The Art of Classroom Behavior | The Reschool'd Podcast

Welcome to the Reschooled Podcast, the show that discusses all the things that schools

may have missed with your hosts, AJ Couttee and Jason Gordon. Hey everybody, welcome back. If you're a first time listener, welcome. We are the Reschooled

Podcast, the show that discusses the things that schools may not have prepared you for. As always, I'm AJ, sitting across from me, as always

Jason, Jason, how you doing? Doing great, AJ. Happy to be here. You know, we had a fun weekend this past weekend, and we were watching these movies

Have you ever tried to convince your kids of something completely ridiculous to see

how much they'd believe? Pretty much every day, I think. I'll give you my example, because I love this until, obviously, my wife had to ruin it

because she didn't want to keep going on with the joke. But have you ever seen the movie Aladdin

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so for those who don't know, AJ stands, my first name is Ali

So Ali John, A-L-I. And so in that movie, when I was a kid, I was joked a lot

I was, I think, in kindergarten when that movie came out. So Prince Ali was a big thing that they joked me about

And at the time, I didn't know how cool that was if you were a prince. But I didn't like it

Well, the new live action one came out. And so we were watching it

And I finally convinced my kids that that movie was about me

Like, Daddy used to be, because my name's Ali and they know that. I said daddy used to be a prince that had a tiger and I was going to marry this woman named Jasmine but then I fell in love with mom and I gave all of that away all of my money my riches my tiger I gave it all away to go marry your mom moved away from Agrabah exactly and they're like really not and then the movie came on and they started singing that Prince Ali and they were like oh it really is you and I'm like yes it really is me and then finally my wife was like it is not he didn't have any

tigers. I'm like, why do you have to do that? I had them. I had them going for a while

That is the best ruse going I've ever heard. That's a good one. That was great. Did you have one

I've never anything like that. I just, I use sarcasm a lot. So I say the most random off

the wall things as if they were fact to my kids. My eight year old now has picked up on it 100%

Right. So every time I do it, she's just like, she rolls her eyes like a 14 year old

And, you know, and I think the five and a half year old, she's just everything just flies over her head at this point

So I've got my kids. I'm so afraid that once they get to a certain age, because I say certain words, you're purposefully wrong to see if I can get them to grab onto it

So like the word iron, like when you're ironing your shirt, I just say earn

And so now they'll run to my wife and go, daddy's earning his shirt

And she'll go, are you kidding me? And I'm like, this is the greatest thing ever

You're creating things for your wife to correct. Exactly. This is the greatest thing ever. Well, that kind of actually goes into today's topic, which is etiquette

So tips and tricks. We're going to be talking about classroom etiquette and the best ways that you can be as a student within the classroom

So, Jason, does that sound good to you? I'm looking forward to it. Before we do, though, let me remind everybody, visit our website, reschool.com

That's reschool with a D, not an E-D. Visit our social media handles, Reschooled Pod on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram

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Let us know the things you want to hear about. That's how we form our topics. The things that you care about are the things that we want to talk about

So reach out to us. If you have something to celebrate, we'll do that, too. All right

So just let us know about your successes. Well, today's episode is dealing specifically with classroom etiquette, and we feel like this is a good topic for us to be able to discuss because we've seen it from both sides

We've seen the classroom etiquette side from the student's perspective, and now we're seeing it from the professor's perspective

So we can give you kind of both sides of that. But let's start off with a quick question, and that is, what's something that you've learned about the classroom as a professor that you had no idea about when you were a student

I had no idea exactly to what extent professors did not know what they were doing

That was supposed to be a secret. I wasn't expecting that one to come out. Right

Well, you know, we go to graduate school. We learn all these things. We work professionally and we see these things and we go into the classroom to teach them

But we are not taught to be teachers. Right. I mean, in primary school, middle school, high school, you had teachers who were taught how to teach

In college, you're not taught how to teach. You learn how to teach via practice

And having been taught so much, you start to replicate one professor you had at some point in time or one teacher you had or something like that

I always just thought, you know, professors, they just really know what they're doing, right? They are trained educators

Nope. They are trained in what they know, how they deliver that information to you

It's hit or miss. So I've struggled really hard over the years to try to be a better educator, not just a expert in the subject matter of delivering

That is a great one. My answer was as far away from that as possible. But that was a great one

