5 . . . "Freewrite for 5 minutes, anything you want to write about. Come on guys, we do this every day. This isn't new."
4 . . . "Writing doesn't involve talking. You guys are adults. I shouldn't have to keep saying this."
3 . . . "Stop," said to student writing on neighbor's notebook. "But it's true," said student. "But you're not in 5th grade."
2 . . . "I don't teach 4 year olds anymore."
1 . . . I flashed the lights to get their attention because they did not stop talking when I said to.
Explosion!!!!!
"This talking while I'm talking, while your classmates are presenting, and while you're supposed to be writing is going to stop now. It will not happen again. Not only is it disrespectful to me and your classmates, but you're paying to be here. I don't assign busy work. Every assignment I give is related to you passing this class, either directly by allowing you to work on your essay or indirectly by having you do something that can be applied to your essays. All you are doing by talking is guaranteeing that you will fail this class. If you don't want to be here, then don't come, but stop wasting my time and yours."
Yes, I teach writing in college.
3 comments:
Ahhh, I'm so glad you have some other place than me to vent this shit (albeit funny, but shit, because everyone deals with shit) to. I love you
-Husband
I had this same thing happen!! And I was so irritated that my students were getting so out of control, so check this out: I went home, and made up a six question quiz on the reading things we've talked about in class, and a hard bonus question (to see who was REALLY reading). Then I went in to class on Friday and said: "Okay everyone. This talking and text messaging and sharing phone photos is ridiculous. If you don't respect me enough to listen when I'm talking, then I can't respect you either. And my not respecting you involves not telling you in advance when we have a quiz so that you can study. Pop Quiz."
They did not fare well.
Now they are so quiet when I talk I can hear a pin drop. The downside is they don't really ask questions now--but they didn't ask too many before, either. Which brings up the question: How do we stimulate classroom discussion in "rowdy" classes without having them chit-chat amongst themselves?
wow. thats a pretty icky situation, i have had similar things happen to me. i had one class w/ a MAJOR clown who sat in the back row. he seemed to spark EVERYONE in the room up. on days when he wasnt there, things were fine, but if he was there- all hell broke loose.
i actually went in the 2nd or 3rd week and did a seating chart. they hated it, but i loved it. i'd write their names on yellow sticky notes and each week rearrange the room. they got the point and i think it acutally helped them to talk to people they wouldn't normally have talked w/.
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