Please take young black males to see Red Tails the movie based upon the Tuskegee Airmen financed by Lucas Films.

Hello and Happy New Year to everyone.  I hope that everyone is off to a great start in 2012.  This past December, I had the opportunity to see one amazing and inspiring movie titled, Red Tails.  This film is based upon the Tuskegee Airmen and sheds light on the perseverance they endured simply trying to gain the same opportunities as pilots as their white male counterparts. 

Although this is a movie that everyone should see, it’s even more important that young black males see this film.  Young black males in my opinion do not have enough opportunities that allow them to see or to be exposed to their heritage and history in a positive light.  This movie provides exactly that.  The cast consists of Hollywood’s best A List Black Male Actors. The theme, delivery, and content of this film teach many vital and pivotal lessons in regards to African-American males succeeding despite of all odds.

Lucas, the astounding creator of Star Wars financed this film project with 70 million dollars of his own money. Hollywood would not back him on this movie due to not believing in his mission  to shed light on the Tuskegee Airmen Struggle.  I am encouraging parents, mentors, guardians, uncles, Big Brothers, and educators to take all young black males to see this true masterpiece.  Listed below is the link to the article on film maker George Lucas and his belief and reasoning for the lack of support from Holly Wood.

http://digitaljournal.com/article/317904

Sugar and learning don’t mix!

Greetings everyone.  It’s your favorite educator and tweens author wishing all students and instructors a safe winter break.  This morning I made a huge mistake.  Normally, I never allow my students to have anything containing  high incidences of sugar for breakfast.  Rushing and  trying to get the school day started, I allowed the students to eat  a very popular treat containing nine grams of sugar per serving.   Believe  me when I tell you that my morning was challenging.

Even as veteran teacher of over 16 years, it took me quite sometime to get my class calm, and acclimated  for learning today.  I had to repeat simple questions over and over.   Having challenges with focusing and remaining on task, my babies went from being very hyper to sluggish  within a 60 minute time frame.  They experienced the side effects of  a sugar rush which unfortunatley made them all crash.   Believe me everyone when I say that  I learned my lesson the hard way. 

 

How quickly the cough drops vanished.

Hello everyone.  It’s your favorite educator and tweens author reaching out to everyone this wonderful day.  Isn’t it funny no matter how things change the more they seem to stay the same.  Once again I have been fooled the mindset of a tween.

 Having a frequent cough due to the weather, I purchased honey lemon  cough drops.   Picking my young ladies up from lunch yesterday, I asked the young ladies to help themselves to a cough drop if needed.  To my surprise, all of these imaginary coughs started taking place and every tween girl claim to have a sore throat.   Within 10 minute time frame.  The cough drop bag was totally depleted.   Oh well, I guess I set myself up for that one.  To educators residing within the south-east region of  Michigan, hang in there.  Christmas vacation is on the way.

The Importance of Reading to Tweens.

Greetings, everyone.  It’s your favorite tweens and teens author wishing everyone a great weekend.  Who say’s that story time is just for kids under 10?  Just this past Friday I made a discovery.  Kids over the age of 10 still love story time.  

Our school principal invited all the fifth and sixth grade students to hear him read a modern-day version of  Little Red Riding Hood.  He was very animated and the students ranging from ages  11 through 12 absolutely ate it up.  By the time he was done, the fifth and sixth graders wanted him to read another book aloud.  Parents, just give it a try.  Read a story to your 11 and 12 year old youngsters.  I’m willing to bet they will enjoy it.

Stand Up…Stand Out! A play based upon bullying wrote by Kirsten Byrd.

Hello everyone.  It’s your favorite tweens and teens author Adra Young.  Can you believe that the month of November is just one day away.  Having a background in acting, I’ve been preparing myself  to play the role of Principal Wilson, one of the several characters in Kirsten Byrd’s play titled, “Stand Up…Stand Out.  This amazing  production is based upon students voicing their personal view points on the issue of  bullying.  The debut of Stand Up…Stand Out took place this past Saturday at the Charles H Wright Museum in Detroit Michigan.

Students from various school settings within the state of Michigan attended.  The youngsters in attendance were provided the option to eat lunch and watch the play at the same time.  Ms Byrd allowed the audience to ask the cast members questions directly after the show.  Byrd’s goal for 2012 is to make the play available at Wayne State University for interested schools within the south-east region of  Michigan.

When youngsters act out it’s usually due to an personal unexpected occurrence

 

Hello everyone.  I hope that everyone is having a spectacular Sunday.  The weekend is just about over for us all.

Last Friday on my way to lunch, several of the young ladies that I teach in the afternoon said hello.  During the interim of me speaking back, one of the young ladies said, “Ms Young, I’m going to be bad in your class today.”  Taking it as a sign of disrespect,  my immediate response was that I was going to send her to the office in the event that she did.

After lunch, I picked my all female class up from the cafeteria and escorted them to class.   While preparing my students for the spelling and reading assessments for the afternoon, this  same student followed through on her statement.  She acted out and  I had to implement some consequences.

Towards the end of the day, she finally admitted to me what was going on with her.  Turns out this poor baby and her family were victims of a house fire that resulted to her entire family loosing everything.  The fire had taken place on Thursday which resulted to this young lady bringing all of her stress with her to school on Friday. Thank God no one was injured.