I would say the thing that I've learned as a professor that I didn't know as a student would be that if you're trying to hide something as a student, nine times out of 10, the professor knows it

It's just a matter of how are they going to approach you or if it's just worth approaching you about it

You know, if a professor has a strict no cell phone policy and you're hiding it below the desk trying to text somebody, they know

Odds are they know. I mean, nobody looks at their crotch and smiles for no reason when they get a text

Sure. I mean, it's so easy to see things at the front of the room and all this stuff that happens like outside of class

You know, like they say a secret is only safe if, you know, only one person knows it

Exactly. Right. But anything that's going on outside of the classroom, these private discussions that happen on Snap or different, you know

Group meet. Group meet type things. There's always somebody in the class going to tell the professor

Oh, I'll give you one better. This is – that's perfect because in my class, I actually have a policy that I explained at the very beginning of the semester that because we're dealing with accounting

In accounting, we have whistleblowers. So whistleblowers are the tattletales. And there's a whistleblowers compensation in the real world

So if you come forward and your company or the company you're tattling on is found guilty of fraud, there's a compensation for that

I have a whistleblower's compensation in my class. So if somebody comes forward to me with people who are cheating, I'm going to give them an extra bump in their final grade as compensation for coming forward to it

So I usually tell them now they don't have to worry about my eyes being the only one trying to find you to see if you're cheating

Now everybody else has skin in the game to try and tell me if you're cheating. So if somebody texts them I tell them just shoot me the text I love to see the text And it gives them some extra bonus points at the end of the semester And man you talk about people trying to they really secretive about who they talk to after that

I can imagine. You make everybody the police force for you. Exactly. Less work I got to do

Yeah. Well, let's get into the main topic. And first question, and it's the same kind of question that we started with with the other Tips and Tricks series episodes

And that is what do we mean when we say classroom etiquette? Well, in my mind, if you want my definition of it, etiquette is anything regarding how you comport yourself from the moment you enter that classroom until the moment you leave

And anybody in that classroom is going to be affected by how you behave

OK, sometimes that's the things that you do and sometimes it's the things that you do not do that have an effect on others

OK, good etiquette, I would say, has a neutral to positive effect on others

Poor etiquette has a neutral to negative effect on others. And the neutral being the effect of it leads to some level of negative or wrongful perception about you

Even if it doesn't disturb the rest of the classroom, all of a sudden other people assume something about you that may not be accurate

Right. That may not put you in a positive light type scenario. So any of those things, I think, encompass the definition of etiquette in the classroom

So I looked up the definition of etiquette and it is said to be the customary code of polite behavior in society or among members of a particular profession or group. So if you put classroom in front of it, it would be in among the members of the classroom. So you're looking at polite behavior, custom, customary, a standard that's created as to what is polite behavior in the classroom

Now, there are so many ways to interpret that for different people and different personalities

So, for instance, if you're somebody that is typically loud, then that just means maybe calming it down for the people who are not so loud or don't take too well to that

If you're somebody that's quiet, it doesn't necessarily mean become loud. Being quiet isn't necessarily a bad thing

It can also go with an etiquette. So it's just a matter of understanding that there are people around you. There are people trying to learn around you and keeping yourself because, again, you're there to help yourself. But keeping that in mind and also keeping that in mind that there are other people around there learning as well. How are you going to conduct yourself in a manner that's not going to distract you or distract them or distract the professor

So I want to add to it, though, AJ, you know, there's that definition of just etiquette and politeness. Right. But if you look at other descriptions of etiquette, like you put the word professional in front of it, professional etiquette, it's more than just being polite to those you're interacting with professionally. Right

I mean, you actually, to show professional etiquette, you have to go a step beyond

You have to, at minimum, adhere to the standards that others expect of you

So all of a sudden, the perception of others, that third party matters. So in the classroom, if you apply that same standard, what's the perception of the professor of you

What is the perception of the other students of you? And that's why I go with how you act or how you don't act, because the student who will not respond to questions, the student who will not pay attention or give you any level or show any level of engagement when you're up there in the classroom

Right. You know, when we're trying to make eye contact to make certain there's understanding

If a student ignores me again, I could I can't say it's not being polite

Right. But I can say it's not adding anything. And my perception of that student is they're not engaged

