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.