PS4M Is No Place For Hate

Respect For All - 2015

During a recent meeting, Student Government members promote RESPECT FOR ALL.

The NYC Department of Education has designated February 9-13, 2015 as Respect For All Week in all NYC public schools. During this week, schools will have opportunities to highlight and build upon ongoing diversity programs and curriculum-based instruction. Schools will also have opportunities to begin new initiatives that promote respect for diversity and engage students in meaningful lessons and/or other activities that focus on preventing bias-based harassment, intimidation and/or bullying.  Through reading one of many books about diversity, PS4 teachers will engage students in conversations that promote a school community where all are respected and feel safe.

Our school is committed to making sure each student is respected. Through our No Place for Hate initiative, created by the Anti-Defamation League, and the many cultural assemblies that take place at PS4, our students are reminded that human beings are very different, yet we have so much in common.  Since the beginning of the school year, students at PS4 have made this promise:

I promise to do my best to treat everyone fairly.

I promise to do my best to be kind to everyone, even if they are not like me.

If I see someone being hurt or bullied, I will tell a teacher.

Everyone should be able to feel safe and happy at school.

I want our school to be No Place for Hate.

For more information on Respect For All, a city-wide initiative, click here.  To learn more about No Place for Hate, speak to Ms. Lennon or click here.

Respect for All Celebration

Guest Speaker, Jason Sirois, from the Anti-Defamation League of NYC

                         
With performances from the PS4 Choir and The Ellington Poets, students celebrated a week of activities encouraging everyone to show respect for all.  The guest speaker, Jason Sirois is the Assistant Education Project Director for the New York Office of the Anti-Defamation League.  He spoke about being an ally and encouraged audience members to appreciate each others differences.  Earlier in the week, Mr. Sirois led a morning workshop with members of the Honor Society and Student Government.

 


During the celebration, audience members were asked to make a promise to keep PS4 No Place for Hate.  The promise states...

I promise to do my best to treat everyone fairly.
I promise to do my best to be kind to everyone - even if they are not like me.
If I see someone being hurt or bullied, I will tell a teacher.
Everyone should be able to feel safe and happy in school.
I want our school to be No Place For Hate.

The program ended with a dedication to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by the Ellington Poets and a song by the PS4 Choir.  To see a clip of the Ellington Poets, click here.  To see a clip of the PS4 Choir, click here.

PS4 Choir sings during Respect for All Celebration

                      

Garden of Kindness

In preparation for Respect for All Week (February 11-15), a group of students in 4th grade have been working with our school's Dean to discuss the importance of living in a kind society, the importance of not calling people names and the destructive ways of bullying and insults.   

During one particular lesson with Mr. Cantu, students gave examples of acts of kindness they have done for someone else.  At the end of the lesson, they wrote these acts of kindness within flowers they drew and colored to make a Garden of Kindness.  "These types of lessons pay homage to the wonderful example that Dr. Martin Luther King left us", said Mr. Cantu.  "He spoke of not only equality, but of the greater lesson of humanity; to respect all individuals and do so with the utmost kindness".

Photos taken by Joel H. (520)

   



For more information about Respect for All Week, click here!

Respect For All Presentation

Ms. Minaya

Ellington Poets w/Ms. Minaya

For the 2011-2012 school year, the NYC Department of Education designated February 13-17 as Respect For All Week in all NYC public schools.  Since that week, schools are given the opportunity to embark upon new initiatives that promote respect for diversity and engage students in meaningful lessons and/or other activities that focus on preventing bias-based harassment, intimidating and/or bullying.

On March 20, PS4 assembled students in 4th and 5th grade to attend a Respect for All Presentation! Special guest Joselinne Minaya, of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office of Community Affairs Unit, and our very own Ellington Poets, instructed by Mr. Cantu, reminded students that it is important to respect everyone.  "It is not only important to respect your family and friends", said Ms. Minaya, "but, it is equally important to respect people that you don't know...regardless of what they look like, who they marry, or their religious affiliation".   The assembly ended with a student-written poem entitled Silence the Violence performed by The Ellington Poets.

For more information on NYC's Respect For All program, click here.