A few weeks ago during lunch, some coworkers and I were sharing stories of email troubles, text or picture messages being sent to the
wrong recipient*, and other times that either technology or our brains have really let
us down. It occurred to me during our lunch time that I had not yet shared this story with you.
I had been in an email thread for most of the morning with
my team talking about the lesson plans for the next two weeks. To keep everyone in the loop, I had gotten in
the habit of using the “Reply All” button when answering questions.
Reply All! The literature book actually has tons of great short plays! Send!
Reply All! Here are my guesses based on our state's withholding attitude towards state testing! Send!
Reply All! Nope! Send!
Then, I got another email from a staff member (who is
incidentally one of my favorite humans) asking how we planned to
address interventions for our weakest standards in the weeks leading up to the
state standardized test so that she could put the information on a parent
letter home. Thinking it was still just
my team and me who were sent the email, I hit “Reply All” with:
A few minutes later, I got an email back from an
ADMINISTRATOR that said
First, I grabbed my hair and said most of the bad words I
know. Then I laughed. Then I said more bad words. Then I frantically wrote an email back (and
replied all) apologizing for my idiocy.
My administrator wrote back and said she had experienced much, much
worse accidental “Reply All’s. I would kill to know what they were.
Have you ever accidentally sent a bad email? Tell me immediately so that I can laugh
at/with you.
Love,
Teach
*The picture message conversation, as I’m sure you can
imagine, was HILARIOUS.
I recently tried to send a quick email saying, "You got it!" I ended up typing the t a little to late. "You go tit." Proud of that one.
ReplyDeleteA coworker did not realize that the email forwarded to her by a team member about a -high-maintenance- included not only the original parent email, but somehow the parent's email was included in the thread. Team member replied all...thinking it was just the team....about what a PITA the parent was and other not so favorable things. Not sure how she managed that one, but she's still my coworker.
ReplyDeleteWhooooooooaaaaaaaaah! I would DIE!
DeleteOne time, a student sent me an email explaining that she was getting bad grades in Earth Science because she had previously been enrolled in a religious school and wasn't used to science being taught from a secular standpoint (although I think her exact word was 'ungodly.' She wasn't a huge fan of the dictionary, apparently...). I was in shock, of course, so I hit 'Forward' to ask my mentor what to say. "I'm at a loss on this one. Any ideas?" Well, as it turns out, the 'Forward' and 'Reply' buttons are right next to each other. Yep, I replied to the STUDENT!
ReplyDeleteI frantically looked her up in the system and cornered her in the hallway on her way to her next class. I tried to explain that I had thought I was replying to something totally different (if in doubt, deny deny deny!). She just said she probably wouldn't ever read the email, because she wasn't a huge fan of email. Um, ok.
But yeah, it was pretty scary for a hot minute.
HAHA! "I'm not a big fan of dictionaries or email. I prefer cuneiform." Glad it turned out OK!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this.
ReplyDeleteIt took me a long time to realize that being a good teacher and a good employee could be two different things--and that understanding ultimately led me to leave teaching.
But it was a reply-all story that became the catalyst for my exit. Read more here: http://www.forum.jamesdhogan.com/2012/08/dear-teacher-why-i-quit.html
I accidentally told a mom that she needed a leash :(
ReplyDelete