Rude teachers during training classes

Ugh... I am a corporate trainer. I deal with this behavior on a daily basis. I have had everyone from entry level to executives in my training classes and have seen inexcusable behavior on all levels. Cell phones are the worst, especially with the execs and upper management. The participants in my class are all being paid to be there so they are expected to give me their undivided attention and I put up with no bull. It is my responsibility to control the room. If it's executives or upper management then I'll ask if a break is needed so that business can be tended to. I give them the benefit of the doubt that that's what they're doing on their phone.

I will say that teaching adults is way harder than teaching kids!

I teach mandatory child abuse and neglect reporting classes on a regular basis (eight times a year) both the initial six hour required and every 2 years three hour recertification for foster parents and child care providers. I also teach the mandatory four hour every three years for teachers and school personnel.

By far the loudest and least engaged participants are the teachers. Constant talking and whispering, clearly looking at their Iphones and tablets during class, constant texting, etc. I get it, I have to take 36 hours of mandatory training a year, so I get about having to be in trainings that you don't necessarily want to be in.  We have 3 10-minute breaks throughout this time.  But let's not be rude about it.

After two hours of this, (I had been waiting on their principal to say something to them during a break) and it did not improve. I had even tried the "walking around the room and stand right behind them" technique, the repeat announcement about talking and not texting during training... not any better. As a trainer, you are stuck with "How do I address this without shaming anyone?" So when it started back up, I just stopped talking, stood there and looked at them, once they figured out it had gotten quiet, they looked up and got quiet. I waited another minute and I said, "If the talking, texting, and internet surfing continues, I will ask those people to leave and they will not get credit for this mandatory class. "

I thought I would get a lot of flak on the class evaluations, but to my surprise, I received a lot of thanks about it.

That type of behavior is rude and one would expect better from teachers who would never tolerate it in their classrooms.

So, lesson learned, and for the past eight years, with teacher trainings (these are our local teachers), I start out with "This is a required training and if, in my opinion, you haven't been paying attention in that I have noticed you constantly texting, Iphone, and tablet surfing, I will not issue the certificate.  My rule of thumb is if I notice it more than once, then it is a problem. "  I haven't had a problem since. 

The class is free, so I could honestly care less whether they take it from me or not. If they don't want to take the class from me, then go ahead and pay $75 to take it on-line through TRECA (which by the way, their district will not reimburse them for since it was offered free of charge).  I've had no complaints.

I'm the dweeb who usually wants to actually hear what the instructor is saying.

What terrible, childish behavior!

Multitasking during large group professional development is rife. *shrug*. Talking out loud is not acceptable, but honestly, when you make me sit through six hours of someone reading PowerPoint slides, I'm probably going to spend some of that time on my phone, working on lesson plans or doing something else that is non disruptive.

When development sessions are relevant and/or interesting, I'm very attentive. But I think a lot of teachers see doing something else during a pointless, waste of time session as a quiet form of protest. We're required to jump through hoops to differentiate for all students, present engaging lessons and bring real life meaning to our teaching. But the district can't be bothered to do the same. I'm tired of sitting through ELA and math trainings that have zero to do with my subject area. I'm tired of sitting through the same trainings every year. I'm tired of all this pointless crap that detracts from the real business of teaching.

Wanna throw me out? Don't threaten me with a good time.

If I ever read PowerPoint slides to my students or teach the same lessons year after year, I won't be surprised when they're inattentive.

When my kids aren't paying attention, the first thing I consider is ALWAYS what I'm doing wrong. Is my pace too fast or too slow? Have I failed to make the subject matter relevant to them? Could the lesson be more engaging? Do they already know this material well enough and it's time to move on?

"The state requires you to learn this, so sit down and shut up" doesn't fly with my students. If I'm expected to teach engaging lessons and offer differentiated learning experiences, why shouldn't the trainers be required to do so?

ETA: I've been on the other side. I gave an hour-long training to my teaching peers yesterday and it was very well received - almost all the attendees were very engaged. And a few people, to whom the material wasn't relevant, checked their phones or did something else in the back of the room. Oh well. I'm certainly not going all super-power-trip on them and taking their names off the sign in sheet. The only person I can control is me, and frankly, if what I was offering wasn't relevant to their classrooms, I'm sympathetic to that.

As I was reminded in the Love and Logic full-day training I attended for the third time in five years today, don't set unenforceable expectations. You can't force someone to learn material and certainly aren't going to do so by threatening them. They may sit there and stare at the screen for four hours because you threatened them, but nothing's sinking in. Was your objective really accomplished? If the goal of training is to have compliant robots who sit still for hours and give the appearance of listening, then training serves no purpose. If the goal of training is to convey important, relevant material, then make sure the material is important and relevant, and conveyed in a way that respects the time, knowledge and skill set of the learner.