Cell phone use in school - evolving, finally?

[Hikergirl]

I just spent the last class period texting back and forth with dd. It was a study hall so not disrupting class or anything. I'm sure the office would have loved her coming down to use the phone to ask if we could go prom dress shopping this weekend
I know she didn't need to get a hold of me for an emergency but I don't see the big deal if students have the time to use their phones for personal use during school.

 

[Hrhpd]

Is this a private school or a public school? Because expecting kids to all have $1200 laptops seems over-the-top to me. There is a huge chasm between "qualifies for reduced lunch" (and hence gets a free loaner laptop) and "I can afford to buy my kid a $1200 computer" especially for families with multiple kids.

public school of approximately 2000 students

 

[cabanafrau]

I just spent the last class period texting back and forth with dd. It was a study hall so not disrupting class or anything. I'm sure the office would have loved her coming down to use the phone to ask if we could go prom dress shopping this weekend
I know she didn't need to get a hold of me for an emergency but I don't see the big deal if students have the time to use their phones for personal use during school.

You didn't do such a thing back in the day when you were in school, therefore it's of no use to anyone ever to use a phone at school. If we survived our school years successfully without use of a cell phone at school, education should stop adapting with the times and civilization should remain idling in neutral in perpetuity. Clearly our successful tenure during our school years was the apex of human history and no further use of tools should be explored. The End.

 

[VandVsmama]

Top 8 all time biggest parenting debates ever:

1. Who's the better parent - stay at home parents or work outside the home parents?
2. Circumcise your son or not?
3. Breastfeed or bottle feed?
4. Disposable diapers or non-disposable?
5. Vaginal vs C-section birth?
6. Which is the best education - public school, charter school, private school, or home school?
7. When to get your kid a cell phone?
8. Cell phones in the classroom or not?

We'll decide this by whoever gets the most points. You have to go into a sumo wrestling ring wearing a big inflatable sumo wrestler outfit and duke it out with your opponent. Bonus points for whoever gets the literal smackdown first. Triple points if the smack down is extra loud or has a lot of sarcasm thrown in for good measure!

 

[cabanafrau]

I prefer to make decisions using things like logic, reasoning and common sense.

Bonus being, it worked in days of yore and still seems to be valid today.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

It seems as if some administrators "thing" is to be on some kind of anti-cellphone crusade. I have seen one who was so ridiculous about it, the whole thing almost became a big joke. They had strict rules in place about they had to be turned off and in a locker.If a text ding went off, they would lock down a whole classroom until the perp was found. He would look at kids to see if there was any "printing" in their pants pockets when they walked down the hallway. It just was so silly and taken way too far.

I dunno, if I was in charge I would be more lax about it. I like the "don't have them out" policy. It just seems to make sense. Let them keep them with them, if they become a nuisance, punish the kid causing the problem.

Cellphones are a way of life right now, and the kids generally seem to carry them no matter what school policy says. They spend more time trying to figure out where to hide their phones than they do studying...and from what I have been told it would make you very reluctant to buy a used phone.

 

[NotUrsula]

public school of approximately 2000 students

I'm thinking that the district must be fairly affluent. Local law here forbids requiring personal technology purchases of any kind for public schools. Even scientific calculators must be provided by the school if you are going to require their use. Many schools do encourage BYOD so that they can minimize what they have to purchase, but they cannot require BYOD.

 

[Allons-y!]

Slightly off the exact topic but this discussion made me think of it. About five years ago I went to a continuing ed conference (so all professional adults) where the woman giving the lecture just LIT INTO one of the attendees in the audience for looking at his cell phone. It wasn't ringing, or making noise, I was quite a few rows back so I don't know if he was texting or looking something up or what, but boy was the lecturer angry and told him in no uncertain terms that if he was going to look at his phone he could leave NOW, and that went for everyone there. You could have heard a pin drop, I think everyone felt embarrassed for the guy, and there had been no notification ahead of time that cell phones were prohibited or anything. I think of that lecturer now and wonder how it's going now trying to keep everyone from looking at their phones....the conference may have been more like seven years ago. Smart phones were already everywhere but maybe not quite as ubiquitous as they are now

I would have very likely been taking notes on my phone, and had a speaker lit into me like that I would have been more than happy to let her know just how unprofessional and rude she was.

