Articles for Teachers Counter-bullying responses

Counter-bullying responses

Counter-bullying responses February 1, 2019February 9, 2021

A fairer process

There is no fair outcome without a fair process. It’s the process, the rules, the patterns by which we get things done together that will ultimately determine our views of how fair things really are.

Counter-bullying responses February 1, 2019February 9, 2021

Your voice is one of your most potent tools in the classroom. Cultivate it, experiment with it, develop it, create with it and make it something that is a contextual feature of your high expectation environment.

Counter-bullying responses February 1, 2019February 9, 2021

Why parents and carers listen to shock jocks

The cult of expertise flooding the national schools conversation concerns me. These days it seems anybody who has walked past a school in the last three or four decades is fully qualified to comment on your decisions, your craft, your technical skill and your capacity for the task of educating.

Counter-bullying responses February 1, 2019February 9, 2021

Why students lie

I look back with a wry smile at some of the odd things I’ve said to students as a teacher. Once I told my class that if they were all going to have a rubbish attitude that I’d be making each of them stand in the dumpster at recess. Clearly a ridiculous threat that would never be carried out, and all of us were falling about with laughter for a moment while I came back to my senses.

Counter-bullying responses February 1, 2019February 9, 2021

How nice do I really have to be?

A memory I have from very early on was being told by one experienced staff member not to be too nice. “Huh?” I muttered, thinking that this wasn’t mentioned in my four years at university. “You know” he went on, “don’t let them walk all over you.”

Counter-bullying responses February 1, 2019February 9, 2021

The woeful word why

We all like to know why we need to do things, far more than we like to know what we need to do or how we are expected to do it. Human motivation is largely driven by a clear purpose. Many of us chose teaching as a profession because we wanted to make a big difference in the lives of students, a why, and not because of the occasional opportunity to show students how to conjugate verbs, that’s a how or what.

Counter-bullying responses February 1, 2019February 9, 2021

That’s not fair!

I remember teaching a fabulous class of Year 6 students who had a special sense of humour. They were also characterised by a wonderful camaraderie which made hearing about their regular escapades on weekends or even during lunch breaks a real joy. There was little ego, but a pervading inclusivity that has made me remember them fondly despite the passage of fifteen years since teaching them.

Counter-bullying responses January 31, 2019February 9, 2021

Respect in our schools

We have to be more determined about giving respect before we get it.

Counter-bullying responses January 31, 2019February 9, 2021

Beating bullying… bit by bit

The literature around bullying tells us that it’s far less a behavioural issue than a cultural one. That is, when students who have been engaging in bullying behaviours or students who have been bullied move from a school where bullying is normalised, into a school where it is not, they will experience a significant reduction in either bullying behaviours or being bullied.

Counter-bullying responses January 31, 2019February 9, 2021

Teaching and defining empathy

Given the thousands of anti-bullying programs that have been developed around the world, it’s little wonder that teachers have grown tired of implementing them for little return. It is clear that bullying isn’t beaten with a program, but through teaching, fostering and valuing empathy. Put simply, empathic young people don’t inflict power-driven negative and destructive behaviours upon others.