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 Real issues in the classroom 
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I am doing my practicum for Block I at Mt. View Elementary. I have already, in just a couple of days, experienced some of the issues we have discussed over the course of the semester. One of the issues has been a boy in my third grade class who has been "acting gay". This was brought up when I went with my host teacher to a grade level meeting with the principle. They were worried about him because he would compliment women's hair, shoes, earring, etc- things they said little boys should not notice. I really did not even pay it any attention until it was brought up and I think because it was brought up my focus kept being shifted to his behavior. I did not think it would be an issue if the teachers had not made it one because I could tell that the students did not treat him any different or make a case about it. It really led me to question how I would handle this if I were a teacher.

I was going to ask if anyone who has been in the schools recently has experience or had to deal with any of the issues we have discussed in class and how it has shaped, changed and affected the way you teach or will teach?!!??

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Macie Elizabeth Baswell


Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:34 pm
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WOW! I feel that is wrong. Why would teachers want to cause another issue when they already have so many? I could understand if other students were treating the child differently because of his actions, but I do not understand why the teachers had to make it in to an issue. I am doing my practicum at Hillcrest Elementary and half of the schools population is Hispanic. On the first day I was working with a Hispanic girl and she did not seem to understand any of the math. I was trying to work with her but she couldn’t seem to understand anything. My teacher actually took me aside and told me not to worry about her because she was ELL and state didn’t require her to take the EOG’s. That was pretty eye opening to me too.

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Jennifer Lawson


Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:55 pm
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Wow, both of these situations shock me. I am not currently working in a school but I have worked with lots of children and I have not encountered any of the teachers acting like this to students, only students to other students. As with the hispanic child, if she is just pushed aside without any care how are the teachers expecting her to succeed. Without the assistance of the teacher, she may never learn the things that she will need later in life. I hope that she is not one of the children that get pushed out of the spot-light and one day drops out only because when she was this young she was already labeled. We as teachers can't label the children in our classes just because the state labels them, otherwise we will exentually be teaching for nothing.

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Kristina Bleynat


Wed Apr 05, 2006 9:59 pm
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First, in regards to the "acting gay" experience you had, I cannot understand why the teachers are making a big deal about it if it is not causing a distraction to other students, which is the only plausilbe excuse I can think of for addressing it at all. But I remember when my dad was a principal in Charlotte he did run into a situation that echoes yours. There was a second or third grader who was always a little "feminine" as they described him, but this was not an issue until he started refusing to do his work because he was too busy painting his fingernails. At that point, the teacher took him to my dad, who in turn had to have a conference because it had happened repeatedly. As for me, I have experienced the issues we are discussing in teaching. Last semester, I was in Avery High School, and the students were reading King Arthur. The assignment was to create an ad for a scene in the book that described the knights comparing "shoe" sizes, which the knights were NOT talking about there shoes so I was a little confused as to why the teacher was focusing on this scene, anyways...when the students were presenting, two guys held up their ad to show a row of knights, one of which they had colored brown. When the teacher asked the student why they had done this their reply was "everyone knows that black guys have bigger dicks". As I sat there mouth agape, at one that the students had said both the stereotype and "dick" in the matter of two seconds, my horror was only matched with the laughs that came not just from the students but the teacher as well. She told them thank you and that they had done a wonderful job on the assignment. Needless to say, I left my IA two weeks later because of everything that went on in there that I did not agree with, furthermore, I refuse to do my student teaching in Boone because of the experiences I had in that classroom.

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Ann Boschini


Thu Apr 06, 2006 5:03 pm
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That is some really ridiculous stuff. Why are teachers and the principle concerned about what a 3rd grader thinks is fashionable? They were worried about him because they think he is gay? That really makes no sense, especially because the other students don't even care. If he were being bullied that would make the situation different, but to be worried about him being gay is stupid.

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Karl Rahn


Sun Apr 30, 2006 10:58 pm
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