Tragedies
If there is a tragedy that happens when you are a teacher I think that it is your responsibility to talk to your students about it. As a teacher you are the adult figure in your student’s lives right now and they look up to you for help and guidance. If a tragedy takes place and you just ignore it then you are just teaching your students to hold in their feelings and avoid talking about issues that are hard for them to deal with. When a tragedy happens you should take the time to turn it into a lesson. You can ask the students how they feel about what happened and give them some background about what exactly happened and why it might have occurred. For instance, if you were a teacher at the time when the hurricane hit, you should first educate your class about what is a hurricane. Then you can talk to them about all of the people who were affected by the hurricane and what people should do about it. Then you can ask the students if anyone knows anyone who was affected by a hurricane before. The important thing to keep in mind when you are talking to your class is to make sure that you are fully educated on what you are telling them so that you don’t give them the wrong information. Also you need to make sure that you don’t take sides on the issue. For example with the hurricane, you need to make sure that you don’t say that what President Bush did is right or not because you have to remain unbiased. You can locate resources to help you deal with a student who is struggling with a tragedy by talking to the school psychologist or searching: http://www.nasponline.org/NEAT/crisis_0911.html
