Let's get this party started!

A few of the students are blazing ahead and getting many things done, but some are still thinking that they have a million years to get their work finished. I find it interesting that they will lead with the same addictive thinking that got them here in the first place. Humans are so predictable! That's why I'm here.

I asked them to tell me what they thought good students, successful students, do to succeed, and they knew full-well what those little suckers do! "Study, pay attention, strive to understand, work with the materials, do the homework, and use your common sense and almost everything will turn out okay" is the basic sense of it all if you want to get along in school. You can't sit on the sidelines; you have to really get your feet wet and your back has to push into it.

I asked them what it takes to fail. They had no mercy whatsoever! "Sit on your backside, talk to your friends, stop paying attention, fool around, don't do the homework, and text message during assignments and lectures and you are bound to fail!" They knew every trick in the book, and so when I asked them this, they just about fell out. "If we know what to do, why don't we do it?" Teachers have to repeat everything eleventy-7 times, play games, light their hair on fire, use tricks, make posters, do a stand up comedy routine, and keep up with the entire technological culture just to have a clue as to what might work if they want to get a chance at helping these kids. What are kids supposed to do and what are their responsibilities? They knew exactly!

What are parents supposed to do to help the situation? Plenty! First off, go get your kid's iPod! Put on the headphones, turn down the volume, turn on the machine, and prepare to get blown away! Secondly, get that kid to eat dinner with you. Talk to your kids like they are not stupid. Don't think their problems don't count because they have a way of making them count. Rehab is 20 G's a week! Jail is a bout $4,000 to start with. They can wreck a business or bust up a family. They can even smash a classroom, if you don't show them that they are the end all and be all of all things important. If this was not your thought when you created the little buggers, then you are in for a rude awakening.

In my class, the kids are the reason I am here. They get whatever they really need, but I pay almost no attention to what the want. I'm a tough-love rough-neck. The most trouble I have is convincing them that there is not an endless supply of paper in the printer, and once I train them to refill the paper tray, the trouble is over. Once that first roll of twenty copies of some paper comes out of the printer and I find out who wasted my supplies, the heat is on and the understanding is now beginning. I'm on a budget, my time is valuable, and the ink is in short supply. I can talk non-stop for hours at a time, and this is not a skill I waste on the initiated since they know better already.

As one kid put it so well years ago, "Man, I tried all that and none of it works, so you might as well go ahead and do it because he's going to wear you down anyway." When it comes to anyone trying to convince me of anything, I'm thick as a brick and twice as tasty. Once my mind is made up, I am totally unbending. These kids are going to learn how to communicate who they are, and that is all there is to it. My love for them is not predicated on their agreeing with me, but if they want a moment's peace while they are within a hundred yards of me, they will make every effort to learn how to communicate their needs and how to meet the needs of others. Any questions?

runningturtle87