They don't care. Like, why are they here? It actually takes away from the classroom experience because it distracts me in a way

So, again, I'm going to go with a really broad definition that says it's going to be anything you do or don't do

That's either going to have a positive or negative effect based upon the perceptions of others

All right. You got me on that one. We'll chalk that one up to you because I agree that that is a better definition because you are right

It is the standard within the room. It's almost like you've got to read the room to know because classroom etiquette for one professor could possibly be different than it is for another professor or another class

The expectations change across classrooms. I mean, I think we've – any one of us who's been in a classroom at any point in time, at any level of school, the expectation of the teacher is going to be different

Yeah. I mean, we've had those classrooms where the teacher is a little rowdy, right, loves for you to talk, loves for you to get involved

And we've had other classrooms where it's a dry, more formal classroom where you're watching the professor demonstrate something, for example

And, you know, those are complete opposite ends of the spectrum. Yeah. But each one has this expected level of decorum and what they would consider as being appropriate etiquette for that situation

All right. Well, let's get into our tips and tricks. And I'm sure that this is going to create more questions as we go through these

But let's see how many we can get through because I think there are a lot of them that, again, we can see from the professor's side and we've seen from the student's side that hopefully it'll help the listeners as they go through their classes

I guess I'll start. And my first one is probably a no-brainer

You would think it's a no-brainer, but it happens a whole lot

And that is just be punctual. Get to class on time. I believe it was Vince Lombardi who said, if you're early, you're on time

If you're on time, you're late. And if you're late, don't even worry about coming. Yeah, and I love that quotation

I'm a firm believer in that. To me, as a professor, I always tell my students, I get to class 15 minutes early

One, because I want to get set up. I don't want to be late. But two, it also gives me a chance to just kind of shoot the bull with them, get them out of the monotony of class, kind of get them out of their anxiety before classes start

and just talk about, you know, stupid things like whether it's sports on or, you know, how their day going or if there was a holiday, what they do

It kind of eases the tension before class begins. And you can't get that if you're not punctual

You can't get that if you're running late. And then also if you're running late, then you're going to be disrupting everybody as you walk in, getting your papers together, making all that noise

It's just a big disruption. So I would say I'll take it a step further

Don't be punctual, meaning don't come on time, come early. because that will help you, the professor and the other students to not have to worry about distractions

I agree with that. That's a pet peeve from my point of view as well. Students show up, disturb the beginning of class because class does begin at when that when the time when the class period hits

That's when I begin talking. Right. That's when I begin delivering information to students

if you come in at that time, if you're still getting set up and you're at a bare minimum

going to need to do something. Some people pull out computers and, you know, get those fired up

and a new Word document or Excel spreadsheet or something like that pulled up. That takes time

That takes effort. Sometimes computers make noise when they crank up. Oftentimes you have to get

your computer plugged in and all of the all of that is a distracting element for your other students It a distracting element for the professor You don want to waste that class time right So you don want to disturb others

So showing up early, preparing early, right? That's great advice. I'm with you on that one, AJ

That was a beginning point for etiquette. So just have you ever had the students that either came in super late

or just didn't show up at all for that class, and then they email you and be like

hey, I missed this first part of class. Did y'all go over anything? All the time

Have you ever just wanted to email them back and go, nope, we waited on you, but you didn't show up

so we just called a class right there? What I normally get is the email saying, I couldn't make it to class today. What did I miss

Yeah. And I don't even know where to start. Well, you missed everything that was in the chapter that I had you read or in the work

that I had you to read, you missed, well, whatever we were going over that day. If we did any in-class

discussion exercises, if we, I don't even know where to start. I'd normally say, well, you

read the chapter and look at the syllabus. You'll see everything that we did today

It's because, you know, I have, it is my intention in the future to begin recording my classes. It

makes it very difficult. The cameras are not set up in a way where I can record everything that I do

So it makes it, you know, yeah, I walk around a lot, too. So that's that's tough for me

Right. That makes it tough. We just don't have that type of multi camera system that can catch you in different parts of the classroom where you're talking, how you're using your hands, how you're demonstrating things

Of course, you can record the slide and you can record your voice. I'm going to start trying to at least integrate that, recording my voice and allowing students to access that as part of the class session

You know, so when students do miss, they can at least get that aspect of it, even if it's not the full experience

