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About me :)
About me :)
Hi, my name is Lauren Giacalone and I am a Secondary Education Major with a focus in English at The College Of New Jersey and I am set to graduate in May of 2025! After TCNJ, I plan to attend a graduate program where I will study counseling to potentially become a high school guidance counselor.
My goal for this website is the provide anti-bullying information and strategies for educators, future educators, and students that will help develop a more comfortable and safe environment.
Stop Labeling kids - Labeling a child as a bully, victim, or bystander is making the child seem like they are the problem which is causing more harm than most people think. By labeling children, it is contributing to the negative name-calling that everyone is trying to move away from. Labeling children downplays the important roles that these educators, parents, and school system are trying to put in place to form a safer environment for the students.
Strategies to follow these non-labeling rules;
Get to know the student for who they are in your classroom.
Do not listen to what other students/teachers say about your student.
2. Listen to students - The most affective way to listen to a student that comes to you is to not only listen with your ears and eyes, but to also listen with your heart and mind. Listening to a student that trusts you impairs those that feel privilege and protects those that are less powerful. This will only work if the school systems listen to all students to ensure they are not promoting existing conditions.
Strategies to improve listening skills as an educator
Teachers can take notes while their students are talking to ensure they are capturing everything they hear.
Provide feedback after the student is done speaking to show them that you understood what they were explaining.
I will think about this and incorporate these strategies into my own classroom by forming an individual, respectful, and appropriate bond with each of my students to show them that I am trustworthy, and willing to help if they need it. I will listen to my students carefully whether it is about a problem or a question they may have and provide feedback that I believe will be most helpful. I will see my students as they present themselves to me without listening to feedback and assumptions made about the student from other teachers and students in the school.
This resource is a website that talks about the societal problem of bullying and how it is being experienced, how to prevent it as a social justice problem, and restorative approaches that can prevent future incidents and violent crimes. Bullying is an immediate problem that is effecting students worldwide. Bullying can effect students for the rest of their life by making it hard for them to regulate their emotions and cause further mental health problems.
Students that experience bullying as a child are more likely to commit violent crimes when they get older. This article finds that these people commit violent crime because they are having trouble regulating their psychological trauma that they have experienced. Many high school victims of school bullying use violent actions to rebalance perceived social injustice. Although it is not proven that all bullying victims commit violent crimes, the percentage that do is still something that needs to be corrected.
Social justice is achievable when there is a fair issuing of opportunities and materials for all members of the social establishment. Bullying should be considered a social justice problem because it is a systematic abuse of power. Schools and the educators in them can be the predecessors in social justice to end the long lasting bullying issue by promoting policies against bullying and having interventions for victims. Using restorative approaches in schools can be a form of social justice by preventing future violent crimes while allowing victims voices to be heard and assessed in academic environments.
To prevent bullying and future violent crimes, schools can assist school bullying victims throughout the day. This can be helpful for the students because it recognizes the victims and empowers them as well. A restorative approach that could be very helpful in a school is using the "Circle of Friends Method" (Jones 2023) that encourages an inclusive environment for students who are having trouble adapting in schools, having support systems, and friendships. This could help prevent future violent crimes by mending the relationship between the bully and the victim which could give the victim closure which their trauma.
Strategies to implement this in a classroom;
Create a program that assists victims during and when leaving schools.
Receive appropriate and adequate training on all forms of bullying.
This article focuses on an educators role in bullying, useful strategies to use, and resources educators can use if they need any assistance. An educators role in witnessing any sort of harassment, intimidation, and/or bullying should swiftly report the incident in a written report along with notify the principal and/or the principals designee. There are multiple strategies that an educator can use to promote anti-bullying in their classrooms and schools.
These strategies include:
Modeling behaviors that show how to be inclusive and show respect towards everyone in the classroom/school.
Being open to students if they need to talk about witnessing a HIB incident or if they have experienced being bullied.
Taking immediate action when witnessing a HIB incident.
This article connects greatly with the "Strategies and Resources for an Educator" article by talking about different ways to effectively educate students on when and how to speak up against bullying. It is important for educators to encourage their students to speak to a trusted adult/teacher when they believe they are being bullied or have seen someone being bullied. If students are comfortable with their teacher, the educator can provide support, advise, and a safe place for this student to open up. To properly educate a student on bullying, it is important for the educator to teach their students how to stand up to the bully and how to say "stop" confidently if they are being bullied. Teaching strategies for staying safe against a bully along with teaching alternative strategies if saying "stop" does not work will help a student be more prepared and feel more confident when facing their bully.
Strategies for an Educator:
Keep lines of communication open with all students.
Create a lesson that talks about and forbids bullying in a classroom/school.
After reading and considering all three of these incredibly helpful articles, when I am an educator, I will respect all my students and model behaviors that are inclusive and supportive for all students. I will also make it known that my classroom is a safe space for all students, even students that are not mine so they can come and talk to me if they feel it is necessary. To me, supporting a student when they need it is one of the most important tasks for a teacher so I will make sure students will feel comfortable with me and I will be a reliable source for them.
This very informative and emotional ted talk is a video by a young lady that talks about why people bully other people and what goes through their heads when they decide to do this. She also talks about her own experience with physical and emotional abuse that she experienced when she was younger. She said there are four reasons as to why someone becomes a bully. She says reason #1 is because of pleasure. The bullies take pride in making other people feel insignificant. Reason #2 is for popularity. They become bullies because they would be more noticeable to the school. Reason #3 is they were taught to bully other people whether it was directly or indirectly meaning they did not receive enough affection from their parents and/or teachers. And reason #4 is experience. If someone experiences being bullied, they will become a bully as well.
Her experience with being bullied was very emotional to listen to because of the little help she received from her teachers that she went to first before her parents. She talks deeper into her experience with the support she hoped to get from her teachers and school but sadly failed to receive. She then talks about how this eventually resulted into her switching schools and roles in my bullying incidents. She went from getting bullied, to being a bully. Luckily, she got the help she wanted and the closure she needed which turned her life around for the better.
Strategies the educators could have followed that would have been more helpful for the student:
Listen to the student that is coming to you with a problem they are having.
Help the student find the correct help and guidance they need.
Report the incident to the school principal so bigger actions could be taken.
After watching this ted talk, it was very upsetting to hear about her experience with being bullied, not getting the help that she needed by her teachers, and then becoming the bully because of this. As a future educator, in my classroom I will make it a priority of mine to make sure the students know that I will be around to talk at any points of the day if they need to and trust me with their situation. I would go to the school and make sure that student gets the help they deserve in order to help them in their situation. I will also make it a point to stay in contact with the students to follow up that they are getting the help they deserve.
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