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[karmie]

Of course I have a way of knowing who is on the other end of the phone--I ask! "Is that an emergency? OK, grab your bag and go. Ask another student for the notes, see you Tuesday."

I was sorely tempted to add "If you leave the classroom to answer your cell-phone, you may not return for the remainder of the class period" to my syllabus because last semester I mandated that if a call received (and it was an emergency), the student had to leave the classroom to answer it.....and I had people leaving for 10-20 minutes at a time and some who would answer multiple calls throughout a call period.  It was a freaking parade of students coming in and out half the time in class! Moreover, my CC has no honor code and asking "Is that an emergency?" to a student answering a cell-phone will result in the answer always being a "Yes" with no way of being able to ascertain if that answer is the truth (in truth, it shouldn't be my job to track down untruths except when they occur in essays).

What keeps me from adding the aforementioned clause to my syllabus is the following hypothetical situation: What if a parent received a phone call from, say, the spouse, informing the student that he/she will be working late and the student needs to pick up their child from school/daycare/etc.  That conversation could easily take place in the span of 2 minutes.  The student could therefore step outside, know to swing by the school to pick up Jenny after class, and be back in his/her seat within, say, 4 minutes.  If this call took place at the beginning of class, asking the student to leave would rob him/her of the majority of the class period and all the learning that would have taken place in that time. 

Am I too much of a bleeding heart? Would any one else have a problem enforcing the "no re-entry" rule for the above example? 

[concordancia]

What keeps me from adding the aforementioned clause to my syllabus is the following hypothetical situation: What if a parent received a phone call from, say, the spouse, informing the student that he/she will be working late and the student needs to pick up their child from school/daycare/etc.  That conversation could easily take place in the span of 2 minutes.  The student could therefore step outside, know to swing by the school to pick up Jenny after class, and be back in his/her seat within, say, 4 minutes.  If this call took place at the beginning of class, asking the student to leave would rob him/her of the majority of the class period and all the learning that would have taken place in that time. 

Am I too much of a bleeding heart? Would any one else have a problem enforcing the "no re-entry" rule for the above example? 

This is what voicemail is for.

[caravaggiojr82]

What keeps me from adding the aforementioned clause to my syllabus is the following hypothetical situation: What if a parent received a phone call from, say, the spouse, informing the student that he/she will be working late and the student needs to pick up their child from school/daycare/etc.  That conversation could easily take place in the span of 2 minutes.  The student could therefore step outside, know to swing by the school to pick up Jenny after class, and be back in his/her seat within, say, 4 minutes.  If this call took place at the beginning of class, asking the student to leave would rob him/her of the majority of the class period and all the learning that would have taken place in that time. 

Am I too much of a bleeding heart? Would any one else have a problem enforcing the "no re-entry" rule for the above example? 

This is what voicemail is for.

Strict rules regarding cell phones are necessary. When a phone rings, there's (pretty much) no way to know whether or not it's an emergency (and our students tend to have fairly elastic definitions of that word). My rule regarding cell phones says that cell phones are not allowed and should not be visible/audible during class time. I really don't think this is unreasonable: if a specific student, on a specific day, wants me to make an exception for a specific reason--well, sure, probably I will. But by and large I tell my classes that they should not know whether or not their phone is ringing/has rung until after class when they turn it back on (not on vibrate, I tell them, turn it OFF; they still make noise when they vibrate). I've found that strict policing of this during the first couple classes of the semester pretty much establishes with students that they will be "called out" for any infractions. I know, I know, easier said than done. I hate cell phones.

[yellowtractor]

My rule on cell phones is that if they ring during class, I get to answer them.  At least after a first warning.

I've had some interesting, public conversations with mothers, lovers, et al.  And one emergency, yes.

So when students do something they should not you point it out and ask them not to do it. And you do so right away. It isn't turning your classroom into the 4th grade if you talk to them respectfully and like adults. Humor is good too. Mild embarrassment is an effective teaching tool. Sometimes you need more than mild, and if a student won't accept your rules you suggest that perhaps college, or at least your class, is not a good place for them.

This approach solves a high percentage of classroom problems in every setting I've been in.

[karmie]

This is what voicemail is for.

D'oh! Concordancia, in one sentence you very soundly defeat my argument.  I feel foolish for not having thought of voicemail as a solution before now.  Everyone else is quite right as well: unless the policy on cell-phones is strict and well enforced, cell-phone usage can easily get out of hand in a classroom.

Thanks for returning me to reality, fora.  As an undergraduate, I was the primary caretaker of my uncle as he slowly wasted away from cancer. The following year (while I was still in school), my father's health took a turn for the worse and he too passed away under my care. Then, in graduate school, my mother was in the ICU for several weeks because of an aneurysm and I was shuttling back and forth from school to the hospital.  Throughout all of those illnesses, I always had my cellphone clutched in my lap during classes, ready to run out the door if the hospital called to tell me "It's time." 

