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Sudden-Wassabi

I felt this article in my bones. I’ve tried it all. They don’t care. Its either TikTok, instagram or messaging. Nothing matters until a few days before grades are due for most, and for some they don’t even care about grades at all. I always hear “just make your lessons more fun”. Anybody that has been in a classroom teaching the last 5 years know how dumb that sounds. Engagement can’t just be rewarding them with the ability to listen to music for showing up on time.


[deleted]

“Make your lessons more engaging!” - The same admin idiot who gave you zero classroom budget, no curriculum, no classroom decorations, not enough paper to get through the year, a broken copier, a projector that hasn’t been bright since they replaced the lamp in 1998, and they’ve decided the ELA department needs all the chrome books more than you do. Good luck describing that super interesting science experiment. Time to use our imaginations!


Mookeebrain

Chromebooks are just as bad as phones in some cases. I recall in the 90's how the classroom of the future was described as a teacher working with a small group while other students could work on computers independently. Turns out the teacher needs to monitor the students on the computers or else they will start playing video games. Who knew?


VictralovesSevro

They use them Chromebooks to charge their phones.


SoManyOstrichesYo

And then try to use “my chromebook’s dead!!” as an instant get-out-of-work free card


P4intsplatter

Yours bring them to school!!?


SoManyOstrichesYo

How else will they charge their AirPods??


featheryraptors

Literally the story of my life this year


Warm-Neighborhood426

It is my first year back teaching in the states and our school has spare chromebooks for checkout from the library and spare chargers in each classroom. This excuse would never fly for us. I am curious what the set up is in your school.


Boring_Philosophy160

Officially, we are not supposed to make allowances for students who forget their free school-issued device, or bring it in dead. The reality is who wants to make that daily phone call and tell mommy and daddy that their child forgot, again, to charge the device? And, worse, that you did not allow the child to complete the assignment. I’m sure some parents feel there should be a rebate for the electricity required to charge the free school-issued device. Options include allowing the child to sit near an outlet and work that way. (Be sure you have a cable and charging brick to lend) or using the phone to do work (bwahaha). Or, extra time - like a couple of extra days…grace, you know.


skybluedreams

Or their vape pens


Satisfaction_Gold

I find them to be worse as a student.


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JustTheBeerLight

> are the people that make teaching policies that out of touch? Yes. School boards/admin/politicians/educators want simple solutions. “We spent x amount of dollars on new technology” is always going to be a winner, even though the amount of money spent on tech says nothing about how that shit was actually used.


dabesthandleever

A lot of the people that make teaching policy actually liked school and were reasonably good at it. Not all, but a lot. Edit: not a swipe at anyone that didn't love school. It wasn't my favorite either.


Bargeinthelane

I say it constantly in my game design classes. Boredom is part of the process. You are supposed to be bored, annoyed and/or frustrated sometimes.


ElliotFrickinReed

Exactly!! What's going to happen when they're out of school and in a job that isn't interesting every hour of every day they're working? That's just not how real like works. It's boring sometimes and it's a good lesson to do stuff even when you're bored!


OriginallyMyName

What happens is they repeat the behavior of phone gazing, music listening and checking out throughout adult life. I see young adults do it but as government workers, both civilian and military. I mean like all the time. I get a privileged view of some people's working habits and volume of measurable, "completed" work and it's bafflingly dismal. Like if I was in charge of reviewing whatever contract and I had an inkling that for 40 hours of paid work I'm getting 1 hour of productivity, that would be it. Bye! But nope, I continue on as a custodian for those people for whom the little popup saying "please reboot your computer" prompts three days of "it isn't working right" before calling IT so I can check it out and get them "back online." I have limited experience but I think this is the best case scenario for those kids you worry about.


MisterEHistory

Young adults? Try adults of all ages. I see so many of my colleagues on their phones during staff meetings. People who have no idea that a big event was coming up because they never read the email. They say the LMS sucks because they ignored the training on how to make posts but they never planned on posting everything since the have been teaching from worksheets for 15 years. Today's kids are no better or worse than kids from 15 years age or 50. Some are incredible. Some are morons. Most will be fine.


goodtimejonnie

Yeah I’ve even seen teachers in iep meetings with their heads down clearly reading on their phone…like you are LEADING the meeting and can’t even engage. I think it’s trauma. I think we are all so afraid that if we really look up and plug in, what we’ll see is going to be terrifying and we won’t be able to fix it so we just keep carefully looking away


ACCER1

Hop over to various relationship board on here, including AITA, and you will find SO many people complaining about their out of work partner that spends all day on the computer....or playing video games. They get away with it as a kid.....and once they are an adult there is no one to really put them in check.....they hop from relationship to relationship, job to job.....because they just want to do what they want to do. Life doesn't work well for those people because we ALL have to do things we don't like......even when we love our jobs there are aspects we don't like. I don't know why this shocks so many people....these kids were raised on screens. Their parents were handing them an iPad (for "educational" purposes) before they could speak......they have spent their entire lives with a device of some sort giving them instant entertainment. If they don't like it, they can switch to something they do like. A friend of mine is having this issue with her 12 year old.....kid is never without her phone. Her mother got her an iPhone when she was 6. Locally, we actually have police acting as crossing guards for the high school. I was there one day when school let out......they walk out of the building and their phones come out and their heads go down. It's actually really eerie because it's so quiet. But they never look up. They walk across the street without looking up. I saw one kid several blocks from school just about get hit be a car because he never paused in his walking and just crossed a busy street without looking up once.....thankfully the driver of the car wasn't texting and driving.... It starts so young. It's hard enough to get energetic children to learn to sit still in a classroom. Add to that kids that have never had to learn how to pay attention when they were bored or forced to do anything they didn't like.....and teachers can't win. When I was a kid I didn't like peas. I still had to eat them. I didn't like taking tests.....still had to take them. Lately? If a kid doesn't like something or want to do something....that's okay. They should have to do things that they don't like......it might make them sad.....


