Monday, July 27, 2009

The continuing saga of the silly students

I got a text message 10 minutes before class started.* It said "Did u cancel class tday like thurs?" (I'm teaching a writing class; weep for me). There had been no suggestion, lets just be clear, that I was going to cancel class today. In fact, I had sent an email on Friday reminding them of their assignment for today. And another one yesterday, in response to the text message "Hey, whts die tmorrow?"**

What lesson have I learned? First, and most importantly, the less my students listen about out of class work, the more I make them write sitting under my eye so I can MAKE them do work. Second, this is the last time I will make my cell number available to anyone who can't spell.***


*Let's just be clear to begin with that I in no way encourage texting from my students. In fact, I actively discourage it, pointing out that it takes me more time to type the response, and I don't have a text plan so they are costing me money.

** This text message was the fifth I have received from this student. After the first I told her not to text me. I soon received another text correcting the spelling to "due."

*** I reserve the right to amend this rule, but it will now always include students. They are not to know how to contact me by phone until they have proved that they can email responsibly.

3 comments:

Scarlet Panda said...

HAHAHAHAHA. I love this. Is it bad that I get so much enjoyment out of stories that bring you pain?

Beth said...

Nah, I post them because in the depths of my despair, I can see that they are amusing.

In fact, sometimes when they're driving me completely crazy, and I feel by fingers curling to clutch their necks, I repeat to myself "this will make a funny story, this will make a funny story."

CV said...

I honestly can't believe you gave out your cell number to students. I wont give mine to clients for any reason just to avoid this sort of thing. There are just some people you dont want to be able to contact you whenever they feel like it. your pain is quite funny though