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This is not a proud day for me. I have finally resorted to bringing my camera in to class to take pictures of sleeping or phone-using students. I am now trying to shame students into wakefulness. What's next; making students write, "I will not sleep in class." or "I will not use my phone in class." 50 times?
None of my teachers or university professors would have called me a dedicated student. Still, I never slept in class. The phone thing is moot of course, no phones were even marginally portable in the 80's.
Last semester, I had about 9 students miss their midterm or final written exam, meeting me just after the exam and giving the excuse, ' I slept in'. What is wrong with these people?
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4 comments:
Great blog. Yours is the first I've read from someone living in Gangwon Province. Stuck here in Seoul, I need to be reminded the better parts of Korea are outside the capital. Great idea on the camera/shame tactic! Now tell your students you'll be posting their photos on the internet! Haha. Keep posting.
maybe if you were a more interesting teacher students would not fall asleep during your class
Anonymous,
I'm not sure if you know what you are talking about.
I feel that I am usually a sufficiently interesting teacher, but students are required to take my class; it is not their choice and some of them make that very clear.
There is always room for improvement and I feel I have changed my teaching style for some classes. Still, my students, even those from the classes with sleeping students, have given me excellent evaluations.
I am a high school math teacher at an international school in Seoul. I understand your problem. Most of my students that fall asleep do so because they leave school at 3:30 pm go to hakwon until 8:30 or 9:00 pm and then go home and try to do homework for both institutions (this takes them until welll after midnight).
We actually had to insist that one student either withdraw from our school or stop attending the hakwon. Incredibly, his parents withdrew him.
Regarding those who "slept in", I have at least 1 student late everyday for that reason.
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