That makes sense. Well, give us one of your tips. Well, I'm going to go to the other side of the classroom session

If you're going to show up early, also do not leave early

Yeah, that was actually one of my that's my next one. Oh, really

Well, it's not exactly that, but it has to do with that. Well, the thing is, you know, if you're going to leave the classroom early while the professor is still lecturing, while students are still working on things, it is likely going to disturb something

So prepare ahead of time. If you know you need to leave, clear it with the professor

The professor can do anything necessary to clear it with the classroom, right

If it's going to interrupt anything, if you're organizing the groups for whatever you're working on, that type of thing

Well, obviously, that needs to be taken into consideration. So make the professor aware

So do that before class early. If you can email the professor before class and let them know that because there could be exercises or things like that that go on in the classroom that the professor needs to prepare for

So that being said, and when you actually physically do stand up and leave that classroom, minimize distractions

That means if you get to choose your seats in the classroom, should you sit near the door

Yes, you should. Should you carefully pack up your thing so as to not make a lot of noise

Yes, you should. Right. Should you, once again, try to minimize the impact of having to, you know, break up whatever

is going on in terms of study groups and things like that? Yes, you should. Right

Which that means oftentimes letting your colleagues around you know that you'll be leaving, stuff

like that. All of that is just good etiquette. I mean, it's professionalism at its core

Yeah, mine actually, my next one was don't start packing up your stuff before the professor dismisses the class

Oh, yeah, that's a big thing too. Happens too much. Yeah, I mean, granted, when the class session ends and you have to go somewhere else, if the professor is still going, then, you know, really the professor needs to understand that there might be some interruption at that point in time

But you can show a little bit of etiquette and give as much deference to the professor as possible

But if it is going to make you late for the next class, then you very quietly pack up your stuff

And then you try to be very, again, cautious not to disturb whatever the professor is saying there at the end

Because if the professor keeps on going past the end of the class period, it's probably something that's pretty important to get out there

Right. So that being said, just try to show some level of deference and etiquette

And the professor equally should show a level of etiquette not to run over the class period in time because students do have follow on classes they need to attend

That's true. Yeah. I guess my next one would be and I said this before

I think it was the we're talking about what we what do we mean when we say classroom etiquette is to read the room

understand what the standards are and the etiquette expectations are within the classroom

with the professor that you're in because each of them are going to be different. I mean, I had

professors going through undergrad where they didn't care really about anything outside of just

teaching the stuff and it was just lecture-based and it was a very boring class. I had teachers that

wouldn't allow hats to be worn at all in the classroom. I had professors that looked to see

if you were dressed professionally within limitations. So they don't look for you to

come in a suit, but not to come in pajamas either. I've had different classes with different professors

and it's the understanding of the expectation of the class and to a certain degree of the other

students as well. So I would say my next tip would be understand and read the room

Absolutely. Every professor has a different level of expectation. Every class, you know, sometimes that changes with how the classroom is laid out, right

Sometimes that changes with how the professor delivers the lecture material. If there is a lecture at all, sometimes it's just group work with example and comment and

stuff like that. So I agree. Reading the room, understanding the professor's expectations

If you're a super prepared student, you should try to make contact with the professor ahead

of time. Ask them questions that you're curious about the class that you need to know ahead of time

Sometimes the professor doesn't require that you have a textbook or it's OK with you renting the text or having an older version of the text

Asking questions like that, but also ask the question, what is the class session going to be like

How do you teach? Is it going to be mostly lecture at the front of the classroom

Should I prepare, you know, to should I make notes and jot alongside those notes

Should I just prepare to listen to you talk the whole time? Should I, you know, whatever, right

The professors usually will be pretty straightforward and say, this is how I teach. This is what you can expect every time

One, it will quell your anxiety about the class. It will make you worry less when in terms of am I meeting standards or performance

So it'll just give you an overall sense of comfort and confidence. Yeah, there's no question

All right. You want me to jump in? Yeah, give us your next one. So this goes back again

we're kind of floating around the same point. Be personable with your colleagues in the classroom

and the professor. Yes, I love that one. There are going to be a lot of personality types in

the room Some are going to talk more than others Some are going to be more congenial than others That includes the professor right But to simply be a considerate person and say hello good morning good evening good afternoon whatever time of day right

introduce yourself, just be generally nice to people around you. Introduce yourself

that type of thing to the people around you is going to make for a better learning environment

