Failure

[Veronica]

What's a school counselor?

Seriously, I know I don't suck as a teacher. That actually started as an email to my principal, which I decided not to send.

But I am at my wit's end. It's that time of year when parents realize that their child is heading to middle school next year and the kid is nowhere near ready. And they start besieging me with phone calls and e mails, wanting to know what am I going to do about it. And I want to answer with, "I'm doing my job, when are you or your kid going to start doing yours?"

I have several students that really all they want to do all day is talk with their friends, read the Twilight series and talk about the Twilight series (so inappropriate for ten year olds) or draw. And no matter what I do, I can't seem to dissuade them from that. They miss the explanation on how to do things, so then they can't do them or they don't have the basic skills to begin with, because this tuning out the teacher is not new behavior.

And I swear it's more kids this year than ever before in this situation. Oh wait, I'm a grumpy old foggie complaining about the current generation.

Whatever...

Veronica

[Biciclista]

why is the twilight series inappropriate?

[Veronica]

16 year old girl in love with a vampire. It's way too sensual for ten year olds. It deals with emotions that they should not be thinking about yet.

[beccaB]

I'm really upset about the elementary kids on my bus being allowed to play "Call of Duty" . It's a violent war game-rated mature. There seems to be no sensitivity about anything. It's like parents have given up, and kids are allowed to do "whatever" because everyone else does it.

[salsabike]

16 year old girl in love with a vampire. It's way too sensual for ten year olds. It deals with emotions that they should not be thinking about yet.

Yes. I had a conversation with the mom of a 5th grader just yesterday about that. She was being teased by some other girls in her grade because her reading level wasn't quite up to reading "Twilight". 5th graders are too young for the content and feel of that series.

[derailed]

You don't have to engage every student. Work with the ones you can, let the other ones get engaged someplace which won't steal learning time from the kids who do care.
I didn't click with every teacher, and I certainly don't hold them at fault for that. We got a variety of classes, we were exposed to a variety of instructional mannerisms. Some worked better for some kids than others.

Wishing you strength, and appreciating your fortitude.

[ClockworkOrange]

Hi Veronica

I think teachers around the globe do an amazing job, I know what I was like. However, saying that I have turned out fine, nothing to do with the upbringing, just the way I seemed to be at school, just extremely objectionable.

Anyway, you might be interested in this link:

http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-for-P...sin=030728090X

Unfortunately, what with society and the media, so many bad things for children/youngsters to see and hear about.

Treat yourself to a nice big bar of chocolate today and chill out.

Clock

[Crankin]

I am not familiar with the series, but I did read the above posts on the link from Amazon. I want to say, "Here we go again."
Of course, it is not good that kids are obsessed with any book or series and use that as an excuse to not do their work. That's what I think Veronica is saying. I mean, I had kids do that with Harry Potter! I know I am the only living person who hasn't read that series, but I hate fantasy, so I was honest with my students.
I had many YA books in my classroom library that adults objected to. The most censored book in America is The Giver. As one of the best books, I've ever read, that was hard for me to take.
One of the young teens on the Amazon posting said a very astute thing: Adults don't give kids much credit. Most of them understand sexual stuff by the time they are in 5th/6th grade. Some could care less about reading graphic things and others find it has too much of an "eew" factor, so they skip those parts. I don't think reading a book ever caused anyone to go out and have sex. Maybe I am wrong?
If a kid chose a book with "mature" content for independent reading, I told them. And then I said, "What would your parent do, if they found that book in your bag?" Sometimes they put the book back, but most of the time it didn't stop them. I had a few books in the closet that I only let mature 7th graders read. I would recommend them to these kids, usually gifted readers/writers who could handle anything.
In 30 years, I only had one parent object to a book a girl was reading. I had her come in after school and talk to me about it. I told her, that it was up to her as a parent to make a final decision, since it wasn't required reading.. the kids had total choice for their IR books. She decided to read the book with her kid and it was fine. Of course, I had the backing of my boss, who was a former English teacher.
I hate censorship. My own kids read whatever they wanted to; of course, they were good readers and had good emotional intelligence and I knew they could handle it. So far, they haven't turned out to be ax murderers as adults.

[uforgot]

They miss the explanation on how to do things, so then they can't do them or they don't have the basic skills to begin with, because this tuning out the teacher is not new behavior.

Veronica

Hey, you know my Geometry students! And you gotta love how so many people have the answers, starting with the legislators, and they have never even worked in a classroom. I've been teaching 30 years and I have nothing to add to what you already know other than "I understand.".