soapsydaisy
Well-Known Member
I don't know your teaching style obviously. However, when I was in school, we had one teacher who was very quiet when he spoke. It made you pay attention because you had to in order to get what he was saying. And if he was going to take something, he just did it, as he quietly and patiently kept on talking. Maybe have a box and tell them, "If I catch you texting, I will come around with the box and you will put your phone in it until the end of class. There will be no discussion but there will be detention for arguing." I don't know what the rules are for teacher conduct anymore, but it's small problems like this one that made me not want to be a teacher.
I work with students that have learning disabilities, oppositional defiance, ADHD, conduct disorders and probation officers! I don't have a lot of behavior issues in the classroom usually. They know if they hand their phones over w/o a fight they will get it back but for some of them their 1st instinct is to fight it. I think some of them are so alienated from regular society that their phones are their only link to normalcy.
It is quite sad actually, some of the students that receive free and reduced lunch have new Iphones and Jordans but say they can't afford to buy a notebook or pencils :-(