Classroom Management: Document Disruption

Video Transcript

"It is also essential, and in some courses and certain locations that I have taught, I have really had to deal with a lot of disruptive behavior and it becomes essential that even though you're doing all these tactics in the classroom to manage the disruptive behavior; if you have continued disruptive behavior from a certain group or a certain individual or a certain set of students, you need to document this. Every time Tom's cell phone rings in class, or every time Tom is late, or every time Sally and Susie engage in conversations while you're lecturing you need to make a note. I simply have a participation notebook and I have a very high participation grade in my course and I actually, every single day after class, give my students a plus or a minus for participation. And it is in that notebook that I make notes. You know, "John texting again, John texting again, Susie late again, Susie late again." You know, whatever it is. And that way, because sometimes it might seem like it's happening all the time, or it might be happening all the time and you might not really be aware of it. That way by midterm you can take a look at it and see, "Ok, this is a problem." And you can let the student know, "You know, you're grade is suffering because I've caught you text messaging six times so far in this semester and we're only halfway through." So, again, it helps you when you end up failing the student or the student gets an unacceptable grade and they come back, you've got everything documented. All the disruptive behavior."