As I was reading the most recent issue of Time magazine yesterday, I came across the following snippet:

The Couch-Potato Generation
A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that U.S. kids ages 8 to 18 are consuming more media than ever before. According to the survey, children and teens are now using their phones, computers, TVs and video game systems for a total of 7.5 hours a day, or 52.5 hours a week. The authors explain that multitasking and dual-use devices such as cell phones that play video push those figures even higher. In the past decade, listening to music has increased the most--up nearly an hour per day.

The only leisure activity that has become less popular is reading.

I must report that I was not thoroughly disheartened, as one might imagine an English teacher who is attempting to inspire a love for reading would be. I was instead intrigued and more determined than ever--not necessarily to buck this trend, but to capitalize on it. How can I use cell phones for good rather than EVIL (pronounced E-ville)? Is there a place for them in the modern English classroom? How can I get kids who CONSTANTLY read "junk" on the Internet read some "non-junk?" How can a knowledge of video games with their imaginative characters and complicated plot lines be incorporated into some type of analysis or writing assignment?

These are the questions that crowd my metaphorical inbox :) 

Hmmm. Maybe I am more like my students than I thought.

I have had this blog set up for a couple of weeks. I have known I needed to post a post, and I have actually been excited about it because I like to write. However, it is Monday night and the due date for the post is Tuesday morning at 8:00 a.m. Could it be that some of the kids' habits of waiting till the last minute are rubbing off on me?

Considering this possibility, I started to think about reasons my students and I procrastinate. Here are a few good excuses I found for not completing homework on time:

• I was at a rally last night demanding better pay and conditions for our hardworking teachers 
• I left my brain in my locker last night. 
• It's against my religion to do homework on a day ending in a "y"
• I was being followed on the way to school by spies so I had to eat it to avoid it falling into enemy hands
• I got carried away with my origami class and my home work is currently floating around in our pond as paper Canadian geese
• My dog ate it, then my science project ate my dog.
• I'm motivationally challenged.
• Oh, you meant this week !
• I forgot to remember
• It was too complex for the ideas of the school.  
• There has been a shortage of food in my house, and paper contains necessary dietary fibres.
• I feel I should rewrite it as there may be some difficulty in comprehending it.
• It has progressed on my list of priorities.
• I am an atheist and a pessimist. I don't believe in anything.

I have actually heard versions of these, but most of my students are so honest that they usually just say they forgot it or weren't able to complete it. I appreciate honesty, so I'll reveal the real reason why I have waited so long to post this first post:

I had it all written out but then some aliens took it back to Betelgeuse as an example of fine Earth literature.