Low-tech Trolling in English 11

I'm proud to have a paperless classroom, and I have worked hard over four years to fine-tune my teaching to suit it. There is a computer for every student who needs one, even though many choose to bring their own laptops or tablets (so far this year, I have my first Surface tablet, which has really worked well with my Google Docs-driven class).

You can imagine my dismay today, when my student Raven whipped out a portable typewriter and started typing away. My head almost exploded. "Is that compatible with Google Drive?"

He had found it at Goodwill, tested to see if it actually worked, and had brought it in just to tease me.

It worked.

Apparently, my reaction was worth the $4 he had spent.

Of course the funny thing to me was how novel the typewriter seemed to Raven. He had never used one before playing this prank. I can only imagine how long it took him to get the paper to go around the carriage the proper way.

Suffice it to say: these kids will learn a lot in life--but they'll never know how to use a typewriter the way I do!