Welcome to Teachers At Risk
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Apr
29
Wi-Fi enabled laps tops could be a health hazard for children
Filed Under Computers In The Classroom | 1 Comment
First cell phones and now laptop computers. Experts warn us against the possible dangers of using wi-fi enbedded laptops.
“CHILDREN should be discouraged from putting their laptops on their lap when using wireless internet connections because of potential health risks from emissions, a technology expert has warned.
Professor Lawrie Challis, who heads a committee on mobile phone safety, said that until more research was conducted, children should keep a safe distance from the embedded antennas on wi-fi enabled laptops.
If a wi-fi laptop was placed on the lap, people could be two centimetres from the transmitter and receiving comparable exposure to that from a mobile phone.
Since we advise that children should be discouraged from using mobile phones, we should also discourage children from placing their laptop on their lap when using wi-fi.”
Would that warning extend to pregnant women? It’s getting pretty scary.
Apr
29
Some teachers are bullies too
Filed Under Bullying | 8 Comments
Welcome to today’s podcast- Some teachers are bullies.
- Theme music- 3 feet up- Podsafe Music Network
- Introduction
- Date of Podcast- April 2007
- Shoutouts- Laurie, Frank, Geri, Jason
- Show note etiquette- Podcasting for Dummies Lisa Hartjes Chris Hartjes
- Reasons why teachers resort to bullying
- How bullying affects the teachers who bully
- How bullying affects the students who get bullied
- How bullying affects the the school environment
- What needs to be done to stop the bullying
- Conclusion
- Next topic
- Theme music
Update
I f you listen to this post as a podcast you’ll hear me say that I found out that there is such a thing as show note etiquette that states that you do not post a transcript of your podcast in the show notes. Well, I’ve been thinking about that and have decided that yes it may be rude to post the transcript in the show notes, but it is good pedagogy to do so. Some people are visual learners and prefer to read the post for themselves. Some people will prefer to listen to it. A good teacher will present the information so that students can hear it, see it and do something with it . So, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll opt to continue to be a good teacher and post the transcript. so if you want to read it, click on the link below.
Apr
21
Bullying is a cry for help. We’d better listen.
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Bullying | 11 Comments
In my previous post I talked about the government’s newly revised Safe School Act and the fact that it’s better to educate kids than to incarcerate them. Today, I’m going to focus on the bullies who do the bullying and argue that bullying behaviour is really a cry for help. One that we ignore at our peril. Esther William’s book entitled Help for Bullies, Victims and Bystanders is a very useful resource. One that I’ve used in preparing this post. It’s always nice to have your own observations supported by someone else, and it’s always nice to learn something new. I recommend it highly. It’s available through Youth Light Books.
Why do people bully other people? Notice, I didn’t ask why do kids bully other kids. I asked why do people bully other people? I did that for a very good reason: kids aren’t the only ones to bully other people. Adults bully other people as well. In fact, kids who bully often will grow up to be adults who bully if nothing is done to help them change their behaviour. Why do bullies bully? There are numerous reasons. We know that bullies bully because they get something out of bullying. What do they get? Well they get material things. They just intimidate kids or worse and take what they want. It could be money, clothing, ipods, bus tickets, sex etc. It could be anything. Bullies also bully because it gives them a sense of power over the victim. They feel omnipotent. They stand out in the crowd because they are bigger, meaner, louder than anyone else , and they enjoy the attention they get.Interestingly, bullies are not less intelligent than other kids- although sometimes it seems that way because they’re behind their peers at school. Basically, this is what happens. Kids who bully and exhibit aggressive behaviour fall behind their peers in school because they miss classes due to the suspensions and detentions they get because of their inappropriate behaviour. They can’t keep up if they are not in class- especially in subjects like math where one concept builds on the previous one. I found this to be the case when teaching math to at-risk kids. They have huge gaps in their knowledge because they’re out of class so often between the skipping, sitting in the office after being sent out of class for bad behaviour or being suspended. Often, they have no idea what’s going on. When they go back to class, they simply misbehave again to amuse themselves. The vicious cycle continues.
