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Viatouch
Teacher Articles
Teaching Tips
Not ROFL: Tips for Text Messaging Prevention
by Gabrielle Linnell
On my first day of Precalculus class as a junior in high school, I heard the clickety-clack of what I assumed to be my neighbor's calculator. I looked over—nope, wasn't a calculator. It was a cell phone. This kid next to me texted throughout the entire lecture, and every lecture afterwards for about two weeks. The teacher never walked down the aisles to check on student behavior. Text Boy, as I called him, later dropped out.
Most teachers rue the day that the phone companies released text messaging into the world. Starting in middle school and ending who-knows-when, students seem to text from first bell to last. Besides the major annoyance of having lesson time interrupted, teachers also have a legitimate fear that students could be passing answers to quizzes and tests to their friends outside the room.
Yet because most instructors were raised in a world without cell phones and text messaging, they are unfamiliar with the many ways students can text without teachers noticing. Don't fall for it! Below are five tips for ensuring that the only communication your students engage in takes place verbally, and in good English.
- 1. Establish a communication policy with your students. Sometimes students are texting their parents because they need to be picked up earlier or have forgotten their lunch, etc. Tell them that, school rules permitting, they are allowed to use your office phone to call their parents if it's essential.
2. While watching movies or taking notes from a projector in class, make sure to turn off the lights. This makes it easier to see the lighted screens of cell phones.
3. Bulky objects on desks make for a perfect cover. Ask young women to place their purses by their feet. Request that all of your students keep their backpacks under the seat in front of them.
4. For smaller classes, a circular or semicircular shape (where the class is facing each other) is best because instructors can see all of their students and make sure that they are paying attention. For larger classes where this is impossible, make it a habit to walk the desk aisles every ten or so minutes.
5. Follow through with punishment. Make sure you know what the official school disciplinary procedure is for cell phone use and enforce it. Students will complain, but if you are following the official rules, they can't do much but comply.
Students aren't necessarily evil or disrespectful for text messaging. Think of it as a modern way to pass notes, except now they can pass notes with anyone in the world. As they learn and grow in a technologically advanced world, it is your job as the teacher to say when it is appropriate to text message and when it is time to turn cell phones off.
Looking to Improve Your Text Understanding?
If you've ever seen a text message, chances are you were flabbergasted. Text-lingo can seem like HTML programming, but it's actually quite simple. The key is abbreviation, and knowing popular abbreviations. Because most text messages only allow up to 180 letters or numbers, kids have to compress messages to get in what they want to say. Why can't they use this ingenuity in their homework?
Some basic text terms are…
LOL—Laughing Out Loud
ROFL—Rolling On [the] Floor Laughing
TTYL—Talk To You Later
CYS—See You Soon
JK—Just Kidding
BRB—Be Right Back
BFF—Best Friends Forever
BF—Boyfriend
GF—Girlfriend
OMG—Oh My God
C—See
2—to
4—for
B—be
Gabrielle Linnell is the editor of Innovative: A Word for the WriTeen, an e-zine for non-evil teenagers who love to write (innovativeteen.blogspot.com).
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