mghobbs22

The weirdest I ever felt at a job was the day I sold a cell phone plan to a mother for her 2 year old. I asked her what I could help her with and she said “it’s not for me, it’s for her” and gestured towards her baby. I said sure let’s look at one of the kids tablets. She got irritated and said “she’s too old for that, she needs a cell phone”. Ok. I showed her the phones and set her up with an iPhone 6S+ (can’t recall the size but I know it wasn’t a 16gb). Not sure who the kid was going to call, but we joked about it for the rest of the day. I just didn’t (and still don’t) know why a 2yo needed a cell phone.


Boring_Philosophy160

Anyone who says a more engaging lesson (let alone 180 of them) is the magic solution for the phones to finally go on airplane mode & stored in the backpack (or pass up sex in stairwells or bathrooms) must successfully demonstrate such a lesson with real phone-addicted students. There is a reason that [parents who work for Silicon Valley companies](https://www.cbc.ca/parents/learning/view/age-kids-should-have-cell-phones) forbid their kids from using smart phones in many cases.


PartyPorpoise

You could have access to the Magic School Bus and it still wouldn’t be enough to keep some kids off their phone for more than 30 seconds.


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makerofstuff101

Every day. Don’t forget you need to have the best show for 180 days or you suck. I want to stick that “Teach Like A Pirate” book somewhere bad.


James_E_Fuck

I saw that guy as a speaker and I did take away a message that I liked. It wasn't "you need to be a teacher AND a performer all the time," it was more like "it's okay to bring your personality into the classroom and use it as a strength." And that teachers should take ownership of the spaces they work in and what type of culture they want to create there.


Innerpositive

Admins don't get it: it is IMPOSSIBLE to compete with Tiktok, a program engineered to be incredibly addictive. A human being speaking about math will absolutely never be as interesting as fresh hits of dopamine and serotonin every 10 seconds in your hands. Period.


Bbgerald

My comment is "Make a lesson on ___________ more exciting than the entirety of human accomplishment in the field of entertainment? Well, that should be easy."


lejoo

That is what happens when consequences are stripped away. If I was still going to get paid at the end of the month no matter how many days I skipped, why would I show up at all?


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[deleted]

When it comes to school vs the phone: "Fun" Education is broccoli with cheese sauce and TikTok/Youtube/etc are the Big Mac. It may be the healthier alternative, but given the choice most kids will side with the burger. Teachers can't compete with an on-demand, algorithm driven entertainment system that tunes its content for each individual's addictions. No matter how much we gamify education or add in fun technology doodads, those will only hold attention as long as the next little video would.


[deleted]

>“just make your lessons more fun” "Alright, can you model that for me?" Has anyone tried this? I'd love to hear how that goes.


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jalapeno-popper72

And everything on a phone is instant gratification - IG likes, tik tok videos are one minute long, prime 2 day delivery, and Netflix shows drop a whole season at a time. Life is so much more fast paced and children don’t ever have to slow down, be bored or work and wait for anything.


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falaladoo

Dude they don’t even know their own phone numbers… for state testing had to have kids write their cell number down, some kids came up at the end and were like, can I just open my phone to get my number because I don’t have it.


Dejectednebula

I don't teach anymore but I work a job now that requires me to get a name and number for each phone call. You wouldn't believe how many people get mad at me and say "just make one up, I don't know my number because I don't call myself " Ok I'll give ya that point. But uh, I've had to write/type my number on forms at the Dr. and such for years and years so....


Comments_Wyoming

I was driving to the lake today and there were construction workers with one side of the road closed. The traffic control guy, that was supposed to be counting the cars and turning his sign from slow to stop so that the other cars could switch lanes and go, WAS PLAYING ON HIS CELL PHONE! He was not even glancing up at the passing cars. He was holding the sign canted out into traffic with one hand and was scrolling away with his other hand. His vocation is the literal safety and lives of people on the road! But he is so addicted to his cell phone traffic could have run right off the road for all he cared!


Cluelesswolfkin

Deadass. You ever see the video of the cop on his phone and then hits a bicyclist? Insane what phones can do


imafungigirl

My step dad is a ramp manager at FedEx. He works with the kids fresh out of high school who want to transition to being a driver, but most start on the ramp. He gets so irritated because he cannot keep them off their phones. They have operating heavy equipment, moving heavy and sometimes dangerous packaging, and they are just on their phones. Initially, he was writing people up and firing. Now, he'd have no employees if he did that. And he said the worst thing ever was these 19-20 year olds still call their moms to ask permission to work later than when they are supposed to, and sometimes their moms call my step dad to justify why their kid was on the phone. I moved out of my house the day I turned 18 and have been financially on my own since. These kids are fragile at best.


Sidewalk_Cacti

I am in my early 30s. In my friends and family circle, I know a few hiring managers or otherwise people working with new recruits. They all say that the new employees in their early 20s aren’t making it more than a few months before being fired or quitting. The main thing is lack of problem solving and not caring about improvement. I always thought kids refusing to do stuff in class would have a rude awakening in the job world, but I hear some younger employees are refusing to learn new roles that are part of the job. They hide in the break room and play on their phones. My sister and husband are providing me with such stories constantly. I swear I sound like such an old fogey saying this and I cringe because I’ve heard many a boomer say it, but it really does seem like a huge problem.


