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- Make time for community building throughout the year. Time spent building community is never wasted.
- Proactively teach positive social skills: how to make friends, how to give compliments, what to do if someone teases you or hurts your feelings. Don’t wait for negative things to happen.
- Be explicit in explaining to your students why treating one another well and building a community is important. Use key terms: community, inclusion, friends, support, caring, kindness. Don’t let these words become empty slogans; give lots of examples of positive behaviors.
- Adopt a zero-indifference policy. Don’t ignore bullying in the hope that it will go away. Don’t punish the participants, but be clear about what is acceptable. Say, “I don’t want that word used in my classroom. It hurts people’s feelings and it’s not kind.”
- Share your own learning around issues of diversity and inclusion. When students see that you are also learning (and struggling), they can share their own journeys more easily. Tell them, “You know, when I was growing up, there were some words I heard and used that I don’t use anymore, and here’s why.” “You know, sometimes I’m still a little uncomfortable when I see people with significant physical differences, but here’s what I’m learning.”
- Think about what messages you’re communicating about community and differences in everything you do, including the books you read to your students, the songs you sing, what you put on the walls, and how you talk about different families and world events.
- Seize teachable moments for social justice. When students say, “That’s so gay,” talk about the power of words to hurt people and where such oppressive language can lead. When a student makes fun of another student, talk about different cultures, norms, and experiences.
- Provide lots of opportunities for students to work together, and teach them how to help one another. End activities with appreciation circles: “What’s something you did well today?” “How did Carlos help you today?”
- Don’t set students up to compete with one another. Create an atmosphere in which each student knows that he or she is valued for something.
- Keep in mind that your students will remember only some of what you taught them but everything about how they felt in you classroom.
- ASCD, September 2008
Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association
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