New Jersey Teachers Stock Up on Bullying Prevention Ideas during Safe Schools Twitter Chat

Rutgers Alternate Route hosted a Safe Schools Twitter Chat, bringing together more than 200 new teacher candidates and guest commentators who weighed in with their collective wisdom as seasoned educators. Our teaching candidates volleyed ideas about the best ways to ensure a positive learning environment for students.  Their insights were fueled by questions that asked about their practices related to ensuring a social-emotional and physical safety, minimizing bullying, leveraging family and collaborations with colleagues, and fostering student agency to advance a healthy school culture. Candidate completed pre-readings and viewed multimedia resources in preparation for the chat. Some predicted that Twitter’s character limit might limit their responses, and prepared advance tweets using images displaying their ideas.

Following the chat, candidates shared reactions that indicated their enjoyment of the experience and their increased understanding of ways to prevent and address issues related to harassment Intimidation, and bullying.  Our exit survey data showed that after participating in the Twitter Chat and completing the course readings, there was a 23% increase in candidates who rated themselves as feeling "VERY knowledgeable" about their responsibilities and professional obligations relative to HIB among students. Below is a sampling of specific comments from our teaching candidates: 

• I have gained lots of new ideas from guest commentators. I am going to read through them, and I will definitely take many insights for my teaching practices. I appreciate all of the advice and this Twitter chat. 
• I am just thankful that the guest commentators donated their time and energy to these chats. I find the chats to be extremely beneficial for new teachers like myself. 
• I liked reading my colleagues responses in terms of HIB in the classroom.  I had a few aha moments because the responses were spot on and things that I didn't of.  Some responses included negative self-talk, poor attendance and low classroom participation. 
• I never knew social media could be used in this way. 
• I think we tend to think of bullying narrowly--about something that goes on between the class bully and the class nerd, for example.  From this tweet program, I thought that the comments seemed to lean towards examining a culture of disrespect and I agree with this 200%. We need to re-create a culture of respect across all levels of society, and this is an important step in addressing bullying in our schools. 
• The insight I gained is that even when you are unsure if you should get involved, that is a sign to get involved.

To read the full chat content and experience how candidates in our program used the power of social media to learn with and from one another, visit our Safe Schools Wakelet which captures the hour-long flow of ideas and resources. Below is a preview of the great ideas you’ll find.