Overview
What is Bullying?
Costs of Bullying
School Services
School Districts
Benefits
Who We Are
Contact Us
Resources
• Administrators
• Teachers
• Parents
• Counselors
• Survivors
• FAQ
• Links
Teachers
Many teachers want to create safe classrooms and safe schools. But they can feel outnumbered and overpowered by students bringing to school the violence and aggression of their lives outside.
No Bully® encourages you to take action. Advocate that your school adopts an anti-bullying policy that unites all teachers in a common vocabulary and commitment to preventing bullying. Ask the Principal to provide in-service trainings for teachers in how to address bullying, such as those offered by No Bully.
Follow these steps for creating a safe classroom:
Know what values you stand for. You are a role model for your students. What behaviors will you not stand for and why? Teach your students these values at the start of the school year. When you intervene to stop bullying behaviors, you need to be able to explain your stance to students in one or two pithy statements e.g. “everyone in this school has the right to feel safe”.
Intervene early and consistently. You need to intervene early in the school year and every time that your students engage in put-downs and bullying. If you do not, you will lose control of your classroom – it will slip away from you.
Introduce curriculum material around inclusion, tolerance and kindness. Aim to teach at least one unit every month around prosocial values: themes of inclusion, tolerance, respect and kindness. If a particular type of bullying is happening in your classroom, it is an opportunity to teach a unit on race or class or sexual orientation or whatever is up right now. Or talk to your students about sexual harassment and when flirting hurts. Or pull out a module around anger and explore whether they feel able to tell another student directly that they are angry with them.
Create a classroom culture that is inclusive. Individual learning is not always the most effective way to teach. There are many co-operative methods of learning. You can break your classroom into groups and quiz them as groups, making them confer. You get to choose the groups - this way you get students to mix with students that they might not know and with students who would otherwise be left out.
Identify at risk students before they are targeted. Learn to identify the children who are at socially and emotionally at risk. This includes students who are being left out or are self-isolating. You can involve these students through co-operative learning. If there is a student who is at risk you can refer them to counseling.
Ask for help. If a bullying situation escalates, ask for help. Talk it over with a fellow teacher, with your principal or with your school counselor. You do not need to deal with bullying alone.