"Laters," indeed.

One of my favorite classes to teach is journalism. We get to do a lot of cool things that you don't get to do in other classes, things like taking pictures with 7 mp cameras and writing newspaper articles riddled with horrendous grammatical errors. My favorite headline so far: "Ashley's Honor Roll!" You know, like, she's on the honor roll, but she's also on a roll? Oh boy.

Journalism is a fun class for both students and teachers, but it is a difficult class to regulate. Some students are in the class because they are legitimately interested. Unfortunately, the rest tend to be seniors who want a little break. Now, I understand this. Seniors have a lot going on. They've been through four years of hard work and are ready to do something new with their lives. They've also been told by some foolish, sad adults that "High school was the best four years of my life." So they're a little concerned, understandably, about what might possibly be wrong with the rest of the world. You could argue that seniors deserve a class where they get to slack off, search the internet and hit/hit on one another without teacher interference while they are still basically (tall) children.

Of course, if you're the teacher, or even one of the underclassmen in the same class, you can't help but disagree with this stance. Even if we forget for a moment that classes are supposed to contain instruction and, theoretically, learning, there are problems. Like everyone else has to do a lot more work. Which is why, despite the wonderful, better than half-assed effort put in by my freshmen, sophomores and juniors, I am editing the yearbook on a beautiful, if rainy, July afternoon.

It's not that bad. Our yearbook doesn't come out until the fall. And yes, I know that 98% of the adult world is shifting uncomfortably in a cubicle or cheating death in a salt mine while I type frivolities and listen to a baseball game. Still, any work hereon out is my responsibility. Is this my fault? Heck yes it is. We could even call this Reason Number One why I am a Bad Teacher. I did not motivate my students effectively enough where they completed the yearbook themselves. The class went well this year, but clearly I can improve on it. So, how do you continue motivating students to excel in a class they think should be easy, especially when so many of them re-take it every year so they can work on the yearbook and newspaper? Stay tuned.