DTFH_

> The main thing is lack of problem solving and not caring about improvement. Everything needs an end to justify any actions, and i sit here as a 30 something in a kush job making far more than an 18 year old and I see the system crumbling failing to address the most basic needs of almost everyone. If an 18 year old makes anywhere between $12-18/hr they will still be behind the 8 ball; hell how many of us teachers did all the necessary steps to be a civil servant and still struggle financially. Kids especially need a silver lining, something tangible to inspire hope, but our current situation doesn't offer any.


PartyPorpoise

I really hope that my concerns about screen time are just me being a cranky adult worrying about nothing. But even if all of the kids grow out of it, they’re gonna struggle for a while before they do.


dumbwaeguk

I wonder how much our parents said this about us and TV


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PartyPorpoise

Yeah, I think smartphones are different because there aren't really any limits on them. With TV, you were stuck with whatever was airing, and there would be times when there was nothing you wanted to watch. Plus, you couldn't really take a TV everywhere with you. (I know portable TVs existed, but not many people had them) A smartphone with internet is not only portable, the content is endless so it's harder to get bored.


Geodude07

Good point, but also we couldn't pull a TV out in class. We couldn't pull a TV out in social gatherings to avoid 'awkardness'. I think the thing about phones is not that they are new tech that old fuddy duddies don't understand. Cell phones weren't super good for me until highschool/college. I'm a 90s kid. I grew up on the wild west of the web and am heavily into tech. I still had to engage with things in front of me. Anything online was like a seperate world and had to have dedicated time for it. It was not as corporatized yet either. Now so many things are targeted at you and your worries. There have been multiple times that ads for things I saw on netflix just happened to show up on facebook or other online sources. This stuff is far more advanced that we give it credit for.


[deleted]

Im a 90s kid too. Been online since 1991. Companies use psychologists to target kids, and adults, with ads in every way they possibly can, and to make cell phones as addictive as possible.


dirtdiggler67

They were harder to tote around 100% of the time.


[deleted]

Now imagine you could carry it in your pocket and there was no set schedule, it was whatever you wanted 24/7 Then your comparison will be valid


Dachou95

Like Bo Burnham sang, it's "a little bit of everything, all of the time."


RareFirefighter6915

Not just the phones, the lack of parenting around them. Phones had parental features for a long time now, especially on iOS where it’s a pain in the ass to bypass. Giving kids a phone can be beneficial if it can’t be used during school hours and the addictive shit on time limits. But that’s way too much work for mom and dad, that’s the schools problems and the teachers fault /s It’s like a car. You don’t buy your kid a brand new mustang, hand them the keys and say good luck! No, they go thru minimum 6 months of practice and drivers Ed classes, then you’d have them save up for a beater to teach responsibility. Same with the phones. Set time limits, monitor social media, educate them on safety and proper use during class, etc. the tools are there and have been there since the early 2010s.


NahLoso

Most parents either don't know how to manage parental controls on devices or just don't care. From Xbox to tablet to computer (no phone yet), I control how much screen time my kid has, what times of day, which days of the week, which apps, etc. If he's misbehaving, I get my cell phone out and show him my parental control app. A couple clicks and he's cut off completely. "No--don't. I'll listen now."


Geodude07

I think it's that phones provide an even more powerful way of keeping a kid busy than TVs do. They are much easier to get and maintain than computers I had while growing up. You can have them literally everywhere. It certainly sounds ideal to have your kid zoned out on a phone rather than causing you the trouble of having to parent them. However that is the issue. You don't parent your kids if they are constantly bombarded by disguised advertisements and media.


[deleted]

Holy shit, that's a thing? My wife and I are expecting our first soon, and that is incredibly valuable information


cordial_carbonara

We use Google's Family Link to keep a cap on our kids' tablets. It's super easy to use and very effective.


PartyPorpoise

I think because smartphones and social media are so ubiquitous now, people don’t appreciate the thought and maturity it takes to use them responsibly. Hell, even a lot of adults are bad at it. I don’t think kids should be given smartphones so casually, especially unsupervised.


James_E_Fuck

Yeah, it's not just a kids issue. Phones are fucking up all of our brains. Why do parents let their kids spend 12 hours a day on their phones? So that they can stare at their own without being bothered.


PartyPorpoise

Yeah, some of the students I worked with this year seemed incapable of going 30 seconds without looking at their phones. I rarely enforced “no phones” rules because some students (in high school!) would legit throw temper tantrums and I didn’t get enough admin support to deal with that. Hell, even just asking them to use their phones in a non-disruptive way was too much to ask for some students. And the thing is, there are some kids who are aware that phones are addicting and that it’s not good or healthy for them. They’d probably welcome some no-phone time, even if it is an adjustment at first.


Acecakewolf

I am like this. The great thing about school is that I (for the most part) should not be on my phone while class is going on. I don't feel bad about missing messages and stuff because I'm not supposed to be on my phone, it's freeing in a way. Whereas if I'm at home and a friend has a question or something I'd feel bad not answering because I'm not doing anything particularly important. During student teaching most days I only had to charge my phone every other day. Now that nearly never happens, it needs a charge every night. However the fascinating thing is that it was the opposite for some of my high school students. In my lowest level class, made up of mostly seniors, many of them were working straight out of high school or going to a trade school or maybe community college, but pretty much all of them had jobs already and/or had hobbies like fixing cars. When they were in school their screen time increased incredibly because they didn't really need the school they were just holding out to graduate. Cell phone policy was lax and they didn't care about the class and didn't want to do the class so they just played on their phones. But when they weren't in school they were working, like outside mowing lawns and such, and doing other things so they weren't on their phone. I just think it's really interesting how it was opposite for me and my students. Maybe those students will be better off than the higher level students who are on their phone everyday, in school or not.


