Because It Is the First Day of the Spring Semester…

…and I think this is a worthwhile message to send to all students.

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15 Responses to Because It Is the First Day of the Spring Semester…

  1. 1
    Tom Smekens says:

    Can’t see the video, it just takes me to the bing front page :V

  2. That’s strange, Tom. When I click on the link, it takes me straight to the video, but here is the link, in case it works better this way: http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/teachers-texting-policy/203hnkjy

  3. 3
    Tom Smekens says:

    Nope, still nothing. I guess I need to be logged in or something.

    Or maybe it’s due to how the site redirects me to “be.bing.com”….

  4. 4
    Sylvia Sybil says:

    It makes me cringe to see the destruction of other people’s property being glamorized like this.

  5. 5
    Eytan Zweig says:

    @4 – What about this movie glamorizes the destruction of other people’s property?

    I mean, it’s a movie about someone destorying their own property under the pretense of it being someone else’s property. This is clearly being done for shock value. The whole point of the movie would be lost if it took the stance that destroying other people’s property is appropriate.

  6. 6
    Eytan Zweig says:

    I have to say, though, thinking of my own experience as a student and as an educator, that the stance taken here is ablist. I have an attentional disorder and would never have been able to complete my undergraduate studies – let alone my PhD – if I were not allowed to play with electronic devices during classes (I find it very difficult to maintain focus unless my fingers are moving). That said, I never texted in class as an undergrad, but I did play a lot of games on my old nokia phone while in lectures. I doubt the professors were able to tell the difference.

    In my own teaching, at least for classes involving more than 10 or so students, my stance is that students are adults and are free to be as attentive as they want to be. They are not free to disrupt others.

  7. Eytan:

    I have to say, though, thinking of my own experience as a student and as an educator, that the stance taken here is ablist.

    I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you are right.

  8. 8
    Sylvia Sybil says:

    @ Eytan

    He smashes a phone with a sledgehammer and then asks if there are any questions about texting in class. I find that pretty threatening regardless of what follows after. If he was my teacher/professor, I’d be wondering how much of this skit was a joke and how much was a “joke on the sly”. Fear is not conducive to learning.

    students are adults and are free to be as attentive as they want to be. They are not free to disrupt others.

    Pretty much exactly how I feel.

  9. 9
    Eytan Zweig says:

    Sylvia – I agree with you that his initial actions are intimidating. I just don’t think intimatidation = glorification.

  10. 10
    Elusis says:

    I have an attentional disorder and would never have been able to complete my undergraduate studies – let alone my PhD – if I were not allowed to play with electronic devices during classes (I find it very difficult to maintain focus unless my fingers are moving).

    And no teacher who understands their responsibilities to students would deny a student that with a properly-submitted letter of accommodation. No teacher should have to ignore students breaking the rules of their class because maybe they might have a disability but they don’t actually know.

    Also, what’s wrong with a koosh ball or other “stim toy”? That’s what our kids who needed stim used in Day Treatment for years because electronic devices were too distracting for the other kids (set up battles over “why can he have a Game Boy and I can’t,” drew their attention to the game rather than class, set up potential issues of theft/bullying, etc.)

  11. 11
    Eytan Zweig says:

    My letter said that I have a learning disability and need more time at exams. Which was useless to me since I actually am a very fast exam solver. It did not describe the tactics that actually worked, because the people writing the letters were following policies that help the majority of learning disability sufferers, not individual cases. I don’t blame them, but I had to develop my own coping mechanisms.

    What’s wrong with a Koosh ball? I have no idea, since I have no idea what one is. I learnt to make do with what was at hand. I did not have a stim toy, I had a cellphone. I’m not saying that my coping mechanisms were ideal; I’m saying they worked.

    Obviously, now that I’m on the other side of the fence, I entirely agree that it’s not my responsibility to predict every possible student need without being informed of them. But then, I also don’t think there’s any need to make a spectacle out of proper class behaviour. If a student is acting in a way that is disruptive or distracting, I talk to them about it, and see if they have a good reason. I don’t need a letter – I need evidence that the student had a reason other than disrespect for the class.

  12. 12
    Sylvia Sybil says:

    @ Eytan

    I saw glorification in the message surrounding the video, with the OP calling it “a worthwhile message” and the video host calling the professor “wise”.

  13. 13
    Elusis says:

    Eytan – I’m really sorry that whoever wrote your accommodations letter didn’t do a better job of tailoring it to fit your needs. That’s incredibly frustrating and unfair to you. I’m glad you had something that worked and didn’t get hassled about it.

    This is a koosh ball. When I was working Day Treatment a lot of the kids with attentional issues found them helpful. Others preferred “stress balls” (those gel or sand-filled balls you can squeeze) but occasionally one would rupture and make a mess and interrupt class so we tried to offer kooshes first. One kid had a sponge toy he liked, another had a flat “worry stone,” and another liked a Rubik’s cube – the problem was that it needed both hands so he couldn’t stim and do any written work at the same time.

    I did a LOT of meetings with public school staff where we had to patiently explain to them that yes, this “toy” was a valid accommodation that was going to go on the kid’s IEP and would come with them as they were re-integrated into a regular school setting. And no, teachers could not take it away as punishment for mouthing off or not handing in work, only for using it inappropriately like throwing it.

    I think we would not have advocated for a kid to have access to a cell phone, or it at least would have been very very different circumstances, like needing a speech-to-text translation aid or something.

  14. 14
    Eytan Zweig says:

    Elusis – the thing with the people diagnosing me was that at the time I was diagnosed, when I was 13 or so, I was an A student. I didn’t need to spend a lot of time paying attention in school to get good grades – I got good grades because I was a voracious reader and because I was well liked among the faculty. I am not a representative case of a student with learning disabilities.

    It was only in higher education when I started needing to listen in classes in order to learn, and my use of a cellphone as a learning aid was something I developed in university, as an adult. I got my first cellphone at the age of 22. I also teach at the university level. My students are adults, just like the ones in the video.

    @ Sylvia – Thanks for explaining, though I’d point out that the OP and the people on the website knew that the professor in the video destroyed his own property. I think everyone would have reacted differently had they been under the impression it was an actual student’s phone.

  15. 15
    Elusis says:

    Eytan – I hear what you are saying- I teach graduate school now myself, and I have had a number of very bright students in analogous circumstances. I despair at the kind of rote/stock accommodation letters I get for students – “more time on assignments” is not a cure-all (and in fact makes things worse for some students, as eventually there is an end point to the quarter…) There is a part of me that relishes pushing back at universities who say they support students with disabilities, until doing so would actually require them doing something. This week I think we have triumphed at getting a Deaf student the support she needs to do a clinical role play with hearing students via web cam and online conferencing… but I will knock wood lest I jinx it.

    But anyway, I still wouldn’t let students use a phone during an in-person class without an accommodation letter, and I disagree that the video was ableist for trying to hyperbolically “dramatize” a professor’s “no phones” policy. :-/