Nice. I've said a couple of those, nearly verbatim, myself. (And, although I have never said it, I very much like "I used to be more approachable, but then I got a stalker." I just got a call at home from a father irate that I had turned in his offspring for plagiarism. That was when I decided it was time to stop putting my home phone on my syllabi, even if I was an adjunct who spent limited time on campus and wanted to seem "available." I don't know why I felt the need to compensate for the fact that the university hadn't hired me full time, but for some reason I did.)
One solution: get a google phone account. Forward calls or messages from it to your real phone. If you acquire a stalker, you can throw away the number without repercussion in your daily life.
Well, these days, I just use email (and, for office hours and conferences in DL classes, Skype). Since my department removed most of the office phones in a cost-cutting measure, I figure it's pretty clear they don't consider phone communication essential. Maybe some of my students would like to be able to text me, but they don't like using the voice feature on their phones, anyway (you know, the on that gave the telephone its name), and most of them have email on their phones as well. I think they just figure I'm an old fogey, and old fogeys use email, and act accordingly. A substantial portion of their emails read like texts anyway.
You remember the guy back in grade school with the bad haircut and the pens in his pocket? You know, the guy who always knew what the poem was about? You remember the way you treated him? Well, it's payback time. Welcome to class.
Totally using this (some of it) next year. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteMy students listened to me once in a while, but not to what I was teaching.
ReplyDeleteA Desiderata poster for the classroom. Love it.
ReplyDeleteNice. I've said a couple of those, nearly verbatim, myself. (And, although I have never said it, I very much like "I used to be more approachable, but then I got a stalker." I just got a call at home from a father irate that I had turned in his offspring for plagiarism. That was when I decided it was time to stop putting my home phone on my syllabi, even if I was an adjunct who spent limited time on campus and wanted to seem "available." I don't know why I felt the need to compensate for the fact that the university hadn't hired me full time, but for some reason I did.)
ReplyDeleteOne solution: get a google phone account. Forward calls or messages from it to your real phone. If you acquire a stalker, you can throw away the number without repercussion in your daily life.
DeleteOh, that's a great idea. Can you use the Google number as your caller ID?
DeleteWell, these days, I just use email (and, for office hours and conferences in DL classes, Skype). Since my department removed most of the office phones in a cost-cutting measure, I figure it's pretty clear they don't consider phone communication essential. Maybe some of my students would like to be able to text me, but they don't like using the voice feature on their phones, anyway (you know, the on that gave the telephone its name), and most of them have email on their phones as well. I think they just figure I'm an old fogey, and old fogeys use email, and act accordingly. A substantial portion of their emails read like texts anyway.
DeleteYou remember the guy back in grade school with the bad haircut and the pens in his pocket? You know, the guy who always knew what the poem was about? You remember the way you treated him? Well, it's payback time. Welcome to class.
ReplyDelete