A New Idea
My biggest classroom management issue concerns students who text. I usually have one or two each term who love to text and are fairly oblivious, even to specific, individual requests to "cease and desist". This term I'm going to tell students -- in a humorous way hopefully -- that their participation points for each class are going to include behaving like technological dinosaurs (like their instructor) and NOT texting in class. A texting incident is going to result in a point lost for that class. Then I think I'll e mail the texting student immediately after class about their loss of a point so they get an immediate consequence. I hope this will be effective, and I'm thinking that the use of humor will make it sting a bit less. Any other ideas about the nemesis that is texting?
Hi Susan,
Great ideas! Talk to administrators about implementing a no texting policy institution wide. My institution has implemented this policy, and it is extremely effective. The repercussion is that the student will be absent for they day and receive 0's on all work for that day.
Patricia
I agree that there should be definate and immediate consequences for texting during class! I had a student last semester that was constantly texting during class. For the first two classes I would just ask her to put her phone away when I caught her. She would, but then a little while later she would take it back out and be at it again. Finally, I decided that the way to deal with it was to have her move to one of the seats in the front of the class. She was in the back row and I moved her to the desk directly in front of mine. For the rest of the class her phone stayed in her purse. The following week I allowed her to sit in the back again until I caught her, then I moved her back up front. After class we discussed her seat privately and I made it perfectly clear that I would continue to move her to the front of the room as long as she continued to text during class time. That was the last class I caught her texting, so either she learned a lesson or she learned to hide it better:)
Hi Teri,
The biggest lesson from this was that she realized that she was going to get punished from such act, and it was wrong to continue to text while in class.
Patricia
Our school has a zero tolerance policy in regards to cell phones. The only time I allow a student to even keep their phone in sight is if they are on call for work... or maybe expecting a child... extenuating circumstances. Students should know that they will be penalized for using phones.
Stressing they they are in class to learn is very important. Some of my instructor friends have even disallowed use of laptops for notetaking because students have taken advantage of this (playing games, im, etc).
It's important to put your foot down on these things before they become an issue in the classroom.
Yes, this is a problem I continuously encounter. I like this idea. I do subtract points off their professionalism grade for texting--I take 3 points. I like the idea of emailing them right after class saying the points were taken. That way they know for sure it is being done and will think twice when they go to do it again. I take off the points, but I don't really tell them I am doing it. They know that if I catch them, they lost the points. However,the email will make it more tangible. I am going to try this.
