Bullying

Bullying can come in all forms. More popular today teens are going to the internet and bullying behind a computer screen. It’s important to try to eliminate this in your classroom and outside your classroom as well. Students have several obstacles that can prevent or harm learning and adding bullying to the list doesn’t help. Students that aren’t excited to show up to school every morning and afraid of other students aren’t going to try in the classroom and will be anxiously waiting for the bell to dismiss them to go home. Bullying will never fully be removed from schools but promoting a classroom that doesn’t tolerate bullying can go a long way for the school year and more years to come.

There are a couple ways to help promote an anti-bullying environment in the classroom. I think one of the main ways is talking about it in your classroom. Showing students the school’s bullying policies and consequences can scare a lot of bullying away. In my school, they used a lot of scare tactics to scare off bullies. Another way I want to focus on is promoting a sense of community in the classroom. Despite differences in students, I want to create a strong bond in the classroom. In the mornings, I want to make time for morning meetings and allow students to get to know each other more on a personal level through activities. Opening up to students and peers can help create friendships that might’ve not taken place otherwise. A student that is being bullied is a lot more likely to come up to a teacher that is approachable and relatable compared to a teacher that doesn’t seem to care. A strong relationship with students can go a long way.

Knowing that you can’t prevent all bullying in your classroom is a tough thing to accept. Students have so many things that can lower academic achievement and bullying is another thing that can stand in the way. Being visible throughout the day where bullying might take place, educating students, and promoting a community in the classroom can help lower a lot of bullying. If a student is bullying someone else there is most likely a strong reason why. Being able to search to the starter of the problem can help students spend their time at school learning instead.