Dementia in Adolescence?

OK...here is my first rant. I educate (or at least attempt to) high school adolescents. I also teach an advanced placement elective, in which many of them enjoy. However, over the last few months I have found that my planning and preparation has been all for not.

Simply reading the textbook (resource for every educational institution) is a difficult task for many. Now, I know that textbooks are not the most fun to read, however, when an assessment relies on, not only the educator being the expert in the field (which I can be considered) and presenting it in a way students understanf, but also on the information presented by the text...you would think that they would catch on. (I have given assessments in which I have taken the practice quizzes DIRECTLY from the textbook.) UGH...will they ever learn?

Now...in talking with many of my colleagues abou this, it seems as though dementia has set in earlier than expected; I am not the only one having this problem. The frustration with me is hearing students say, "I was absent yesterday...what did I miss" my response is "NOTHING...I stopped class beacuse you weren't here" (and I really say this). To which the students response is "No, really what did I miss?" (thinking that I am just being the teacher with a sense of humor, that I usually can be).

They tend to forget that I have repeatedly said if you're out or miss class for ANY reason to check my website, check the absent folder, check with another student...all options before asking me the $25,000 question. Ah, the memories...remember that game show, the $25,000 Pyramid? "Tardies, late work, ditching class..." All things that happen at MY school.

Now, I am the first to say, "don't come to me with a problem, unless you can offer a solution!" So, my solution...do what I can to spoon feed you even more than you get at home? Show movies everyday and have you guess what the material is about? Provide workbooks that you can fill in instead of reading and thinking critically? Spend even more time creating a class that is fun, engaging and informative? OR Continue doing what I am doing and expect that you are going to meet MY expectation to succeed. Yes, I like that one the best, don't you?

So, the case that dementia is running wild in today's youth....is just a MYTH! We need to stay strong and remember that if we lower our expectations, that they will bend to meet them.

Teacher Egocentrism?

Now, I am not going to deny that there is some egocentrism in all of us, however, when you are in the business of educating youth one needs to think of others (the students) and to remember there is a whole other world outside of your classroom (other teachers).



The educational institution in which I am employed had a busy week (last week)...testing for two days and then hosted a project in which the students were involved in learning about history through interviewing veterans, which was an additional day. All of these activities took students out of some classes for three days. Please understand that although I am not a big supporter of standardized testing, I am supportive of the overall educational value them and the data it provides teachers. Additionally, the project, that has been going on for a number of years, is something that I think students will remember for years - hands on learning is the best.

"Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I'll remember. Involve me, I'll understand"

Now, for the diagnosis...egocentrism is the inability to see other people's view points; now since every teacher lost time with their students, of course there is a concern that they get the material. In this instance, some teachers thought it would be OK if they allowed some students to miss other classes to take their exam because of the poor scheduling. This is not new...beleive it or not, there are teachers on campus that have the inability to see why I would get upset that my students were allowed to miss my class to make up a test for another teacher.



I am not shy...as many would tell you; so after emailing and walking over to their classroom to discuss this with them, they of course made it clear that they offered other times for them to take the test; but didn't seem to ask if they were missing another teacher's class. Now, there is always another side to the story, which I did get, however, the simple fact that the teacher offered the test during another teachers class is disturbing and this this not the first and only time that this has happened. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the shoe was on the other foot.

The referral

This site was started upon a request from other colleagues and after much thought, I have decided to put this together. Much of what will be posted here will be discussions of things that go on in my classroom, in courses I teach at the college level, courses I take while working on an advanced degree, and other thoughts that might come up.