Multitasking in the Classroom

As I read this week's chapter I thought about attention and multitasking. I thought about how difficult I find concentration if there is a lot going on around me. For example, I do not like to do any school work in a coffee shop because I get too distracted. Also, when reading, even for pleasure, I like silence. I find talking or music distracting and I feel that it takes away from what I am trying to do. Then I think about myself as both a student and a teacher. During my undergraduate years I found myself trying to figure out the best note taking strategy during lecture. In some classes this was easy because they teacher just said what was on the powerpoint plus possibly a little example, and I found this easy to write down and comprehend. In other classes, the teacher would use a PowerPoint but not say one word of what was on it, and I found that I struggled to figure out what to write down. I struggled firstly, because I did not know what was more important to remember for studying later, and secondly because I would forget what the teacher would say and when I looked back up at the PowerPoint there were no words to jog my memory of what was just said. Thinking about how difficult this was as a college student, who was in school because I wanted to learn, not because someone was making me go to school, I can now see why some students may be reluctant to take notes. They don't know what to write down. They don't know what is important. They don't know what to pay attention to, and their attention is usually divided between the teacher and other students in the classroom. I just wonder how we can fix this multitasking that goes on in the classroom? Some multitasking is inevitable, so what is the best way to deal with it?

Defense

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog!
I wanted to reflect on two questions from the reading that we did this week:
Have you consciously used strategies to address emotion?
What will you be doing differently as a result of reading this chapter?

In regards to the first question I have consciously used strategies to address emotion in the classroom. I have tried to pay close attention to my tone when talking to student, especially ones that are off task. When I see a student that is off task, instead of saying an accusatory comment I try to ask them politely what they are doing or why they are not doing their work. Typically the non accusatory tone of voice that I use earns me a pleasant reaction and an honest answer from my student. One particular instance where I really noticed the difference tone can make was yesterday at the end of the day. At my school we have two bells at the end of the day. The first bell is for bus riders and the second is for walkers. Well, the first bell had rung so many of my students left the classroom, but I noticed that a student that is not in my 7th hour class decided he wanted to sit in my room until the second  bell rang. When I saw him I instantly said, "Why are you in here?" in kind of an aggressive tone. He quickly responded in the sassy teenage fashion, "because I can be." When I realized what happened and how my tone had come across, I said, "I wasn't trying to accuse you of anything I was just asking a question" and his whole demeanor changed. When the student realized that I wasn't accusing him but simply asking a question he became less defensive and actually smiled (a student that rarely smiles).

After this experience I noticed how important tone of voice is when questioning students, and I will always pay attention to my tone when addressing students in the future.