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ESL forum >
Message board > COPING WITH FAMILY ISSUES
COPING WITH FAMILY ISSUES
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manonski (f)
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Hi
About your first point, I �ve decided to teach family vocabulary through discussions I have with my students every first class of the week. They have a family tree model in their pictionary they can refer too but I make sure I talk about their families after a weekend or a holiday. I don �t do family trees with them anymore but they can also present photos of the people who are taking care of them. It �s become too difficult and families are so different than when I was a student myself.
slice of life: A colleague of mine was asking her students to present their family and one student presented his "new" dad. Another students said "Oh, I know that dad, he was my dad last year!". I don �t know if that �s called recycling but I though it was hilarious.
As for your second point, a barging parents has never happened to me. Like Mariethe states, parents must go through the secretary before they are allowed to go in the school and if they want to meet us, they have to make an appointment or leave a message for teachers to call back. Anyways, most of the times, when parents are angry, they usually go straight to the principal.
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12 Aug 2009
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meuge
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I was asking myself the same question that Mariethe posted... How could this person rush into your classroom?? ....
Manonski...the same here in Argentina....
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12 Aug 2009
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manonski (f)
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Meuge... and here I thought that only Canadian parents got angry at teachers ..
Joke aside, this site has made me realized that it is a small world after all. |
12 Aug 2009
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Ivona
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Why, oh why do you, people, keep posting good ... er ... posts ... when my brain, Mr Smarty Pants, is on holiday? Why, i ask? First Nebal, and now you, Anita. I feel miserable. I tried to summon him at least for this one, but he was such a big-hard-headed little brat and would not even turn his ... front. 
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12 Aug 2009
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Zora
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Hey there Anita...
First off, I am utterly appalled by the so-called other "teacher �s" rudeness toward another colleague... betcha she wouldn �t like it if somebody did that to her! Anyways, totally agree that she �s mentally unstable.
Secondly...
I am still quite lucky that I live in a relatively "traditional" area and change is slow, so because of this, we could still teach "the family" as we used to if we still wanted to. BUT as of a week or so ago, and because of a really strange incident, we are more cautious about how to approach such a topic. My sister and I have decided to just teach the words, allow them to draw "their family" as they want to and then ask them to explain it to us.
Now... the strange incident... I just need to tell you guys this because it left both me and my sister flabbergasted.
My sister teaches the younger kids - aged 3 to 11. And one day, she was going over the family with a young boy (he �s ten), who his mother classifies as a genius (Not a genius... a big pain in the ass but genius definitely NOT)... anyways, Teresa (my sis) was getting him to draw pictures of his family... and the "genius" drew a casket with a cross and a wreath of flowers under his fathers picture!!!
Teresa came to me afterwards... she said, "Want to see what genius boy did?" and when I saw the drawing, I was just stunned and a bit freaked out by what he had drawn. To boot, my sis said he thought it was funny.
We both know the boy is a bit odd and now he is obviously in need of some type of psychological treatment, grief counselling since he obviously did not grieve when his father died... but at the same time, we think the child �s father died when he was a small boy.
I had his brother two years ago and his brother was 14 at the time... and I asked him about his family, you know conversational type thing and he said their dad was dead... but he acted like it happened when he was young...
Anyways, it �s a strange thing...
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13 Aug 2009
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**********
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Dear Anita (and everybody else),
Question 1.when you teach family vocabulary, do you ever feel awkward�
When ss attend our school, we already know about their life story. The teachers meet before the school year begins and the head class teacher delivers all relevant information about each one of the students (Anamnesis).
If there are issues to be avoided, like celebrating Father or Mother�s Day, the teachers agree on not touching the subject.
In English, when the family subject comes up, after they learn the main vocabulary, I give them an assignment on their family. I�ve never had a problem. I guess I �m too liberal as far as family (and other issues) are concerned, I take most things very easily (age counts...); besides, I always have inclusive classes and difference is always present and dealt with.
Last year, when one of the girls started crying about a test, I said:
-Listen, it �s one year today that my son�s passed away and I don �t want nobody crying for a mark on a test, I could feel like crying myself and I don�t want to, did I make myself clear? The other ss opened their eyes at her and the class went on smoothly. (I miss these kids: they were so vibrant and yet so childish, they keep coming to the on-line platform, you know!)
So, if necessary, I also speak about my family in class, just for them to understand that teachers are only human and have their grieves, too.
Question 2. When you meet members of a sts � family and you see there �s something wrong�
I live some 10 miles away from the capital in a suburban area and a very multicultural one. There are many immigrants from East and people from our old colonies (about 18%-20% of the population). As you may imagine, family issues come by tons. I had a mother who forbade the School to let the father enter and visit the child, I had a father who showed the child�s books in Court to prove the mother�s negligence, and asked me to write a statement that the kid was always late for school (did you? Neither did I): endless heartbreaking stories.
As far as breaking-in/bursting-off parents are concerned, we�ve had our cases. People are to leave their ID cards at the entrance, fill in a form, but it has happened that some parents just say they are going to the Secretary and then, they head to the classrooms and here they go! It�s not very common, though. I�d say 1 case per year in a thousand students� school.
Currently, we have a database to register these security issues; when some of the kind shows up, we have to complete a form and send it directly to the Central Security Office. The current General Attorney has made it compulsory for these cases to be reported to the Police and follow the normal procedures, including Court, if necessary. The problem here is that some School Directors try to cover up for these situations, because journalists are always looking for them and report them on TV (audience competition oblige...). So, this is how things are, here.
My regards to everybody and congratulations on the topic suggested. |
13 Aug 2009
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