Decorum &

Civility

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Classroom Decorum and Civility

Students are expected to assist in maintaining a classroom environment that is conducive to learning. In order to assure that all students have the opportunity to gain from time spent in class, unless otherwise approved by the instructor, students are prohibited from engaging in any other form of distraction. Inappropriate behavior in the classroom shall result, minimally, in a request to leave class. Students who insist on engaging in inappropriate or abusive behavior will be removed from the course and will receive an F.

As teacher, I will act to ensure the collegial atmosphere of our classroom and to protect the members of the class from inappropriate or abusive behavior.

Professional Courtesy
Plan your arrival so that you are ready to work at promptly when our class begins. Be considerate of your colleagues by being present for the full class period.

Cell Phones
Please show courtesy to classmates by turning off all cell phones and beepers before class begins. If you set the phone to vibrate, please do not disrupt class by searching for the phone or by leaving the room to take a call.

Recording Devices
Use of any voice or image recording device (voice recorder, computer, web-cam, camera, pen scanner, phone, etc.) must be received in advance from both the instructor and all persons being recorded.

Personal Computers
Since we meet in a computer classroom, there is little need for personal computer use during class. In discussion, it's important that students be actively engaged in the ideas that other students express; at the least, classmates looking at a computer screen--instead of the speaker--can be disconcerting. In worst cases, such inattention can appear disinterested, rude, or bored. As a result, there are only two times when in-class lap-top use is acceptable:

• when accessing materials for group work or class discussion; or
• when taking notes during lecture segments.

Use of a personal computer in class must be approved in advance by the instructor. Approval, if given, is automatically rescinded if the computer is used for any activity not part of the course, such as but not limited to reading email, surfing the net, etc)

Any other use of laptops--including but not limited to reading or sending email, instant messaging, accessing non-class related websites, etc.--is unacceptable.

Students who use internet access inappropriately will lose the privilege of appropriate use. Students who use the internet inappropriately more than twice will be disallowed from bringing laptops into the classroom.

Email.

As part of crafting a professional identity, you should use your ttu.edu email address for all professional correspondence, both internal to TTU and external to TTU. As a result, use

I will send emails only to ttu.edu email addresses.

• Use only your ttu email account for official correspondence. Since your ttu.edu email address is part of the ttu system, it's easy for instructors and your classmates to communicate with you.
• Cancel email forwarding. Most ttu.edu accounts no longer forward to other addresses.
• Identify your email as significant if it is filtered to junk mail, by including "5340:" followed by the topic of your email in your RE: line.