Future Teachers Taught to Handle Bullying Before Stepping into Classrooms of Their Own

Dealing with issues of bullying and harassment can be an uncomfortable topic that many educators are hesitant to even introduce. Have you thought of incorporating a lesson plan to confront school bullying but weren't sure how you could make it have a real impact?

Last week teacher education students at the University of Northern Iowa experienced first hand real life bullying scenarios in a workshop entitled, "Just a Matter of Teaching: From Teasing to Torment." The workshop, which was led by Students Against a Violent Environment, a UNI peer theatre group, challenged students to participate in skits about bullying behavior in an effort to coach these future teachers on practices for handling bullying and harassment.

For students like Josh Gitch, the teaching lab experience opened his eyes to aspects of bullying he hadn't even thought of.

Everyone knows that bullying is wrong. What you don't see are the enablers.

Starting this March, Students Against a Violent Environment will lead two workshops focused on LGBT student bullying and the stress endured by those students.