My daughters in high school working about on average 6 hours a night.
Just to be honest it’s a time in my life when a good run to New York and painting 50 pieces representing angst was appealing, got a studio even. So….that they do this as they do amazes me. That others do nothing amazes them. That must be frustrating.

My writing skills then and now were so inadequate and there were so many things, feelings I did not want to face and sooooo much about literature pulled me into realizing my limits-I’m saying it was uncomfortable. But that’s the memory of a 48 year old.

Just stopping in to say …hi.
Catching up on blogs.
sarah

You may have had bad teachers, but you probably don’t consider yourself one. So why apply the same logic you used when you were 15? It’s quite possible that we have “many unrough youths that even now protest their first of manhood” (and womanhood), and are just making poor decisions about how to go about it. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad teacher or giving bad assignments. It’s part of growing up (though it’s frustrating for grown folks to watch).

Oh, and Radiohead lost me with “Kid A”.

hopefully not taken as an offense.

I’ve dealt with some of those non-work issues, and I’m always surprised to find out that many of those students who do no work are just waiting to be called out on it. Or followed up upon. There’s no real solution but to be vigilant and diligent and to make sure those kids turn in their work. Whether doing so is for you or for them is for the both of you to figure out, and by that I mean whatever questions you have about their refusal to do the work will show in that context.

As for the internet(s), I’ve had similar problems, and those problems are pretty much why I don’t use learnerblogs.org very often. But the challenge of using networks in school is precisely why I use twitter to feed out lesson/homework reminders to my students. Social networking online is a wonderful reminder of what we want to do in the real world, but don’t have time for (ironic, isn’t it?) I’m with you in thinking that the tools we think can/could work for our students are often blocked or are deemed unnecessary by whomever runs the school web junk. The problem is that most people don’t view the internet as a tool, and therefore do not use it as such. (And the web admins at any school seem to block off anything which could be used to teach.)

Lastly, Radiohead is awesome.