cool to be in school

With back-to-school happening now, or in the very near future, getting back to class means sacrificing some wonderful summer pleasures that many kids (and adults!) have become used to. Not only do lazy days and staying up late become a thing of the past but the freedom to talk, text and type whenever and wherever becomes a weekend pleasure. With smart phones becoming so smart and so much more than just a phone, kids and teens have access to endless amounts of distractions all while sitting in the comfort of their classroom.
Busted, scolded online, and posted on Failbook, for not only updating but also complaining about class, this student is probably wishing they could erase that one simple status update. I would be so embarrassed if this happened to me...and I’d be dying to get my phone back! I remember when I was in school, Tamagotchi’s were the biggest threats to productive teacher time. Those virtual pets that you were ultimately responsible for keeping alive were banned at certain schools because kids spent too much time worrying about the health of their digital pet instead of the happenings of the real world around them. Much different from these days when kids are not only playing games on their phones but also texting and accessing Facebook along with pretty much anything else on the Web that they wish. It’s amazing how times have changed…I was once distracted by daydreams and doodling and now, although I’m not hip enough to have a phone that lets me do all those fantastic things, I sure get antsy if I can’t check my messages for an extended period of time. With technology advancing all the time, teachers are no longer looking out for people passing notes with paper but through cyber space instead. I’m thinking this makes the job a little tougher but I bet there are some teachers who are always itching to check their emails or updates just as much as some of their students. The summer is full of freedoms that we tend to take for granted but once that bell rings, students certainly have some sacrifices to make and some separation anxiety to deal with. It makes me wonder what I’d be like as a student these days!

And another funny Failbook for any students and all lovers of Anthropologie… What do you think about kids and phones at school? Any teachers with funny/unfortunate stories? Or confessions?