11th Graders

I just figured out that, at this moment, 11 of my juniors are failing!  That's pretty bad, since I only have 24 students.  Some of them have As, but those that are failing, either don't care,  have jobs that keep them up late at night, or actually aren't capable of the work.  One of my boys reads on about the 3rd grade level, and I feel bad for him.  To make matters worse, Austin's one of the kids that works late at night.  They're doing a Research Paper/Power Point Presentation, and he was struggling last week picking a person to research.  Off the top of my head (maybe since I was into baking at the time), I suggested "Betty Crocker", and he said ok.  Today Austin came to me and said he couldn't find anything on her (what, is this the same Betty Crocker with the famous red and white checkered cookbook?).  He's a big kid, and I asked him if he played sports (sorry about the stereotype), and maybe he could do his research on a sport's figure.  He said he wasn't :( so I suggested he go back to his seat an think about someone in sports he could do.  Finally, he came back with "Joe D'Ammagio."  I guess I'm going to be doing  some research on "Jumpin' Joe" with Austin in the next week or so.  Wish me luck.  Couldn't it have been someone like, Mary Lou Retton, or Wayne Gretzky?  Those I know something about!