Rest assured, you won’t see any of this footage on the cutting room floor!

Back to work… Stay tuned for more updates.

-shan shan

I watched more of Dickon & Shan Shan’s footage today from their production, ”Hear My Laughter, Hear My Cry.” I jotted some notes down as I watched, just some questions or points that moved me:

How does it feel to be different?

Ingrid, the director, introduced the show and made it clear to the audience how sensitive this topic is by describing the actors as naked and vulnerable for even though they may wear a costume, have a new name and role these stories are true and often painful.  This exposition really set the mood for me because i couldn’t help but admire these kids for getting up on stage in front of their peers and revealing such painful memories.  The acting could not have been difficult when these kids have evidently BEEN there.  In one monologue a girl described how she sat in the front row because the popular kids basically owned the back.  The final line was, “Maybe one day I will get to sit in the back row.”

This reminded me of middle school. How did the popular kids get to own areas?  The girls in my grade even had bracelets that were “theirs.” If anyone else wore them, which happened a lot since they were trendy bracelets, these girls were WANNABEES.  In the cafeteria these popular kids had tables that only their group could sit at.  Sometimes they would be so kind to invite people they felt sorry for OR felt deserving to sit with them.  I remember calling them out on it once.  All my memories are of me being right on the line of in the group and out.  But I didn’t want to be them.  In retrospect, I didn’t think it was right that these kids could own bracelets or areas and I ignored the rules and boundaries.  As a result I think they thought I was a wannabee.  Sometimes I think they convinced me that was all I was, but I don’t think that was it.  I’m not really sure because when you are told something so much it gets confusing.

In another sketch a girl questioned whether it was better to talk behind someones back or to their face.  I think that is a great question that I struggle with even today.  At what point are you being too confrontational?  My friends always talk about each other but I think we get along well.  This actress, this 9th grader’s question was very powerful, “Would you rather someone talk behind your back or to your face?”

- Jocelyn Eve Schur

I was also impressed with how open the students were during their interviews, which were often understandably accompanied with tears.  It is upsetting to me that any child should be made to feel so badly about him or herself.  I wish there was more I personally could do for I sometimes feel helpless with this universal problem.

We also sat down to brainstorm and discuss ideas for the Surviving Bullies Workbook online edition.  An important point we agreed on was that anyone can identify bulling as a problem but the solutions are what make our mission so crucial. 

For the past few years I have been very involved with the Gay Straight Alliance at my high school.  I have close relationships with many of the members in the club and I think some of the kids have their own stories that need to be heard.  This Thursday which is when the club meets after school each week the three of us will be trekking to Staples to introduce the Surviving Bullies Project.  It is our hope that the topics that are mentioned will get everyone thinking about bullying (we will be educating while creating awareness).  After the presentation the kids will sit in a circle and Shan Shan and Dickon will share their personal stories.  I am sure after this many kids will want to share their own stories.  The following week it is our hope to have many of the kids interviewed by me (with their parents permission). 

I am very excited for this.  I think many people have stories they want to share but lack an audience to share with.  This will give these spectacular kids the opportunity that I am sure will be a great experience and unintentionally therapeutic as well! 
Check back for more updates soon!
-Jocelyn Eve Schur

What is at stake with the animations is helping students gain a deeper understanding of key issues that are integral in bullying and growing up (i.e. self-awareness, coping with stress, avoiding social faux pas, etc), which are crucial to achieving better personal and academic life.

It is also important for us to make the Animation Competition a worthwhile experience for the participating students. In addition to the immense learning for everyone who tackles the challenge of animating an emotional charged issue for a teen audience ranging from 7th to 9th grade, the winners will receive a monetary prize of up to $1000 (no matter who you are, a little cash doesn’t hurt) and a contract offer (gives you a little sense of security for the first few years out of school, and ladies and gents, it will make you feel like America’s Next Top Model or a VIP in professional sports, and vice versa). Also, competing in this challenge will give you major bragging rights to people ranging from your closest friends to the most formidable job interviewer. Think: Profolio!

So if you’re animation savvy, click HERE to learn more about the competition and submit your entry!

And…pass the word on. It’s for a very important cause.

New and exciting things are happening here at the SBP.

We dedicate this blog to the lovely and talented Ms. Rebecca Cohen. After her four months term at the SBP, she has decided to actualize her dreams of living out in sunny California. She heads to Oakland, California, tomorrow. In the splendor of northern California, Rebecca will be helping to save the environment via presenting companies and government agencies with energy efficient solutions to their daily operations. We want to thank her for valiantly propelling the content development of this website, and for tackling the challenge of marketing. Best of luck, Rebecca! We will miss you!

In other news, we have kicked off conversation with the administration of the middle school that Rebecca and I both attended. After the positive feedback from our pilot program in the Manhattan high school, we would like to synthesize the feedback into a comprehensive curriculum complemented by a set of teacher’s manual over the next two months. Then, we hope to give back to our community by making the curriculum available to the students and the teachers there and working with them implement the curriculum in the fall.

