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4 Steps for Parents and Teachers to Prevent Bullying at Home and School

Schools are not feeling as safe for many students as they once were.  In fact on any given day 160,000 students stay at home due to fear of bullying or other forms of violence here in the United States.  Everyone involved have concern in regard to the safety of children in school, from the children themselves to the parents and educators.  Yet for many educators prevention and intervention is difficult due to a lack of specific training.

Added to this is the issue that many times both teachers and parents have certain beliefs that we will discuss in detail later that tend to cause them to overlook true bullying situations.  When this overlooking occurs it leads the students to believe that the teacher or parent is not concerned or does not care or that they simply are unaware of the situation or problem leading them not to come forward to speak about the issue.

If there is one thing that the research shows Continue reading “4 Steps for Parents and Teachers to Prevent Bullying at Home and School”

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Bully Prevention: Parent & Teachers role

We are all teachers.  No matter our other roles in life, we are all teachers.  Parents, siblings, teachers, administrators, public officials – all of us are teachers who are watched and on some level emulated.  So everything that we do and say is key to the growth and development of the youth in our society.
There is one thing that is clear about our roles in society.  If we want to reduce the amount of bullying that takes place in society in both young and old we must all be willing to intervene when we see it occurring.  Doing so will reduce and prevent bullying and the impact it has on our youth.  This is true for everyone, but especially teachers and parents.  It is with this belief in mind that I have researched this subject and will begin to report my findings here in this setting.
As in any subject or area that we want to make changes, our own personal awareness and knowledge effects our ability to make changes either in ourselves or in others.  I hope that parents and teachers will use this resource as a way of increasing their own awareness, as we work and report on ways to control and prevent bullying from taking place by attacking the root causes of the problems.  The goal here is to work on solutions and not just to point out the problems and difficulties.  This requires complete buy in that we can make a difference and then the energy to follow through.

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How do leaders make choices?

This week we have been talking to our students about making choices and decisions.  Making choices is based on what is best for the group or even for us as an individual is what leaders do.  So how do the best leaders make their choices?

The simple answer is you need to consider what the results will be, the good and the bad that will come from the choice.  One way of approaching that is to make a list of the “pros and cons”.  Weighing the pros and cons, and I like to write them down,  will help us to see the consequences – good or bad- that will result from either direction we may take. 

Some choices may be very simple, while others may have more impact on our lives and our happiness.  For instance choosing whether we get a pet or not get a pet, we will weigh out how much fun it will be vs how much work is involved.  We may even weigh the differences and the affects of choosing a dog or a cat.  It may be that an iguana might be the perfect pet for us.

Other choices may be more difficult.  What if we had to choose between going out for a school play or spending more time on school work.  There will be many things to consider both in short term and long term goals that we have.  All leaders need to make these tough decisions and sometimes we are not really sure what to do.  We want to remember that leaders do not have to know all the answers.  They do need to have around them others that they trust though. 

If you are a student you have your parents that you can go to and talk about your list of pros and cons to help you come to a good choice for you.  You may even have other adults in your life that you may want to ask how they see a situation.  Even your friends may be available to speak to, although you do need to be careful that you do not only seek out the advice of those that you think will agree with you. 

If you are an adult it may be your partner or someone in the organization that you work for that may be there for you to bounce ideas off.  It may be a trusted friend or an advisor or for many of us we may have a mentor that we can talk to.  But in the end it is us as the leader that must make the final decisions.  As a leader we do not want to “pass the buck” or even avoid risk-taking completely.  We do want to make informed decisions that with all the information at hand will be best for those that are following us.

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Parents do you know what this means?

Do you know what this means: %*@:-( ?   Or this: ~~#ZZZZZZ ?

If you do not then you are not a teen that is using drugs or alchohol.  Parents check out this article and understand the importance of communication with your teens.

http://bit.ly/d87NKw

There are some great resources in this article that you can refer to that will help decipher the codes being used in messaging.

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Attitude: 3 things that control our attitude

I know of no parent that has not said to one of their children, “ Don’t give me an attitude!”.  We all know that we are talking about a bad attitude – one that is negative and disrespectful.  Yet most of us if we were truthful with ourselves would have to admit that from time to time we too have that “bad attitude”.   Interestingly in a recent article in the journal; Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics (April, 2009) that it is true that there are some people who are just more positive than others, but that only 50% of happiness is determined genetically.  Where do you think the rest of ability to be positive and happy came from?  Yes it was ourselves.

There are three things that only we have control over that have an affect on our attitude, whether we are 5 years old or 85.  They are how we feel, think and act.  I am sure you have seen this before.  If someone is thinking and feeling things in an optimistic way, they also act in a positive way.  If they think and feel more pessimistically, then they act in a negative way no matter how hard they try to cover it up and “act” positive.  

The way we see the world, how we feel it is treating us, the way we think and act influences in a great way our Attitude.  It affects our relations with others including our closest friends, to how we respond to events in our lives and even the very mundane day to day life.  

So what is attitude and can we choose the attitude we want to have?  What influence do we have on our children when it comes to their attitude?  Can we help them to approach their day in a more positive way?  As parents we influence how our children see the world, so what are strategies do you use to have a positive attitude?