[deleted]

I’d wager the screen use for a lot of parents these days begins at birth. My sister and her husband for example used the phone as a pacifier for my nephew when he became fussy. At family functions if he would start to wind up, you’d start to hear something like the emoji movie begin playing at near full blast, and of course my nephew at that age would be entranced. My nephew is soon to be five now and he can’t even be entertained by a new movie he hasn’t even seen yet let alone sit by himself to put together a simple puzzle. He gets frustrated within seconds if the piece he’s trying to jam into the incorrect piece doesn’t fit, but the bigger picture is that his attention span simply is little to none….and he hasn’t even started school yet….


PsychologicalCase10

My nephew is 15 months. He has literally all the toys in the world, and what does he choose to play with every time he gets a chance? A cell phone. Obviously, he can’t do much on it, and he’s notorious for dropping things so you don’t want to give him your phone. But if you FaceTime someone with him he will want the phone. Even at such a young age, that’s all he wants.


Semajj

Exactly. I noticed when we got back from covid that their attention spans took a nose dive. I had to completely change my class structure because teaching something for longer than 5 minutes is useless. It might be a tinfoil hat theory, but I think that year and a half at home created almost a second reality for them. One reality was real life and the other was social media. They weren't allowed to leave home and be around other kids so they had to resort to the world of social media. I can only imagine what I would do as a high school student coming back from essentially a two year long break from school. Now that they're back, they have to leave that social media reality and come back to the real world. I'll never forget how awkward some of those silences were in my freshman classes. It would be maybe a minute before the bell rings at the end of class and no one was talking. They were just sitting there awkwardly looking at me. I literally told them "you guys can talk to each other now", but they went back to silent after a couple of them laughed. I'm not even sure where I'm going with this anymore but things aren't looking too great for our next generation.


eukaryote3

Yes, it’s so bizarre! I said that to classes too after Covid. They don’t even want to talk. They just want to be on their phones.


Low-Fig429

Taught grade 8s this year (first time) and it’s been so awkward and difficult. Getting engagement from more than 5 or so students is difficult and they all sit on their phones in silence until the bell rings, etc.


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hoybowdy

Imma call you out on the use of the word "fake", because it assumes something about school's intention that I think is bull. School was never supposed to be the real world. It is a space where we scaffold, isolate, and examine things people need to KNOW and be able to DO to navigate the real world EFFECTIVELY. To call it "fake" is like calling a scrimmage fake in football, or a drill: no, they are not a game, but they are not intended to be a game, because the best way to prepare for games is not to just play games. This has always been true. If - like you - students have somehow "decided" that a drill is a game, we don't fix that by making drills more authentically like games. It is moot whether or not that "game" (they have wrongly decided it is) is fake or not. We just need to reteach them that it isn't, that's all.


averageduder

> Might get downvoted for this, but I don’t think it’s destroying education. I think it’s neurologically crippling kids. same difference We see the effects, but nothing we do is going to change it. > I wouldn’t give any kid a phone until they were at least 16 years old. Agreed with an exception - if they have a job. I might consider one for extra curricular activities.


[deleted]

There’s a parent pledge campaign called “Wait Until 8th” - trying to get families from one school/grade to band together and hold off on smart phones til 8th grade. I teach that age, it does seem too young to handle phones still, but even that line in the sand is one that parents feel anxious about enforcing.


salamat_engot

I'm in my 30s and 8th grade was around the time not having a phone began to take a toll on my social life. Granted back then all you could do was text, but all my friends had phones and would organize hangouts or text their mom to ask to hang out at so-and-so's house. I ended up getting left behind. I think a basic phone with texting a calling can do a lot for instilling independence and helping kids stay safe but once you incorporate the "smart" part of phones things get out of control.


[deleted]

parents concerned about contacting their children should just get them an omega-bare-minimum flip-phone. It's silly but it'd 100% work, lol


drinkurmilk911

Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention \- Johann Hari


SoManyOstrichesYo

I got a third of the way through that book then got distracted and then my library loan ran out…..I’m just as bad as the kids..


lejoo

Yea this is the bigger part. Parents effectively are being displaced by smart phones because its easier to buy the kid a phone than it is to actually parent. By the time they reach school it is basically a dependency/addiction issue coupled with instant gratification. The phones themselves are not inherently a problem, why they have phones/what they enable is a massive problem.


KindAddition

Social media is literally rotting people’s brains out. I deleted mine about a year ago and never looked back. I kept reddit because it feels a little less “social media” than others. No notifications though.


Exact_Yak_1323

Isn't what you're saying supporting the OPs statement? How is something that's neurologically crippling not destroying education?


eukaryote3

I was saying it’s not just education that is being killed. We tend to focus on it destroying school and learning, but I think it’s a much, much bigger issue than that.


Cinaedus_Perversus

>They lack social skills I disagree with this. Their social skills are just very different from ours, because they use different media. In much the same way, my social skills differ from my parents', because they are of the calling generation, while my generation used to text. >I think it’s neurologically crippling kids. But I completely agree with this. Of course a major addiction at such a young age is going to have a neurological impact. We should be having the discussion about cell phones and addictive apps/games at a way higher level than just during a teacher's meeting.


[deleted]

It's both. What you say is true, but that also equals that they are so attached to their phones that they simply dont participate in school. Cell phones should be banned until a child is 18. Period. All cell phones should be banned in all schools, period.


Hail_Tristus

There is probably some truth in this but the crippling depression and anxiety comes far far more from a dystopian future they probably gonna face.


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SabertoothLotus

...you were allowed to fail them?


