Intercepted from my students:

The following note was passed between two of my better students. Having seen their quizzes and tests, I know that they can write standard English quite well. Thus I find their use of IM shorthand very interesting. Bear in mind that these are two fairly typical ninth grade girls:

1: so did u hear that besides paige + gio there's ANOTHER couple that we kno? [I'm a bit surprised that of the ninth graders at the school, there's only one couple... but what do I, a silly teacher, know?]

2: rly now? who?

1: you DIDN'T hear? [Why didn't she just say "loser!"?] well... think about it. GIO's taken [Whoever he is, Gio's hot shit if he's in all caps], Michael's taken. so...

2: CHRIS??? [Now, I teach Chris and I can vouch for Girl 2's surprise, he doesn't seem to be ready for girls yet]

1: and who's the only grl we kno who would go out w/ him?

2: ANNA? [Jeez, Girl 2, you are just surprised by everything, aren't you?]

1: yup ˆ_ˆ lol, i was like oooo-k. [Damn, this is confusing shorthand! I think that's a smiley face, then "laugh out loud" and "I was, like, "okay"... but I could be wrong.] she asked him. duh. subway I think. ugh. it's like she's desperate or something.

2: that would b an impression ud get [Why do they abbreviate so much? It seems to be more confusing than economic.]

1: yeah... I would get that impression... lol [I really hate the whole "laugh out loud" thing, and it's all over the web... Arrgh!] Dylan's watching us [Dylan's also in the class although he's a tenth grader. He flunked out two years ago and has a really annoying attitude. He seems to spend most of his time figuring out ways to get me to pull my hair out rather than doing his homework. I'm very curious about where he'll end up in life.]

2: is he really? lol

1: anna ses she just suddenly realized he's really great + she likes him + all. [Oh, yeah... we're talking about Chris, not Dylan. Phew! I was worried for a minute, there.] BUT I happen to kno that gio ha--

At this point I intercepted the note, put it in my back pocket and threatened that I'd read it if they didn't focus on the work at hand. This is my standard reaction and it seems to work. I just wait until I get back to the office and then read them. I've intercepted scary ones before, such as the time that a couple of girls were discussing whether I'd look better in a tutu or a leopard-print body suit. Anyhow, I only get one of these notes every couple of months. This was one of the better ones.