epidemic of Bullying?" New York Times 2 Aug. 2010: NA(L). Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 26 Sept. 2010.

·         We need to teach kids kindness to help stop bullying.(1)

·         Violence and bullying should not be tolerated in schools; there should be severe punishment for those who do bully.(1)

·         Students also need to know positive values and act them.(1)

·         Schools should also establish anti bullying curriculum.(2)

·         When kids are a younger age we should reward them for their good behavior.(2)

·         We need to not just teach kids how to be kind, we need to show them how to act it.(2)

·         A school is like a family, so we need to teach kids how to treat each other’s like family.(1)

Article One Notes

Engel, Susan, and Marlene Sandstrom. "There's Only One Way to Stop a Bully." New York              Times 23 July 2010: A23(L). Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 23 Sept. 2010.

·         In most cases of bullying the people that actually watch the bullying take place, don’t even attempt to step in to stop.(1)

·         In order to stop bullying we have to teach kids how to be good to one another.(1)

·         We also need to teach kids how to stand up for the ones who are being picked on rather than just stand by and watch.(1)

·         Some children who aren’t normally bullies get caught up in a larger culture of aggression.(2)

·         Bullying causes kids to sometimes even going to the extreme by killing themselves.(1)

·         Teachers need to be trained to recognize the actions that kids give to one another to help stop bullying.(1)

·         Bullying can also be done on cell phones and on the internet not just in person.(1)

·         Anit bullying laws have been passed in all but six states.(1)

·         Kids need to be taught to know the difference between right and wrong.(2)

Bullying in Schools

1. What are the age ranges for bullying?
2. How does bullying affect a kids family and social life?
3. How can bullying in schools be stopped?

Social Issue Project

For my social issue research project, I will be researching stopping bullying in school. Seven search terms that I can use are bullying, school, how to stop bullying, why bullying should stop, opinions from kids why bullying should stop, how to prevent bullying, reasons from experts on why it should stop. What I already know about bullying is that its effect on a kids school performance. Bullying also affects what a kid thinks about. Bullying also determines the social life of the kid. When I think of bullying I think of a kid getting beat up then being worried about when the next time will come for them to be beat up. I found this information on cbsnews.com. I do agree on my topic that bullying in schools should be stopped because kids should not be afraid to learn.

Pen Pal Letter

Dear Mohammed Sami Sabri,


My name is Jason  and I enjoyed reading your story over the summer, but that is not the only thing I did over the summer. I also went to Bethany Beach to skim board and boogie board a lot. I also played tennis a lot too. My summer was great. I have a little brother and sister, Ryan and Caroline (whom are nine and twelve). I have six animals in my family too. I have three dogs (named Brindley, Quinn, Leia, and Wesley), a cat (Charlie), and a bird (Cosmo). I am 14 years old, and I live in Bel Air, Maryland.

While I was reading your Borderline, you had to face a lot of problems and your fears. I liked how you were able to face your fears to get your dad out of jail. It was very brave of you to go to find the leader of a suspected terrorist organization. Another brave thing you did in the story was stand up to the school bully. I was able to see how you and your personality matured as the story went on. By the time the book ended, you were a very different person.

The way the Allan Stratton wrote the novel about you made me want to keep reading. The author wrote the story about you so detailed I could picture the event in my head. Another thing the author did was make the story easy to follow. I could easily relate to your person in the book only because the author described you so well. Allan Stratton wrote your story very professionally.

Now there are a few questions I want to ask you. Why did you go on the camping trip with your friends without your dads permission I mean like why didn’t you go to your dad even though your mom said she had it covered? Also why did you always cower down and deny that you got in a fight when the bully was involved? Now I also want to comment on a few things. The first thing want to comment on is that was a very brave move to go and face the suspected terrorist leader. I also want to comment on is how you are confident everything while pull through for you in the end when something is going bad for you such as when the FBI broke in your house.

As I was reading the story about you I realized the story a few social issues. One of them is terrorism. That book helped me realize how racist our country can be toward Islamic people. This social issue is also a scary reality in the world. The book helped me raise awareness of it because it showed me how terrorism can affect a family, such as what happened to you. The story defiantly left me thinking more about the issue.

And in conclusion I have a few words of advice for you. First things first make sure you stay out of trouble. Second, try to build a good relationship with your family. You are very smart and therefore I know you will always try your hardest. I will never forget your story.



Sincerely,

Jason D.

About my Summer Reading

During the summer I read the book Borderline by Allan Stratton and I answered a few questions about it. The main character in the book is Mohammed Sami Sabri. Sabri is a mischievous Iranian kid who is in high school, and lives in a town called Meadowvale. In the beginning of the story Sabri’s dad promises to take him to a baseball game but all of a sudden he has to attend a business meeting instead and would have to take him some other time. Then the night that Sabri’s dad comes home from the business trip the FBI storm his house and take him away which. From this point on, Sabri is on a mission to free his dad. Sabri travels to Toronto to find out if his dad is part of a terrorist organization but instead, discovers that he has a half brother. He also proves his dad’s innocence and they free him. In the end I think the author was trying to tell us that no matter how hard life can get, you can always make it through. Terrorism is the issue that affects Sabri the most because otherwise he would have never been able to find out that he had a half brother. Terrorism got his dad thrown in jail. It also causes Sabri to go to Canada to solve this problem. The two events that made the book’s social issues seem real and important are terrorism and bullying. As the author points out in the book, fear impacts every one of us with the author points out in the book. The author made these social issues immediate and personal by causing Sabri to get picked on in school for having a dad who was a suspected terrorist. This caused Sabri great emotional and physical pain.

Jason's Unique Profile

I’m Jason D. and I’m fourteen years old. I like to skim board and play tennis as much as I can. The type of music I like is rap, hip hop, and rock, and my favorite song as of now is “I’m Not Afraid” by Eminem. I also have a little brother, Ryan, who is 9 and sister, Caroline, who is 12. Both of them are attending my old school, Mountain Christian. I also have 6 pets, 4 dogs, a cat, and the most recently a bird. The dogs are Cavalier King Charles Spaniels named Brindley, Quinn, Leia, and the youngest Wesley. The cat is named Charley. And the bird, which is a Sun Conure, is named Cosmo and we got him about two months ago. While I’m at John Carroll, I am going to try out for the tennis team. While at John Carroll I also want to strive for good grades.