*sigh* I often take for granted that students define "emergency" the same way we do.

[mystictechgal]

This is what voicemail is for.

D'oh! Concordancia, in one sentence you very soundly defeat my argument.  I feel foolish for not having thought of voicemail as a solution before now.  Everyone else is quite right as well: unless the policy on cell-phones is strict and well enforced, cell-phone usage can easily get out of hand in a classroom.

Thanks for returning me to reality, fora.  As an undergraduate, I was the primary caretaker of my uncle as he slowly wasted away from cancer. The following year (while I was still in school), my father's health took a turn for the worse and he too passed away under my care. Then, in graduate school, my mother was in the ICU for several weeks because of an aneurysm and I was shuttling back and forth from school to the hospital.  Throughout all of those illnesses, I always had my cellphone clutched in my lap during classes, ready to run out the door if the hospital called to tell me "It's time." 

*sigh* I often take for granted that students define "emergency" the same way we do.

In all three of these cases I think that if you had spoken to the professor and explained the situation s/he probably would have not a problem exempting you from a policy that says the phone must be turned off.  The same would be true if, say, a male student had a wife who was nearing term on her pregnancy.  Just because you have a policy against phones does not mean that you cannot waive it for someone if special circumstances warrant it. 

[alleyoxenfree]

This is what voicemail is for.

D'oh! Concordancia, in one sentence you very soundly defeat my argument.  I feel foolish for not having thought of voicemail as a solution before now.  Everyone else is quite right as well: unless the policy on cell-phones is strict and well enforced, cell-phone usage can easily get out of hand in a classroom.

Thanks for returning me to reality, fora.  As an undergraduate, I was the primary caretaker of my uncle as he slowly wasted away from cancer. The following year (while I was still in school), my father's health took a turn for the worse and he too passed away under my care. Then, in graduate school, my mother was in the ICU for several weeks because of an aneurysm and I was shuttling back and forth from school to the hospital.  Throughout all of those illnesses, I always had my cellphone clutched in my lap during classes, ready to run out the door if the hospital called to tell me "It's time." 

*sigh* I often take for granted that students define "emergency" the same way we do.

In all three of these cases I think that if you had spoken to the professor and explained the situation s/he probably would have not a problem exempting you from a policy that says the phone must be turned off.  The same would be true if, say, a male student had a wife who was nearing term on her pregnancy.  Just because you have a policy against phones does not mean that you cannot waive it for someone if special circumstances warrant it. 

And in those cases, I ask students to set it on "vibrate" and to sit near the door.  Same thing if a student tells me beforehand that they need to leave a class early and they have a good reason.  I say "sure," and ask them to slip out discreetly from near the door.

[doggrrl]

So I was going through my new stricter course policies during our first class of College Success this week, when a woman (who had been giving me her bored face during the first half of class) raises her hand and asks when she gets to eat. I asked what she meant. She went on to say that she has 3 classes in a row, each with only 10 minutes in between. She said, "I don't want to be late, but I'm just saying that I'm going to need to eat at some point." A couple of the other students laughed and one suggested she eat before she leaves, to which she replied she did, but she drove across town and so had to leave at 7:30 am.

I suggested protein bars or something simple and unobtrusive to eat, but I was taken aback by her question regarding the classes she presumably chose. Then I thought and realized perhaps she was fresh out of high school and never dealt with the "freedom" of college. But I predict she'll be gone by midterm.

[melba_frilkins]

So I was going through my new stricter course policies during our first class of College Success this week, when a woman (who had been giving me her bored face during the first half of class) raises her hand and asks when she gets to eat. I asked what she meant. She went on to say that she has 3 classes in a row, each with only 10 minutes in between. She said, "I don't want to be late, but I'm just saying that I'm going to need to eat at some point." A couple of the other students laughed and one suggested she eat before she leaves, to which she replied she did, but she drove across town and so had to leave at 7:30 am.

I suggested protein bars or something simple and unobtrusive to eat, but I was taken aback by her question regarding the classes she presumably chose. Then I thought and realized perhaps she was fresh out of high school and never dealt with the "freedom" of college. But I predict she'll be gone by midterm.

I've seen this sort of thing before. What gets me is that the student expects you to accommodate them somehow, when the student ultimately is responsible to accept or reject a given schedule. Worse yet than the "when can I eat" problem was at a previous place I worked, the registration system allowed students to enroll in classes with overlapping time slots. Students would have the attitude that I should just accept that they are arriving late/leaving early because the other class is important to be in. Well, yeah, but who made that goofy schedule in the first place?