Distractions in classroom

Did your chair ever vibrate because of someone's bouncing legs?
By KRISTINA TODD
SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL
HAVE YOU EVER SAT DOWN TO TAKE A test and found it completely impossible to concentrate because the person next to you won't stop moving? There are many classroom tics that bother students. When I took the PSATs, the boy sitting next to me kept shaking his leg, causing his pants to make that "swoosh" noise. It was driving me crazy and causing me to reread the same sentence about 50 times.
I finally asked him to stop and he did. However, he kept changing positions in his chair and it was driving me absolutely insane.
Monotone voice
One thing that drives students wild is a teacher with a monotone voice. Many times students are put to sleep during a lecture in school, and though they may pay for it when they take their next test, it's sometimes impossible to stay awake in a certain class.
"Waking up at 6 a.m. makes it hard enough to function in school, so having a teacher with a dull voice is like listening to a lullaby at midnight," said Ilyse Forman, a junior at Piper High School in Sunrise, Fla.
The biggest and most common classroom annoyance is definitely pen clicking.
"It annoys me because for some of us who are easily distracted, the clicking turns our attention away from the subject/teacher/discussion and onto the pen clicking," said Nancy Beer, a senior at New York University.
Students always have pens in their hands during school, so whenever they get stressed out, their first instinct is to click their pens.
It could be worse. I once had a geography teacher who spit when she spoke. It was disgusting to have a lecture turn into a shower. Everyone would watch her mouth instead of concentrating on her lesson.
A wild ride
Have you ever thought you suddenly had a vibrating chair? It's one of the most annoying things in the world when a peer has his or her legs on the back of your chair and is bouncing them constantly. How are you supposed to concentrate if it feels like you're on a wild safari ride?
There are many other habits in the classroom that are well known. Gum-popping, sniffling, humming, and counting on your fingers are all horrendous habits. But they can rarely be corrected because most result from stress, and we all know there's no such thing as a stress-free life.
XKristina Todd is a student at Piper High School in Sunrise, Fla.