Stay tuned for new updates.

-Shan Shan

Last Wednesday, the SBP traveled to New York City to debrief with the teachers who implemented the pilot anti-bullying program in their advisory classes.

The teachers went through Susana’s Story, a case study about a teenage girl who was being bullied by students in the new town she moved to. They also created corresponding activities for each class. The program lasted ten 40-minute advisory classes.

We came away from Wednesday’s meeting very excited. The teachers unanimously expressed that their students loved the story. We were especially struck by one teachers’ comment: “[the curriculum] opened the kids up to themselves.” Many of the students at this Manhattan high school strongly identified with Susana and opened up about their own experiences.

This type of feedback made us realize that the Susana curriculum will not only help students in general, but it will help us reach the kids in trouble and actualize our mission for the Surviving Bullies Workbook. The teachers suggested that the workbook might be incorporated into the program in two ways. One way would be having students fill out a workbook for Susana (the main character in the case study), and coming up with strategies to help resolve the difficulties she experiences. At the same time, this exercise would indirectly provide those students who are being bullied themselves with the tools and confidence to solve their own problems. Also, actual copies of the workbook could be made available for those who need them.

Most book review venues require that publishers send in their galleys or finished copies as much as 3-4 months in advance.  This means we realistically need to send out our workbook between the dates of April 1 and May 1. 

I’ve sent out copies to the big wigs like Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal.  Entire eight-hour days have been spent scouring the internet for viable and reputable book reviewers.  I’ve been off on wild goose chases many times, often thinking that I’ve found good reviewers and then realizing that some writers are just fulfilling their book-reading hobby, and don’t actually have any credentials or background knowledge. 

I’ve found newspaper websites have been the most difficult to navigate--they seem to take great pains in making themselves as hard to reach as possible.  I find myself getting lost in their labyrinthian websites trying to find the right people to contact! 

I have sent out promotional packages consisting of the book, vital information, and a cover letter to all of the large newspaper conglomerates and well-known review journals including New York Times Book Review, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, The Bloomsbury Review, and The Boston Book Review.  The disconcerting thing is that most of these publications will not even notify us of a review, we just have to hope and check their pages often.  When all is said and done I will have probably sent out a few hundred review copies to publications across the country!

And since I’ve got so much on my plate in these ensuing weeks, I’d better conclude this blog entry now.  More soon.

The Chinese translation of the Surviving Bullies Workbook is finally finished!

It was surreal to see the content that we’ve come to know so well in a different language. For me, the Chinese version is unrecognizable in appearance, but it’s familiar when I read it because the ideas are the same. I grew up speaking Chinese. I still speak it at home. So reading the Chinese version was quite the mind trip it brings me into a different context – home and childhood.

Continuing on this personal note, after the workbook was translated into Chinese, my family was able to read it. A few days ago, after having read the workbook, my uncle told me a heartbreaking story about my dad. He told me that as he was reading, an image kept coming to his mind. When my dad, his older brother, was nine, he used to fetch water for the family from the river that ran by their house. My uncle remembers seeing my dad coming home barefoot a few times—a bit scratched up and red-faced (like he’d been crying)—because a group of boys would tease him and throw his flip-flops into the river.

I was stunned to hear that story. I never would have guessed that my dad was a target of bullying. I feel sorry for that little boy my dad once was, and I can’t help but think that this must be how my mom felt when she first heard about my experiences with bullying, three years after the fact. Today I write to you all with a wider emotional perspective on the issue of bullying. This project has been one that has fostered my personal and professional growth while allowing me to make positive contributions to society.

Stay tuned for more developments on the SBP in China.

Cheers,
Shan Shan

In the last week or so, we have begun to go public with our project on live radio stations all over the world!  What an exciting ride it has been so far.  We hope that our interviews will demonstrate to listeners our enthusiasm and dedication to tackling mean behaviors and promoting caring school communities. 

With Dickon as spokesperson for the SBP, we have been working as a team to prep for our radio interviews.  We have made a concerted effort to come up with the correct sound bites for our audience, thereby lessening the possibility of misinterpretation.  But this has been tough because radio hosts are asking us serious questions about complex issues, often in a combative style.  We have had to work hard to counteract some hosts’ challenging and provocative questions with earnest responses that indicate our steadfast commitment to curbing peer cruelty. 

Having access to such a sizeable media outlet has been valuable because it has allowed us to communicate our message to a multitude of people, in particular those young adults, parents, and school personnel who could greatly benefit from our endeavors.  However, the aggressive interview style of some hosts has been a bit scary—some of their questions have been obviously intended to halt us in our tracks.  Though these interviews have caused a bit of anxiety, they have been phenomenally good because they have forced us to quickly get to the heart of the bullying issue.  They have compelled us to come off the fence about certain issues and to take concrete positions.  We’ve been thinking through difficult questions such as: Why do bullies bully?  An intricate and complex question indeed, but after much debate the answer is becoming clearer in our minds.  Stay tuned and we will soon unveil our conclusions.