You're going to feel more comfortable asking questions of the people you're sitting beside

You're going to feel more comfortable sharing information when sharing information is what

you want to do type scenario. So it's just going to improve the learning environment immeasurably

And, you know, in my definition of things you can do that will otherwise affect others or the

perception of others, I'm not telling you to talk all the time and potentially annoy other people

but try to be a good neighbor. Right. That's going to make a big difference for the classroom

etiquette overall. That one might actually be my favorite one because I take such a big

And I love that when students, myself and my students, have some kind of classroom relationship in that we just, like I said, I get there early so we can talk and chit chat

And it's not about the academic side, but I can learn about them. I can gain that relationship with them

And it makes class a whole lot better. It makes things go a lot better

I can joke with them. They can joke with me. That's kind of the class that I run

And I've said this before. I don't think you can learn if you're not having fun. So I try to have some kind of fun class

And the best way I could do that is to really understand you

And the only way to do that is if we have some kind of relationship or we engage in some kind of talk with each other

That makes complete sense. So we are on board or we are on the same page on that one

All right. Well, my next one is a fairly short one, and it's pretty much straight to the point

And that is, if you are going to fall asleep, don't be a snorer

it is sad how many times we've I've seen this and it is just you got to understand who you are

if you're somebody that snores then you're just not going to be able to fall asleep in class I'm going to go one step further and say don't fall asleep in class that's the obvious one I

mean there's there's no question that's on there but I'm just saying if you are if it's just going

to happen or you're afraid it's going to happen be sure not to be the snorer because depending on

what kind of professor you have, they could either get really mad or they can get really

excited because they're going to pull a joke on you somehow. Yeah. In the military, you'd get in big trouble if you fall asleep during some kind of presentation

or something like that, right? And you were constantly sitting in training sessions where it's death by PowerPoint

But you also got up at 4.30 in the morning so you could be in formation to do PT at 6 a.m

So it's not uncommon that after getting up early, exercising and then sitting, you know, eating breakfast, going to a very boring classroom to watch PowerPoints that you might fall asleep

But that is a huge no, no. So I tell my students, you have the option of doing as we do in the Army

If you think you're going to fall asleep, you stand up, walk to the back of the classroom and stand there

That's a good believe it or not. It is extremely difficult to fall asleep standing up

You know, so when I was in college, we had a class with, we used to say we had a class with a guy from the Clear Eyes commercial, you know, wow, clear eyes. That guy, his whole presentation was that. And it would get so boring. And so we would put our arm, we would bring a bottle of water and we would hang our arm off the desk. And so we'd put our head down, but we would hold the bottle of water because it is next to impossible to fall asleep while you're holding something and you're worried about dropping it

That's a great point. Great point. Probably not the best tips we're giving our students

So these are great tips. These are great tips. So our students may not fall asleep in our lectures

Hopefully we're not delivering the type of lectures. I know it's law and accounting, right

That's pretty boring. But hopefully we're delivering the lectures that is not going to make them fall asleep

Well, my next one is pretty straightforward as well. Um, it's do not distract others that are sitting around you

And normally that, that happens with talking to them, right? So when they're trying to listen, don't try to talk to other people and get their attention

One, it distracts the professor. We can see everything from the front of the classroom

Part two, if you're not allowed to use devices in the classroom, don't use devices and particularly

don't use devices in a way that is going to distract those around you. I mentioned in a

prior episode, we had a student who was watching a soccer match during the class. And everybody

behind them was also watching that soccer match on their computer. Well, needless to say, that

distracted everybody. And it was pretty obvious what was going on to me. So, you know, just to

avoid that situation. Don't do things that are going to take away the attention from the professor

at the front of the classroom or from the assignments assigned. Just be courteous in that

way to others and to the professor. Yeah, that's a big one because like Jason said

we know what's happening. We know what's going on. It's just a matter of are we going to bring

it up and distract the class even further? Or are we just going to let you kind of, because

especially in my class, if you're not paying attention, you're going to miss out on so much anyway, you're cooking your own goose. I mean, it's, I don't have to discipline you in any way

because you're disciplining yourself. My next tip is something that is huge for me in my class

because of my teaching style. And it is three words, participate, participate, participate

don't just sit there like a bump on a log because for me again I've said this many times I have ADD