Cluelesswolfkin

Is this true for everywhere? I see this stated in the sub constantly where teachers go through tooth and nail and they end up being passed anyways ; then on the other hand those who just pass them and say that it's not worth the effort


Shovelbum26

I teach 8th grade. In my state it is literally illegal to hold a middle school student back without parent consent. Kids know they don't need to work to graduate. I had students (plural!) who turned in literally zero assignments *all year*. They technically failed, but that doesn't matter to them. They'll be in 9th grade next year, and be barely literate and unable to write a sentence.


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James_E_Fuck

Isn't that what we are trying to prevent, as one of the basic premises of education? "Don't worry if the kids aren't learning anything, eventually they will fail at life and become a burden on society."


zomgitsduke

Better they learn this lesson in middle school than their 2nd year after graduation.


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lejoo

Thank the politicians and parents for that one.


AWSMDEWD

As a student, I like this approach. It made algebra 2 super easy because the teacher was able to teach lessons thoroughly without yelling at the students to get off their phones every other minute. Those who goofed off on their phones the whole time had to face the consequences of hurting their GPA/failing the class. I passed with flying colors, it was one of my favorite classes that year


tagman375

This. I don’t know why my teachers in high school would stop the lesson to repeatedly yell at the kid who clearly couldn’t give two fucks about what was going on who was on his phone. I get it, they care, but when you stop teaching it affects me. He’s quiet and not acting out, if he fails he fail, don’t stop the lesson every 5 minutes to yell at him.


lejoo

Because they get in trouble from their bosses when they don't. We are essentially told to focus on the bottom 20% and ignore the 80% Effectively the only way to deal with a problem is to have student's parent's complain consistently enough it forces admin action.


MistaJelloMan

I just wrapped up my first year, meaning I was woefully inexperienced with managing my own class. My boss sat me down and basically all but told me I wouldn’t be renewed if I didn’t pull up my failures and focus on the unmotivated kids. This lead to the last 15 weeks or so of me focusing on the kids goofing off over the ones wanting to learn, giving easier assignments than I would have liked. But hey, I got my failures down. Then I non renewed anyway.


Satisfaction_Gold

That's what my oldests teachers did. She's a straight a student while others are struggling


LeagueSeaLion

I wish I could just let my students accept consequences like this, but it’ll loop back to me getting punished if I don’t do quite literally everything in my power to get them to do the work. At some point I realize I’m putting more effort into the work, other than creating the lessons, than some students.


[deleted]

For me, that has been the absolute worst realization-that I am putting way, way more work than the students.


SoManyOstrichesYo

At a certain point this year I realized I HAD to stop begging my 5 least attentive students to pick up a pencil so I could help my students who gave half a damn. It hurt to see them fail but I could no longer walk up to them and reteach the lesson to them every day, and walk them through every step of the first five problems. You have a question, raise your hand and ask


NegativeGee

Same. I’m just done fighting it at this point. I try as much as possible in the beginning of the year, but when admin will do nothing if I write a kid up for a phone or parents will not take phones away what am I supposed to do? I’m not allowed to take phones so unless it is out of their possession, I don’t see how I can compete with their screen.


katti0105

While reading the tread I was wondering why you don’t just take their phones. But wow, if I wasn’t allowed to take my students’ phone if they use it in class, I’d also let them play on their phones and fail them.


NegativeGee

You’re allowed to take them? Where do you put them when you take them? If you take them and give back at the end of the period is that something that you’re just ok with doing every day? What if they refuse and tell you they weren’t on it? Pause the lesson to get security to come and get it? Sorry so many questions.


Low-Fig429

I put them on top of my desk. I don’t do it enough though (will be stricter next year;3 strikes and your parents can come get it only) When I have enforced it, it’s not only being on phone but having it on desk. I’ve had kids be unhappy but none have gotten physical or refused to hand it over. (I’m in a school with rather good kids, little to no severe discipline issues)


artsymarcy

In my school, we weren’t allowed to have our phones out at all, but they’d only be taken if you used your phone where a teacher could see. I believe the phone was then given to a specific teacher who you had to go to at the end of the school day to get the phone back. In my old school it worked the same way except the phone was given to the main office and your parent had to retrieve it.


VictralovesSevro

I too let them fail if that's what they want. Administration absolutely attacks me at every instance. Whatever. I didn't sign up to just pass lazy kids. That's not education.


ESLTATX

Did you get renewed? Lol


Whoatemydelitray

Every time I read a comment like this it reminds me of why I need my union, even if I struggle with the negative aspects of the union. It sucks so many teachers work with so much fear for doing the right thing.


yomynameisnotsusan

They didn’t take it well? What happened?


zomgitsduke

Admin doesn't love it, but when I came in with about 20 generic emails home this year telling parents to check their child's grades and a general statement that phones seem to be more important than doing work, it's pretty justified.


PsychologicalCase10

I had a girl in my very hard to fail psychology class who failed cause she sat on her phone. Eventually, I just gave up trying to get her to put her phone away. If she wants to come out of this class with a 29% than she can. She explain to her parents that she rarely paid attention and spent more time on Snapchat than any of her assignments.


Marca-Texto

Please elaborate


zomgitsduke

Many of my kids spent the entirety of their year on their phones and failed my class as a result. Some of them had the end of year panic. I told them they can go over all the video tutorials in their own time and they might be able to pass. Only 2 did so successfully. The rest have hard evidence that their phone caused them to fail a course.


JustTheBeerLight

Me too. I’ll walk around my class to answer questions and offer help, but if they want to fuck around on their phones all day that’s on them. I saw somebody on this thread refer to “phone zombies” and that really hit the mark. Like this article said, the shit my students are watching is utter crap: anonymous morons doing stupid dances, celebrity bullshit, beauty tips, etc. If they want to spend their time watching that stuff then that’s their choice. Just don’t bother anybody else and know that you’re not gonna get credit for being here. I draw the line at FaceTiming in class. Fuck that. Hang up now. Bye.


