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denise
Joined: 23 Apr 2003
Posts: 3419
Location: finally home-ish
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 Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 3:11 am Post subject: |
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I like the collection jar idea! And answering the students' phones.
I don't ban them, but I do request that they be put on silent. I teach university students, and in theory they are adults (though not often in practice!), so I try to treat them that way. I don't expect them to put their outside lives on hold during their English class. If they receive a call, they know that they are supposed to take it outside so as not to disrupt the class.
What bothers me even more than students using cellphones during class is teachers using cellphones during class. I've heard cases of it happening. Really, what sort of example does that set?!?
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:26 am Post subject: |
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| Stephen, apparently you don't know what text-messaging is. You don't have to listen to receive and read a text message. |
And apparently you don't know what digital mobile phone is, or how a blocker works.
The blockers interfere with the frequency used by the mobile phone, and thus cause the message to be garbled. Among the places that use them are the Israeli Parliament. Text messages are broadcast along a smallish reserved channel so they can be sent when the voice system is overloaded (the text messaging system was originally devised for use by technicians for diagnostic and reporting purposes), but jammers will work on that frequency as well.
Banning bluetooth or wifi, which are much shorter range but more powerful radio frequencies, is not so easy, particularly as the college may well have a wifi network in place for legitimate use. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:32 am Post subject: |
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| A lot of these folks work for private EF-type language chains, I suspect. What are you going to do when (not if) a teen student ignores the ban? Punish the student? Expel the student? Fail the student? |
If it's in high school or junior high, the rule is confiscate the cell phone, and have the student come to the staff room later to apologize and pick it up. I would also contemplate giving the student a zero for the work that day, depending on circumstances.
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| The student will complain, and the school will turn a blind eye. Next class, the student is back with the cel phone. |
Cool. Another zero, plus a phone call to the parents.
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| Complain to the parents? The parents might say they'll punish the student, but nothing happens. That's right, the next class that student is back with the cel phone again. |
I don't care if they punish the student at home or not. The kids still has to learn rules, and if that means failing my course, so be it. Students know the rules. Disobeying them does not grant them a free ride (in my class anyway).
You go easy on them. I won't. |
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laura1d
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 108
Location: Spain
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| Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:34 am Post subject: Cheating |
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Hello again,
The most innovative way I saw of using a phone to 'cheat' was in Thailand. I had arranged a running dictation game and caught one enterprising student taking a photo of the text to show his team mate who was the assigned 'writer'. I was actually impressed with his ingenuity!!
Obviously I didn't tell him that though........
It did make me laugh though.
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:37 am Post subject: |
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| I don't expect them to put their outside lives on hold during their English class. If they receive a call, they know that they are supposed to take it outside so as not to disrupt the class. |
I teach university students, too. Whenever someone's phone goes off, whether on vibration mode or audio tone, I smile, fake looking startled a little until I see where it's coming from, then gesture in a friendly way to take care of it. I see grins from many students around him then, and no signs that I'm out of line. People forget about their phones; they are only human, and I let them know I am, too, and am willing to treat them as adults, not rule breaking children (that's high school).
They always, ALWAYS turn it off and apologize somehow, but never leave the room to take the call. To me, THAT would be almost as rude as getting the call itself. I mean, if you want to interrupt a class, especially if you are doing pair work and then abandon your partner, what does that say for maturity and responsibility? |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:57 am Post subject: |
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| How many do you have in your class, Glenski? Forty? |
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ls650
Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 3484
Location: British Columbia
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| Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 1:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Glenski wrote: |
| The kids still has to learn rules, and if that means failing my course, so be it. You go easy on them. I won't. |
And then the language school just changes the grade you've assigned and gives the student a pass.
It's not the teacher going easy on the students; it's the chain school. They'll change the teacher's grading rather than upset a customer - I mean, a student. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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University classes of mine have anywhere from 6 to 90 students. Depends on many things. Last semester I had 35, 50, 50, and 90. This semester, I have 6, 10, 10, and 12.
When I taught high school here, I had 45-48 kids in a class. On some occasions we split classes in half.
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Glenski wrote:
The kids still has to learn rules, and if that means failing my course, so be it. You go easy on them. I won't.
And then the language school just changes the grade you've assigned and gives the student a pass.
It's not the teacher going easy on the students; it's the chain school. They'll change the teacher's grading rather than upset a customer - I mean, a student. |
Grades in a language school (eikaiwa)?? Never heard of that. But, yes, my high school sometimes altered grades just to fit a quota-curve of their own making. Nothing I could do about that. The point it to try teaching discipline, and until they see the final grade, they won't know about what score they're getting.
I'm not as Nazi-like as I may sound. You have to roll with some punches here (like the quota-curve), and you have to know how to present yourself to students from the start, or they will walk all over you. Most of the classes that we foreigners teach are not that serious anyway when you come right down to it. We hardly do anything to help the high school kids do well on their entrance exams. In college, we just try to plow through 15 lessons per semester and impart some knowledge along the (short) way. |
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coffeedrinker
Joined: 30 Jul 2006
Posts: 149
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| Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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I think there is a big difference depending on who your students are and the context you teach in.
Of course middle school kids shouldn't be leaving the room to take or make calls. But plenty of adults do get calls for work or about their families - and just because they are students in a class doesn't mean they should be treated like kids and have their phones taken away or confiscated. As people they should show common courtesy and turn the sound off at least.
I do think it's reasonable to have stricter rules during tests though.
I think more important than school giving teachers "guidance" is schools supporting their teachers. If they tell the teacher to forbid phones (or the teacher asks if they can forbid phones and the school agrees), they should be prepared to stand by the teacher when the teacher gives a 0 or whatever - and not just ask the teacher to enforce the rule and then give in when the student complains. |
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ls650
Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 3484
Location: British Columbia
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| Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Glenski wrote: |
| Grades in a language school (eikaiwa)?? Never heard of that. |
Perhaps teachers don't give grades in Japanese chain schools, but they certainly do in other places. And yes, schools will change those grades rather than upset a customer. |
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