Bring your materials to class: "I will remember to bring my notebook..."

I wrote about students not bringing their materials to class below, but doing a repost of the article because a recent meeting with the new Gangwon-EPIK coordinator inspired me to redouble my efforts. During our too-short conversation, he eloquently elaborated on why notebooks remain essential to class: They not only provide a record of the class, but they all serve as reference materials for later. He explained how he required the students to bring notebooks and assigned lines to them if they failed to bring them to class. I did the same thing. Last week, I reminded every high school class about the need to arrive with appropriate materials. If they showed up to the next class (or any subsequent one) without notebooks, they'd be writing 50 lines of "I will remember to bring my notebook to class."

And in what will surprise few people who've taught anywhere, many students forgot what I'd said in English, what my co-teachers said in English and Korean, and what was written on the whiteboard. It was what I said in the very first class and what I continue to say now: Bring materials. But after two years, I needed to do more.

So I made good on the promise and hit them with this:

True, he didn't sign the signature part. I'll have him do that tomorrow.

Keeping this up will take effort, but it's necessary.

The original post:
Bring your materials to class: Since my first days as an educator, I’ve told students what teachers around the world tell their students: Bring your materials to class. ...

And by the way; the new arrivals are all excellent people who will surely rock and roll it in Cheorwon!