ADHD like crazy and I have gotten into a pattern of teaching in the way I teach and I get going

very fast because if I try to slow down then my mind starts to wander and I start going off on

tangents so I go pretty quick I usually tell my students at the very beginning of class that

you're going to know what it's like to take a class with Buster Rhymes as your teacher because I go fast. And the way I try to combat that, or at least give myself and the students a break

is I usually ask, does anybody have any questions? Or does that make sense? Or, you know, kind of

just to check in with you to make sure things are not going too fast or things are going over your

head. And we like questions. If you have some kind of comment or question, I usually say

does anybody have any questions, comments, or snide remarks? Because I'll take them all. And I want that. I want that, one, I want the comfort level for my students to be able to ask

those questions. And I want to know where you're at. I want to know if I need to go back and recover

something, or do I just continue moving on? Because if you don't say anything, I'm just going to

continue moving on. I'm going to keep going at the same pace that I'm going at. So you really

need to step up. And also too, when you're doing problems, again, for my class, we do a lot of

problems, do the problems. Don't like when I say, okay, everybody do this problem and then we'll

take five minutes to do it and then we'll go over it afterwards. Don't just sit there for five minutes not doing a thing

Actually start trying to do it yourself because at least that's going to formulate some kind of question that you can ask if you don't know how to do something

But if you're just sitting there and waiting for me to give you the answer, then you're going to get that fallacy that we talked about previously of, oh, I can see how they're doing it on the board, so I must know how to do it

Right, which we've talked about before. Just like in mathematics, just because you see it happening on the board does not mean that you fully understand it and can do it yourself

Yes. Well, my next one is a little bit more targeted. You know, we always say, you know, pay attention, right

But here's one reason to pay attention. It is very disruptive to the professor and it is disruptive to the other students in the class when you ask questions that have already been answered

Oh, man, yes. So one student asks a question, I don't know, how you do a problem or what does this mean, that type of thing

You take the time to explain it. And then shortly thereafter, another student asked the exact same question

Verbatim, too. Verbatim. It barely changed at all. And usually my response is we answered that question just a few minutes ago

If you need the answer to that, talk to me after class. But I will caution you to please make certain you're paying attention because it distracts from the classroom when you ask things that have already been answered

And I don't do that every time. Right. You know, but sometimes it is just particularly egregious that the student is playing on their device

They're not paying attention to anything. And then all of a sudden they hear something out of the back of their mind and then they raise their hand and they ask this question

And you just want to ask, have you been paying attention at all this entire time

Yeah. Right. And so that's a big pet peeve for the professor. But you can also see, particularly the students who are more engaged to care more, it takes away from their learning experience. So once again, big adequate point. Don't ask questions that have already been answered, which means you have to pay attention to what has already been asked and answered

Side question that kind of goes with that. Can students ask too many questions in class

That is a good question I have had students who go overboard Now I was a big question asker in class always Right But I always felt like it was something that the professor wasn saying fully Right Or wasn putting out there clearly to the to the class

So I would ask questions just for clarification. Oftentimes I get students who ask tons of questions on things that are very simple. Right

Like procedural things or things that are just, it's just a definition that's right there in front of them in the book

The reason they're asking so many questions is they want to know this information, but they did not read the material at all

Yeah. Right. So, which, you know, gets to my very last point, which is prepared for class

If you've been assigned a chapter, read that chapter. If you're going to ask the professor to explain something, I already have an idea of what you're asking them to explain

But if I introduce a concept that is central to the material that we're learning and it was in the chapter

Right. And it was actually the focal point of the chapter. And I even gave you study outlines and it's right there throughout

Right. Explaining it. And then you ask the most basic question like, what is this

It shows me that you've put no effort into preparing for class

So questions like that. Yes, those are you should not ask those questions

Right. Not until you've put forward the minimum amount of effort required, because, again, what that does is it pulls everybody down in the class

It means I can't spend the class period going over the concept in more detail, giving examples and explaining it in a way that people who have already read it, who have an idea of it really want or need to understand it

I'm going back and telling you something that you could have read. And that's not only is it disrespectful. Once again, it takes away from the classroom experience

