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When Bullying goes Unnoticed...
...our children lose faith in us. When bullying goes unnoticed for a period of time, the children begin to believe that this is the way it is, or things will never change, and then when we notice again, they don’t believe that we can change anything.
Many schools and communities have taken up the call to action and have built safe school communities where the expectations are well known and the students themselves expect good behavior from one another. It takes time. It takes trust, it takes integrity and it takes courage to know that change will occur.
For those of us who are leaders, our vision must incorporate a strong sense of how we will create a culture of care and safety in our buildings. While this sounds somewhat transparent and flimsy, when I talk about vision, I mean that we, as leaders, have a strong and clear picture of what a school with a friendly and caring culture looks like. What does it look like when the community has a sense of care? Here are five examples of what people might see and how they might be treated in a school where a caring culture matters:
- 1. Students and faculty make eye contact with each other as they pass in the halls and they greet each other
- 2. Students hold the door open for adults and offer to help them with their carrying loads
- 3. People smile at each other.
- 4. Students and staff believe that all areas of the building are safe to travel into
- 5. The words: "Can I help you" are heard often, and manners are used with others
For those of us who are teachers, the caring culture begins in the classroom and in group-based activities. Our students have to trust that we will not put their safety at risk, and that at least in the classroom, we will run inclusive activities and avoid any scenarios that give certain peers power over others. Here are five examples of what people might see in a school where the classroom teachers are making a daily effort to build a caring culture.
- 1. During class activities, partners and groups are determined by the teacher, either by random choice or set lists. The difference here is that, once the power of choice and partnering is taken out of the students’ hands, it reduces anxiety for many students.
- 2. Students may be working independently on tasks while the teacher works with small groups of students providing extra instruction or enrichment challenges. The difference here is that the classroom is set up for differentiated instruction, which demands that students work independently and allow others a quiet working space. It is a respectful learning environment.
- 3. The students listen to each other. They are able to extend the same courtesy to every student in the classroom. Every voice carries the same value.
- 4. The students celebrate each other’s accomplishments. They are proud of each other and themselves.
- 5. The class takes on a “Caring Community” project that extends a hand of care into the community. This is a regular occurrence and an expectation.
Classes that practise these types of behaviors typically promote caring cultures. Relationships grow, trust builds and a mosaic of cross-cultural inclusion emerges. This is what caring communities are built on. Finally, teachers stop the practice of electing a team captain for the purposes of team choosing. It is a cruel practise and continues to target and making invisible the same group of skids who are not athletically talented.
An update on our School Wide Take Action Against Bullying Program
Since last time...
...We have administered the survey and produced the results. We have determined the areas of the school where kids feel the most unsafe. We presented these results at our parent meeting. We have decided to support the National Pink Shirt Campaign on February 27th. and have yet to determine what that might look like.
Next, the staff will look at the results and make some plans about how we can monitor those areas of the school that our students tell us are unsafe.
While we might not like seeing the results of our surveys, we now have excellent information about how our kids feel about their school. Keep posted for our on-going program. Until next month....
