Anonymous wrote:I was that kid, my mother died and I had to go back to school. the worst part was the teacher welcoming me back and the kids all making me cards. It sort of put a bigger label on me. "oh that is the kid"

any counseling should be handled outside the class room, reach out to the surviving parent before the student comes back. The younger kids tend to be pretty tough about this, put on the harpy face etc.

What made it better for me was getting back into the routine as quickly as possible and moving forward.

the key is communication with the surviving parent.

Anonymous wrote:I have had 4 students in 20 years go through this. I teach high school sophmores. I always just tell them "_____ is my free period I will write you a pass to come see me if you ever need anything." One of the kids came and asked me if he could sit and be alone during lunch in my room and not talk to him. He would come maybe every week or so whenever it was a tough day I think. He wold literally sit with his back towards me and blast loud grunge music in his ear buds. Every once in a while I would catch him wiping tears. One day he was really crying and I tried to hug him and he said "Please don't, if you hug me I won't ever come here again." And I just backed away. From that point on I really tried to make my space a safe space and barely nodded at him when he came in. I hope I helped in some very very small way.

Anonymous wrote:It is great that you are asking.

When my son was ill, some teachers made unilateral decisions about what was "reasonable" regarding deadlines and missed deadlines. It caused a whole lot of extra stress. I think the biggest thing is to be kind, and let any work go that you can let go. It really doesn't matter if she can check every box in your gradebook. I know she's not a strong student and you don't want to do her a disservice, but focus on making sure she learns what she needs by June, and then just give her the B.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just want to share a story about a middle school student whose mother was very ill and the student was having a hard time concentrating in class. I had no knowledge of the mother's illness (I had taken over the class in the middle of he year). One day the student asked me to take her out in the hall to talk. Then she told me about her mother and asked if I would hug her because her own mother had not been able to do that in a long time. Her mom was dying of a degenerative disease.

I don't really quite know how I went back into the class and taught the rest of the way through, but I did.

Just be kind to all of your students and try to know what they are experiencing outside of your classroom.

I can tell you are a great teacher because you are asking and caring about this student.

My god. Thank you for doing this for your student!

Anonymous wrote:I just want to share a story about a middle school student whose mother was very ill and the student was having a hard time concentrating in class. I had no knowledge of the mother's illness (I had taken over the class in the middle of he year). One day the student asked me to take her out in the hall to talk. Then she told me about her mother and asked if I would hug her because her own mother had not been able to do that in a long time. Her mom was dying of a degenerative disease.

I don't really quite know how I went back into the class and taught the rest of the way through, but I did.

Just be kind to all of your students and try to know what they are experiencing outside of your classroom.

I can tell you are a great teacher because you are asking and caring about this student.