1st week

[jsadler]

Well, I made it through the first week of school, although it was really only a partial week. Monday was nothing for me, but I worked a half day and then watched a colleague's 2 kids in the afternoon so she could do CPR/First Aid class. Tuesday we had opening ceremonies, then the kids had a rotation of stuff to do, I headed home around noon to wait

Comments

[the_celestia]

Interesting about the iPads. I find them a horrible distraction in class, people are so very obviously not taking notes, they're crusing websites, posting to Facebook, etc and they aren't at all engaged in classroom discussion. In my first class they were allowed and there were times I had the instructor to myself as the only person in class not texting on a smartphone or iPad-ing the Internet.

In my current course, no computers, cellphones, smartphones, nor even calculators are allowed. Cellphones can be on vibrate only and you must go outside AND down the stairs to take a call. Absence more than 15 minutes from the classroom is an automatic zero for the day.

I find that a little over the top but I see where she's coming from, she became so tired of feeling ignored that she just eliminated all of it. The temptation is just too strong for the generation addicted to the i-device (two people were still texting away even after repeated announcements there was no smartphone use in the classroom).

[jsadler]

Yep, so far it seems that they take them out when I ask them to do so, and some have done some note taking on them, but not too much and they're seemingly engaged in class, but I'm definitely going to be watching and will not hesitate to make a kid put theirs away and take paper/pencil notes if I catch them using it inappropriately in class.

Some seem to think that they do not need to bring any other supplies to class which is ALSO a huge mistake. We'll get into that on Tuesday.

[rsheslin]

I have no idea if this would contain any relevant info for you, but Symantec is doing a free webinar about taming the "untethered" classroom: https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&eventid=512046&sessionid=1&key=913FF7DF8005904B45EF7847087AD83D&partnerref=eblast&sourcepage=register

[rsheslin]

And yes, a recording of the event will be available, since it's in the middle of the day.