Please tell me WHY???

I'm supposed to be finishing my grading, eating my lunch and getting ready to go to Staff Development, but I've got something on my mind that is eager for an audience. I need answers! I've been sitting at my desk all morning grading papers and listening to the radio.(100.3 to be exact.) I'm trying to understand why the prevalent theme in music written and performed by African American males is sex- how they do it, why they do it, and what they do it with. Is this really necessary? What happened to the days where sex was a private matter that didn't need to be discussed with the entire world? It's not surprising that many young people who listen to this music think that this is what being an adult is about. OMG! Another one just came on called "BEDROCK" of all things, and they're not talking about the Flintstones!!! This is killing me! Why can't we find other, more intelligent, socially conscious things to talk about? What ever happened to Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin On" or the O'Jays, or even sweet love songs? It's not about love anymore...it's about sex. How can we expect girls to act like young ladies and boys to act like gentlemen if almost everything they see and hear is to the contrary? Someone please give me a little more insight? Where did we go wrong?

Reflecting

I began keeping my first journal at age 10 and stopped soon after having my son almost 2 years ago. I never thought about why I stopped until I went back and read some of the things I wrote. I discovered writing as a way to voice my opinions that I felt that I couldn't share with anybody. Most of what I felt I couldn't say were things that would hurt other people's feelings or were about things that hurt my feelings. Writing became a way for me to vent my frustrations most of the time, so naturally my voice was going to come through my writing as angry, upset, or distraught. Based on what I wrote in my journals and the fact that I no longer write in them can mean a few things:
1.) I'm a lot happier than I used to be (which I am!!!)
OR
2.) I have found another way to vent my frustrations (which I did)

Does this mean that I should no longer write because I no longer have use for its' theraputic purposes? Heck NO!!! I'm hoping that this blog will become my new journal and that I'll find a new voice that is much more optimistic and more reflective of my (usually) bubbly personality.

TSEC- For REAL??!!!!

Is Kadjer serious? Where do her students come from... another planet? It just seems so amazing to me that she is able to break through with so many of her students. I hold my students accountable for their learning and I set high expectations for them, but I honestly can't see my students doing much of what her students have done throughout the course of the TSEC text. It's not that I don't believe that some of my students are capable of producing at this level because I do; it's just that most of my students are so apathetic about learning that they will not complete even the most simple of writing assignments, let alone design a web page, with some of the work being done outside of class. Designing a web page may be a little more exciting for those who are into technology, but it also takes much more effort than writing 25 lines where they answer questions about themselves. Honestly, my students are more into texting and playing videogames. My greatest challenge in implementing many of the strategies Kadjer suggests is revising them in a way that will not only hook my students' interest and keep them interested, but also giving them a long-term task that they will actually complete instead of turning in a "half done" [I really wanted to use stronger language there, but I won't ;-) ] assignment just to say they did something in class.

BOI-Thought process

I've spent the last week reading the rest of Sara Kadjer's texts and letting my thoughts marinate before I made another post. I came to a few conclusions and also have even more questions; how do I find the "right task, right tool, right student" for some of the activities/strategies she suggests using? I'm also concerned with the fact that many of these strategies seem to be so time consuming. How will I ever be able to fit in all of the essential texts on the district list AND prepare my students for state-mandated, high-stakes assessments if I use strategies that will eat away at my instructional time? I realize that I should not teach to the test, but if I take as much time as Kadjer suggests on many of these activities, how will I be able to balance that with making sure that my students are prepared when so many of them come to me with below grade-level content knowledge and skills?