Bullying: What Educators Can Do

The Teacher’s Role

Children spend a large portion of their day in school. Their experiences while there have a tremendous impact on their development, affecting both their physical and mental health. Bullying can happen wherever children gather – in the playground, at summer camp, on sports teams or during organized activities – but the majority of bullying happens at school, making teachers a child’s first line of defense.

It is absolutely critical that teachers take bullying seriously, intervening when necessary and encouraging healthy relationship skills. The bullying behaviour children experience or adopt within peer relationships at school will carry over to other relationships as they move through adolescence and into adulthood.

Teachers influence how students develop social skills, empathy, social responsibility and citizenship. Relationship skills are just as essential as knowing how to read and write. When children are taught how to recognize and manage their emotions, how to make decisions and how to behave ethically and responsibly, they are better equipped to engage in healthy relationships.

Helping Students Who are Bullied:

Teach Social Skills

Kids who are bullied often find it difficult to stand up for themselves. Encourage students who are bullied to be assertive: use role-playing and coach students on how to act (looking people in the eye) and say confidently that bullying behaviour is not OK. Help them determine if there is anything they are doing to make the problem worse.

Build Self-Esteem

Encourage students who are bullied to participate in activities they enjoy or are good at to help them build self-esteem. Highlight their talents for other students to see; this can help them change their reputation in the peer group and reduce their chances of being bullied.

Encourage Children To Report

Make sure your students know that it is a teacher’s job to deal with bullying and all incidents should be reported. Clarify the difference between tattling and telling: tattling is what you do to get someone in trouble; telling is what you do to get someone out of trouble. Provide alternative ways to report bullying at school – an anonymous bullying box can help children who may be uncomfortable about coming forward.

It takes courage for children to report bullying, be ready to listen.

Helping Students Who Bully:

Change they way they use their power

Kids who bully need help developing problem-solving skills that don’t involve aggression. Provide them with opportunities to use their natural leadership skills in a positive way, for example, get them to teach younger students a new sport or skill. Help kids who bully resist peer pressure by letting them know you believe they can change their behaviour.

Acknowledge positive behaviours

Encourage positive connections among children by praising respectful and cooperative behaviour whenever it happens. Try and focus on the positive behaviours of all students, even when they need correcting. Children are works in progress – they can’t always get it right – they learn through trial and error.

Consequences that teach, not punish

Children who bully need help in understanding the impact of their actions. Formative consequences are designed to send the message that bullying is unacceptable while also providing support for children who bully to learn the social skills and empathy they may lack.

Formative Consequences for Students Who Bully

Have students create a poster, collage, or drawing of what it must feel like to be bullied. Talk about the feelings that children who are bullied might experience: shame, embarrassment, anger, fear or sadness.

Assign students a research project where they have to learn about the prevalence, nature, and consequences of bullying and write a paper or create a class presentation based on their findings.

Have the students who bully interview an adult or older student about their bullying experiences and the impact it had on him/her.

Assign a project requiring the students who bully to research a historical figure or celebrity who has been bullied.

Have the students read a novel about bullying and write a character study (e.g., Blubber by Judy Blume)

Have the students watch a movie about bullying and describe the characters and the consequences of their actions (e.g., Mean Girls, Back to the Future). Encourage them to focus on the feelings of the victimized character. Help them to identify these feelings by looking out for facial expressions, body posture, and tone of voice.

Have your students identify instances of bullying in the media (e.g., television, newspapers, radio, magazines, websites) and talk with them about their reactions to these instances.

Talk with your students about their own strengths and weaknesses and how they can use power to help, not hurt, others.

All info from: https://www.prevnet.ca/bullying/educators