Bullying is something that is very prevalent in today’s society and thus teachers need to have a plan to tackle bullying in their classrooms and also in their schools. My plans and ideas surrounding bullying tend to air more on the side of prevention as opposed to dealing with it as it comes up. There are simple ways that we can teach about bullying in the classroom to help students understand that it is not okay and also to help them understand the steps that they should take should they encounter bullying in the school environment.
The first thing that I wish to do in my classroom is to teach my students explicitly what bullying is. If students know what different forms of bullying look like they are less likely going to take part in bullying. Simply talking about how mean names and mean comments are forms of bullying will allow children to understand what bullying really looks like because they need to understand it is not just physical. We can also teach students what to do if they see bullying. As a teacher we have one hundred and one things to do throughout the day so it is impossible for us to hear and see every conversation or interaction that goes on in the classroom. But if we teach students what bullying looks like and what to do when they see it then we can help them to become an active bystander.
Another way that we can reduce and eradicate bullying in our schools is by preventing cliques within individual classrooms and also school clubs and organizations. When we have students interact in groups with one another we should be conscious about who is working who. Splitting kids up into new groups will allow for the students to interact with others who they may not normally work with or interact with.
One last way to prevent any type of bullying in the school and classroom is to teach students about differences and talk about the importance of welcoming differences. Students need to understand that not everyone is going to be the same and not everyone is going to come from the same background. But they need to understand that it is okay for that to happen and we can do this by teaching about cultural differences within our class curriculum.
Miss Trone 