An Empty Seat in Class
Teaching and Learning After the Death of a Student
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Teachers' College Press
Published:1st Jan '15
Should be back in stock very soon

The death of a student, especially to gun violence, is a life-changing experience that occurs with more and more frequency in America’s schools. For each of these tragedies, there is a classroom and there is a teacher. Yet student death is often a forbidden subject, removed from teacher education and professional development classes where the curriculum is focused instead on learning about standards, lesson plans, and pedagogy. What can and should teachers do when the unbearable happens? An Empty Seat in Class illuminates the tragedy of student death and suggests ways of dealing and healing within the classroom community. This book weaves the story of the author’s very personal experience of a student’s fatal shooting with short pieces by other educators who have worked through equally terrible events and also includes contributions from counselors, therapists, and school principals. Through accumulated wisdom, educators are given the means and the resources to find their own path to healing their students, their communities, and themselves.
"This book provides a compelling example of
how to respond, which is to journal one’s experience and talk to others
unabashedly about one’s feelings and about responses to one’s own personal
experiences." —Journal of Loss and Trauma
“I am deeply sympathetic to Ayer’s project, and the book makes a convincing argument for this type of intervention and its format….Overall, Ayers’s multi-layered analysis that includes reflection, memorial, research, and deep attention to literature on death and grief will be an invaluable resource for teachers and will hopefully spur additional research on the practical and pedagogical issues that arise as a result of a student’s death.”
—The Wabash Center Journal on Teaching
ISBN: 9780807756126
Dimensions: 229mm x 156mm x 7mm
Weight: 204g
144 pages