A panel of Ames educators met Wednesday night to discuss international issues in conjunction with International Week.

Six K-12 social studies teachers discussed several issues and events they have dealt with, including Sept. 11, the Gulf War and recent sniper shootings.

“These are more than teacher education issues, they are community and global issues,” said Aiddy Phomvisay, lecturer in curriculum and instruction.

Phomvisay said the idea for the forum came out of his social studies methods course at Iowa State. “I challenged students to educate themselves and others on issues.”

“We wanted to see how these issues are being addressed in classrooms,” Phomvisay said.

Thea Singleton, senior in elementary education, helped coordinate the forum. “Aiddy challenged us to become more aware of things and to understand what it means.”

The panel had many reflections on how the events of Sept. 11 impacted their classrooms.

The teachers all said their students were shocked but had many questions.

Dianne Hugdahl, teacher at Ames Middle School, said, “they wanted to know more and we all learned.”

However, the teachers found problems in answering difficult questions. “We did them a service by not answering questions the first day because we didn’t know the answers,” said Ron Krull, teacher at Ames Middle School.

Carolyn Bolinger of Ames High School said as weeks passed, students had many questions about why the terrorist attacks happened.

This raised another issue of how much sensitive information to discuss with children.

“I don’t think you can justify not telling them the truth unless it’s age-inappropriate,” Krull said.

The teachers also discussed the effect the terrorist attacks had on Middle Eastern students. Dwight Herold, teacher at Meeker Elementary School, said he had a Pakistani student who gave a full presentation about his Muslim religion.

“He explained the tenants of Islam and gave good insight about how his religion didn’t condone those acts,” he said.

Bolinger had a different experience with her students. “My saddest day was seeing Middle Eastern students eating their lunch beneath the stairs because they were afraid,” she said.

Dawn Resmburg, teacher at Meeker, said one student completely changed her dress out of fear. “One student stopped wearing her native dress and Americanized herself,” she said.

The panel agreed that future teachers will encounter many changes.

Bolinger said the results of September 11 will have a lasting effect. “It was a marvelous educational moment,” she said.