Sitting in class, looking around at my fellow students, the majority of them are on computers. Of those that sit in front of me, where I can see their computer screens, there’s five on Facebook, six checking emails, one taking photos with a webcam, and more on different game websites.

Nearly 80 percent of the classes I’ve taken during my three years at N.C . State have been in the 50 to 75 minute range. Emails and Facebook updates can wait at least an hour—give your professor your respect.

A study by Stanford University’s psychology department found that people who multitask “are often extremely confident in their abilities, but there’s evidence that those people are actually worse at multitasking than most people.” The study found people who believe they are good multitaskers performed worse on memory and cognitive tasks involving distractions than people who said they preferred to focus on one task at a time. This study can easily be applied to discourage multitasking during class, and to encourage paying more respect to your professor.

My plant propagation professor, Dr. Werner, tends to put a lot of things he says on the test, but not a lot of things that are on the PowerPoints he puts on Moodle. His PowerPoints are about half photos, which can be on the test and half text, which doesn’t always explain what we need to know about the photos.

The first day of class, when we were going over the syllabus, one thing he pointed out was his attendance policy and his common courtesy policy.

“Attendance in class is a demonstration of your commitment to the class, to your education, and your professional development … A positive, respectful, and productive approach to the class, your work, your classmates and instructor is required in order to maintain a positive learning environment for everyone.”

After being in the class for about half the semester, it’s really obvious to see how Werner sticks to his policies and how he expects his students to be respectful. He has, on one occasion, called the entire class out because of the number of people on cell phones and computers not respecting him and the rest of the class.

Last year, I had a problem with paying attention in my biology class. Even though I’m an agriculture major, biology is something I struggle with. About a month and a half into the semester, I realized just how much I was struggling with the information. I decided to do what I could to do better in the class. I quit taking my computer to class to take notes on and started sitting closer and closer to the front of the room. Just those simple changes made all the difference. I understood the material.

It’s actually rather amazing to think how much of a difference that can make. Give it a try sometime if you’re struggling in a class. Although it might take a while to see the benefits, stick with it.

A simple internet search of paying attention in class gives all sorts of tips and tricks of how to pay attention in class. One of the ones that stands out the most and is repeated on several websites is to sit at the front of the classroom and maintain eye contact with your professor when you can. In short, that’s a way of showing the professor that you care about the class and respect him or her as person and a professor.

My plant propagation professor has a statement in his syllabus that, in my experience, a lot professors adhere to.

“I reserve the right to adjust the final grade upward in cases of excellent class attendance, class participation, and demonstration of professional commitment and a positive attitude.”

Something that simple should enforce, not cause, your desire to attend every class session you can.

In short, to respect your professor is to pay attention in class, which is something they will notice.