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To be honest, I wouldn’t want it any other way. Multiply it by 19, which is the number of students I have in my classroom, and it’s a never-ending cycle of question and answer. If you have ever been around 5- and 6-year-olds, the number of questions asked in a single day can be relentless. Bernaert, who is that in those pictures?” “Is that your brother?” “What did you do over the weekend?” As contributing members of society, teachers shouldn’t have to feel like they need to go back into the closet or hide who they are as people. As a kindergarten teacher who is gay and has pictures of himself and his partner in his classroom, I regularly answer questions from my students like: “Mr. I have been stricken with fear over how Florida’s new law limiting discussions of LGBTQ+ discussions in school will affect me as a person and a professional. However, recently there has been a major cause for concern. I have enjoyed working in Florida schools over the past six years, as has my partner, Jeramiah, who is also an educator. It prepared me to effectively teach kindergarten while also focusing on kids’ social and emotional development. For the first two years, I taught first grade.
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How can I have frank, open conversations with my students about the world around them without being in danger of losing my job? By Cory Bernaert, kindergarten teacher in Parrish, Florida Teaching has been my passion for the past 12 years.