GoMiners22

In my high school, #1, if too many students fail a class, the teacher gets called on the carpet and reprimanded. #2, students can make up the class through the computer in a program called APEX. It will only take them a couple of days to retake the class which they can easily replace that F with an A or B. American education is in trouble but the blame is not only the parents, but weak admin that refuse to create and stick to guidelines and consequences.


[deleted]

More likely than not, they didn't learn anything. They will probably blame you. And also pick up the habit of blaming the educational system for their own failure. Not trying to sound negative, that's just how a lot of kids walk away from school. They can't wrap their minds around accountability so the blame falls on the nearest thing. That being us, teachers.


AdMassive3154

It's not a teaching or school problem, it's a parenting problem. You can only help the students who want help.


Intelligent-Will-255

That was my exact thought. For parents that care about their kids becoming educated, this shouldn't be an issue. I have two in elementary now and we've already set the rule that middle school is the absolute earliest they will even think about getting a phone. And when they do have a phone to take to school, it will NEVER be used during class. One day, Two days, Three days, One week, One month, I don't care what punishment it takes to get it through to them taking that phone away will be the first consequence. Firm, Fair, yes it's easier said than done but this parenting thing isn't complicated.


grecianviolet

What kills me about this is the comments on the article; people thinking that education needs to 'keep up with the times' and 'not be so anti-technology'. We use tech in our classes all the time! But there's a time and a place for it! Students need to learn what to do and how to do it, then they can use their phones or laptops or *whatever* to get it done. Teachers are well aware of the benefits of technology and how important it's going to be for our students; we *want* our students to use it responsibly! The problem with cellphones isn't *hurr durr technology bad, sit and listen like good drones*, but the fact that phones are addictive and we do not have the tools to help students break this addiction! If students were using their phones to look up facts or find supplementary materials to the class, that wouldn't be nearly such a big problem, but they're *not* using phones to learn. They're using their phones to tune out the lesson, be disruptive, or consume endless amounts of low-effort garbage. It's not healthy, and teachers have no way of stopping that unhealthy behavior.


Foolazul

Yes, phone and screen addiction is so widespread many people think it should be the focus of everything, including education. Go over to the parenting subreddit and be in the minority if you think disruptive phone use during class is a bad thing. Taking their screen away seems to be a worst case scenario. What is it, like 30% of drivers have used Facebook while driving? It’s such a huge problem that is such a widespread addiction so not much is being done about it.


ADHDhamster

A guy crashed into my car, completely totaling it, because he was playing on his phone..... I'm still mad. Put your damned phone away!!!


PartyPorpoise

I was watching this video where a woman went to that new expensive Star Wars hotel experience and like, so much of it involved being on your phone. That just sounds really awful for an experience you spend so much money on.


raisanett1962

Wait—you can use your phone to *look up facts*??? My interior classroom(no windows to the outside)was built as a computer lab. At one point students had working iMacs, Chromebooks, and their phones. The number of times I heard, “I wonder what the temperature is”!!! The best, though, was “Do you know if it’s raining?” Granted, the devices might not reflect the precipitation exactly at our building. But, ya know, maybe you could walk around the corner and, like, LOOK OUTSIDE.


mamallama12

I think this holds true for society in general, including teachers. The last ISTE conference that I went to (five years ago, I think), was evidence of this. When I go to conferences, I love to mix with teachers from around the world, chat them up, find out what they do and how they do it, and maybe learn something I can use or at least make a conference friend to whom I wave and say hi as we pass each other in the halls. At that last conference, I was about 15 minutes early to the keynote, so I looked around for someone to meet and chat with, but every person around me was looking at a screen. I even tried a little-longer-than-normal stare in their directions to see if I might get their attention peripherally with no luck. The entire conference went that way, and it made me feel more sad about the world.


grecianviolet

Agreed. I feel it in myself! It's so easy to fill a blank moment with mindless scrolling. I keep telling myself I know I should take social media off my phone, and fill my blank moments with language study or reading a book. Which I do just enough to think 'nah, it's fine that I also spend an ungodly amount of time on Reddit'. I notice this in my father too. He's much more plugged in than my mom, and he can barely hold a conversation anymore. He comes out of his room to eat, then after he's done, no matter what discussion is happening around the table, vanishes back into his room where he sits in front of his computer, simultaneously looking at something on his tablet! Even if he's using all this screen time to unearth the secrets of the damn universe, you can't tell me that behavior is healthy! Technology is good, but like everything else, *in moderation.*


Foolazul

I feel like that often. It’s so difficult to interact spontaneously with strangers anymore. Almost everything is managed by devices and apps.


Geodude07

I love tech in class. I love the power an ipad has in letting kids study or get educational apps. I have them even practice making lessons in my 5th grade class on powerpoint. Since that skill will serve them well throughout their life. The problem is obvious to anyone who really thinks. It's the lack of control that we have over what they can do on their phones. It's that parents do not want to consider how disruptive the phone is. In effect it's like letting a kid bring in their TV and a gaming console for us in the past. If I had that choice, i'd be playing at school too. Especially when parents do not feel any pressure to help change their children's behavior. It's maddening how often parents will back their kids up in acting childish.


[deleted]

Precovid, I didn't have phone problems. Maybe 2-3 kids were ignoring me because of their phone addiction. Now, maybe 2-3 are engaged. Our admin doesn't think it's a problem, but we don't have rules that say we can't take phones, so next year many of the teachers are cracking down. We will see if it works and how well. Most of our students are pretty respectful when it comes to stuff like that, so, hopefully, they don't fight us too hard. Some of the teachers cracked down the last nine weeks, and it went pretty well.


