(NAME-MCE) National No Name Calling Week January 25-29, 2010

[Anselmo Villanueva]

National No Name Calling Week

January 25-29, 2010

For more information and resources, go to www.nonamecallingweek.org/

No Name-Calling Week was inspired by a young adult novel entitled "The
Misfits" by popular author, James Howe. The book tells the story of four
best friends trying to survive the seventh grade in the face of all too
frequent taunts based on their weight, height, intelligence, and sexual
orientation/gender expression. Motivated by the inequities they see around
them, the "Gang of Five" (as they are known) creates a new political party
during student council elections and run on a platform aimed at wiping out
name-calling of all kinds. Though they lose the election, they win the
support of the school's principal for their cause and their idea for a "No
Name-Calling Day" at school.

Motivated by this simple, yet powerful, idea, the No Name-Calling Week
Coalition, created by GLSEN and Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, and
consisting of over 40 national partner organizations, organized an actual No
Name-Calling Week in schools across the nation during the week of March 1-5,
2004. This year, No Name-Calling Week will take place the week of January
25-29, 2010. The project seeks to focus national attention on the problem of
name-calling in schools, and to provide students and educators with the
tools and inspiration to launch an on-going dialogue about ways to eliminate
name-calling in their communities.

The project is targeted at grades five through eight when the problem of
name-calling is particularly acute but the concept can be easily adapted by
students and educators at other grade levels. The project includes a
resource guide which includes an overview of the campaign, instructions for
organizing and publicizing No Name-Calling Week in individual schools,
lesson plans and other curricular material, and further resources for those
interested in extending the experience. The project also includes a
27-minute video about name-calling targeting grades 5-8. The video is
accompanied by a Teacher Resource Book that includes teaching ideas and fact
sheets. In addition to the resource materials and video, stickers and
posters are available to support the program. Order or download these
resources at
http://www.nonamecallingweek.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/about/index.html