Yeah, I would say there is a line where you can ask too many

There's a line that you're asking great questions. And then there's a line where you're not asking any

And the thing for students is they need to be able to understand

is the question adding value to the class as a whole? If it's not, and it's something that you may have already gone over

and you're just not getting it, but it's already been answered in class

then that would be something where I would look at it and go, okay, I'll just ask the professor after class. I won't disrupt, you know, during class. I'll ask

him after class if we have any extra time you know when when everybody leaving But if it adding value I always tell students ask questions because I guarantee you if you too afraid to ask a question somebody else is too afraid to ask that exact same question So by you asking it it actually helping the entire class

But again, you got to ask yourself the question, is it already been asked

That's great. Great point. Well, I will give my last one and it's very quick one. And that is when you're in a class

where the professor is doing board work, so they're doing a problem on the board or some kind of drawn-out problems

typically in some kind of quantitative class, do not, this is probably my biggest pet peeve

do not pull out your phone and take a picture of it. That is, to me, one of the most disrespectful things you can do

because the professor just spent 20 minutes writing it on the board expecting you to follow with them

on your sheet of paper. And for you to just take out the picture

and take it, take out your phone and take a picture just shows that you didn't care about

any of the work that they just did. You're just going to look over it when you, you know, when you go home and study that one problem and assume that you know how to do it. And then you're

going to probably come back and ask those questions that have already been answered. That's a great point. You know, I don't do the type of demonstrations on the board. I don't work

through problems generally that way, unless every now and then I'm showing a calculation, maybe for

for employment, payroll tax withholding or something, you know, that type of thing. But

I don't do I don't do problems like that, but I never really thought that that would be something that would hurt professors

You know, I came through college when we didn't have cell phones in our pockets that had quality cameras on them

So that was not something I ever thought about or did. But that's a great point, AJ

No lie. Every single semester I've had that happen. Wow. Multiple students, not just one, but multiple students will just I will work out a lot

We'll go back to what you're saying. The payroll problem. Payroll tax problem. I will do this long payroll tax problem, how to do it, calculate it, how to put in journal entries, and four people in the back will take out a phone and click it

And that's their doing their notes. I will tell you one thing that I have had that happen

I show students how to calculate their average in the class because sometimes that basic mathematics escapes them

I guess they forgot what they learned in eighth grade. But I have to show them how to calculate what their average is in the class and if they make a certain grade

So I show them that and I sometimes include the GPA in there and show them how to calculate their GPA as well Because again I have no idea how they are in college and don know how to do this but they don

Right. And then they'll come up to the board and take a picture of it. And it perplexes me because this is such entry level mathematics

But luckily, I don't teach mathematics, so that's not an issue. Well, did you have any more before we leave

I think that's going to that's going to do it. Right. I mean, the only thing I want to do is just reiterate a few of these things

Right. In the event you don't know what to do, you are in the dark about the etiquette for the class

Start by preparing. Read the syllabus. Come to class and pay attention

And if you do those two things, you'll be way ahead of the game. You'll understand at least what the professor's expectations are

Now, how the other students react to the professor's lecture or the method of teaching in the class, you'll be able to assimilate to that based upon what you see later

So don't worry if you don't understand anything. But if you just do those two things, prepare and read the syllabus

Right. Can I add one more? Yes, absolutely. I want to add a third one. Connect with the professor

There you go. Connect with the professor is a big one, too, because if you don't have an idea of what you need to be doing, talk to them

talk to them and say, hey, you know, I feel a bit lost on this area

What can I do? Most of the time, they're going to be happy to help you. I agree

I agree. It's very rare that you're going to get a negative response from the professor when you're asking a legitimate question and you demonstrate that you have put in the effort

and need help. Well, that was an awesome show. For some reason, I think I like the Tips and Tricks series more than any other one

mainly probably because I've talked to more students about this stuff And they say that this is what they're looking for

So Jason, before we head out, you got anything to say? Just one reminder

I tell everybody at the end of every episode that we are here for you guys

Reach out to us. Go to our website. Contact us. Tell us the things that you care about that you want to hear about because that's what we want to talk about

We're here for you. Awesome. Well, until next time, I hope to see you then

Goodbye. Take care. Thanks for listening to the Reschooled podcast. Be sure to head over to Reschooled.com for news and other information on things we're getting into