Reducing Bullying by
Creating Community
By Jill Jenkins
All human beings have a basic need
to belong, but children and adolescents feel this need even more keenly than do
adult. Teachers and administrators can
create a strong community in their schools and reduce bullying at the same time
by creating a sense of community. To
create the feeling of belonging administrators must encourage faculty and staff
to work together as a team. Students in
each classroom must not only know the names of other students, but must feel
comfortable working together. Older
students in a school must know younger students and feel a sense of compassion
and caring for the younger students. The
younger students need to look up to the older students and respect them. Parents need to feel that school is a
comfortable place and that the teachers are working in conjunction with them to
provide the best education possible. The administration needs to establish
relationships with local businesses that might provide needed resources for the
school. The school should become the center
of the social and intellectual development for the community.
To create a feeling of belonging
between faculty and staff, it is important for the administrators to have an
open-door policy where teachers feel free to share problems with students or
parents and the administrator helps solve those problems. When the doors of communication close,
administrators can be blind-sided by a small miscommunication between parent
and teacher and has expanded to a huge legal problem that is not easily
resolved. On the other hand, it is also
important for the administrator to be aware of faculty and/or staff who are not
doing their job. A school is only as
strong as its weakest link. If an
employee is not performing, it can create a great deal of strife between the
staff trying to compensate for the incompetent one. Therefore, it is important to know what is
happening in the school and handle any problems quickly and discretely.
Teachers need to create a sense of
community in their classrooms. This can
be done by using a variety of interactive activities involving all of the
students. Have students work in groups
comprised of students from different social groups: small group discussions
pair/share and group created projects. Getting to know each other in these
varied activities makes classrooms more inclusive and less exclusive. When I was teaching in San Bernardino, I
taught a debate class comprised of students from different ethnic groups,
economic groups and social groups. One
exercise that I often used to improve the students’ ability to listen and
develop arguments quickly was we sat in circle and I would present a discussion
topic. Students had a few minutes to
develop arguments both pro and con. Then
I would call on a student and tell him which side of the issue he was to speak. That student presented a two minute impromptu
speech. When his time was out, I would
call on a second student and ask him to first paraphrase what the first student
said to that student’s satisfaction and then he was to present a two minute
opposing speech forcing students to actually listen to each other. This
continued until every student had an opportunity to speak. After we completed one day’s activities, a
young man who considered himself a Neo-Nazi turned to a Black student and said,
“I would never have guessed that you and I could have a discussion together. “
The two became friends by the end of the year.
Today many applications allow students to work together even if they
reside distances from each other. The program,
Google docs, allows students to collaborate on essays together and Google Presentation allows students to create slide presentations from different
locations. Open communication and working together
builds bridges.
In many schools, older students
bully younger student so it is important to help older students to develop a
sense of compassion and caring for the younger students. To alleviate some of the tensions between
grades, one seventh grade remedial reading teacher asked if my ninth grade
honors English class could tutor her students during our advisory class. The students both seventh and ninth grade
loved the interaction and the seventh grade student improved their academic
skills and the ninth grade students felt compassion and felt they had to protect
those students from bullies. In my
daughter’s former school, they created families with one student from each
grade (Kindergarten through 8th grade) in each “family.” During their advisory time, they met
together. The older students helped the
younger ones and read them stories. The
students shared Valentine’s and gifts for holidays and they bonded just like a
family. These social connections reduced
bulling and help students feel a sense of belonging.
Parents need to feel connected to
their child’s education if their child is going to do well academically. To do
this, teachers need to reach out to reluctant parents, provide frequent
interactions with all parents and provide transparency and resources to
parents. If you do this parents will
become more effective allies, students attendance and performance will improve
and teachers will be rewarded with better test scores. I have heard teacher complain that the
parents of honors classes are helicopter parents that put a lot of pressure on
schools to provide adequate education for their child. This is precisely why their children are in
honors classes. Students who feel that
their parents expect them to do well in school and who actively participate in
their child’s education perform better in school. So, how do we get all parents that
involved? One principal tells me she not
only has her teachers invite parents to parent-teacher conference who are
struggling, but if the student improves 10% or more a congratulatory letter and
phone call is sent to the parent with a special invite to parent-teacher
conferences. Teachers need to improve communication with parents. When I was an elementary student, my older
brother would not bring his homework home always claiming that he had none. My mother’s solution was to send me to his
teacher and retrieve the homework daily.
It was embarrassing for me, but it improved my brother’s academic
standing. Not all students have a
younger sibling to handle that chore.
One way is to create a website with calendar listing all of the
assignments for every day of the month.
If you use Google Calendar or Google
Sites, a calendar is
easy to create and update. Make sure you
provide links to electronic copies of assignments and worksheets. Students often forget the resources they need
to complete their work, so include lists and resources so parents can help
students complete their assignments in a timely manner. If your parents use cell phones, you might
want to use Remind101. It is an application especially
designed for teachers that allows teachers to send reminders to their students
and parents about upcoming assignments and tests. The parents will get a text message reminder
and they can persuade their children into completing their work. Send emails and call parents when students
need help or better yet to praise a student’s accomplishments. Send post cards home to parents letting them
know when their son or daughter has been successful. The better you get to know your students’
parents and guardians, the more they will feel like part of the community. Involving parents in decision making
committees and supervision of activities will also increase their sense of
community. When my daughter attended elementary school, parents were required
to donate 100 hours of volunteer time per year.
I spent my time coaching volleyball giving me an opportunity to work
with students and staff and develop a sense of community. The more involved
your parents are the more likely they are to support the school’s agenda.
Finally the principal and teachers
need to establish connections with local businesses. For example, one year the Language
Arts-Reading Department decided to give each student who achieved his/her
Accelerated Reading Goal a “Live Strong” bracelet. We hoped to reward them for reading and to
help them develop a sense of compassion for people in our community who had
cancer. My sister worked for a local
car-dealership and the owner was a cancer patient. As his grandchildren attended our school, he
was connected more directly to our program. I approached him through my sister and asked
him if he could donate the money to purchase the “Live Strong” bracelets. He was more than happy to do it. His generosity bought him some promotion and
helped us promote reading with our students.
Making connections with local business can be a valuable asset for any
school
People perform better in an
environment where they feel they belong.
Helping students, parents, faculty and staff feel connected and
appreciated is a great way to reduce bullying.
Connecting with local businesses can help the school provide useful
resources to students that local school districts could not afford. Students
who feel they do not belong often have a higher absenteeism rate making it
difficult for them to succeed academically.
Parents who do not feel comfortable with teachers and staff often don’t
provide the emotional support their students need to succeed at school. Creating a warm, caring environment is
everyone’s responsibility and everyone wins. Transparency and frequent interaction will
increase everyone’s sense of ownership.