"Choose Kind" was Middle School anti-bullying theme

Isabel Blanchard and Owen Henning read positive posters

Decorah Middle School's anti-bullying program this school year has used the theme, "Choose Kind."

15 minutes each day have been spent in prime time classes to reinforce the anti-bullying message.  In April, students were asked to write compliments about other students in their groups.  These compliments were gathered and added to a software tool, Wordle, that generates word clouds from the text provided.  The clouds give greater prominence to words that were used more frequently by students.  This month Decorah Middle School teachers created Wordle posters and put them on student lockers after school so the students came to school the next day to see hallways filled with positive messages.