Updates: Teen Dating Violence Awareness Activities

Yesterday was an awesome day. It was a Winter Carnival Day, so it could have been a little crazy and wild, but it was not. You all worked together and created some powerful products related to raising awareness about the realities of Teen Dating Violence in our school. Here's some of what you all accomplished:
These notes about the positive and negative aspects that can occur in relationships. This chart was developed first period with students in Study Skills. It helped to lead into the development and creation of about 15 Dream Flags, which were created during period 2 in Freshman English and given to Kristen Plummer of SAVES (the Sexual Assault Victims Emergency Services in-school advocate) to hang in the glass corridor as part of the 300 Dreams Project (become a fan on facebook!).

Here's my flag:

Your flags are already hanging in the glass corridor of our school. I'll take some pictures of the completed project tomorrow (Friday) as that it the last day of flag creation. Ms. Plummer has said that the 300 Dream Flags are almost completed. Why 300 flags? Because 1 in 3 teens are reported to be involved in unhealthy or abusive relationships. If we were to apply this statistic to the population of our high school, that would be about 300 students. Powerful to think about.

What else did we do yesterday? Our amazing practicum teacher, Ms. Ferry lead period 1 Study Skills students in an activity where they had to "Chalk Talk" about healthy and unhealthy relationships. Here is a photo of a student responding to one of four questions:

1. Who sets a good example of a healthy relationship for you?
2. List a fact or statistic that surprised you (in your research about teen dating violence).
3. What are some words that define a healthy relationship?
4. What would you say or do is a friend or relative came to you and said that they were experiencing an unhealthy realtionship?

After an amazing discussion about the results of this Chalk Talk, Ms. Ferry went to help Ms. Plummer with the 300 Dream Flags Project. Later, we lead an in-depth discussion with the seniors about they observations and feelings of what for a healthy and an unhealthy relationship. Here's a picture of their thoughts:

Thanks to all of you for making this day so positive and for spreading the word about Teen Dating Violence. Remember what you learned today so that you and those you love do not become victims of dating violence!