Elbow Room

With the advent of cell phones, schools have had to implement new technology policies every few years. Just when we thought we had a handle on one piece of technology, a new challenge emerged when students started wearing wireless AirPods all day long. They wore them in the hallways, in their classes, at lunch, and while walking to their cars. They were essentially soundtracking their entire lives, which meant half the time they were completely checked out from the world around them.

I know, you’re not even listening to anything, you just have it in your ear. Or that’s what I’ve been told upon occasion. Sometimes it’s probably true, sometimes I’m not so sure.

Either way, at the beginning of class, after I tell students to put away their cell phones, I also have to address their ears. Students get to hear my starting ritual where I stand at the front of the room and give this very specific directive.

“Go ahead and take everything out of your ear, except your elbow.”

The first time I say it to a new group of students, the physical comedy begins. There is always at least one student who will immediately try to contort their arm and shove their elbow into their ear. Without fail, another student will pipe up and say, “You can’t stick your elbow in your ear!”

I just look at them and smile.

“Well, I guess you can’t have anything at all in your ear right now then. Huh, how about that?”

I honestly don’t know why I started saying it that way. It most likely stems from a piece of old advice my dad used to give me, warning that you should never put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow. Somewhere along the line, that classic piece of parental wisdom became a classroom management tool for technology. Interesting how things in the back of your childhood mind can show up in your classroom as an adult.

In my classroom, a compliance rule starts out as a ridiculous physical paradox, and becomes a mainstay of how we start the class, get the AirPods tucked away into backpacks, and get on with the work at hand for the rest of the hour. Students can give their full

attention to me and to each other, and never worry about the dangerous prospect of getting their elbow wedged into their ear.

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