After she explain to me what had taken place, I gave her a hug.   Reassuring her that I would report the incidence to the school counselor, I explained to her the importance of  appropriately expressing concerns verses acting out.  After our discussion, this young lady left school that Friday knowing that she could rely, and talk to me about unexpected occurrences verses acting out negatively in the future.

Sometimes, kids don’t know how to address these specific kind of issues with their teachers.   Due to not knowing how to  express what’s going on appropriately, it comes out negatively.  Educators, be sure to let your students know in  the beginning of  the school year that they can talk to you about unfortunate occurrences so you will not have  to go through what I went through on last Friday.

Assuring your kids from the get go may not eliminate all cases of students acting out due to tragic occurrences but, it most definitely will make your job easier as  a teacher in the 21st. century.

 

 

Count Day Russell Simmons Style!

Hello everyone.  I hope that everyone’s weekend is off to a great start.   Looks like Michigan has been hit with a bit of Indian Summer.  Close to about 80 degrees here today, I’m not complaining at all.  It’s absolutely beautiful today.

One of the most important days for any school district is count day.  Revenues are provided to individual schools based upon each student present only on this day. This is why a huge emphasis is put on students attending school on count day.  Desiring all of my students to come to class this day, I came up with a very creative idea.

Although individual school districts provide incentives  for students that attend school on count day, I decided to add an additional benefit.   Since all  students that attend my school  were able to were jeans this day,  I offered to purchase a bag of chips for my entire all males  sixth-grade  home room  if  we had a 100% attendance rating, and if every gentlemen would  wear a tie.   The good news is that all of my boys showed looking like little Russell Simmons miniature’s in their jeans and ties.  They were happy about getting those chips.  I for one  had eaten entirely too many.

A Monologue Show on Bullying Takes Place in Detroit October 29th at the Charles H. Wright Museum

Hello everyone.  Can you believe that the month of October is already here. Wow!  The leaves are changing beautiful colors of orange, red, and brown.  80 degree weather has now become a thing of the past.  I love fall.  It is the season  constantly reminding us that nature is and will always continue to change and transcend for the better.

Speaking of better, for the past several months, I’ve made it my personal business to keep everyone informed about my forth coming book titled, The Misfits,  a book based upon bullying for tweens and teens scheduled to be released this fall.    Recently, I had the opportunity to meet Kirsten R Byrd.  Founder of Busy B Productions, this young lady like myself, was concerned about the bully issue here in the state of Michigan and decided to do something about it.

Offering me the opportunity to assist with the project, I accepted. The casting call for this project took place yesterday October 1st at the Brighter Day Baptist Church.   It is with honor that I announce  Ms. Byrd’s  production, Stand Up Stand Out- a Monologue Show based upon bullying, will be touring in schools in the Metro Detroit Area.  I will be playing the role of Principal Wilson, a serious administrator concerned about the incidence of bullying taking place at Baker High School, Saturday October 29th at the Charles H Wright museum.  For further information about this project, contact Kirsten Byrd on facebook.

Trinity Film Festival in Detroit Michigan this weekend was awesome

Hello everyone.  I know it’s been several weeks since the last time I’ve posted.   In life we are thrown curve balls that can hinder our progress on a positive path. The most important thing is not to let obstacles deter us from our goals at hand.

Many great things are taken place in Detroit.  One great activity that took place this weekend was the The Trinity Film Festival.  Created by Marshalle Montogmery, Rocki and Janaya Black- the mission of the Trinity Film festival is to expose and shed light on films being produced and directed by Michiganders.   This fun-filled weekend consisted of both guest speakers presenting,  and  informative in-services  provided for individuals interested in getting exposed  and involved in the film industry.   The movie shorts were shown on Friday and the features were shown all day on Saturday.

Having experience as both actress and acting coach, I  was asked to provide a monologue actors workshop for the youngsters in attendance.  Tips on how to improve character development, and the opportunity to reenact two monologues from my second book, The Everyday Living of Children & Teens Monologues Volume II were just two of two of the exciting things that took place during the workshop.   Directly after the workshop, I had the opportunity to interview the young ladies from the cast of the “The Girls Bathroom.”  Together we all had one amazing time.

People if you missed the 2011 Trinity Film Festival, be sure to catch it in 2012.

What a great first day of school Detroit Public Schools is Going Green!

Hello everyone, today was the start of another exciting school year.  At approximately seven-thirty this morning, twenty tween males entered my classroom excited and eager to learn.  Well organized with their school supplies at hand, we briefly discussed the classroom expectations, and what they desire to accomplish as sixth-grade English Language Arts students.

 The school I currently teach at has been identified as a ”Green School” representing  Detroit Public Schools.  Unaware of what a “Green School” is, I  explain to my students exactly what it meant and some of the great changes that would take place within our class and or our school’s campus.  After discussing some the components that tie into a ”Green School” such as recycling and tree preservation, I retrieved a list of everyone’s e-mail addresses. Curious to know as to why I asked for them, I explained to my pupils that from this day forward, I would be e-mailing their homework assignments and  imperative school information. They are excited about the change and so am I.