Rule Rewards and Rule Redirection

Rules Have Purpose
I've designed the rules of my classroom to create a learning environment that students have a learning environment supporting their education goals. The rules are not there to make me comfortable or make my job easy. So when a student is disruptive to the learning environment, I can point out that they are being disrespectful of the other students. Since I am not making it about being respectful to me, , but to other students, the student usually backs down. If it were to become about me, the students would feel much more comfortable  escalating their argument with techniques we are so familiar with such as arguing the nuance wording of a rule or accusation ("I wasn't talking, I was only whispering." etc.)

The room rules have a real impact on the learning environment. They aren't petty controls applied to keep the students feeling subservient and controlled. If the rules are true and valid, they will have consequences both when followed and when broken. Its an excellent lesson to call attention to both the positive and negative adherence to the room rules. 

Positive Reinforcement 

Its easy to forget and take it for granted, but when students follow the room rules, they are learning and practicing a useful skill that will help them professionally. With this in mind, I take every opportunity to praise developing room skills, commenting that the behavior shown is the kind of behavior that bosses and coworkers appreciate.
A nice example I had recently was when Andrea intervened in a developing distraction by leaning in and saying, "Shh, its hard to hear Mr. Giddings when you guys are talking." I didn't praise her for following the rules. I praised her for the consequence of following the rules, "Thank you Andrea. People enjoy working with others who will have their backs, and keep them from getting into situations that can become unprofessional."

Good behavior is not always overt or 100%. Max is a student who is very intelligent but has not been a good student, and certainly not a model of good behavior. He uses his cleverness to derail discussions. He's not averse to being a good student, he just doesn't have much practice at it.
He's not quite malicious, but it is a habit he has that goes too far. On one occasion, he was disrupting the class by poking holes in an example of a physics experiment. The other students rolled their eyes, seeing him starting another wave of disruptions. Fortunately, I recognized that there was some merit to his criticism, so I engaged him, derailing his derailment so it became a very constructive on-topic discussion. Other students who had been eye rolling saw his perspective on the criticism and got a better understanding of the topic. I praised him for his clever understanding and after that, although he still disrupted, he comments were more thoughtful and on-topic. It set him on a positive path that I have been able to leverage into much better engagement.

Redirecting Negative Behavior
When and how to respond when students do not follow the rules
Randy uses his cell phone habitually. He's not disruptive to other students, but he does certainly distract himself. I have found that even when I have him put his phone away into his bag, it very easily reappears shortly afterwards. I admit this is more of a detente than a solution, but I manage him in two ways. First, I lean toward him a bit more to keep him engaged, calling on his perspective for the discussion so he remains interested. Second, to keep from having numerous "conversations" encouraging him to put his phone down, I find that "painting" his hand with my laser pointer is very effective. It requires no words between us and is not a distraction to the other students who do not see the laser dot on his hand in the back row.

Always Special Cases
Finally, I find it always essential to be respectful of students myself, not always assuming they are up to malice. When I approach students about a disruption, I keep calm and cool and open to the (admittedly rare) chance that the disruption has some noble merit in it.
For example, Phillip was turned around showing something to the student behind him. From my vantage point, it seemed like Phillip may have been showing something on his cell phone. I approached them and firs asked, "What is going on here?" with a open supportive tone. This approach lets the students admit to the disruption without putting them on the intimidated defensive. It happened that Phillip was clarifying a question for the other student that would have been a greater disruption if the student had had to ask me. Because I had not affected an angry face, I
was able to smile and praise Phillip for being a helpful fellow student.

Cases for Mobile Learning

Cases for Mobile Learning

By John GIddings

7/24/2017

First of all, to the first student who reports finding this blog post, see me about your extra credit. :)

Context for Considering Mobile Devices

I have to confess that until recently, I have been very dubious about the benefit of most technology in the classroom. I remember an old adage that said, “The finest classroom in the world is a student sitting on the end of a log -and Aristotle sitting on the other end.”

This summarizes well my attitude toward most of the technical flourishes that educational funding is often spent on (for the records, I would have even included air conditioning!). The main channel for learning is the empowering energy that flows from the teacher to the student. I saw most edtech spending as irrelevant at best and a distraction at worst to actual teaching.

This isn't an uncommon fear. Brian Childs points out that in 2012, although a majority of schools banned cell phones about 90% of students owned a phone. In those early days, he was able to progress with small steps doing things such as have the students send txt messages to a parent or friend polling them on a question such as "Did you vote in the last electrion?" -wonderfuly bringing the students into direct contact with ther world outside.

