Exercises

1. Let’s see what you have learned in this lesson… 

Imagine that Mary, who is in a wheelchair because of a genetic condition which prevents her from walking, is being bullied by Thomas, and Marcus sees it. 

In this situation, try to put yourself in their shoes and describe the feelings, based on the following questions:

• How would you feel if you were Mary? 

_______________________________________________________________________

• How would you feel if you were Thomas, who is bullying Mary? 

______________________________________________________________________

• How would you feel if you were Marcus, who sees Thomas bullying Mary? 

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Then, could you find 5 ways to promote positive relationships with your schoolmates, which could help Mary, Thomas and Marcus to get out of this negative situation? 

1. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Workshop idea

Finally, here is an idea of an activity that you could do with your classmates to sensibilize them and to improve relationships among all of you. This activity can be realized with a group between 10 and 30 people and should last about 60 minutes. 

This activity is useful to understand that we are all equals, and to develop empathy for everyone. To conduct the activity, you will need role cards, an open space, and a hat. You will need to create one role card for each participant, with a role they will have in a simulation of a bullying situation. Examples of role cards can be:

• Tom, age, student with a physical disability (paralyzed, genetic condition, blind, etc), is being bullied because of his difference. 

• Beatrice, age, student with ADHD syndrome, she has being bullied 

• Clara, age, student with disability who has a great group of friends who listen to her, make her feel safe and confident. 

• Jack, age, student with autism who has one or two friends. He feels lonely but is not being bullied. 

• James, age, is bullying Tom. 

• Several cards for James’ friends, who help him in bullying Tom. 

• Martha, age, is bullying Beatrice. 

• Several cards for Martha’s friends, who help bullying Beatrice. 

• Ronald, age, and his friends (several cards), are witnesses of those bullying but do not say anything. 

• Etc. 

Then, ask all the participants to pick up a role card in the hat, and to enter in the character’s personality and situation. Once it is done, ask everyone to read their role card, and then to form a line. 

Once it is done, you will read a series of situations, one by one, with a break in between, and each time the character can answer with a “yes” to those affirmations, they will walk one step ahead. If they answer no, they do not move. Examples of situations can be:

• You feel isolated in the school environment. 

• You do not have self-confidence. 

• You have dark thoughts. 

• You have difficulties in focusing in class and have good grades. 

• You have trouble sleeping. 

• Etc. 

At the end, invite everyone to observe their final position, come back to the circle and then, ask them about their experience during this activity. 

• How did you feel when moving a step ahead? 

• For those who often stepped forward, at what point did they begin to notice that others were not moving as fast as they were?

• For those who did not step forward quite often, how did that make you feel? 

Discuss with your classmates about the possible improvements that can be made in order to avoid this situation.