So here I am, sitting in the middle school science lab, watching the 8th graders working on a class project. I am their sub today as their regular teacher is out for the period. They are supposed to be digging up information on certain countries on the African continent but their minds are a wandering. But it doesn't surprise me, it is a Friday afternoon and the celebration of Sinterklaas brings with it a ton of candy and a hyper bunch of kids.
So each kid has a laptop and is using the internet gather this info. I should be walking around the classroom and checking their work but I am supremely unmotivated today. They appear to be on task but looks are downright deceiving when it comes to adolescence. I am being the naive one this afternoon and trusting them. I am sure that I shouldn't be and the years that I have been teaching have been filled with experiences that dictate that I am making a mistake right now but I am supremely unmotivated and that is working for me.
But when I fired up this laptop that I am using, the webpage that popped up showed an interesting story. The top 10 things that teenage girls really think about. It provides some insight into what these girls sitting in front of me really have floating through their heads at this exact moment. Lord knows that their not thinking of African countries.
So according to the article as found in the Ladies Home Journal (LHJ), here's what teenager girls think about:
1. I think about sex -- a lot.
2. I want to be a star -- or at least be with a star!
3. I take your cash flow for granted.
4. I'm not religious, but I am spiritual.
5. My bedroom is the seat of my soul.
6. I worry about my looks all the time.
7. My friends are everything.
8. Love hurts.
9. The world is a scary place.
10. I love you, and I need you.
1 comment:
The good. The bad. The ugly. It's all there in the high school classroom: the petri dish of life. You love them some days; they drive you nuts the next. In some cases, you see them more then their parents do.
For all the rap that teens get (especially in the U.S. media), they are beautiful: their eyes full of questions about life, most of which I'll never be able to answer.
Fact is, I'd never want to be a teen again- my teen years were hell, full of angst and low self-esteem and failed attempts at finding my voice. So, when I see a student who is shy, down on his/her self, so full of the questions that I'm STILL trying to figure out, my heart goes out. Because that's ME a few years back. As a matter of fact, in many ways, it's STILL me.- shamash
http://shamash.typepad.com/shamash
Post a Comment