to get annoyed at these girls talking through the class (partially lighthearted)?

[extremepie]

I was at college today, came back after lunch & sat down waiting for the lesson to re-start.

2 girls on the end of the bench wouldn't stop talking about hair extensions! The teacher was trying to explain fairly complex chemical ideas and I couldn't concentrate because all I could hear was them jabbering about what hairstyles you can and can't wear and how often to wash them, how you can style them etc.

Kept waiting for them to shut up but they just didn't! Then one of them then made a comment about 'blonde bimbos' (I am blonde) when I was sitting right next to her - wasn't directed at me but isn't it still kind of an off thing to say when a blonde person is sitting right next to you?

Arrrg, I should have asked them to shut up but I am a chicken I didn't want to further disrupt the lesson :D

I know the feeling, I've started a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design and it seems because we are in a class room of our own (don't share it with anyone, at any time) they can put the radio on during lessons. We now have Radio 1 blasting out all day. It's doing my head in and when I get to the point of asking if anyone minds me turning it down, I get funny looks from the 19 year olds. I'm 51 and not averse to music, just don't want it blasting out from 9am to 4pm.

Extreme tell the lecturer, s/he should have told them to shut up or go outside if they weren't interested anyway.

Pointedly move if it happens again and ask the lecturer to repeat what was said because you couldn't hear

Defiantly what blanklook said.

crafty it's either radio 4/5 or alternatively sort out your 70s/80s iPod and blast right back.

The lecturer needs to control the class better.

The lecturer should take control. I work in education and would expect the tutor/lecturer to take control and ensure these students 'did not affect the learning of others'.

Can you have a word with the lecturer before the next session? I would also ensure I was sitting well aware from those women next session.

I'm amazed at the music all day long too, I would find it extremely distracting.

That drives me MENTAL. I had the same last year on a course I was on. I did pointedly and loudly ask the lecturer to speak up because I couldn't hear him but am too much of a wimp to confront the culprits. I also spoke to him afterwards and he took it on board for the next week, asking them to shut up so it worked.

Why should the lecturer "control" the class better? They are in college for goodness sake; surely they are capable of controlling themselves?!
I'd make sure I was sat nowhere ear the if they were that distracting OP

Near*

I feel your pain! I'm doing a qualification at college two nights a week after work and the class is mostly made up of people in their mid-20s and 30s but there is a very loud, very camp young guy who has latched onto two young girls and they whisper and giggle at the back of the room for the three hours that we're there. It's so distracting and it's bloody disrespectful to the lecturer.

"Why should the lecturer "control" the class better? They are in college for goodness sake; surely they are capable of controlling themselves?!" Well, you'd think so, wouldn't you, YourDaughterHasaTattoo - but the evidence from the OP would seem to contradict you.

Since these two young women were either incapable or unwilling of controlling themselves, it certainly was the lecturer's responsibility to deal with their behaviour, so that everyone else could get the most from the class.

The lecturer shouldn't have to but it is one of the many skills a good lecturer should possess. Many a lecturer 'loses' the room for various reasons.

YANBU to be annoyed but YABU not to ask the chatters to keep quiet during the class. Yes it is the responsibility of the lecturer but if he/she doesn't do it in timely fashion, say to the chatters, loud enough that everyone can hear: "Excuse me, but could you stop talking please, as I can't hear the lecturer." As a bonus the lecturer will get the point--that they should keep better control.

This drives me mad. I used to attend a slimming world class and two old dears used to better away all through the meeting. If they didn't want to hear what people were saying they should have left, it was do distracting. The more bolshy members used to say 'ssh' to them but they either ignored it or thought it wasn't aimed at them.