 

[shoney]

Funny...just today I got a call from my dsd16's guidance counselor...she needed to give him something and he wasn't in study hall. The teacher said to check the library and she did, but he wasn't there. She left me a voice mail asking me to text him to come down to the office. He was in the bathroom!
Yes, cell phones are allowed in school.

 

[Aliceacc]

The way some of the teachers in my kids' public school are handling it is to make their class time a good time for charging the phones. They set up a few power strips, and anyone who has a phone can use the time to charge up. It keeps the kids happy, but they're not texting or doing anything else off task.

I just came from an after school faculty meeting. One of the teachers, a man in his late 50's or early 60's, spent the whole time texting. (He was sitting directly in front of me and one seat over; to see the speaker I had to look past his phone.)

So a lack of social graces where phone use is concerned isn't entirely limited to the young.

 

[VandVsmama]

The way some of the teachers in my kids' public school are handling it is to make their class time a good time for charging the phones. They set up a few power strips, and anyone who has a phone can use the time to charge up. It keeps the kids happy, but they're not texting or doing anything else off task.

I just came from an after school faculty meeting. One of the teachers, a man in his late 50's or early 60's, spent the whole time texting. (He was sitting directly in front of me and one seat over; to see the speaker I had to look past his phone.)

So a lack of social graces where phone use is concerned isn't entirely limited to the young.

Totally agree w/you there! A year ago, the head of our department at work (he's no longer working there) was horrible about this. It was so bad that he'd even be in meetings with the company executives and would be ignoring what the CEO was saying and he would text and read emails the whole time, even during discussions that required his active input. The execs gave him a stern scolding on more than 1 occasion in those meetings and still he never changed.

However, he did that with everybody else, too. In discussions, he'd ask you a question, you'd start to answer, and then he'd interrupt all the time. It was impossible to work with him. We all celebrated the day after he left.

 

[tvguy]

Still? Or has the policy evolved since your daughters were in school?

The policy hasn't changed since she graduated in 2009. A co-workers twins go to school there now. It's a Catholic High School, the rules are clearly disclosed before you apply, and you certainly can select another High School if the cell phone policy, or any other rules, are not acceptable to you.

 

[gotomu212]

I went to high school in the 90s before anyone really had cell phones (except Zack Morris on Saved By the Bell). Who remembers bringing pagers to class??

Remember when you'd get a page for 5683968 ?

 

[njpyro]

I teach high school. I let my students use their phones for educational bellringers (Kahoot is our favorite - let's me create questions and students answer on their cell phones, then the data populates for me on the Kahoot site). I let my kids look things up (I teach History and we sometimes look up dates, obscure facts, etc). I send them texts via Remind and share cool articles on our classroom Twitter page. Sometimes they use their phone to look up vocabulary words or to study off of Quizlets.

They can be sneaky though... they want to text, they want to listen to music. And, it can be a battle. But, it's totally worth it. I love technology. And, I think it's important schools keep up with the ever-changing world.

I use Kahoot in my classroom too! I love it

 

[soccerdad72]

It has been 6 years now since our high school went fully tech and a few less for the middle school. All assignments are on webpages. Students do not turn in paper homework. Everything is emailed to the teacher. Even in elementary school, papers are done on google docs so that the teacher can view it while the report is in progress and can make suggestions on how to make it better. It has upped the writing skills of the students so much because they are guided throughout the process rather than just turning in the final paper and getting graded on it.

My younger son's school has gone mostly tech as well - middle school is required to buy a tablet and have it with them in all classes and even the primary and intermediate (3rd to 5th grade) school is mostly Google Docs based.

My older son's high school assigns each student a Chromebook, but he does have some teachers that, oddly enough, require that he prints out assignments that he's typed up in Google Docs. The really odd thing about that is that the Chromebooks are pretty tightly locked down, so he can't print from it at home. He ends up having to use his tablet from middle school just to print off his Google Docs.

As far as cell phones go, the high school (Catholic) has a very strict no cell phone policy. It really hasn't been a problem so far for my son. He's just learned to keep it in his locker during the day and if he needs to let me know something, he either sends me a quick text at lunchtime or waits until the end of the day. My younger son's school is a little more progressive - they ask for cell phones to not be turned on during classtime, but allow for them to use them in between periods or during study halls (middle school only).

