DON'T MESS WITH TEXTS'S

School attendance has dropped dramatically in recent years as many students seem to have discovered other pursuits that fascinate them much more than what's being offered in class. School staff and administrators are falling all over themselves to reverse this trend by devising classroom activities that are trendy and relevant to the lifestyles of today's youth. Some innovative teachers are taking advantage of student's passion for techno-gagets by devising educational games where they can use their text messaging feature to answer questions on pop quizzes via cell phones. Math questions are made more relevant by incorporating pop culture elements such as analyzing and charting contestant's vote statistics from TV shows like American Idol. Some teachers are even employing what they call "Google Games" where students compete to conduct rapid research and collect tidbits of trivia.

When asked his opinion on these new trends in making classroom activities more relevant for today's students, one school superintendent commented, "I'm in favor of anything that prevents students from getting bored of education. That's my job."

Gary Hallock