Oblivious

Another subbing story from before the break. Because I might have more interesting stories from the break to tell next week... Well, maybe I'll just take a week off or something.

English class at the continuation high school. We were to read a story from their textbook. To encourage students to volunteer to read, I was to keep a list of those who read so they could get participation points.

Amazingly, I had volunteers. I even had the whole class' attention...

...Except for Sam. He was obviously on his cell phone--talking back to the video he was watching. And totally oblivious to the fact that I had completely stopped and was focused solely on him.

I told him to go to the office and turn in his cell phone.

"But you said you were taking volunteers to read..."

Me: "Which doesn't mean you don't pay attention. You still need to follow along."

Sam: "OK. I'll put my phone away. Give me one more chance..."

Never, ever give "one more chance". I learned this lesson the hard way. If one student talks you out of a consequence, the others see this and know that they can, too. I mean, you already let Sam keep his phone. I should keep my phone.

(Which is why I usually start with a warning. "If I see it again..." I don't usually have to pull the trigger on that one. But Sam wasn't surreptitiously sneaking a look. He didn't accidentally have his phone out. He was blatantly ignoring what he was supposed to be doing, not even pretending to pay attention. This was not a warning situation.)

I went back to teaching class. Sam remained in his seat. When we got to a natural pausing point, I went to the phone and called the office. Only then did Sam get up. And slam the door on his way out.

And he never returned to class.

I forgot to follow up, so I don't know what happened to him. (It was one of those days where I was busy in class after this.) But I did put the incident in my note. Because I do that.