It seems to me that many at-risk classes just consist of bullies and victims. There are no positive role models for the bullies to emulate, and there are no good role models for the victims to emulate. What seems to happen is that instead of encouraging each other in positive ways, these kids encourage each other in negative ways so the inappropriate behaviour escalates. It’s really difficult for teachers to teach when we have to deal with all the behaviour first. It’s taken me over two months to develop a positive relationship with all the kids in my math class this semester- over two whole months. It’s just now they are starting to change their behaviour so that they can actually learn math. They ‘re becoming more respectful of one another and me. Unfortunately, with these at-risk classes the behaviour gets much worse before it get’s better. I work hard to develop positive relationships with these kids because that is the only way I can reach them. I could almost send everyone of them to the office almost everyday. But, what’s the point of that! They need to be in class so that I can develop a positive relationship with them. Once I have a positive relationship with these kids , I have a better chance of helping them them change their attitudes and helping them make better choices that result in better consequences. It’s not an easy job, and I sometimes wonder why I actually choose to do it.
Bullying is mostly a learned behavior, although there is a genetic component. Violent video games, TV programs and movies can teach kids to deal with the world and it’s frustrations in violent ways. Kids model the behaviour that they see. Of course the longer the inappropriate behaviour continues the more difficult it is to change. What is encouraging though is that bullies can be taught appropriate behaviour at school that will change their tendency to bully even if bullying and aggressive behaviour is the norm at home. Inconsistent discipline, lack of parental emotional support, family problems, and a history of physical and emotional abuse manifest themselves in depression and increased thoughts of committing suicide that bullies exhibit. Imagine living in a home environment like the one I described above with its physical or emotional abuse, inconsistent discipline, lack of emotional support, and family problems. It would be terrible for adults to have to live in such an environment, never mind kids. Oh sure, we can all point to people who did not become bullies who lived in environments like that. That’s great. I wish more people could rise above all those problems and not use aggression to deal with life. But, there are many people who can’t. We need to recognize that bullying behaviour is an indication that a person’s basic human needs haven’t been met. Their actions are speaking louder than their words. We need to see this inappropriate behaviour as a cry for help, and we need to help them so they can meet their needs in more appropriate ways. That’s the way I see it.
Next time, I’m going to talk about what schools can do to help kids who bully meet their basic human needs in more appropriate ways. I’m going to start by looking at teachers who bully their students. Yes, you heard correctly. Some teachers bully their students, and yes some teachers bully other teachers. The bullying needs to stop.
I’m going to ask for a favour. I’m writing my blog and doing these podcasts because I want to share what I have learned after teaching all this time with as many people as possible. Life at school is tough. I’ve learned things that can make it easier for teachers, for kids and their parents. If you think what I have to say is helpful, please go to itunes and write a review of my podcast. I have the itunes link on my website.
Jason was kind enough to write one for the UK site, and I believe that is the reason why itunes put my podcast in the New and Noteworthy section. Itunes says there are over a 100 new podcasts each day so it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. I don’t want my podcasts to get lost. I want to share what I have learned with as many people as possible with the hope that something I say will be useful. If you can help me make my podcast more visible, I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
Here are links to other articles I wrote about bullying. I hope you find them helpful
Cyber-Bullying:Relational Aggression-Part 1
How effective are anti-bullying programs?
Fear Not- a new role playing game to help stop bullying
Cyber-Bullying- Educating Kids is Better than Incarcerating them
Apr
20
Cyber-Bullying- Educating Kids is Better than Incarcerating Them
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Bullying | 2 Comments
In my last post, I talked about the fact that kids with learning disabilities or attentional difficulties are at greater risk of being bullied. I outlined some of the signs of being bullied since some kids don’t want to report bullying since they see it as tattling, and I talked about the the problems kids have because of interpersonal miscommunication. I went on to suggest what to do and what not to do to help victims. If you are listening to this as a podcast, please come to my site www teachers at risk dot com and read the post “Students with learning difficulties or AD/HD are more at risk of being bullied”. In that post I focused on the victim of bullying and I had intended to focus on the bully in my this post, but some interesting developments dealing with cyber-bullying have just occurred here in Ontario.I was looking through the newspaper and came upon it this
“Bullying is bullying” whether it’s done on-line or in a schoolyard, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday as his government introduced new legislation to add cyber-bullying to the list of offenses for which a student can be suspended or expelled from an Ontario school.
