Scenario #12

This student is a fifth grader. He seems to get along very well with all of his classmates and peers, and constantly talks about his home life. Whenever he talks about his home life, it always seems to be about something fun or eventful that has happened, so there is no reason to believe that there are any problems at home. However, this student simply does not do his work--EVER. Even though he knows that he can start his homework in class, come in after school or before school in the morning, he just never bothers saying that he ‘forgot’ that he had homework, although he has homework every night. Every time he misses a homework assignment he has to call home and tell his parents, but it seems as though this doesn'’t faze him. He will even come into class and immediately announce that he has to call his parents. Is there any way to get through to this student that homework is extremely important?

Scenario #11

If students talk out of turn and are generally disruptive and unwilling to listen, how do I get them to stop and pay attention to what is going on in class?

Scenario #10

On afternoon we had an assembly. In the middle of it I looked up and saw a couple holding hands and I thought to myself, "Oh, isn'’t that cute?"” A few minutes later I looked up again and saw that the two were a little closer and now had their hands close to regions of each other’'s bodies that I felt were a little inappropriate. How do I approach the issue without drawing attention to them? Should I have told them to stop when I saw them holding hands?

Scenario #9

There was a girl and guy that were dating and they shared a locker. When they broke up they just avoided each other between classes. One day they were both there at the same time and she started punching and kicking him in the middle of the hallway. He didn't hit her back but what do you do in a situation like that? She was suspended and they switched him to a different locker but I would like to know how to avoid situations like that in the first place.

Scenario #8

If abuse were suspected would a teacher report it and then wait for something more serious to happen? Then, if the abuse is being witnessed on school grounds, as a teacher, where is the line in regards to me approaching the situation and trying to make it stop? Would I lose my job if I got physically involved? Would I be wrong if I intervened at all?

Scenario #7

Two students get into a fight either in my class, in the hall, or after school. As a teacher, am I allowed to try to break up the fight in any way that I possibly can or is there a certain protocol that I am supposed to follow? When I say any way possible I mean a situation where I could simply step between the students, to grabbing one student and forcefully detaining them, to actually needing to tackle one the students in the case that he/she may be over powering the other. Where is the line drawn in regards to the amount of physical force that a teacher can use on a student to stop a fight?

Scenario #6

What if a student just blurts out to me "Are you gay?!" I don't want to deny that I'm gay, but I also don't want to flaunt the fact that I'm gay to the students.

Scenario #5

My most feared of likely scenarios would be that some kid realizes that there isn’t really anything I can force him or her to do, and decides to push it to the ultimate limit in class by maybe just shouting at the top of his or her lungs while capering about like a madman, refusing to listen to reason. I pride myself at being a pretty reasonable person, and would find it difficult to deal with a person who is deliberately acting crazily in class. If the kid is at all being reasonable, I’m sure we can find some common ground; I’m really good at doing things like that. So my worst scenario is when any student refuses to even listen to any directions of mine, even if it is to simply walk to the office.

Scenario #4

A few weeks into the semester doing my lesson on mathematicians and talking about different limitations on math, students will be doing projects. Each student will be given the choice of any mathematician they know about (and where to look if they have no idea) and told to develop a report on one to present back to the class, but also about themselves and why they picked the person.

Islamic culture plays a huge part in the development of many key ideas in the mathematical world, and so instead of doing a specific mathematician for her report, one of the students in the class, in private, asked if she could do hers on the role of Islamic culture as a whole. Thrilled that a student knew about this influence, I tell her to go for it and that I'll be looking forward to the presentation. Days go by and presentations roll around, and of course all the students do work at their expected levels and inform their peers about all sorts of important mathematicians. Then near the end of the list comes the presentation on Islamic Scholars and their influence. The presentation starts out fine until actually getting to the Islam part at which one of the more rambunctious students starts making comments to his friends about the scholars' intelligence, and even going so far as to link these maths to terrorist situations. Having held strong through most of the remarks this last bit is too much and the girl flees from the room in tears at their remarks (which unfortunately kept up even with quiet threats of punishments). All this before she reaches her conclusion and reflective statement of why she picked the mathematician. Before heading into the hallway to check on her, I pick up her and notes and realize the reason for her breakdown. Her reasoning, unknown to all of us, was that she is actually Islamic herself and up till that point had actually been proud of her heritage and its influence in such an important field.

Scenario #3

I'm starting a lesson. But before we get going, I need some brainstorming from the kids. And nobody says anything. I try to pry them, offer some ideas, etc, and still nothing. Then, a student peels out from the parking lot, revving his engine for minutes beforehand. One student goes to the window, standing in the middle of my sentence, citing how "gay" this lesson is and how much more interesting the car is. What's more, the other kids begin to rally behind him, laughing with every comment, and still ignoring my lesson. I know this activity will get results if the students will engage, but they refuse to try, anchoring themselves to a student who proudly counts down classes until he's old enough to drop out. What now?

Scenario #2

While a class is giving individual presentations on posters over a particular topic they had prepared, the teacher is sitting nearby grading them with rubrics. One student near the front, who is typically a behavior problem, repeatedly interrupts with inappropriate comments about the presenters, such as calling them stupid or making fun of their work. The teacher in this case repeatedly told him to stop and be quiet which was obviously ineffective. Would there be a better way to handle this situation?

Scenario 1

During class one day two students, who are known for their bad behavior throughout the school, get into a physical fight suddenly. There was brief arguing, but before the argument could be stopped the fight had begun. Not being an aggressive person, I don't know if I should get in between the two and stop the fight myself, and while calling for help is a must, it takes time for people to come.