Gentleboys and Gentlegirls behind the Screen - stop cyber bullying

<< Background >>Cyberbullying is an increasingly common problem in the modern world. Young people encounter it and it has a huge negative impact on their psyche. By becoming victims, they become depressed and, in extreme cases, suicidal thoughts and attempts occur. The project was created to make students, parents and teachers aware of how to prevent and deal with cyberbullying. We wanted to make students responsible users of the Internet and social media to decrease the incidence of cyberbullying and on the other hand help parents with guidance in order to monitor and supervise their children`s online activity and identify signs of cyberbullying in the behaviour of their children. We needed cooperation and exchange of practices to work out a common strategy for dealing with cyberbullying. << Objectives >>The main goal we wanted to achieve was the well-being of our students by reducing cases of cyberbullying in partner schools. We wanted to raise the awareness of students, parents and every teacher about the scale of the problem of cyberbullying on the Internet and social media. We wanted to help students and parents prevent the effects of cyberbullying. At the beginning we wanted to make both students and parents aware of how serious the problem was. During the project, we wanted to develop tools that would also help teachers in further work on this problem. As a very final result, we wanted to create a platform for reporting cyberbullying incidents in our schools. Of course, equally important goals were to improve students' self-esteem and self-confidence, improve their ability to work in groups and improve their language skills. Another goal was to make students aware of the importance of European values and at the same time learn about the cultures of partner countries. A very important goal for us was also to involve students with social and economic problems, as well as those with fewer educational opportunities, in the project.<< Implementation >>The main activities during the project implementation were in accordance with what was written in the application. An initial survey on cyberbullying was conducted in each school to define and determine the scale of the problem. We also conducted a survey at the end of the project to compare the increase in awareness of cyberbullying at the beginning and after the project implementation ( Initial and final analysis of cyberbullying in our schools). The brochure entitled Causes and Effects of Cyberbullying was created, thanks to which students, parents and teachers deepened their knowledge about the problem of cyberbullying. A Guide for online safety (addressed to students) was developed and distributed in partners schools. The Guide for parental control of children's online activity was developed and presented at meetings with parents and delivered to school libraries. Online platform for reporting bullying incidents (addressed to students and parents) was created and it has been using by students and parents from partner schools. Lesson plans were created. There were poster competitions and exhibitions about cyberbullying. Students went to universities and other institutions for lectures and workshops on the project. LTTAs<< Results >> As the concrete outputs and results of the project we produced: a. Initial and final analisis of cyberbullying, b. Guide for online safety (addressed to students), c. Brochure entitled Causes and effeects of cyberbullying, d. Guide for parental control of children`s online activities, e. Online platform for reporting bullying incidents (addressed to students and parents), f. Sets of activities on the topic of cyberbullying for use with students (lesson scenarios, workshop scenarios, exhibitions of posters with slogans against cyberbullying, game show activities, quizes, theme days). The outputs were applied in partners` schools and shared free on dissemination platforms such as e-Twinning, PRPE, the project website, schools websites, local libreries. We improved the openness and flexibility of our teachers and students.We reduced the incidence of cyberbullying, are more prepared to deal with the phenomenon of cyberbullying, made students abler to identify such situations and how to act in circumstances like that. We have also enabled parents to become more active in their children’s life, monitoring and guiding them, providing them with support. Thus we created a fruitful collaboration school-parents-students.