Comments on: Kids These Days

By: dan

dan — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:40:22 +0000

Good to know people have made it out of their youth without losing it.

By: CG

CG — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:29:14 +0000

So THAT’S what KT is doing when he randomly breaks into full body spasms. Thanks for the insight! I knew he was dancing, but had no idea the “moves” were to this specific song. Sounds naive maybe, but I’ll be the first to admit I am a lifelong learner.
Honestly, I got a whole decade on you, but I still have an issue with the whole “kids these days” thing. It’s like Footloose all over again.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:22:03 +0000

Before you go leading a “Crank Dat” sing-a-long in class, be sure you know what “superman dat hoe” means:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=superman+dat+hoe

By: Nancy

Nancy — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:56:52 +0000

It’s all coming clear—some of my sixth graders were doing the Soldja Boy Dance and I just nodded my head like I knew what they were doing–now I actually do!

By: Angie

Angie — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:49:37 +0000

My strategies to keep “wit it:”

#1 Never say “wit it”

#2 Always ask the students to explain something I don’t understand/know (side note: be careful because you never know what you’ll get ie. one of my students explaining what “skeet” meant in song “Get Low”)

#3 Bringing to school at the end of the year my box of high school stuff so we could laugh at the 80s clothes and hair. (“Is that you???? HAHAHAHAHA)

#4 Loving the kids who come into my room every year and, because I love them, respecting what they love

P.S. I was taught the Soldja Boy dance by one of my students this year. I taught him the running man.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:38:27 +0000

Ha! Now this is great stuff here. I face this on a daily basis. I’m in my third year of teaching arts and humanities. Which means I am surrounded by this idea every day. It was so easy my first year to know everything that my students were talking about. I’ve noticed though that each year leaves me having to google the stuff they talk about. I feel like I have to keep up because every time I shrug off the music, movies, etc… that they are into, I risk the chance of becoming irrelevant. My solution… a pot of pure Honduran coffee and a dance session where they teach me how to Crank Dat. The coffee helps take the edge off :).

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:15:55 +0000

Meant to say I find HS *kids* to be so darn cute!

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:15:12 +0000

I still bristle at “kids these days” comments at 43. However, I confess that each year that goes by? I find high school just to be so darn cute! (And my kid in HS doesn’t go to a conventionally cute school) The kids in the district that go to the Arts magnet HS? They’d die if they knew how adorable I find them and their clothes, hair, tattoos, etc. ;-D

By: Ben Chun

Ben Chun — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:04:15 +0000

The democracy of YouTube lets you learn it too:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sLGLum5SyKQ

As for the tall T’s, let Andre 3000 speak on the “Walk It Out” remix:
“Your white T, well, to me look like a nightgown / Make yo momma proud, take that thing two sizes down / Then you’ll look like the man that you are, or what you could be”

Finally, if none of this works for you, just ride with Al:

By: A. Mercer

A. Mercer — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:54:58 +0000

Not a rap fan myself, but I like to keep an openmind, There’s a great cranky old man rap song: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15964587
by Guy Davis with some really great blues licks in it.