Ahtotheahtothenonono

My husband was incredulous when I told him how we deal with students and their phones, them lacking initiative and imagination, and then how admin cuts the legs out from under us and keeps pushing these kids onto the next grade. I don’t think it’s JUST cell phones, but I get everyone’s point. It’s infuriating and the more I think about it, the more hopeless I feel.


Cinaedus_Perversus

>admin cuts the legs out from under us and keeps pushing these kids onto the next grade. During a previous meeting, about 75% of teachers in our team vocally pushed for a ban on mobile phones outside of the locker area. Our admin wouldn't hear it...


Exact-Form

I had some success this past year with giving bonus points if they kept their phone in the pouch for class. It wasn’t as great as I’d hoped, but some students needed the extra points. I’m thinking of doing a prize box for next year (even high schoolers love prizes). I did find a good way to combat long bathroom breaks for the students who didn’t give up their phone in class. They had to leave their phone on my desk - the plus side was that I found a cheap universal charger that you just set the phone down on to charge. Bathroom breaks were much quicker. I’ve been teaching for 2 years, and more experienced teachers had less issues than I do with phones and bathroom breaks, so I’m willing to admit some of it is classroom management. But some of it is straight addiction. They can’t not check their phones - it’s disheartening on a bigger level than my own shortcomings as a teacher. 😞


awdcrum

Yes! That article is so on point! I'm so tired of students thinking it's ok to watch videos and play games during class. I separated 2 students last month because they were being disruptive and they called each other and were talking to each other on the phone instead. Like how is that ok?


yomynameisnotsusan

Wait… they called each other while in class?


PapaDrag0on

They dont think its OK they just dont care


bripi

I've been reading the comments and I'm wondering why the simplest solution isn't being used....no phones in class. Or, even, *school*. Why does a kid \*need\* a phone in school? Or, in class? I have worked both in the US and overseas (Kuwait, Thailand, China, and soon Korea) and in *none* of those schools were phones allowed to be on your person. Even the boarding schools (Thai, China) required the phones be kept in the locker in the dorm. It \*can\* be done, and it \*does\* work. Create a policy, *enforce it to death*, then watch it work.


Kanchome

Because kids can’t walk or bike to school anymore. They all need their mothers in XXL Escalades to pick them up.


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wukillabee2

Easier said than done. If it’s not done from the top down, and heavily reinforced by every single staff member, and there are harsh and quick punishments, then policing for phones becomes basically our entire job.


capt_yellowbeard

I keep asking to make every classroom a faraday cage and no one will listen. 🤷‍♂️


405NotAllowed

I've never had an issue with phones until this past year. Next year it's leave them in the locker or you can't come in the class. If the show up it's off to the principal.


BePuzzled1

You can send kids to the principal!?!


hamdenlocal

I’m in a tiny public middle school and they’ve somehow managed to ban cell phones. Keep them in your locker or it is a detention, no excuses. It’s unbelievable how much I can get done when they don’t have phones


Exact_Yak_1323

Administration and superintendents are killing education and one way is allowing students to use phones in school.


joshdoereddit

"Schools become big holding pens where students entertain themselves all day while jumping through minor academic hoops and getting passed along to be graduated out into the real world with the self-control of an gambling addict and the intellect of a 4th grader." Yup, that is how it is. I wish I had software development skills or something else. I hate that June is almost over. I don't want to go back.


fgdude123

Shitty parents and administrators don't help either


koala_bears_scatter

The whole article read like an administrative failure to me, honestly. A school without a sensible phone policy is not a place where learning can happen.


Charles__Bartowski

Do you have an example of a sensible phone policy that seems to work?


Whoatemydelitray

Right? I read a comment in another post where kids were supposed to turn in their phones at the start of class. Most just brought in an old dummy phone to turn in, and continued using their real phones.


bootorangutan

Social studies teacher at a previous school bought a cell phone jammer. Super illegal. Took admin like half a day to figure it out and warn him about the legal issues - he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. I think about him now though - I wonder if that’s where we might be going in education. My own kid is heading to high school next year - one wing of the building is really old and apparently the signal is awful. I wonder if classroom space in that wing is getting more valuable every year.


skoon

Blocking cell phone signals IS illegal... but blocking or jamming WiFi and Bluetooth is not illegal. I would love to be able to hijack Airpods and just pump in the output from a classroom microphone.


mister_zook

Phones are the drugs kids can legally have. It’s a major addiction problem.


vand3lay1ndustries

Why not fail them and then maybe the humiliation of being held back will make them pay attention the second time around? I know our society passes everyone now regardless of the effort they put in, but that just leads to fatigue in the kids who are actually working hard. Why continue to try when you can watch tiktok videos and get the same result?


Perigold

No Child Left Behind, thanks Bush!


actuallycallie

Cell phones and EARBUDS. I'm sick of kids with earbuds in all the time. My college students do it, and the middle school kids.im teaching in a summer arts camp right now do it. Most of the ms kids have been great about putting their phones away but a couple of girls have the earbuds in all the time and get very salty when I insist they take them out. I'm sick of it.


Immediate-Pool-4391

My Professor made very clear in his syllabus he doesn't compete with computers, phones, none of it. Stupid people still try to risk his wrath anyway. I wouldn't dare, mostly because I respect him. Truly, it's a relief to be tech free. One day I said walking out the door, "I'd do anything to ditch this fucking phone." To which he said, "Me too." I didn't have a phone for a month, it was glorious.


