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Cell Phone Thoughts
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10 thoughts on “Cell Phone Thoughts”
I don’t know if this is unique to my school and school community, which seems to exist in a very odd parallel universe, but I get zero support from admin for cell phone policy. I do pretty much what Ben does–stop teaching, evil eye and/or stern commend to put it away. But they always re-emerge. I am lucky to get in 5 mins of flow in any given class.
Guess who many of the kids are texting with???? PARENTS!!!! Yep. legit. Parents get pissed at their kids for not answering texts. For real. I was shocked to learn this maybe like a month ago. Just bizarre. I am fairly certain that is why there is no school wide policy on phones.
Very wacky.
Satire from “The Onion” on this topic: youtube.com/watch?v=MGXSPf9b-xI&list=WL&index=30
Can you have a classroom policy where Ss must ‘park’ their cell phones in a collection spot during class, then claim after class? I mean, will admin support you if you implement a WL class policy – or, better yet, department wide?
I saw a pic of one of those hanging shoe bags w/clear pockets – e/kid drops theirs in a pocket on the way in to class- where it stays til class is done.
Alisa in my old school in Denver they would steal each other’s phones and they would always get mixed up and so kids literally would go nuts if asked to part with them. There is something very very deeply wrong with the cell phone thing. As I understand it, it’s due to Columbine.
Yup. Got one of these back in Aug. but like Ben says it is a royal battle getting kids to part with them. Although last week for Earth Day I we went outside to go down by the river for some reflection / alone time. I instructed them to leave the phones inside. Several of them got super angsty, but they did it.
For the rest of this year I’ll continue to make them “disappear” the phones. It’s marginally successful. In my level 1 class, they are actually pretty well trained bc we always start with a few moments of silence with lights off, so when I turn off the lights most of them know to put the phones in their pockets. That is kinda cool. But the level 3 (juniors and seniors) totally ignores this. Such a battle with them. I remind them that I do give them a phone / texting break half way thru class, so there is no excuse. Except for the one student whom the social worker has explicitly stated we have to let her use her ear buds for music bc she is going thru some trauma (??? really don’t know how to address this???) Next September I will not be new, and I’ll start over with my real cell phone policy & parent letters, etc.
You know I found a little card catalogue cabinet in the library with 30 little drawers on it. I ask students to put the phone in the drawer on their way in
This clip is absolutely hilarious. Thanks for sharing.
Oh, and I hate phones. So true about the parents. Half the time it is legitimately moms and sometimes dads texting and even calling my students while they’re in my class. The other half of the time, its kids using their parents as scapegoats. I’ve had kids message each other from across my classroom during my class. It’s such frustrating battle that I get so tired of fighting.
All I can think is, “Man, these kids are going to royally piss off their college professors in a few years.”
Most college professors do not give a … well, most that I’ve observed. They just instruct. IF students do not get it, it’s on them.
My first cell phone encounter was in a Spanish IV. We kept to the TL. There was a penalty for using English. A young lady got a call from her mother during class. As she answered it, she said, “Es mid madre” (It’s my mother). I said, “Sólo en español. (Only in Spanish). She hit the “speak” button and said, “Hola, Mama. No puedo hablar ahora. Estoy en la clase de español. Adiós. (Hi, Mom. I can’t talk now. I am in Spanish class. Good-bye.) We had a good laugh.
This is harking back to when cell phones were a rarity, but not so far back that they were carried around in a big brief case
Today I had two students answer their cell phones at almost exactly the same time right in the middle of our story. Another student right before that got up and ran out of the classroom to answer the phone making all kinds of noise along the way. I teach adults and I’ve made the rules very clear but… they keep doing it. It’s as if they have zero awareness… stimulus, response, no gap… I lost my cool and I feel awful about it but enough is enough.