Educators are getting involved with the Global Truce 2012 Campaign. Peace One Day led the initiative to establish the first ever annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence, unanimously adopted by United Nations member states as 21 September – Peace Day. You may also know that we then proved that the day could work in areas of conflict, most notably in Afghanistan, where Peace Day agreements have led to the vaccination against polio of 4.5 million children in recent years. We are grateful to UNICEF, WHO, UNAMA and other UN agencies for making it a great success. On Peace Day 2008 the UN Department for Safety and Security announced a 70% reduction in violent incidents in Afghanistan.

These successes and many others led Jeremy Gilley to launch the Global Truce 2012 campaign: what we hope will be the largest reduction of violence on one day – Peace Day 21 September 2012 – a world record; and the largest ever gathering of individuals in the name of peace. Schools can sign up to the Global Truce 2012 Schools’ Network to register your school’s commitment to taking action on Peace Day. Many schools are using the free 32-minute film The Day After Peace as part of their programming.

Bystanders are present in the majority of student-student bullying situations. Often, bystanders who witness bullying feel unsafe themselves, and don’t know how to stop the bullying and help the victim. However, bystanders can be taught a variety of “upstander” skills, so that they can safely interrupt bullying and create a peer culture of respect. Participants in this international webinar hosted by the Inter-American Teacher Education Network received instruction in how to teach and reinforce ten “upstander” strategies to students, ages 5-18.
The presenter is Christa M. Tinari, MA, a Safe Schools Specialist and a champion of whole-child education. A former Student Assistance Counselor, she has been training children and adults in the skills of peacemaking, for over 15 years. Ms. Tinari is founder of PeacePraxis Educational Services.

The S.T.A.R. strategy (Stop, Think, Act, Reflect), is a developmentally appropriate problem-solving strategy that:
1) helps students learn and practice critical social-emotional and conflict resolution skills
2) helps teachers and students resolve real problems
3) holds students accountable for their behavior
Participants in this international webinar hosted by the Inter-American Teacher Education Network learned how to teach S.T.A.R. to students, ages 5-14, and how to implement S.T.A.R. in the classroom and school-wide.
The presenter is Christa M. Tinari, MA, a Safe Schools Specialist and a champion of whole-child education. A former Student Assistance Counselor, she has been training children and adults in the skills of peacemaking, for over 15 years. Ms. Tinari is founder of PeacePraxis Educational Services.

A short promotional video introducing the new Conflict Resolution Education Activity Calendar – iPad Edition. This teaching and learning app promotes conflict resolution in educational settings by providing a rich collection of resources and suggested learning activities for use throughout the year. Built around a calendar filled with historical and international information, the app provides interactive timelines, word search activities, inspirational quotes, videos and other full-text resources for educators and parents interested in teaching peaceful means of resolving conflict. The new app is available at no cost via this link to the app in the itunes store.

According to Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the child, all children have the right to be protected from all forms of violence while in the care of parents or other caregivers. This problem needs awareness and education. UNICEF Digital Citizenship and Safety project team is working on addressing cyberbullying, with this video as one example of their work.

The UNICEF Convention on the Rights of Child ensures for children’s freedom of expression and the ability to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds”. UNICEF Digital Citizenship and Safety project team is working on researching and advocating for these rights. Part of the project involves creation of videos that are primarily visual like this one so that language is less of an issue.