 

[robinb]

My daughter lost an entire semester grade in honors English because she used her cell phone in class. Her teacher docked her 100 points and dropped her from an A to a B for the entire semester. I was peeved with everyone involved.

 

[DisneyOma]

Nothing you posted above makes me change my impression of what you really think of teens. You paint with a very broad brush, characterizing them in your previous post as rarely interacting with others putside of tech, and I know that is far from the truth. In other posts on other threads, you have also demonstrated that you don't think highly of teens. I find that sad and, as a parent, I wouldn't want you teaching in our high school.

I'm well respected and honored in our school. Teachers request my assistance in their classrooms over all other assistants. Glad you can tell my work ethic and abilities by responses on the internet. I am a professional. How I feel about a student's choices does not color how I respond/teach/assist. Every student is treated the same by me. I'm there to help them learn and become responsible, productive young adults. I do agree that there are some kids out there who have not been taught well by their parents to behave appropriately in school. We model appropriate behavior and discourage inappropriate behavior. Would you want your children to be taught by someone who doesn't want them to do their best? Who just lets them sit there and do whatever?

Your high school has the wrong policies then if only 10% is used for school work.


I can't imagine having my children in a school so stuck in the past that the teachers do not believe that technology belongs in the classroom.

And I would much rather have somebody quietly plug in their phone than walk out of the classroom to go use the office phone. Or to have a lecture interrupted by an announcement telling Johnny to come down to the office because there is a phone call for him (blasts from the past.) The student can stay listening to the class material by glancing at his phone if Mom texts and says that Grandpa's surgery went well.

Although, if a student is getting up from their seat during a lecture, whether it is for plugging in a phone or something else, again, that is not a technology problem. That is a teacher control problem. The teacher does not have control of their classroom if the students are disrespectful and interrupting her lecture.

The 10% is the appropriate time they are using the phone - the other 90% is texting the kid two rows over, etc.

A student wouldn't be expected to leave class to go to the office to use a phone. The student would be expected to wait until an appropriate time. Lunch, between classes, etc. It's that instant gratification that's the issue. What's appropriate or not - the kids don't want to wait. No need to call down from the office - the schedule lists would show when he had lunch, and could get the info then.

The teacher control part - that just made me laugh. They're your kids, parents, they are doing what you taught them (or didn't teach them) to do. I really think some of you would be horrified by what your kid tries to do in school.

I do believe people are defensive, but not the population you are referring to. I think it is those that do not embrace change that are the ones that are defensive.

These are the same teachers who would have fought the light bulb and insisted that candles are better because being in the light too much would be harmful due to rest interruption.

"Embracing Change" - sure, if the change enhances society, but my point is that the instant contact, instant answers, constant connection are not enhancing society at all.

Funny...just today I got a call from my dsd16's guidance counselor...she needed to give him something and he wasn't in study hall. The teacher said to check the library and she did, but he wasn't there. She left me a voice mail asking me to text him to come down to the office. He was in the bathroom!
Yes, cell phones are allowed in school.

Dumb guidance counselor - She couldn't figure out to leave the info with the teacher? She had to contact you? I'd have given her an earful.

 

[diznygirl]

I would have very likely been taking notes on my phone, and had a speaker lit into me like that I would have been more than happy to let her know just how unprofessional and rude she was.

Smart phones are not just cell phones. I use mine during meetings to take notes all the time. And since my volunteer meetings are usually with a bunch of Old School "who needs a cell phone anyway?" crowd, I'm the one hitting up the web sites checking event calendars and giving out the correct emails, etc....

The dinosaurs that think that all you can do on a cell phone is text are the biggest problem we have. The teachers that have embraced the technology and use it in class are the ones I want teaching my children. The are the ones that are more interested in giving their students an education rather than clinging to preconceived notions about how children are, or how it "used to be done." The language teacher who uses DuoLingo, the ones who use Kahoot, the ones who encourage you to download books onto your phone - these are people who are not ignorant to what the technology can do for us, and know how to get the kids interested in learning so they won't be wasting time texting.

