Little Noises

Thursday was basically a repeat of Wednesday. (Although, the boy chose to ask me to move to the back of the room rather than telling me he was sitting there. Better approach, and I rewarded him accordingly.) Well, mostly.

The last two groups of the day were the orientation class. This is the first class that students new to the continuation high school take. They do packet work, some barreling through many assignments while others stare at walls and get next to nothing done. No matter which option they choose, they are supposed to sit there silently, and for the most part they did.

Then the drops started.

I'm pretty sure it was this one girl. She informed me that she was done with everything. I told her to go on to the next chapter. She didn't believe that she should. (I'm familiar with the class. The next chapter was the next assignment.) So, instead she played with her lips.

Then on the other side of the room, a boy developed a sinus issue. He blew his nose, but then he continued to sniffle. Loudly. Every two minutes. And it didn't sound like he was clearing anything.

Neither of these things should have bothered me. But since the rest of the class was silent, it was hard to ignore them.

Then my cell phone started buzzing.

Oops.

When students use cell phones in class, there are consequences (here's another example). So, I keep my phone out of sight and silent during class. I figure it's only fair, as that's the requirement for the students. And usually there are no issues.

But, I just got a shiny new phone, and I haven't figured it all out yet. I thought I had it on silent. I must have enabled some notification, because no one was calling and I had not received a text. (I checked after class.)

At least the students were nice enough not to call me on it. (Then again, I hadn't confiscated any of their phones. Of course, that's because they were smart enough to keep them out of sight.)