McKenzie’s Blog

I know Lockhart hates to hear people say students are lazy, but I can’t help it. I had the discussion with my students on Friday, and while I thought it went very well and that I learned a lot as an educator, I still feel like the students want to do as little work as possible. They want to be on their cell phones at any and all times (man I wish they were banned from school). Most of all, they want to be treated like adults, but still act like kids. I mentioned this point briefly in my paper, but since it was already getting too long, I didn’t really get out all of my true thoughts on this topic. So I decided to let it all out here.

My students are always asking if they can have free time and think I should let them be on the computers and their cell phones during my class. I literally responded with “are you serious,” and they are. They think that they should be able to make the decision to pay attention or not in class and then their grade will reflect their decision. This is a good argument, I will give them that, but if I give into this, then at what point am I not teaching them to be respectful, responsible adults. It is disrespectful to text and play on the computer (or sleep…oh yes I had a guest speaker in last week that I had to wake up 3 different students during) when someone is talking to you. They don’t seem to grasp this concept though. One student told me that he is not paid to be there, so its his choice to pay attention or not…not like at a job. He’s thinking only about himself. I asked him what about the students around him or me as his teacher. He said his fellow students want to play on the computers too and I get paid whether they learn or not. Wow…I asked him if he thought I was in the profession just for the money and then he got quite. He knew where I was going and another student, one of my favs of course, jumped in with the fact that they are in school to learn, not to have free time all the time. Finally, one who gets it…but those students seem to be few and far between.

I feel like I am constantly on stage, trying to compete with all of the more exciting things they have going on in their life. Cell phones, ipods, computers, video games, etc. They come to school and they want to be entertained. They want me to show movies all the time (although I’m seriously thinking about their suggestion of Fun With Dick and Jane since it is a Personal Finance class.) They don’t want to do work…even in class work that I give them plenty of time to complete. So I think to myself, maybe it is too easy and doesn’t challenge them enough, so I rework things and they complain that they don’t get it. Yikes! I’m at a loss here. How do I make every lesson exciting, interesting and relevant. And for cryin in the rain, how do I keep them off those darn cell phones?!?!