The Classroom

As a whole – teachers are a bunch of hypocrites. I know. I’m one of them. I try not to be… I want to treat my students fairly, but it doesn’t always happen. Sometimes we can’t always follow the straight and narrow – but what I saw today gave me pause to think.

As I do every year I was enjoying (or rather trying to enjoy) my teachers’ convention. Some of the sessions were good – others dreadful – but all gave me something to think about, so I’ll chalk it up to a great experience. But what shocked me is hundreds of teachers freely doing what they frequently tell their students NOT to do. I know some were skipping (did anyone call their parents?), but they were also talking, laughing and being loud during presentations. If they were bored they just got up and left. They didn’t raise their hands to speak, and some even openly ridiculed their presenters or colleagues during “class”. Had these been our students they would have had detentions, calls home, and for the repeat offenders suspensions. But at convention it all seems ok.

And you know what – I understand that. We’re adults right? We can make our own decisions. We can be rude if we want to, right? What really got my attention though was something that’s been a buzz in my staffroom, and the subject of many discussions with colleagues – the use of cellphones.

In my first day at convention I saw no less then 17 teachers texting during sessions, and over 4 openly make voice calls while others were trying to learn. Granted – given the thousands of teachers there this number isn’t staggering – but it made me think. Why was it ok for these “students” to have their cellphone, by mine have to power down?

The obvious answer is as adults they are responsible citizens. But I know my students use their technology more responsibly (in my class) then these adults were. I’ve seen people so worried about regulating technology in the classroom, rather then trying to teach our students to use it responsibly. I’m told it’s because they need to learn there’s a time and place for everything – if that’s the case then we need to send a lot of our adult population (not just the few teachers I got today) back to school to learn that lesson!

Personally, I have no problem with electronics in the classroom. Though I do believe cell phones should be put into silent mode, I have no problem with them being on a student’s person. The question is what do we want/expect from our students. We want them to pay attention to the teacher, not disrupt the class, and learn the material being presented (and not all material is always curricular – I’m also talking about the social aspect too…). As long as the cell phone, iPod, or rubber chicken doesn’t interfere with those expectations, what’s wrong with them?

Recently I was asked to help out a college by covering her class during one of my prep periods. Her child was sick and she needed to leave. I was more then happy to help. But to make my life easier I brought her class to my room so I could continue to do some of my work while they did their novel study. At one point a student asked for some music – I apologized as I didn’t have my iPod with me, and so couldn’t put any on (I’ve routed my iPod though my class sound system – best thing I ever did…). Another student quickly asked if he could use his own. The school rule was no electronics in class (this is something we are looking at changing – but it’s quite controversial as you could imagine) so I should have said no. However, I personally don’t (and never have) had a problem with it so I simply stated my expectations:

1) I don’t hear the music
2) If I ask you a question and you don’t respond I get the MP3 player immediately and with out complaint.
3) I had the right to veto any music I felt was inappropriate.

If any student didn’t like these rules, they were free not to use their MP3 player. With in seconds 16 music machines were out and students were working quietly and happily. May I remind you they were not to have these in the room at all… 16 of them did. They knew it was against the rules and they didn’t care (much like the teachers at convention). But when “reasonable” expectations were set out, they were happy to follow them.

Even with all the “music” being played – it was one of the quietest classes I’ve ever had. Yes, they are kids, and they need limits – more so then adults do, I know this. I still had 3 rules in place, and the ability to stop this “privilege” at any time – more so then the presenters at convention did. As long as it doesn’t’ interfere with my learning expectations however it doesn’t bother me.

I can hear some of you now… “WHAT??? But kids can send cyberbullying texts and play games, and do naughty things! ” I’ve heard that way too often – and I laugh. Cyberbullying texts? LET ‘EM! Please! Do you know how much easier it’ll be to nail them when we have the phone number that the offending text was sent from??? It’s like a signature! A lot easier to prove who wrote them then the hand written notes and threats I got as a kid. And games in class??? I remember the cover games of hangman, s0s, x’s and o’s, name that movie, and truth or dare we used to play during class. This isn’t a new problem due to the horrible technology the kids are brining with them – its the same problems teachers have always had – just in a new form. If we ban the tech to remove these problems, then we have to ban the pencil, pen, eraser and paper as well! Not to mention the mouth, the hands, and the mind. These are age old problems – not new ones.

When I first started teaching I had a zero tolerance policy on toys. If I saw a toy it was mine. I took so many away my desk drawer was over flowing. I was going to win this battle! But I didn’t. I realized that I was going to loose when my students started to make “action figures” out of erasers and play with those.

Student on task behaviour is not a battle – its a war – and its one that neither side can win. We have to call a truce and set reasonable expectations the everyone can agree on – a clear vision for what we want done in our classroom – much the same way our governments do for our countries. With these charters of rights and freedoms we set up the frame work for our classroom rules. The following is the charter my class made 5 years ago, and which each subsiquent class has reaffirmed each year:

We, the Geniuses of Room 17, know and understand that everyone in our classroom is an important individual who is entitled to the following rights and freedoms:

The Right to Ask Questions
The Freedom to Make Our Own Choices
The Freedom to Share Our Ideas
The Right to Form Our Own Opinions
The Right to Learn
The Right to Have Fun
The Freedom of Beliefs and Thought
The Freedom of Dress
The Right to Make Friends with Whomever We Wish
The Freedom to Feel Safe in the School, Classroom, Halls, and the Playground.

We also understand that with these Rights and Freedoms comes certain responsibilities.

The Responsibility to Listen to Others, Their Ideas, Be Open Minded, and Respect Their Opinions and Beliefs.
The Responsibility to Allow Others to Make Their Own Choices.
The Responsibility to Study, do Our Work, and Pay Attention in Class.
The Responsibility to Dress Appropriately.
The Responsibility to Make and Keep Others Safe.

We feel that these responsibilities are fair, and in keeping with our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and will live up to these responsibilities in order to improve ourselves, and our classroom.

This is to core belief of every class I teach. We are there to learn. Not only about the subject being taught, but to learn about life. How to get along and do the jobs we need to do to make our world a better place for tomorrow. I just found it funny how the rights and privileges that teachers expect and take for granted during convention, is denied by them to their students…