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.