Articles

The school year is in full swing: hopes and goals have been established, classroom and school expectations are in place, and learning is in high gear. Everything is off to a great start. So why are you noticing some students beginning to test limits and misbehave? And what can you…

National Bullying Prevention month may have ended last week, but the work of stopping bullying in our classrooms and schools continues throughout the year. By committing to The Challenge of Kindness we can build safe, inclusive classrooms where kindness and learning flourish! An adapted excerpt from the award-winning book, How to…

We do our best to create positive learning communities and stop bullying before it starts, but when bullying has already happened, how do you repair the classroom community? We asked Responsive Classroom teachers what their strategies are for rebuilding safety and trust in the classroom, and here’s what they had…

National Bullying Prevention Month is an opportunity to reflect on a serious problem that not only deprives students of a joyful learning environment, but can have toxic effects on the recipient that extend into adulthood, such as difficulty sleeping, anxiety, and depression. While teachers and other adults who work in…

These days even young children have active digital lives through texting, instant messaging, and multi-player online games such as Club Penguin. However, children who are adept at using digital devices such as smartphones and tablets often lack the digital social skills needed to be safe online. Unless adults directly teach…

Do elementary educators need to proactively protect their students against cyberbullying? Elizabeth Englander, in her engaging and readable new book Bullying and Cyberbullying: What Every Educator Needs to Know, makes a persuasive argument that we do. Dr. Englander, the director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC), is a professor…

During Bullying Prevention Month in October, I imagine that many of you planned, presented, or took part in assemblies or whole school meetings about bullying prevention. You may have created posters with your students, put on small plays, read aloud anti-bullying picture books, or engaged in other activities to raise…

Do you have a child in your class who is invisible to the other children? I'm thinking about the child who is forgotten when children choose work partners, who plays alone at recess, who may sit with others at lunch but isn't part of the conversation. I sometimes had such…

Early in the school year, share with parents school and class expectations related to exclusion. You could do this in a letter or at back-to-school night. Give them a broad understanding of why inclusion matters and how it helps every child develop better social-emotional and academic skills. Also, share with…

Have you had a chance to read Wonder, the new young adult novel by R.J. Palacio? It would be the perfect book to read aloud to a fifth grade class as a way to reflect on topics such as kindness and inclusion, meanness and exclusion. Auggie is ten years old…

A new girl joins Chloe's class. Maya's clothes are old and ragged. Despite the fact that there's snow on the ground, Maya's shoes look like they're meant for spring. The teacher seats Maya next to Chloe. Maya smiles, offers to play, and tries to make friends. Chloe and the other…

"There's a new girl in my class," my grandson told me. "She's from Russia, and she doesn't speak English yet. Her name is Petra, but kids call her 'Comrade Communist.' " It was clear from his tone that "Comrade Communist" was not a friendly name. "Does your teacher know about…

The school bus is a hot spot for bullying, one of the least supervised and least programmed parts of children's school day. With nothing to do and no one to stop them, children can get out of control and mean behavior can flourish on the bus. After the well-publicized event…

It's a lot easier to stop a small mean comment than it is to stop full blown bullying. Nonetheless, in the moment, when you hear children (or adults!) say mean things to one another, it can be challenging to figure out how to step in. Recently Teaching Tolerance has been…

Will you be meeting your students' families at back-to-school night soon? If so, you have a golden opportunity to take another important step toward bullyproofing your classroom. I've written previously about how parent involvement is a key part of an effective bullying prevention program. Our students' family members often know…

What can you do, this school year, to bullyproof your classroom? Establishing a positive classroom climate where kindness prevails and everybody is included is a vital first step. On these first days of school, as we sit down with students to establish a climate of safety, an important way to…

Summer camp was a big part of my childhood. When I think back to my experiences at sleep-away camp, I remember a clear line between the camp with an atmosphere of safety and kindness and the camp with an atmosphere of recklessness and cruelty. At the first camp, the counselors…

An adapted excerpt from Chapter One of the award-winning book, How to Bullyproof Your Classroom Bullying typically does not emerge from thin air. It starts with small, mean social behaviors, such as Missy's whisper to Laticia as the children trickle into their third grade classroom: "Your hair's nappy. You'll never…

The playground is a hot spot for bullying in schools. Often lightly supervised, recess takes place outside the structures and expectations of the classroom. It's a time when children try out mean behaviors such as teasing, exclusion, and intimidation, and as I've said before, when small acts of meanness goes…

Bus rides are often the least supervised part of children's school days. They are also a part of the day without structured activities. That's a terrible combination. No wonder we hear about and see so many examples of children bullying and being bullied on the bus. Elementary school teachers and…

When adults start thinking about bullying prevention, I've noticed we often go right to wondering how to teach children to "stand tall." This idea—that a child who is being bullied can stop the mistreatment if they stand up to their persecutor—is widely held. There are books about children learning to…

Have you watched that video that shows middle school students on a school bus, bullying their bus monitor? I watched it a few days ago. The video is painful, even disgusting, but if you're wondering why people who are bullied don't stand up for themselves and put a stop to…

Did you see the recent news report about a kindergarten teacher who lined her class up and directed each child, in turn, to hit a classmate who'd been accused of bullying other children? I had a lot of thoughts about what happened and about the people involved in this incident.…

Bullying behaviors go on under our radar. Children report far higher levels of bullying in their classrooms than their teachers do. They see it when we don't. It happens while we're helping a student, glancing at plans for the next lesson, or answering a call from the office. We turn…

Louis announces, "Paul's feet smell, eww." His classmates laugh, and his teacher goes on teaching. "Look at your ugly lunch," "You have on boys' socks," "Your hair is nappy and you'll never get a boyfriend." These are all things I've heard children say to each other in school, in the…

Teachers are supposed to have "eyes in the back of our heads." When I was teaching, I believed I did see everything—I certainly thought I knew when children misbehaved. Then, while researching bullying for How to Bullyproof Your Classroom, I read some amazing facts about how often educators don’t see…