Teacher's Role in Bullying Issues

            When I was in high I shadowed an elementary teacher for my senior project. I went to a classroom full of third graders for a couple weeks. I got to know each kid very well and observe the teacher. There was one boy in the class who was constantly causing trouble for the teacher. He was always whining, crying, back talking, screaming or doing anything to be difficult. At first, I was annoyed by this kid, but as I watched him from the back of the room I started to notice things the teacher had not. At some point over those two weeks I had witnessed every child, boy and girl, bully this child in some way. Whether it was name calling, physically doing mean things to him, or just plain excluding him from the group. I would try to alert the teacher of what was going on when the kids were at lunch, but she said she knew. I had a hard time believing this because the teacher was so impatient with this child and it scared me. Everytime he acted out she would yell, call him out in front of the class and embarass him, or send him to the hallway without hearing what he had to say. I understand that it is difficult to watch over a classroom of twenty some children, but that is part of what you have to do when you are a teacher. You cannot just give up on a difficult child early on. I think if a child is being bullied, they need to know that the teacher is there for them and wants to help them. Even when the child is acting out because of it, there are ways to be firrm without being mean. I am worried that there are a large number of teachers who run their classroom in similar ways. Some kids are growing up feeling as though everyone is against him when he enters the school building, yet we wonder why there is so much violence happening on school grounds.
            I found an article that makes suggestions for teachers dealing with difficult students. If anyone is thinking about being a teacher it might be a good idea to check it out! http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/25-sure-fire-strategies-handling-difficult-students