MY OLD NEW FRIENDS.
when each new technology came out, my wife and sons had to drag me, kicking and screaming, into a modern era.  I didn't want to get a computer. I got one. Got so I couldn't do without one.  I used Commodore 64 primarily for word processing, usually for tests and study guide for class.  Amazingly, my students seemed to love it, because now they could almost read them.  There were still an amazing number of typos, transposing and misspellings making some sentences hard to understand.

Then I bought a PC and began to use WordPerfect, didn't understand it, hated it, cursed it, screamed at it and sometimes refused to use it.  Eventually  I got pretty comfortable and my students began to appreciate that I had spell check and grammar check.  So did I.

One thing I took to very quickly was cellphones.  But being the careless, forgetful and unorganized person that I am, I have lost three or four and murdered at least two.  One was while running across the Seneca courtyard in the pouring rain and the phone slipped from my pocket and into a deep mud puddle.  It was instant, the phone never felt a thing.  The other was while visiting my son and his family in Philly.  I washed it in the washing machine with detergent.  I insisted that all I wanted to do was make and receive calls.  When we went to teach in the Czech Republic we bought really cheap European phones and learned to manage texting with a keyboard because it was a lot cheaper.  Now I have a really nice phone and enjoy always having the internet and Facebook  available.  With lots of apps for work and entertainment.  Then Facebook came up and all I could think was, "Why in the world would I want Facebook?"  and as usual I was forced into it by my tech savvy family and I began to collect friends many being my former students.  In fact, of the 850+ friend I have, probably 600+ are former pupils I had at Seneca and Manual High Schools.

This brings me to my point.  I have, for years, felt a very personal relation with many of my pupils and worried about them, wondered about them and really wanted to know how they were doing.  Facebook did that for me.  I still fret, I still worry, but now, at least in many cases, I know some of these things.  I also love speaking with you as adult and not in the student-teacher relationship.  Many of you still call me Mister McAdams, and that is fine but I am very comfortable with Charlie, if you are.

There are times when I receive disturbing news about you, including the loss of parents, serious illnesses and even the lose of children which is really difficult for me.  There have been the occasional loss of life by some of my former pupils.  I laugh, I cry, I mourn and I celebrate with you and all is better than it was.  I am so glad that we are able to reconnect.  Facebook, with all its problems has been a true blessing to me.