ANYDAY Reflection

I've asked 8th grader MK to describe for us her experience at the ANYDAY seminar our students attended on January 4. Below is her description:

When I first heard that I had been chosen to go to the ANYDAY conference, I didn't have a clue about what it was. But when the day came to actually go to the conference, it was very eye-opening. We first played ice breaker games to get to know each other and our leaders a little bit better. We then made a list and discussed what was great about our school and some of the stuff that was not so great. One topic we discussed was bullying.  We decided that if any bullying was going on in our school, it was not physical bullying, but bullying in the sense of excluding others. We spent the rest of the day learning more from our leaders about that type of bullying and how we can be leaders in our school to try to prevent it. We played games showing us what it felt like to not be accepted, watched some video clips on real life bullying situations, and made posters to hang in the halls to send the "no bullying" reminder to our classmates. Another thing we learned about is stereotypes and how hurtful they really can be. We were taught not to judge others before we get to know them and that stereotypes can really hurt someone's feelings. By the end of our day, we had acquired skills to be better leaders in our school and community and had a better understanding of bullying.