We remain very proud of our award-winning cyberbullying book from Sage Publications, and continue to receive great feedback about it. More and more school districts are purchasing it for their educators, and we are very thankful for that. Our goal is (and has always been) to meaningfully equip those on the front lines of this problem with practical strategies they can immediately implement in schools and homes. We hate fluff, and we are all about substance – and so towards that end I thought I would share with you some recommendations as to how our book might serve as the centerpiece of a cyberbullying prevention and intervention campaign at your school.
1. Assign book, chapter by chapter, to all administrators at elementary, middle, and high schools across your district or county. We know that many administrators will want their teachers to read it, and so you can decide what you want to mandate and what you want to make optional.
2. Create a web site/blog/message board system where each administrator must respond within a certain timeframe to the “quiz” questions at the end of each chapter.
3. Allow message board to facilitate dialogue between and among administrators on the “discussion” questions for each chapter. They will be able to learn from each other, and this will contribute to a team-effort mentality across the district.
4. Create a web-based form for the “Cyberbullying Report Card for Schools” to allow administrators to see where they stand on prevention/response initiatives at their campus, and a “Notes” section to indicate a plan of action (and timeline) for correcting deficiencies.
5. Require each school to designate a Trustee (in keeping with the book’s suggestion) and create a master list of Trustees to be posted on the Web and made known throughout the school – so that everyone in the school knows the primary Point-of-Contact for cyberbullying-related matters at that school.
6. Read the numerous cyberbullying-related scenarios presented in the book to students in all classes to stimulate dialogue about the issues, and to demonstrate that school personnel recognize the gravity of the problem and want to do whatever it takes to help.
7. Have students at each school spearhead a PSA campaign (or something similar – like posters, comics, limericks, etc.) related to cyberbullying, and have a grand prize to give to the winning team(s). Please see our handy Top Ten Cyberbullying Prevention Tips for Teens resource.
8. Have a formal meeting once every Spring where the latest research findings and prevention/response information is presented to administrators from these schools.
9. Require a PTA (or equivalent) meeting to be held at each school to demonstrate to parents that the school is on top of issues related to use and abuse of technology by students.
10. Build in an evaluation component, where you survey administrator/teacher beliefs regarding cyberbullying before and after or through an experimental and control group. You should also survey students about the extent to which their teachers/admins care about this issue (pre/post). Our Cyberbullying Research Center can help with this and provide informal or formal guidance.
We’d love to hear how you have used and benefitted from our book, and so please feel free to contact us with your thoughts and feedback!