Facebook and Midsummer Night's Dream....

So, I'm sitting here in class, and my students are watching A Midsummer Night's Dream... I love the play-viewing week, because I get so much done. usually.... Today, not so much....

See, I think the problem is general grading fatigue, and the access to a laptop, where, I admit, I usually have Facebook open on a tab.  And my friends are wonderful, and intriguing, and awesome, and.... really, I don't have enough positive adjectives to describe... But that's almost the problem--I have wonderful friends who post really nifty stuff that I want to investigate, and for some reason, I cannot focus on the grading I need to do (okay, so also, I'm sitting here in semi-darkness.  You ever tried to read mediocre handwriting in the dark? Not fun...)

But that brings me to another thought.  I love Facebook.  I have a lot of friends and colleagues who have a love-hate relationship with Facebook, and I've often wondered why.  For my colleagues, I know that it has a lot to do with how much time our students "waste" on the site, especially when they're in the classroom (I teach in several computer labs) supposedly listening to us, participating in the course discussion, or otherwise engaged in learning. For my friends who aren't also colleagues, though, I'm not really sure.  But again, I think it falls back to time "wasting".  Cuz, yeah, Facebook can be a huge timesuck.  Think about it--we have all those great games (yes, I like and play the Zynga games... my Farm is cute!), we can send silly gifts (my favorites of all of them remain the "send-a-sperm" that were making the rounds when I first got onto Facebook), and we can check in with ALL of our FB friends.  But that last, that's the real reason I love love LOVE Facebook! See, I had a HUGE group of friends in highschool, and then, as tends to happen, we all lost touch.  Well, most of us.  I've discovered small pockets kept in touch (like my 2 best friends and me).  Since we've all gotten on Facebook, though, we've reconnected, and we're reforging those relationships we had momentarily lost over the last 16 (gasp!) years.  We're having picnics, Ikea trips, we're meeting new friends through our old friends, and we're supporting each other in our endeavours.  I think we're becoming better friends for the long separation, even though most of us aren't in even the same state anymore. So, I love Facebook.  I love to get up in the morning and see what new things my wonderful friends have thought of (it helps that my "morning" is about noon-ish in the real world.

Okay, back to reading poetry based on "Hazel tells Laverne." Yes, I'm mean.  I make them write the occasional poem.  I'm happy to say, they actually do really well with it!

RLW