Johnny Doesn't Want to Read

The last class period, I spent a lot of time doing overhead demonstrations for the kids on a number of skills in Macromedia Fireworks. The classes all roared along famously. Today, in the interest of appealing to Multiple Intelligences (the theory that different people learn best in different ways, seeing, doing, reading, etc.) I tried giving the kids a worksheet of sorts with some new tricks and tips on it.

Didn't go nearly as well.

I am constantly surprised at how little interest kids have in reading nowadays. When I was younger and had a question about something, my parents (hi, mom!) would usually say one thing, "Go look it up!" We had a library of books at home and if I had a question regarding something, I was supposed to go read about it. I still like to read about stuff when I am learning. Kids today don't do this. They really seem to struggle in following written directions. It seems like they get impatient if the information doesn't flow right into their brain. At the slightest hint of confusion, they seem to throw up their hands (literally) and quit.

This is frustrating for me. I will keep trying and see if things improve...

Anyway, back to the first class...

I was hoping that the kids would cruise through the two worksheet assignments in about 30-45 minutes or so and still have time to work on their first big assignment, the Webpage Emulation, for 45 minutes. Nobody got close. Only during the last 5-10 minutes did I get a chance to pass out the Emulation assignment sheet and get kids busy on selecting a webpage to emulate.

Maybe it will get better as the day goes on...

Ellipses are signs of a puzzled mind......