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 Holidays 
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As we get closer to the holidays I just wanted to see what you all thought about how to handle this time of year in your classroom. Do you ignore it completely and let holidays be handled outside of the classroom, go with the majority, or use it as a teaching tool to educate your students about other religions and cultures? As a middle grades social studies and language arts major I tend to go with the last option. I think there is nothing wrong with taking a little time out of your regularly scheduled teaching to enlighten kids about the other holidays going on besies their own. It's also a great way to make kids who don't celebrate Christmas feel more included in all of the excitement. I think as long as you present the information in a fun and educational way, focusing equally on each holiday then there is nothing wrong with doing so.

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Amanda Klinger


Mon Dec 08, 2008 2:22 pm
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I think it would be a mistake to completely ignore the holidays in your classroom. It is a great opportunity, like you said, to teach students about how other cultures and religions celebrate this time of year. I went to a Christian school for elementary school, so we just focused on the birth of Jesus. Therefore, I don't have much experience to draw from in teaching a variety of holidays.


Mon Dec 08, 2008 4:11 pm
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I agree with Jennifer, in that I definitely do not think that holidays should be completely ignored. They are great tools to help teach students about different cultures, traditions, etc. For example, as a teacher you don't have to actually celebrate Thanksgiving in your classroom, but instead just simply use it to teach your students the facts about where Thanksgiving really came from, and help to disprove the myths about it. I think it would be a shame for a teacher to just pass by the holidays and not take advantage of the teaching opportunities.

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Dana Currin


Mon Dec 08, 2008 8:56 pm
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I remember learning about what they do in different countries at Christmas time when I was in grade school and middle school. I think that you should not ignore the holidays completely but you should be sure to show different cultures so that kids who do not celebrate Christmas do not feel left out.


Tue Dec 09, 2008 1:34 pm
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The holidays are important times that you can involve parents in your classroom. I think it is very important to involve parents as much as possible to encourage a good parent-teacher relationship. I am looking forward to inviting my parents to come in around different holidays to talk to the class about the different things/ways that they celebrate in their family. I think that this also would help students build better relationships because there would be better understanding of each of the different backgrounds and beliefs in the classroom.

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Emily Suzanne White


Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:48 pm
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I remember when I was in kindergarten or first grade or something, that one of the Jewish kids in our class had his father come in to teach us about Hannukah. It was an really cool experience, obviously because I still remember it, where we got to learn about the Menorah and play the dradle game. A lot of fun.

As a high school history teacher I think it would be a great idea to incorporate different holidays throughout the year in the World Civilization class.

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Kollin Adam Kalk


Thu Dec 11, 2008 8:37 pm
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I definitely think the holidays shouldn't be ignored but you also have to keep in mind that even though December is an important month for holidays in Christianity it's not an important month in all holidays. I think that it is really important to teach about all religions and holidays and to know a lot of details and really understand the religions. I feel like a lot of teachers talk about holidays for different religions and don't really know what they are talking about they just want to be able to include the holidays in their classroom, which is great, but I think it is very important for no holiday to out shine another. Even though, most of the students may celebrate Christmas it shouldn't get any more attention or classtime than any of the other holidays. It's also important to make sure that none of your students feel left out when talking about holidays.
I'm still not really sure how I feel about this yet. I know holidays should be involved in the classroom, but I'm not sure is December is the best time to teach them because of the significance of Christmas. But then what time of year do you teach them? I don't know...I'll have to think about this one some more.

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Kelsey McGraw


Fri Dec 12, 2008 2:49 am
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