What Teachers Can Do About School Violence
When it comes to school violence there are usually several factors at play and you can’t really point a finger at one person when a student turns violent. Often times teachers are accused of not being aware enough just as parents are accused of not doing a better job of raising their child. No one can pinpoint exactly what causes school violence but they can help by taking responsibility and doing things within their power to try to prevent future problems. This goes for everyone, including teachers.
There are some things that a teacher can do to help combat school violence. While no one can control how things are going to go, they can help make some changes that might stop even one violent attack in a school. Here are just a few.
Keep Your Eyes and Ears Open: If you stop and pay attention to what students are saying and doing during downtime in class or even in the hallways you will likely become aware of things that you didn’t realize were going on. Banter between students when they’re getting settled in or standing in the hall between classes could lead you to finding out about problems such as bullying and planned fights, who is getting picked on and much more. Pay as much attention then as you would during your class.
Be More Involved: By being more involved with your students is a good way to not only set a positive example and get the inside on what’s going on around the school but it’s also a good way to make your presence known. This can be helpful in a couple of ways, such as showing students that you’re available and that they can come to you when there is a problem and also by letting any potential trouble makers know that teachers are in fact aware of what’s going on in school and likely to find out about bad behavior and do something about it.
Know the Warning Signs: You can’t predict which student is going to become violent but by knowing some of the warning signs that could indicate a problem you can possibly do something to help before the problem escalates. This means being aware of any student who is especially withdrawn or anti-social, has anger management issues, shows signs of aggression, seems depressed or has a penchant for violent things such as violent video games, war, gangs, hurting animals and anything else that doesn’t seem quite right.
You can’t expect to control everything that students do in schools but by being more aware and getting involved you can do your part to help prevent school violence and help kids who may be on the wrong path.
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