Laurie Woodward

“I want children to see the magic inside them,” says author and long-time educator Laurie Woodward. “I want to empower them. I would like students to learn that by becoming effective communicators and helping other children to resolve conflicts peacefully they are making the world a better place They learn that giving to others builds self-esteem and creates memories they can be proud of for a lifetime.”As an author, her published works include Artania, Forest Secrets and co-writing The Dolphin Legacy. Laurie was also a collaborator on the Dean and JoJo anti-bullying DVD, Resolutions. Every book contains a lasting message of hope showing the reader that when one is true to him/herself bullies can be defeated in both real and fantasy worlds. She uses her role as author to inspire a new generation of writers. In Forest Secrets children learn about the necessity of care for nature and the forest and apply it to other environments. The message is about teaching children to care for the environment and its inhabitants. When an eleven-year-old girl befriends a tree creature, she uncovers a plot to illegally log in a protected forest. She then sets off on an adventure to save all tree people and an endangered species from destruction. “It’s my dream to see the impacts of anti-bullying and peace resolution continue to cross borders. We see how we are individually bullied, group bullied, and society bullied, and correlate this to the bullying of our planet and its fragile ecosystems. We learn individual solutions to bullies, group solutions to promote peace, and also ways to work together to help each other worldwide. I’d like to continue to share the program globally so that children across the planet can realize this dream: Everyone can make an impact and provide healthy solutions for humanity.” As a fifth grade teacher, Ms. Woodward endeavors to empower children in a myriad of ways. First, Woodward is an award-winning peace consultant who helps other educators teach children how to stop bullying, avoid arguments, and maintain healthy friendships. For twenty years she has worked in Title One schools with large concentrations of low-income students, second language learners, immigrants from diverse cultures, and gang families. For the past five years she has worked as a teacher and student coach to ameliorate bullying. She thus developed a series of comprehension questions and lessons that she began using in the classroom with quite successful results, having fewer conflicts and bullying that spring. She then contacted the producers with her ideas, and was thrilled when they sent Dean Bernal to film some of the lessons for future versions of the DVD. In October of 2010 he shot scenes at Taylor Elementary of students making Peace Cards, engaging in role-plays, and signing contracts to become Dolphin Ambassadors for Peace.In 2011 she became a team coach and coauthored more peace curriculum with other teachers. (Offered free on line.) Be the Sea was designed to provide strategies for any teacher to create a positive, peaceful classroom which gives children ownership of conflict resolution. Here, strategies to promote compassion in children were introduced. Then, positive conflict resolution was promoted with a series of art, writing, role-playing and other activities. From 2010 – present day Ms. Woodward has coached students as both mediators and ambassadors for peace. In both programs the children use scripts Ms. Woodward wrote to learn to accept differences, improve listening skills, and break the re-active cycle. Through a series of role-plays and rehearsals children learn to disagree without animosity, build confidence in recognizing win-win solutions, process anger and other emotions, and solve problems. Once students are trained they act in one of two roles. As Dolphin Mediators they monitor recess behavior and mediate conflicts. If students are having a disagreement they can go to a Dolphin