 

[luvsJack]

I'm well respected and honored in our school. Teachers request my assistance in their classrooms over all other assistants. Glad you can tell my work ethic and abilities by responses on the internet. I am a professional. How I feel about a student's choices does not color how I respond/teach/assist. Every student is treated the same by me. I'm there to help them learn and become responsible, productive young adults. I do agree that there are some kids out there who have not been taught well by their parents to behave appropriately in school. We model appropriate behavior and discourage inappropriate behavior. Would you want your children to be taught by someone who doesn't want them to do their best? Who just lets them sit there and do whatever?





The 10% is the appropriate time they are using the phone - the other 90% is texting the kid two rows over, etc.

A student wouldn't be expected to leave class to go to the office to use a phone. The student would be expected to wait until an appropriate time. Lunch, between classes, etc. It's that instant gratification that's the issue. What's appropriate or not - the kids don't want to wait. No need to call down from the office - the schedule lists would show when he had lunch, and could get the info then.

The teacher control part - that just made me laugh. They're your kids, parents, they are doing what you taught them (or didn't teach them) to do. I really think some of you would be horrified by what your kid tries to do in school.




"Embracing Change" - sure, if the change enhances society, but my point is that the instant contact, instant answers, constant connection are not enhancing society at all.



Dumb guidance counselor - She couldn't figure out to leave the info with the teacher? She had to contact you? I'd have given her an earful.

Here's the thing-cell phones aren't going anywhere. And neither are teens, nor are they apt to change. Teens want contact with each other. Like the pictures of notes someone posted, teens have always figured out a way to communicate with each other above all else.

Embracing the technology rather than fighting it is much more productive.

As for teachers not caring if a student does their best, with three kids going through school in different decades, I have met only two teachers that didn't care, but at some point students need to learn personal responsibility. The two teachers I mentioned earlier do that. They give them every skill needed to succeed but they don't hand feed them.

Your way may work great, but that doesn't mean other methods don't work just as well.

 

[Hrhpd]

I'm well respected and honored in our school. Teachers request my assistance in their classrooms over all other assistants. Glad you can tell my work ethic and abilities by responses on the internet. I am a professional. How I feel about a student's choices does not color how I respond/teach/assist. Every student is treated the same by me. I'm there to help them learn and become responsible, productive young adults. I do agree that there are some kids out there who have not been taught well by their parents to behave appropriately in school. We model appropriate behavior and discourage inappropriate behavior. Would you want your children to be taught by someone who doesn't want them to do their best? Who just lets them sit there and do whatever?

You are an aide? That is a different perspective.

The 10% is the appropriate time they are using the phone - the other 90% is texting the kid two rows over, etc.

A student wouldn't be expected to leave class to go to the office to use a phone. The student would be expected to wait until an appropriate time. Lunch, between classes, etc. It's that instant gratification that's the issue. What's appropriate or not - the kids don't want to wait. No need to call down from the office - the schedule lists would show when he had lunch, and could get the info then.
How can you determine the need? It is not up to you to determine somebody else's need to know. And clearly, even back in the 60's instant gratification was present. I clearly remember the constant interruptions in class when the speaker crackled and the office secretary called a person down to the office. "crackle, crackle, please pardon the interruption. Will Johnny Student please come down to the office, crackle, crackle."

The teacher control part - that just made me laugh. They're your kids, parents, they are doing what you taught them (or didn't teach them) to do. I really think some of you would be horrified by what your kid tries to do in school.

Teachers are responsible for controlling their own classrooms. They set their own classroom rules. Even the best raised students know which teachers they can walk all over.

I lecture often in high schools. I still don't see the doom and gloom you keep repeating.


"Embracing Change" - sure, if the change enhances society, but my point is that the instant contact, instant answers, constant connection are not enhancing society at all.

This is completely your opinion and frankly not one that is embraced by the majority of society.

My answers in red.

I will give you a pass as my Oma (grandmother) is also very technology adverse. Some of our elderly population do not understand today's world as it has changed so rapidly, so they see it as evil. Change and progress can be a good thing. That is why we have indoor plumbing, cars, airplanes, space travel, phones and now cell phones with more computing power than it took to put a man on the moon, electricity, smart boards, computers, vaccines, and many, many more.