Why would I "think that" SDT?
These girls are obviously in sixth form, they don't need to "be controlled" (I actually think that's quite demeaning to them!). The lecturer is there to pass on knowledge to the class not "control them"? Fair enough, the lecturer could have said something (although the OP doesn't specifically say they didn't). However, I don't believe it is their job to control the behaviour of others, especially those who are young adults and who many on here would take great offence to them not being able to behave how they choose in other ways (make up, clothes they wear, social hours they keep etc). If they are capable of making life decisions in other ways then they are capable of choosing whether to talk through a lecture or not. It is their behaviour to control, not the lecturers

Classroom management doesn't stop being an important part of teaching at 16 years old. I teach classes from 15 to 80 and it's not often the 15 year-olds that are the issue. Boredom, SNs, people not into, or too into the subject, after lunch classes (i.e. hell on earth), fidgets, people who are used to knowing better than a slip of a in my 40s girl, low literacy, people with unmet needs, people who are there for reasons other than learning (socialising, made to come, credits they need but aren't interested), people who find the topics triggering for some reason, people with cultural, emotional or other needs... the list is very long and involved and sometimes you are 'controlling' the class.

I often present in other people's spaces and I always make sure that the hosts and I discuss who is the lead when classroom management issues come up. Someone has to be in charge. There are ways to make it less 'controlling'. I let the class decide their own rules and ask who is in charge of enforcing those rules (me, the class or the people themselves). Ultimately though even the act of asking the class to make a list of rules (and how they are recorded, how I ask) involves a power dynamic.

One of the best new tips I have been given is to 'surface' (poncey version) or 'notice' behaviour. In this case, I would 'notice' the behaviour. So, "I notice you are chatting about something. Is it related to the subject?" If it is, they can share, if not, they can choose to address it by keeping quiet or leaving. I can ask the class, including them, how we think issues like this should be addressed. It's still control though, regardless of how it's framed.

It's a classroom management issue and a part of teacher training.

It's the fact that they are stopping others from learning. It's the fact that they choose to talk through the lecture and this behaviour has a negative effect on others.

Slightly off topic tattoo, but just wondering are you a chatterbox? :)

Agree about classroom management etc. I'm a secondary school teacher; you need to be in charge or your group. But I disagree that children, or in this case young adults, need to be controlled. I don't like the term really, rather than the intent.
Not a chatterbox, sorry chottie, just a pedantic

You used the term 'control' - or at least quoted it - in your post which I quoted, YourDaughterHasaTattoo - it wasn't my choice of word.

But the bottom line is that, although one would think that two young women of that age should be able to behave appropriately in a classroom, in order not to disrupt the learning of other students, clearly these two young women either weren't going to behave appropriately (one can theorise that they didn't know how to behave appropriately in a classroom unlikely or that they didn't care about the effect their rudeness was having on the OP and possibly other students, but why they were doing it doesn't actually matter, IMO) - and in that case, it was not right for the teacher to ignore their bad behaviour and the effect it was having on others in the class.

In my opinion, the the teacher should have intervened and asked them to either stop chattering or to take their vital conversation elsewhere.

Rogue 'either' in the middle of the second paragraph - should read:

But the bottom line is that, although one would think that two young women of that age should be able to behave appropriately in a classroom, in order not to disrupt the learning of other students, clearly these two young women weren't going to behave appropriately (one can theorise that they didn't know how to behave appropriately in a classroom unlikely or that they didn't care about the effect their rudeness was having on the OP and possibly other students, but why they were doing it doesn't actually matter, IMO) - and in that case, it was not right for the teacher to ignore their bad behaviour and the effect it was having on others in the class.

The teacher shouldn't have to control the room like they are school children though.
Ours always expected us to sort it out amongst ourselves, which is what I did when teaching.
Ok if somebody kicks off and others are in danger then this is different.

OP can you find another seat or pluck up the courage to tell them to shut up.

Control was used in a pp, hence I picked up on it. I was asking why you thought it was a given I should have this opinion SDT?
OP doesn't say whether the lecturer said anything or not. Therefore it's unfair to judge their classroom management skills.

I thought it was a given that you would agree that the girls were not capable of controlling their own behaviour appropriately for the classroom setting, because the OP tells us that they were chattering about hair extensions all through the teacher's explanation. It seemed pretty evident to me that this demonstrated that, on that occasion at the very least, they were not proving themselves capable of controlling their own behaviour, Daughter.

I was once in class something like this. One of my fellow students turned round and told the talkers in no uncertain terms that she was there to listen to the teacher and not to them and would they please shut up.
It worked.