TGIF

Ok, I have been a bad blogger as of late. I was very excited earlier this week to begin Ball Don't Lie, but unfortunately the book has sat on my desk untouched, and actually buried under tons and tons (literally!..well not really...) of papers! AP Lit and Comp, AP Lang and Comp, and two vastly different classes of English III....AIS meetings this week, and LTED 626...MY OWN children are coming home with notes from THEIR teachers requesting more help with homework....Let's see if I can finish off this semester without a nervous breakdown....
At least that's the optional read! I am used to putting off what I want to do and instead focusing on what demands I have to meet, so W.D. Meyers, I am reading your Monster right now. I personally do not enjoy this book. I think it lacks depth and is not dynamic enough for me so far. I do think many students would like it, and it would show them a kid maybe similar to them, who wants to be tough on the outside, but inside is scared and never wanted to be in any kind of trouble. I do think Steve is innocent. I think he would have admitted it in his "movie" if he was not. One part of the book I really do like is him pretending his life in jail is a movie. He says nothing seems real, and it is like he is watching someone elses life, and so to put distance between him and his life he is "making a movie" out of his experiences in jail. I think it is a cool way for this caharcter to survive mentally, and it shows in my eyes that he is innocent. He is a kid, and his love for film and his success in his film class show that he is a good kid. But good kids can get themselves in trouble...and that is what I like about this book. So many people have a negative perception of urban students. When Is ay I work at Edison the response I get make me so angry "Oh that must be tough" or "Wow you are one brave soul" or "I bet the kids are real bad." I love my students. 4 weeks in and I love them. They are good and smart and amazing and the environment that surrounds them is often a negative one. It is very difficult to be and act a certain way when the environment you are raised in is conducive to a certain type of ....don't know the word I am looking for. It is like expecting to grow an avocado when you are planting in an apple farm. ??? get it? both fruits are good, but they both grow under different conditions and come in packages that insist they be different....I hope I did an ok job trying to demonstrate that kids are kids, just like fruit is fruit, but there are some differences and its natural and you cannot blame an apple for being an apple, or an avocado for being an avocado. Anyway, my students are often victims of their environmnet, much like Steve was, and now he is scared and the evil prosecuter...."monster" how dare her. Now poor Steve is starting to believe it. Reminds me of A Lesson Before Dying when the prosecutor calls the man on trial a hog, and his grandmother is set on making her sure her grandson goes to his death a man :( so sad.