See ya later, alligator!
Can you see me doing the happy dance? Aside from one final exam on Monday and one on Wednesday of next week, I am officially done teaching for the semester. Believe it or not, the irresponsibility that marked the week of conferences continued yesterday when my students had to turn in their final papers. FOUR students didn't even bother to show up, although one sent me a text message to apologize and another, who was very clearly ill, called me from campus later in the day to ask where she should leave her packet. Absolutely unbelievable. . .
I guess a couple of instructors in my department opted out of class yesterday, as several of the 10:00 students showed up at the 8:30 class asking to drop off their papers so that they could go home. Since the only thing I had planned for each class was a discussion of their experiences with an "official" research paper, I was only too happy to oblige them; excusing them from class meant that I, too, would be able to go home early. Instead of gabbing about their papers, students turned them in and left. Those who weren't sure if their 10:00 class was on or not decided to hang out in the classroom with me, and we had a great time discussing cell phones and text messaging while playing hangman.
I've had a cell phone for years but never got into texting -- until this semester, that is. I always give students my cell number, but this is the first semester that I gave them permission to text me. I am so glad that I did because it proved beneficial to me in a couple of ways: first, I finally learned how use the text message features on my own phone; second, I opened a communication venue to my students with which they were most comfortable, thus encouraging dialogue between us. As my recent cell phone bill indicates, it was a resounding success. For the first time ever, I exceeded the 50 messages per month that my account allows!
My fingers aren't anywhere near as fast on the keypad as my students' are, so they were thrilled to show off the phones they use and to explain why theirs is better than others. One gave a quick demo of his phone, which he affectionately calls a "Crackberry" for its addictive features. After our discussion, I came away with the conclusion that although I love my magenta Razr with a passion, it's time for me to move up to a more text friendly phone. And so the shopping begins for an iPhone, a Palm Treo, or a Blackberry Pearl. Ali called a friend of his who owns a cell store and should have prices for each today. I haven't decided which phone I prefer as they all have unique features that I like. At this point, I am leaning more towards the Blackberry Pearl only because the others are more phone than I need at this point. However, with the iPhone, I could finally have an iPod, too! Decisions, decisions, decisions. . .