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 Foster Children 
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Well I am doing this advocacy project for one of my classes -- I am doing it on Foster Children -- I have been reading alot about what they need out of a teacher and other things -- basically they need a stable learning enviornment -- When I was growing up I don't believe their were any foster children in any of my classes -- there probably were I just didn't know -- I was wondering if any of you guys had expierenced a foster children being in your classrooms or just knowing them (or being one) -- also I was wondering (if you knew them close enough) how being a foster child effected them in the classroom -- I have learned alot from articles and books but, I wanted to hear some peoples expierences with seeing this or expierencing this themselves.

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Rachel Sigmon


Wed Apr 11, 2007 2:22 pm
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I have good friend that was a foster child. He didnt tell many people that he was but it didnt seem to bother him much. He never excelled in the classroom but he did do well in the sports that he played. He was a very wild person comeing through school. There wasnt many things that he couldnt have easily been persuaded to do. He is now in the army trying his best to get the most action he can find. I feel sorry for anyone that runs across him with a gun in his hands. Don't know if that answered any questions but if you have specific ones feel free to ask.

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Adam Moore


Wed Apr 11, 2007 6:47 pm
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I had a friend in elementary school who was a foster child. She was older than I was, and she usually tended to play with children who were younger than her. I felt really bad for her because the kids her own age made fun of her a lot. I think she was only at my school for a year, and I don't think she performed very well academically. She was very good with young children though, almost in a motherly sort of way.

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Leah Brown


Wed Apr 11, 2007 7:48 pm
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The only foster children I have ever known have been children in my mother's K-1-2 classroom. They usually did really well there because of the close-knit family environment that they have, especialy getting to be together for 3 years. I think that is the best place fore most foster children, in a multi-age classroom where they can have consistency of teachers and students for at least one year. It's sad though to see the foster children be pulled out so unexpectedly and put places somewhere maybe even states away. I have a lot of respect for foster parents that must be very challenging!

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Susanne M Olson


Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:46 pm
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Being a foster parent, unless you get the child when he or she is a baby must be an extremely difficult job. Foster children are usually passed around and don't feel like the belong anywhere (not true of all foster kids, but many). It must be hard not having a place in the world. It is important to keep a nurturing environment where everyone can feel like they have a place in the classroom. I never had any foster children in any of my classes, so I don't have anything to offer in that regard. Sorry!

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Katie David


Wed Apr 11, 2007 9:11 pm
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(Note: This is a pretty depressing story, and was hard for me to deal with as a child, and could very possibly be even harder to deal with if such thing happened in my classroom).

I knew a girl during early elementary school actually who was in two foster homes during our second grade year. During this time, I had given her my home telephone number because we were friends. Tameka was a pretty bright girl if I recall correctly, whose only classroom management problem was that she talked too much (such as yours truly, a problem that plagues me in college as well). We talked on the phone a lot, which was something new to me, as I did not have many friends outside my neighborhood circle. Tameka lived across town (at first) and then actually moved closer with her second family. I remember thinking it so odd that she changed telephone numbers so rapidly. She had three I could reach her at, at one point. Finally, she it got to the point where she would call me four or five times after school. I thought it was clingy, my parents thought she was a stalker. It got to the point where I stopped answering the phone and my parents would only let me talk to her once a day. We were friends at school, but after that I was only exposed to her a little. After this, she began calling less and less, and eventually moved on to become closer with my friend Jennifer, who was chattier than the both of us.

Saddest part: Tameka was in a lethal car accident in third grade, the following year. I remember my mother coming in my room after she had heard it through the grapevine, sitting me down, explaining what had happened, that Tameka hadn't been wearing her seatbelt. I cried and cried and felt so guilty for not being there for her the year before. It was my first "real" death you could say, and has obviously stayed with me.

What I guess I can say about foster children is they really do need stablilty. They need support. They need friends as well as people who can really listen and be there when they need them. School may be the only place they can find a home.

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Mary M


Wed Apr 11, 2007 9:36 pm
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thanks for letting me know what you guys thought about this topic -- it might make my presentaion somewhat easier -- now that i have heard some expierences -- thanks again

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Rachel Sigmon


Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:13 pm
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I agree with everyone else about the need of stability in a foster child's life. When these children are separated from their families everything seems to come undone. This is something we also need to understand with children who have recently been left with no family, that for that period of time they can become totally different individuals and that even after things stabilize they may never be the same student they were before they were put into that situation. Foster families are obviously crucial in providing a stable home life for students but our classrooms and our attitudes at school need to be just as nourishing and nurturing as the environments that the students have at home (or even better). I think communication is a huge factor in how we deal with any student within our classroom.

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Dustin Hull


Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:44 am
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