Respect, Admiration, and High Schoolers...
I've been reading a TON of my students' work lately. Grades are due in the next few days. By far the most interesting reading has been my students' freewriting on who they admire. We are currently working on the beginning of our research papers (I say we because I'm writing with them--I am becoming more and more convinced that this is something every teacher needs to do. It helps me know how effective or ineffective an assignment is, and it gives me a serious dose of sympathy for my writers. But anyway...back to the topic at hand...)
The research assignment is to come up with someone they think should go on the "Ms. Taylor's Wall of Fame." They can choose anyone they want as long as they can find enough research on the person; I'm researching Frank McCourt. They are going to have to write a persuasive research paper explaining why that person is worthy of the wall (they also have to come up with a title--mine is "Best Teacher-Turned-Writer") I've never done this before--we'll see how it turns out. They are going to have to present their person to the class, and each class will vote to put one person on the wall. I'll try to remember to let you know who the first five inductions into the "Wall of Fame" are.
In an effort to get the wheels of their minds turning, we spent last Friday freewriting about people we admire. We started with people we knew and slowly started to go farther and farther out of our everyday world. The most amazing part wasn't how many of them love Lil' Wayne or how many of them said that to get respect you have to give respect, it was who was first on their lists of people they respect. I would say that at least 3/4 of them first listed one or both of their parents. Almost all of them mentioned some older family member. It was just such a reassuring moment. They really do notice all that their parents do for them and all that their parents sacrifice to provide a better life for them. And they also really notice and respect their parents' hard work and effort to succeed.
I think I just loved reading these entries because I think all too often teenagers are seen as selfish, self-centered creatures that don't appreciate anything. But, I think, when given the chance, teenagers are much more perceptive than we give them credit for. And they really do look up to their parents.
So there--all parents of teenagers, former parents of teenagers, and future parents of teenagers--Don't lose heart. They do appreciate you; they just can't admit it all the time--cause that's would hurt their images.
Comments
You are a very intelligent young woman with lots to give to your students. I, too, know that teenagers will appreciate their parents sooner or later. I like the sooner; one of mine actually came home from a party once and thanked me for making him say "temper get in your box and stay there". He said otherwise he would have done something or said something that would have embarrassed him and me. I really love teenagers.
Incidentally Nana is the name I use to respond to my grand children's blog, I am actually Sarah Weller. And I don't know if one should use apostrophe s to show ownership with children. I have to worry about that sort of thing when writing to teachers.
Love ya. You're doing a great job on this blog.