Hello, hello!

Hi,colleague! Yes! I'm against phone in the classroom. I confess I do agree with those teachers who think students get distracted by their cell phones and it ends up making it more difficult for them to produce in class. So I was searching the Net about ways to solve this problem: how can I "get rid of" (or at least try to) my students' mobiles. I got surprised by some ideas which were given and among them, I picked mine. I have to say some of the suggestions seemed too radical for me,for example, a teacher who said he would answer the student's phone in front of the class in case it rang...or the one who said he would ask the student to read the content of the message out loud. There was also one who suggested a fine if the phone rang during the lesson. Well, in case you're curious about the one I chose, there you go: A box to collect the phones. Simple as that. Anyway, colleague, something important to keep in mind is that we need to make it clear for them that we do not approve cell phones in class. Let's see how my teens will react to that. Have a nice weekend!

About teens and cell phones in the classroom...

Hi, there!A problem I had last semester and I'll probably have this one is dealing with cell phones in the classroom. My teen students insist on checking messages they receive during class and even though I call their attention, it continuously happens... this is why I'm trying to find ways to avoid the use of cell phones during the lessons (my next post!). So today I started searching on the Net about this matter and I found an interesting article (www.theatlantic.com) which brings the reality in most American High Schools nowadays. By reading it, I could understand the issue is still polemic once some education writers state that cell phones can be useful in class and that it has some benefits, such as giving students a chance to collaborate with each other,serving as a recording device or as notepads. But according to the article, none of these can overcome one very basic disadvantage which is that cell phones distract students from schoolwork and class activities. Besides, still based on the article, Peter Bregmen (Harvard Business Review Blog Network) wrote that multitasking can reduce productivity by as much as 40%, increase stress and cause a 10-point fall in IQ. Wow!

" I know what you did last summer!"

Hello! Yesterday I was looking for an activity which I could apply to my students on our first day of classes. I was amazed by how many options and ideas we can find on the Net! Not only regular sites but also interesting videos about it. I thought about an activity that I could use with my teen students and then I kinda mixed two activities I had found on the Net and created a new one: "I know what you did last summer! Everybody remembers this film (not one of my favorites though) but teens usually like horror movies and they'll probably remember it. Well, I told them it was acually a game and they were supposed to write three sentences related to something they did last summer but they shouldn't tell or show anybody. I took part of the game as well and it was pretty funny. The objective of the game is to find out the three activities written by the other student. SO as we were in a trio, I asked one student and he asked the other one and finally this one asked me simple questions like if I had been to the beach, for example. The first one to guess all the activities wins the game! Great way for warming up and talk about what we did last summer. Awesome for practicing Past Tense! Have a great start!