I don't know about you, but I need a LOT of them. Like an entire army helping out my guardian angel in the background. I forgot to link over to my Catholic Mom piece for September which talks about our own personal list of saints. Baptismal saints, confirmation saints, saints who lift you up, saints who have your back. ;-) If you have your own list of saints, I'd love to see it!
Because seriously. This is my life right now:
"Please log in and check your group assignment. It is listed on the left navigation menu, in the blue section, as 'My Groups.' Select that link, and then you'll see the name."
*distracted silence*
"Wait, what? Where do we go?"
"Log in. Open up your English course. Look at the left navigation menu for 'My Groups.'"
*more distracted silence*
"Where? I don't see it."
*re-pointing occurs*
"Oh. It says My Groups."
"Precisely."
"OK, but how do I find my actual group?"
*prayer for eternal patience*
"You must *click* on it."
"ooohhhhhh!"
My week. My entire week. 8 times already, with 168 students. 3 more incarnatiions to go.
ðŸ˜
Because the thing is, it's not that these students lack intelligence. They're just perpetually not paying attention, and/or using creative curiosity. Sometimes to figure things out and find things, you need to look around and try things. There is an unwillingness to exert any effort in that direction that myself and my colleagues find most frustrating.
Frustrating. Have I mentioned how frustrating this week has been?
I recorded a Tea Time, horray! Lots of news coming. It should be out on Friday!
Well...it's how they are being taught, I believe. In this age of electronics, they are so easily distracted. My flute student will instinctively start thumbing through her phone if she's stopped paying attention to me because I'm droning on. And her father keeps a tight lease on screen times. Plus I am standing not two feet from her!! It's like phone addiction or something. I swear my kids are only going to get a flip phone until they've moved out of my house. It's maddening.
ReplyDeleteAs for the not trying things, this one is definitely education system comboed with society. Since 5 (or younger), you hear "stop. don't touch that. you're making a mess." etc. No one encourages creativity or independence. Just look at the poor kid who volunteered to mow the white house lawn. He's like 11 and people are asking if he's too young to mow the grass! What!! Of course kids don't want to try things. Too many busy bodies don't want to let them. That's frustrating for me too. I've got one kid on the spectrum who I spent a year pushing to wash himself. We should be encouraging independence not stifling it. Falling on your face at a young age is a good thing. It's how you learn to pull yourself up again. And many college students were rescued too many times now they don't know how to handle it. Insane, I tell you. I'm glad more parents are fighting back about this.
Delta, excellent, insightful comments. My son is 11, and I really do nudge him towards doing things himself. When I was at parent orientation night, I was baffled by the "text alerts" conversation for assignments. Because I'm thinking: my kid is in 7th grade, he does not have a cell phone (I told him that when he gets a job and can pay for it himself, he can get one). And why would I want text alerts about *his* assignments? he needs to be keeping track of all that! We assist him, sure, but the main responsibility lies with him. If he fails to turn homework in, and gets detention, that's a lesson well learned, yes? Total solidarity here, girlfriend. *fist bump*
Deleteoh man that sounds SUPER frustrating! I went to this talk yesterday and they said that people think the younger generations are technology savvy but in reality they aren't really. But I agree I think they are just distracted/not paying attention. Sometimes I wish we could just do classes on fb maybe then they'd pay attention lol
ReplyDeleteBeth Anne, lol! So incredibly frustrating. I just take it one day at a time!
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