I’ve been teaching for about seven weeks now, with a week to go.
Mostly it has been a disaster.
In retrospect I wish I had said on day one:
Here are the rules of this class.
1) We write for twenty minutes at the start of class every day. On paper, by hand. Before we write I will try to tell you one thing about writing that helps make it more effective.
2) After we write we can talk about whatever you want to talk about.
3) If you bring your phone to class or open your laptop during class you get an F for the term. Full stop. No exceptions.
The reasons for my disastrous teaching this term goes well beyond the use of devices. Still, anyone who pretends they are teaching—especially teaching something that requires, meditation, concentration, and boredom, as writing does—in the presence of the digital is either delusional, defeated, or me.