Blog #3: School Safety

This week I am choosing to create a post about school safety and the importance it plays in our everyday lives as students and teachers. School Safety can be defined as keeping students safe from any violence, harm, bullying, substance use or any other harmful activity while being at school or in a school sanctioned activity. On the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments website the idea that a safe school promotes the learning of the students and by being in a positive atmosphere safe from harm will benefit their learning in the long run. It has also been linked that if your students are exposed to illegal substance, weapons, bullying or any other harmful activity it will affect their attendance and their willingness to learn and pursue their education. We do not want any student to be scared to attend school due to the fear of harm which is why school safety and ensuring that my students recognize that their safety is important to us will be a main priority in my classroom. 

School Safety is a Shared Responsibility Image

In my classroom I want to ensure that each of my students feel safe from harm. I want my students to know that bullying, weapons or violence will not be tolerated and it will be dealt with seriously if it does occur. A major part of learning comes from your desire to be there and be present, however, if you are missing school due to the fear of danger or harm then you will be missing out on a huge opportunity to learn. On the first day of school I want to cover safety rules with my students and keep them informed on how we will perform drills and what we will do in case of an emergency. Alongside with having a class discussion about how to conduct the drills we will also discuss how we can talk about sensitive topics such as bullying or anything that will be more personal and need to be talked about one on one. I want to implement a way for my students to be able to come to me and have these sensitive conversations without having to bring it up in front of the whole class. In todays age it is very import for my students to know that they are in a safe place when they enter my classroom and I will do everything in my power for them to know this.