Bullying is one of the most challenging factors in classrooms
these days.
Schools
and colleges face the problem of bullying, which
involves physical altercations, gossiping and rumors. No
matter what method a bully uses, it can have a negative, lasting impact on the
students and the overall learning environment. Which is why handling bullies
the right way is extremely important in classrooms.
Here, in this article, you will come to know
some of the practical approaches to deal with bullies in your classroom.
1. Make Students aware of
different kinds of Bullies
Bullies in classrooms
usually attack students who lack the emotional understanding of bullying. Bullies try to overpower their targets with
different approaches. It can be the physical appearance, popularity, or other
ways.
It is important that your
students understand all kinds of bullying behaviors. Help students grow
emotional intelligence, so they can counter a bully effectively. Also, work on
the bullies to help them cultivate empathy and inform them about the
consequences of their bullying behavior.
In a classroom, there are
usually 7 kinds of bullies –
- Physical bully- using physical power to strong-arm others
- Verbal bully- using harsh words on other people
- Prejudicial bully- prejudices in terms of religions, races, sexual orientation or others
- Bully victims- who have been a victim of bullying in the past
- Serial bully- who constantly bully others
- Relational bully- uses friendship and other relationships to overpower others
- Group bullies- they bully in groups
2. Read Signs of a Bully in
your Classroom
Not all bullies become
visible, as they do not always use physical bullying.
That’s why you have to be
extremely focused on the behavior of boys and girls in your classroom. A
relational form of bullying usually stays between the bully and the victim.
Hence, you need to keep
an eye on how students are interacting with each other. No need to interfere
all the time, just observe and definitely interfere to inquire, if you
suspect any form of bullying.
3. Stay Available Everywhere
and Every Time at School
Apart from your
classroom, there are many other hot spots where bullies attack their victims.
In fact, the conversations of classroom lead to other spots in college such as
the hallway, bathroom, lunchroom, or other areas. It is important that
responsible officials stay available near all the hot spots of bullying. At the
same time, you should try and ensure that you stay available to the students
throughout a school day.
This way, any student, who wants help, can
easily come to you and ask for your assistance.
4. Teach the Skill of Fighting
Bullies Collectively
Mostly, students stand
and watch one kid getting bullied and don’t do anything. But in some cases, it
is better to collectively come together and take an ethical action against the
bully.
In your classroom, you
can promote a sense of unity among students. Ask them to recognize and call out
a bully. Also, promote a behavior of reporting a bullying behavior to
the authorities, teachers and even parents. The kids should not only inform
about their own encounters but also stand up and talk about the
bullying encounter, which other students face.
5. Find Class Leaders and
Connect with Them
The emotional vulnerability
of victims doesn’t allow them to come forward and talk about a bully. And a
teacher only has limited exposure to the social environment of students. That’s
why you need your own informers in the classroom. This way, you can find if a
bully is active and bullying one or more students.
The best informers in
your classroom are the leaders. Every class has one or more leaders who
actually care about the educational environment and work for the betterment of
the students. Your goal should be to find those students and connect with them.
Let them help you keep an eye on bullies and find victims who generally stay
hidden.
6. Bridge the gap of
communication with every student
Usually, a teacher
builds a group relationship with the whole class. Sure, some students come
closer and the communication reaches more personal level. So, these students
can easily seek a teacher for advice or assistance with anything. But what
about the rest of the class?
Not every student is
outspoken or bold enough to connect with the teachers. In fact, many times,
some students don’t feel the need to communicate with teachers on a one-on-one
level. In that case, you, as a teacher, have to make efforts. You have to move
forward and bridge that gap of communication. Try communicating with each and
every student in your classroom.
This does two major
things. First of all, every student becomes close enough to share his or her
problems with you. At the same time, you come to know the emotional strengths
and weaknesses of each individual. And that can help you identify bullies and
victims in your classroom.
7. Include Parents to Work
Together for Kids
Teamwork of teachers and
parents is essential to winning the fight against bullying. You need to find
more effective ways to engage parents in the process of bullying
prevention.
Utilize PTA and PTO
meetings, send newsletters to parents, connect with them on social media and
conduct conferences if possible. All these steps can help in recognizing
bullies and creating intervention strategies as well.
It is extremely important
that you win the trust of parents. Only then, they will indulge in your methods
of helping students. So, if a parent complains about a bully, it’s your duty to
conduct a thorough investigation.
8. Become an anti-bullying
voice of your students
In many situations, students
make a collective effort to stop the bullies. But they don’t attain proper
response from the school authorities.
This is when your support
matters a lot. You have to work as an advocate for students who try to fight
against bullying. Become a voice and help students reach out to school
authorities.
You can help in creating
policies to actually change the ground realities of a classroom and
school bullying.
9. Take Immediate Actions to
Handle Every Incident You come across
Your actions should speak
louder than your promises. Students won’t come to you for help if you
simply send every bullying incident to higher authorities. You can’t normalize
a situation by saying, “they are just energetic kids.” Never minimize the impact
of bullying. You have to send a strong message to every bully that you are not
going to allow such behaviors. So, help every victim and let every bully face
the consequences of his or her actions.
This approach would
actually help in stopping incidents at initial stages. So, you can save your
students from escalated versions of bullying behaviors.
10. Don’t ask Questions to a
Victim in Front of Other Students
A victim of bullying can
feel extremely scared to talk about his or her experience. Many times, there is
peer pressure of not talking about the incidents with elders. So, you have to
be cautious when asking questions to victims.
First of all,create a safe environment where you can have a private conversation with the victim. Allow the kid to feel at
ease and then begin the questions.
After the conversation,
make sure you show your commitment regarding resolving the problem. Let the
victim know how serious you are about helping him or her.
11. Give a Chance to the Bully
to Talk Privately
A Private conversation
with a bully can help a lot. See, it’s not about fighting the bully, it’s about
fighting bullying behavior. For that, you need to talk to the bully and
encourage him or her to recognize the behavior.
Don’t let the bully put
the blame on his or her victim. You can say, “Just tell me what you did and how
wrong it was.”
If you are successful in
helping the bully realize his or her mistake, then, you can change the
behavior. You can explain different ideas to stop bad behavior.
12. Get professional help to
improve emotional sides of bullies and victims
Victims need to regain
control of their emotional sides. They need a boost of self-esteem and an
understanding of self-worth.
At the same time, a bully
requires an understanding of his or her emotional side as well. There can be
suppressed issues, which require consistent communication and conditioning.
For such purposes, you
should get help from a counselor. Allow both bullies and victims to have
separate sessions with counselors to address issues and overcome them.
13. Keep Checking with a Bully
or a Victim
After an incident and
your assistance, things will get back to normal. But you can’t stop there. You
have to check with the bully as well as the victim consistently.
Help victims in any way
to deal with the memory of past experience. Also, offer tips to handle future
encounters. At the same time, treat the bully with similar concerns.
No need to hold grudges.So, that’s how you can
take some concrete steps to deal with bullies in the Classroom.
If you’d like to know more or place an order then contact us :
Regards,
VIKRAM SHARMA
Web Admin |SMART EDUCATION HUB