I do still think that skepticism is a healthy presence, the reality of technology in student’s fingertips gives good reason to not only utilizing that new channel for learning to flow through, but also giving students the experience and skills to use those tools outside of the classroom.

Introduction to Mobile Devices in the Classroom

When I taught my first class (Intro to business for High School juniors and seniors), I viewed cell phones as a war with students in which I would choose my battles. I had an idea that students should learn to manage themselves, but should feel real consequences of bad choices. So I did not collect or ban cellphones in my classroom and spent a moderate amount of time chastising students who seemed to be distracting themselves. I felt like the policy was successful. Cell use was infrequent and only rarely ballooned into a multiple student distraction.

Then, I was caught completely off guard by one student’s seemingly brazen use of his cell phone. He was in front of the class giving a presentation about a company he had been following that had just had an IPO in the stock market. A question from a student had sparked a discussion in the class about what the stock price would probably be by the end of the day. I glaced at the presenting student and was aghast to see him fully immersed with his phone -ON STAGE. I chided him (in my defense, this was a typically disruptive “jock” student) “What on Earth are you doing? Are you playing a game? You are in the middle of your presentation!” He replied unremorsefully, “It’s OK professor, I’m looking up the stock price.”

And he was. And what he found gave new energy to the class discussion. Not only because it was instant and accurate, but it came from the student -not a textbook page and not from the teacher. I realized instantly how fun this series of presentations was about to become. From then on, every presentation was peppered with contributions and question derived live from audience mobile phone research. “Here’s one for sale at 64,000 Rupee. What a Rupee?” The audience was fully engaged in each project, opening up with sincere curiosity and collaboration.

Mobile Phones Enhance the Classroom

Mobile devices are a new channel for information the way newspapers and magazines, then movies and television once were. Martin Moore points out that newspapers were also a considered a potential distraction in their day. To ignore or ban them from the classroom is simply limiting the student’s educational experience. My experience has been mostly positive, and that is coming from someone who was adamantly anti-mobile devices at the start. Students DO use their devices to seek knowledge and it’s gratifying for them to seek desired knowledge for a result better than just winning arguments over who was in a movie. Just imagine these two scenarios:

1. Students, open your books to page 133 and read about John Brown, the abolitionist.
2. Students, using your mobile devices (or sharing one) look up a famous abolitionist..

It’s easy to picture student faces lit up as they engage with their phones. Some will be tempted to peek at social media, but the expectation of presenting their findings and the pressure of others who are in fact looking up the material will help them better than a scolding by the teacher. Most students will indeed find out about John Brown as intended, but others will find John Rock and eagerly contribute their alternative perspective to the resulting discussion.

I imagine teachers once held hope for such a result when they started using filmstrips in the classroom. But this is clearly more impactful.

Mobile Device Activities

An easy way to categories mobile device activities is inward and outward.

An inward activity can drive students deeper into the material, but along their own path. For example, Subject content won’t “stick” in a student’s mind until it eventually connects up with a block of knowledge the student already possesses. This is why finding ways for students to personally relate to a subject is so powerful. So, given the desired lesson material, a mobile device assignment of having the student seek out an analog of the subject in some related field they are interested in. For example: George Washington. Assign the students to search for “The George Washington of….” almost any organization or entity they may be curious about. If they are curious about France, they will find one answer, if they are curious about The Golden State Warriors, they will find another. And now built into the lesson is a personal link for the student to leverage. Now every comment on George Washington will trigger a comparison with the alternate leader either favorably, unfavorably, or not at all. Even students who have never heard of George Washington will have something to contribute to the class discussions.

An outwardly focused activity will have the students use their devices on their own world. For example as part of a lesson about some great controversy, have students go off in teams and take still photos of themselves acting out the discussion points of the controversy. Seeing the pride of Thomas Jefferson portrayed through the familiar smug face of a fellow student will drive the point home much better than a paragraph in a textbook ever could.

References:
Brian Childs, Teach.com (Retrieved July 25, 2017) https://teach.com/blog/cell-phones-in-school/
Martin Moore, Medium.com (Retrieved July 25, 2017) https://medium.com/adventures-in-consumer-technology/newspaper-vs-cellphone-are-we-really-that-different-e400b6d2f8ea

Hello world.

Hello world.