I've had professors in college who would throw students out of the lecture hall for less, Hil.

You're the professor, Hil, you make the rules. I made a rule that there were no cell phones in class. If I saw a phone out, they lost class participation points.

Toss'em, Hil

put some clothes in the closet. washed the kitchen floor for the 3rd time. Put a bunch of stuff away

If it were a lecture hall, I wouldn't mind so much. But it's a regular classroom, with about 40 students.

There aren't any class participation points for me to dock.

Today, I noticed one of them starting to put the earphone in and pressing some buttons on her iPod, and I'd already commented at least once, so I just gave her a Look, mostly because I was getting sick of dealing with it, and the boy next to her nudged her and told her that I didn't want her to be listening, and she stopped. That was a little weird, but at least it was something.

Mal's TKD school does the hand-up thing, and it's really effective.

I think back to teaching problem high-school kids, and I'm not sure it would work with them, but they sometimes surprised me. It's worth a shot, and it feels more democratic than authoritative.

geeze hil, that's beyond distracting and disrespectful. i had plenty of profs with clauses in the syllabus about electronics. All cell phones/music players must be out of sight and silent. if the professor was made aware of such an item in any way (i.e ringing phone, clicking noises, etc) that item was immediately confiscated until the end of class. I thought that was a brilliant policy and we never had ringing phones in those classes. Tought to introduce mid-semester without seeming like you are targeting a specific student, but i'd want to yank those headphones off (and maybe an ear with them).

Definitely, Hil.

I'm only a substitute teacher, so I'm never really teaching, but I totally see that kids listening to music during class is not cool.

I always let kids work together or in groups when I'm substituting, but if a kid wants to work alone I do let them have their iPod out if they keep the music to a volume where no one else can hear it. I do take away phones when they play music on the speakers, though.

I haven't decided yet if I should let them text or not. Part of me knows that in a real class they couldn't have them out, but the other half of me feels like a kid texting doesn't really bother anyone... I don't know.

I do the hands up thing with middle school and it works.

What's the hands up thing?

Oh, I've given up on telling them not to text during class. It's just too hard for me to see from the front of the room what everybody's doing.