Changes to the province’s Safe Schools Act were introduced Tuesday to stop students from posting comments, pictures or videos attacking another student or teacher on popular online sites such as YouTube.
It’s the first time either physical or on-line bullying will be formally prohibited in provincial schools.
Good I thought, and then because I was reading this article on line I thought I would check out the comments. There were comments like the following one that didn’t think the legislation was a good idea:
David Le Gallez from Ottawa, Canada writes: Give me a break. What has happened to kids from my generation to the current. When I was a kid there were bullies. No one killed themselves or others over it. You had 2 options; take mom’s advise and walk away or fight back. I was bullied in early high school. I chose to fight back. After my second fight with the local bully, and subsequently sending the bully to the hospital, I was never bothered again.
Kids today have to grow a thicker skin. We do not need to be gaging them. And by the way… This has got to be one of the stupidest ideas I have every heard.
There were other comments like the following one supporting the initiative.
Larry King Jr. from Sarnia, Canada writes: It’s about time. Both teachers and students have been targets of vicious attacks against their character and being. And often the bully is even more vicious when hiding behind a moniker.
lad lladie from Canada writes: David Le Gallez, I know of two students who killed themselves because of bullying and the failure of teachers to help them out when they asked for help. I know at least one kid who was actually killed by her peers because they considered her different. All the comments mocking this law must be from people who bullied in school, otherwise I can’t understand why so many people are against it. Why some people have to lord it over others that happen to be physically smaller or of a different color or gay? Why give yourself gratuitous laughter at the expense of other people pain?
There were over sixty comments in all on the topic. Some of them were quite interesting to read. Some of the comments were a bit snarky though. You can check them out for yourself I’ll just put the link here.
Along with this announcement was another one that there was going to be $31 million dollars in new money, of which $23 million was going to go for programs for suspended and expelled students and the remainder for anti-discrimination training for principals and vice-principals. Eight millon dollars going to anti-discrimination training for principals and vice-principals. I had to read that twice. Who would have thought that was necessary! If it really is, then I’m glad there is going to be training for principals and vice-principals. The $23 million dollars going at-risk kids is a great idea. There need to be programs for kids who can’t cope in regular schools and get kicked out. It’s in society’s best interest to teach them how to behave appropriately. That’s what the alternative classes like Second Chance do. They help kids turn themselves around so that they learn to take responsibility for their actions and make better choices for better consequences. It’s better for us to spend the money on alternative education programs than jails. I taught teenagers in jail for three years early in my career and it’s not a healthy environment. It seemed to me they just learned more bad habits from one another. The way I see it is that schools are better for kids than jails.
One of these alternative classes that I’m familiar with is limited to sixteen students and has two teachers, a child care worker and an educational assistant. There’s lots of support there from different perspective. I’ve taught kids who have turned themselves around with support. It’s amazing. They do change. They want to change, but just don’t know how to go about it. I remember one kid I taught in jail telling me that she knew it was better to change her ways but if she changed her ways her friends on the outside wouldn’t be her friends anymore and then where would she be. She’d have no friends. I often think about her and wonder what happened to her after she was release from custody. Aside from earning a math and English credit with me, I really don’t know what else she gained while she was incarcerated. It’s sad. It really is. All those young kids wasting their lives. The other thing I used to think about and still do when I see these young teenage girls making poor decisions and reaping unwanted consequences that chances are they will mothers and raise their kids on their own without a lot of support. My Board has an alternative program for teenage girls who have kids. They can bring their kids to school while they attend classes. I think that’s great. It’s something I might do in the future. I’d like to work with the young moms and their kids. I’ve learned and would enjoy passing it along.
These programs of course cost money and I’m glad the government has decided to fund alternative programs. Probably some of the kids who are bullies will find themselves in these alternative classes. One of the students I taught told me she used to fight all the time because she had a anger problem and now she has learned how to deal with her anger in a different way. Another kid told me he used to be a bully, but now he isn’t because he learned to deal with things in a better way. It’s amazing what a turn around these kids made with help. Schools need to be a safe place for kids to learn. The kids who can’t manage in a regular setting need an alternative setting. Educating kids is better than incarcerating them.
In my next post, I’m going to argue that bullying is a cry for help and we can’t afford not to listen.
- Posted 17/04/07 at 5:17 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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