Or How My Cell Phone Encourages My Writing
I love my MOTO Q. A few months ago I decided it was time to upgrade my cell phone. I'm not really a texter, but I kinda wanted to try a Smart Phone. I read up on it because I didn't want to pay a lot of money for something I wouldn't like. I leaned toward a BlackBerry at first, but then I noticed the Windows compatible phones. I really liked the fact that the Windows compatible phones have Word and OneNote. I went to the local U.S. Cellular store and fell in love with the lime MOTO Q. The sales lady told me to give it a week or so and then I'd like it. I was totally in love after a few hours.
I love this phone because I'm always in touch with the rest of the world and it eliminates boredom in many situations. I've had bronchitis the last couple of weeks, so I've spent several hours in doctors' offices. There have been a few days when I hardly felt like getting out of bed, and this phone let me email and work on a rough draft. I only had to move my thumbs.
That reminded me of my fiction writing in high school. To occupy myself (and my friends) in certain classes, I wrote short stories on my TI-something calculator. (That was in the late 90s before the days of cool cell phones and text messaging.) I would write and pass the calculator on to my friends to read.
In a sense I feel like my writing has come full circle. I've gone from writing on a calculator to a Smart Phone. But more people are reading the Smart Phone material. (I wrote my December column for the Knoxville News Sentinel on the MOTO Q.)
I think I'll go work on some writing projects that don't fit well on the MOTO Q.
Showing posts with label teenagers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teenagers. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Students' Opinions of Teachers
As a fourth year teacher, I've learned to be thick-skinned.
My job as a high school Spanish teacher is to prepare my students for college Spanish classes. (According to the state of Tennessee, that will change for current 8th graders.) So I don't really care if Spanish word order makes students mad or if they think Latin American geography is pointless. I present the material in a variety of ways that will help students learn. If students study, my class and those of my colleagues are not that difficult.
I take most of the complaining with a grain of salt. A certain amount of whining is to be expected from teenagers. I didn't love every assignment I was given in high school, and I would complain if I had to take Geometry right now. No one likes to hear this when they're doing something they don't like, but I believe that sometimes you have to do things you don't like is a good piece of advice for the real world. I didn't like college biology or anthropology, but I like that college degree they helped me earn.
I read Tuesday's Knoxville News Sentinel. I usually read it online, but I got a "real" paper on Tuesday. The KNS has recently reformatted the paper. Their weekly teen feature, Text Me, moved to the back of the section where it used to be, and they turned the front page of the section into School Matters. The headline of school matters caught my eye. So it made me curious about what they would run in Text Me to compliment that. (The format of the Text Me section is confusing, but worth a read.)
I'm really not surprised by teenagers much, but their responses shocked me. As a teacher, I am well aware of respect issues between teachers and teens, but I didn't know trust was such an issue.
Do you think teachers/administrators with a proper permit should be allowed to carry a gun to school? Why?
No, it's just doesn't sound safe to me. Some teachers might go crazy or something.
No, they could get mad and do something bad.
Absolutely not. If teachers carry guns, what is to prevent students from bringing them to school? And the fact that a teacher that doesn't like you may be carrying a gun is not a comforting thought.
Is this what students think about their teachers, or is this random sampling full of suspicious people? Do students worry about crazy teachers out to get them? While there are the Erin McLeans out there who disgrace all teachers, is there a reason students have this opinion of the average teacher?
What do real teens think?
My job as a high school Spanish teacher is to prepare my students for college Spanish classes. (According to the state of Tennessee, that will change for current 8th graders.) So I don't really care if Spanish word order makes students mad or if they think Latin American geography is pointless. I present the material in a variety of ways that will help students learn. If students study, my class and those of my colleagues are not that difficult.
I take most of the complaining with a grain of salt. A certain amount of whining is to be expected from teenagers. I didn't love every assignment I was given in high school, and I would complain if I had to take Geometry right now. No one likes to hear this when they're doing something they don't like, but I believe that sometimes you have to do things you don't like is a good piece of advice for the real world. I didn't like college biology or anthropology, but I like that college degree they helped me earn.
I read Tuesday's Knoxville News Sentinel. I usually read it online, but I got a "real" paper on Tuesday. The KNS has recently reformatted the paper. Their weekly teen feature, Text Me, moved to the back of the section where it used to be, and they turned the front page of the section into School Matters. The headline of school matters caught my eye. So it made me curious about what they would run in Text Me to compliment that. (The format of the Text Me section is confusing, but worth a read.)
I'm really not surprised by teenagers much, but their responses shocked me. As a teacher, I am well aware of respect issues between teachers and teens, but I didn't know trust was such an issue.
Do you think teachers/administrators with a proper permit should be allowed to carry a gun to school? Why?
No, it's just doesn't sound safe to me. Some teachers might go crazy or something.
No, they could get mad and do something bad.
Absolutely not. If teachers carry guns, what is to prevent students from bringing them to school? And the fact that a teacher that doesn't like you may be carrying a gun is not a comforting thought.
Is this what students think about their teachers, or is this random sampling full of suspicious people? Do students worry about crazy teachers out to get them? While there are the Erin McLeans out there who disgrace all teachers, is there a reason students have this opinion of the average teacher?
What do real teens think?
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