How to Bullyproof Your Classroom

Proven Strategies for Preventing Bullying Behavior Offered in Latest Book from Responsive Classroom

TURNERS FALLS, Mass., June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Elementary teachers get practical bullyproofing strategies they can begin using immediately from veteran educator Caltha Crowe in her newest book, How to Bullyproof Your Classroom. Drawing on extensive research as well as her own teaching experience, Crowe explains daily practices that create a positive environment where kindness prevails and learning flourishes. In such environments, bullying and other mean behaviors are less likely to take root.

"Elementary teachers can make an immediate difference--and have a long-term impact on children's lives--when it comes to preventing bullying," says Crowe. "They can begin by building strong, safe classroom communities and establishing rules that guide children toward kind, friendly, inclusive behavior. They can notice and stop small, mean 'gateway' behaviors before they escalate. And they can help students develop skills and strategies for knowing what to do when they see mean behaviors. Finally, they can work with students' families and collaborate with colleagues to strengthen the impact of what they do individually."

In How to Bullyproof Your Classroom, Crowe observes that "a schoolwide approach to bullying prevention is optimal, and I've summarized best schoolwide practices. However, as I learned about the latest research on bullying prevention, I came to realize that building a positive and inclusive climate in the classroom is one of the most important things that we can do to prevent bullying and create a safe climate for learning. Classroom teachers can also have an impact outside the classroom, and in the book I discuss things that classroom teachers can do, both individually and in collaboration with colleagues, to help keep students safe throughout the school."

Crowe says that in over 30-plus years in elementary schools, she's learned that children can conform to classroom expectations, even when those expectations differ from those outside the classroom. Moreover, children can take their classroom learning out into the wider world. "As teachers change their classrooms," Crowe says, "they might just be taking steps towards changing their schools."

How to Bullyproof Your Classroom reflects Crowe's use, through much of her career, of the Responsive Classroom® approach to teaching. Besides offering compatibility with most anti-bullying programs, the approach includes many strategies that prevent bullying. For example, teachers will find information about using structures such as a daily Morning Meeting to create an inclusive classroom community and build positive relationships between students, creating rules connected to students' learning goals, using modeling and role-playing to help children apply expectations to specific situations, and responding quickly and calmly to misbehavior.

Teachers not yet using the Responsive Classroom approach will find the book user-friendly. But Crowe hopes that "learning about bullyproofing will spark teachers' interest in learning more about all the ways the Responsive Classroom approach can lead to better teaching and richer learning for children." And she believes that teachers already familiar with the approach will gain a new appreciation of how consistent use of Responsive Classroom strategies can be an effective tool in bullying prevention efforts.

How to Bullyproof Your Classroom
June 2012, 272 pp., paperback, $24.00
ISBN 978-1-892989-49-9

About Caltha Crowe
A veteran teacher with nearly 40 years' experience, Caltha Crowe now works with educators across the country as a Responsive Classroom consultant. How to Bullyproof Your Classroom is her third book. She is also the author of Solving Thorny Behavior Problems and Sammy and His Behavior Problems.

• Read an interview with the author.
• Watch video clips featuring Caltha Crowe on the Responsive Classroom YouTube channel.

Bullyproofing workshop
Bullyproof Your Classroom, a one-day Responsive Classroom workshop based on the book, is open for registration at several locations now. Starting Fall 2012, schools and districts can bring the workshop to their locations as an on-site professional development opportunity for their teachers.

About Northeast Foundation for Children, Inc. and the Responsive Classroom approach
Northeast Foundation for Children, Inc. (NEFC), a not-for-profit organization, was established in 1981 by elementary school educators who envisioned a way of teaching that would bring together academic and social learning throughout the school day. That way of teaching, called the Responsive Classroom® approach, is now being used in schools across the country. For more information, visit www.responsiveclassroom.org.

SOURCE Northeast Foundation for Children, Inc.