[toong]

The student arrived late, fumbled with his phone the first 20 minutes, then started talking with his neighbor about something apparently very funny and now - when assignments are handed out - starts asking to explain everything again.

[bobongo]

> The student arrived late, fumbled with his phone the first 20 minutes, then started talking with his neighbor about something apparently very funny

You are not the best at maintaining discipline ;) If this is happening with a lot of your students, seek out guidance from the more experienced teachers in your department that you know are liked/loved/adored by students or the cohort. (It helps if you attend their classes to observe their approach and the class dynamics.)

Somehow engage the student in the first 5 minutes of them looking at their phone. (Beware, they may have had an emergency before the class.) If you let them be on their phone for 20 minutes straight, the student knows that you don't care about their presence in the class. Or, worse, they now think you are one of those teachers who don't care about all or a subset of the students.

> when assignments are handed out - starts asking to explain everything again

This happens much more often than you'd think. Having the instructions clearly laid out in the assignment sheet usually helps. The quality of education they received prior to college (before your company) is usually worse than that they receive in college, leaving them confused starting with 100-level classes (and their confusion gets worse and more complicated as they advance).

> explain everything again

If, by this, you meant everything you talked about in class, ask the student to come to your office hours. You may have to accommodate their schedule, which usually is not too difficult though inconvenient.

Think of the teacher as the management. If the student (employee) fails (is fired) or drops out (quits), it is usually because of the teacher (management).

[XCabbage]

This mindset is toxic. Obviously teachers and managers wield some power to influence the success of those beneath them and have some responsibility for it, but they do not wield total power and should not bear total responsibility. In the end, some people have personal failings that you cannot fix, and that is on them, not on you.

But it's not just that this attitude is unfair on the teacher/manager, it's that it's unfair on the other people they're responsible for. As a teacher or manager, you have finite time to devote to multiple people. If you make it a matter of policy that you will take the time to answer any question, no matter how unnecessary, and make no attempt to discourage avoidable questions, then you are in effect deciding that you will devote the majority of your time to the laziest, most selfish individual you're responsible for, while spending zero to little time on people who are too meek to make demands on the time of their constantly-busy mentor. There's nothing noble about what you're proposing here; it's an abdication of the responsibilities you have as a manager or teacher.

[watwut]

> Somehow engage the student in the first 5 minutes of them looking at their phone. (Beware, they may have had an emergency before the class.) If you let them be on their phone for 20 minutes straight

There is 120 of us. Why the hell should 119 of us wait till teacher engage with the one person who is fiddling phone?

And most late arrivals are not due to emergency.

[virgil_disgr4ce]

> You are not the best at maintaining discipline ;)

You sound like a non-parent trying to tell a parent how to be a parent.

[jhomedall]

> You are not the best at maintaining discipline

Adults are expected to maintain discipline on their own.