Quote:
Originally Posted by Tetraman
When I was a student, I was so on my gameboy during speaches/opening ceramonies/closing ceremonies. I don't do it anymore.
I don't resent those students that chose to not care about the speaches and discussions. And I don't know how to combat it. Telling students to "stop that, put that away" only makes it worse. It has to be something you deal with ahead of time.
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I have to disagree with you here. There is one thing that must be an absolute on every team. There MUST be respect between the students and the mentors. If there isn't, there are major problems that need to be addressed immediately (that respect needs to be shown in both directions).
In your example, the solution should be very easy. The mentor says "put it away". If they do not, they are removed from the venue. We've made it very clear to team members after an incident a short time back where several members missed scouting assignments because they were up playing video games.
#1 No video games allowed at competitions.
#2 Any student that is troublesome or does not follow directions will be put in a cab for a ride home, at his parents expense. Some of our venues are 4 hours away from our school.
Now, we've never had to enact it, but while our students know they 'run' the team, they also know where the ultimate authority lies. Of course, I never expect to have to deal with it again. We now have a team system whereby the team leaders (students) deal with team problems with the mentors support, and it's already proved to work brilliantly.
We have had to talk to several folks to explain that while a particular person may have been a student a year or two ago, they are now a mentor and will be shown every last bit of respect that position includes - especially not arguing with them. But it's all good. It rarely if ever happens twice.