Teaching through tragedy

The Golden Apple family has been reeling from the tragic death of Tanisha Thurmond, a high school math teacher at Julian HS in Chicago, who was murdered last week.

Tanisha was a Golden Apple Scholar, a Golden Apple award nominee and a dedicated educator.  She will be deeply missed.

This experience has made me think a lot about the ways that teachers process these types of tragedies both in the classroom and personally. In other words, how do we help our students with an emotion like grief while we’re struggling with it ourselves? (Other issues evoke the same tension. How did we help kids process their fears after 9/11 when we were ourselves frightened?)

We struggle as educators to find a balance between hiding our emotions completely, and pouring them out on our students in a way that makes them feel unsafe.

Where do you find that balance? How did you learn how to support your students through tough emotional places? 

Labels: Conversations

</strong>Posted by jimpud2</strong> on March 11, 2007 12:45 PM

Twice in my career, we had students die during the school year. One from serious illness, one hit by a car while crossing the street. They were both active 8th graders and well known throughout the school.

We didn’t have grief counselors at that time. However, the school counselors, teachers and office staff all became instant counselors at the time. We held all-school assemblies, willingly interrupted lessons to deal with student concerns, and worked to make the school a supportive environment.

That said, it took a long time for the student body to come to accept and understand that one of their own could suddenly die. I don’t think there is a short way to deal with sudden death.