Teachers need to have a personal plan to prevent bullying

 

Teachers need to have a personal plan to prevent bullying, for “personal plan helps teachers to clarify their rationales for classroom management”, (Hue & Li, 2008). However, they should be “consistent with their personalities”, (Hue & Li, 2008). The way that resonates best for me is to work on the social environment of the class, that is “…the informal relationships among students and encompassed “friendship, support, attraction, isolation, power and relations between subgroups”, (Allen, 2010, p.10). Focus on individual and group relationships.

Reminds me of a time when I would ask students to work in groups and choose their groups on their own. 2 students were repeatedly left out and they felt miserable. I took a chance on our relationship and asked the whole class, “how do you think these two feel when they are repeatedly left out and have no choice but to work with each other?” The class responded very positively and the two students had groups that invited them. Privately, I also spoke to the two of them to reflect on why they were being neglected by the class. What was it in their behaviour that invited this reaction? All in all, the class environment was better.

To plan for the future, I would work on two areas, (a) internal, as in my own personality and planning and (b) external, that is working with the students.

Internal

1.      “Don’t take a student’s negative actions personally”, (Boynton & Boynton, 2005). I would work on my hyper sensitive personality and stay professional.

2.      Develop listening. When students who are bullied get a space to talk, their emotions tumble out. That is the time to practice deep and mindful listening. I find that if one listens mindfully, healing happens in the victim.

3.      Reflect on questions such as, “What do you mean by “good behaviour””? (Hue & Li, 2008). I would need to define it for myself. And this is a solo exercise for it is my classroom. I have a tendency to be very idealistic and then fall flat on my face as reality hits! I can use the texts to develop a practical system that is in sync with me.

4.      Have a classroom that engages students. This is the part that I loved from the texts. Work on my lesson plans in such a way that the students develop healthy relations. One of my classes gave me a lot of trouble for collaborative work. Students would keep rejecting their peers. So I developed a chit system with 1,2,3,4 and 5 on them. As they walked in the class, they picked a chit and stationed at a point in the room as per the number. They worked with whoever joined them. Since the group changed every day, they were ok with the partner and I felt a relief!

External

The bully

1.      “The challenging student is more difficult to bond with and often has few adult relationships” (Boynton & Boynton, 2005). We need to remember that bullies ar kids too and often ones who need a lot of love. I would try and have a connection with them, that starts with not rejecting them. Just a friendly hello every day in the class or corridors is a good beginning.

2.      “Every student has a PhD in parent manipulation, so be proactive,” (Boynton & Boynton, 2005). In case of severity, with permission from school, I would inform parents of the behaviour noticed.

3.      Develop a dossier of anecdotes with dates and details of events. This is most important as it gives data with details, very important to have. This is a set of facts as observed. They can be used while having a conversation with the bully, the school management or the parents. Data does not lie.

 The one bullied

Bullying is serious, both for the bully and the victim. “We can now redefine bullying in schools as the repeated exposure of an individual or group to negative interactions (social aggression) by one or more dominant persons”, (Allen, 2010, p.4).

Pacer, 2008 has given a good three step plan to work with the ones bullied. They need most importantly a sense of self-empowerment that they can act and face the bullies. The plan is:

1. Listen to the kid being bullied. (non-judgmental listening with mindfulness). Get as much information as possible from them about how the bullying made them feel. 
2. Talk to them. Make them feel that they are safe and it is not their fault. Ask open ended questions so they can fill them with a story.
3. Develop the action plan in consultation with them in order to facilitate their facing the problem. This could vary from student to student and there is no formula for the same.  

 In conclusion, while I would have the set of tools to deal with bullying as it happens, my main focus would be to work on the social environment of the class. That makes me feel self-empowered. I can handle that.

“These findings suggest that bullying is not a simple problem which occurs in relations between bully-student and bullied-student, but it is a complicated problem which must be solved by means of the development of the social environment of the class, that of the school, and that of the home as well as that of society.", (Allen, 2010, p.10)

 References

1.      Alen, K.P. (2010). Classroom management, bullying, and teacher practices. The Professional Educator, 34 (1). Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ988197.pdf

2.      Boynton, M. & Boynton, C. (2005). Educator’s guide to preventing and solving discipline problems. 

3.      Hue, M. & Li, W. (2008). Classroom management: Creating a positive learning environment.

4.      Pacer (2018). Ways to be there as an adult- Episode 17. Retrieved from http://www.pacer.org/bullying/video/player.asp?video=113 (4:17)