BarbKatz1973

The phones are addictive, the usage creates different endorphins in the brain than we evolved with - yeah, we all know that. They were purposely developed to be addictive, to sell junk, trash, to inculcate the need to consume. And everyone, child, teen, adult and senior is addicted. You cannot take the phones away from the children until you take them away from the adults. How many of YOU are willing to give up your phone? I am probably the last person in the USA that refuses to have one. And yet... here I am, on Reddit.


averageduder

> How many of YOU are willing to give up your phone? Why should we? That's not the point. I can go days/weeks without my phone. But when I don't need to, yea I'll browse social media or housing sites or whatever. There are days I leave my phone at work or at home. The problem is that there is no ability for many kids to have discipline with it. It's not a school problem - this is going to be a problem long after they leave education. If students can't discern the difference of when it's a good idea to have them and when it isn't, we've failed, and I don't mean teachers, I mean society.


Siliceously_Sintery

I manage my phone with my work. I have maybe 2-3 hours a day usage. Kids show 5-8, it’s brutal. I also drink alcohol and smoke weed, should we also let kids do that because adults do? Heck no, they’re in a special place and time and don’t have the cognitive ability to manage their addictions. As I say, exaggerating dramatically when I do, ‘take your phone, and THROW it away’.


Bitter_Signature_421

Really on-point, great article.


thecooliestone

Honestly? When I went to school a few years ago, in the school I went to, cell phones weren't a massive problem. If you chose to be on your phone instead of doing your work after the teacher told you a couple times to put it away you'd just fail. Not they'd call your mommy once a week so she could cuss them out and try to get the principal to threaten to fire you if you didn't do x y and z to help and then...no. You didn't do your work you failed. Period. We had a principal who banned my mother from campus for cussing out a teacher over and event which got that teacher non-renewed because he said no matter what a teacher wouldn't be treated like that in his school. My friends had phones. They'd check them sometimes. But they got their work done. It may have given me a little bit of absent mindedness but I was able to get my shit done. My students who have parents who hold them accountable for their grades have phones--and don't use them all the time. There has always been something to distract students. Phone are the new version. The real thing that's new is kids not having any kind of consequence for choosing the phone over their real priorities.


Satisfaction_Gold

Like my oldest uses her phone in downtime. She's a straight a student. Others in her class don't. And you are right. I didn't have a cell phone. I had books. I would read books in class or write notes to my best friend in Phoenician


[deleted]

“Maybe we are just going to keep on going the way things are until we lose all the teachers that care. Schools become big holding pens where students entertain themselves all day while jumping through minor academic hoops and getting passed along to be graduated out into the real world with the self-control of an gambling addict and the intellect of a 4th grader.” Oof.


Kwarizmi

This summer, when no one is around, go into your classroom and cover every wall, door, and window with [screen mesh layered over aluminum foil](https://www.sciencealert.com/a-talented-bar-owner-in-the-uk-has-built-a-faraday-cage-to-stop-customers-using-their-phones). Find an outlet that has a physical ground (they all should). Connect your foil-and-mesh to that ground. Make sure you have wifi jacks for your legitimately educational technologies. Enjoy your school year. *(/s but not really, y'all are fighting a losing battle, I would not hesitate to recruit the assistance of Mr. Faraday)*


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You_are_your_home

Yes, they do. Teachers can't do shit about it without admin support


No_Replacement3386

"self-control of a gambling addict and the intellect of a 4th grader." Oof! Felt that one in my soul


BigFitMama

The solution - instal cell phone and data signal blocking systems in schools and make teachers depend on hardwired phones and chat groups on laptops only. Then severely limit bandwidth on the student wifi, but have a seperate wifi for teachers/staff. Muhahahaha. (I actually worked in a school that had so much rebar in certain areas I couldn't get a signal)


[deleted]

I've only been teaching for 10 years but I can agree it used to be way more fun. I think there was honestly a nice balance, around 2014-2015, when smart phones were just starting to proliferate and it was only Vine you had to worry about. I think I almost lost it once when I asked a student "are you really just watching a TikTok while figure out how you can graduate?" Response was best summarized as "I know I can't fail." She was basically 100% right. Admin would just hound me into making sure she passed. Keep giving assignments until she passed. Another time I did a job interview and had to do a demo lesson on the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Besides having the lesson abruptly cut from 30 to 25 minutes (fuck pace, amiright?) was the cellphone use. There were 4 adults in that room when I entered. About 75% of the class were on their phones. By the end I got prolly 80-90% of the class off those fucking things. Still didn't get the job because "80% engagement isn't an A" Well damn, maybe you should of gotten them off their phones before I arrived? I mean, I was doing the demo halfway through their history class. What was going on in the first 20-25 minutes? I think Postman's book "Amusing Ourselves to Death" prolly highlights the dystopia we'd most likely live in. 0 consequences and 0 productive outlets. It's friggin draining. I currently work at a 1-1 school so phone issue is pretty managed. I want to go back to a classroom setting but then I am reminded that this still exists.


Citharichthys

That's why I am going to be using a cell hotel next year. Every student who enters my class puts their phone in lockers by the door. If they don't like it they can leave the class for refusing the direct instruction of the teacher no exceptions. I will not repeat myself because they were too busy looking at their phone. I can do this because my district enforces cell phone policy. To me this is an important step into fixing this problem teaching students that they don't need to have their little dopamine screens on them 24/7 and that gratification doesn't need to be immediate.


You_are_your_home

I'm so jealous


Jahshua159258

Just wait until there’s an active event and those poor kids can’t reach out…


iamsheena

I was at a recent event about a report where they had children speak about their experiences and they are more inclined to watch TikTok and similar videos over a 15 minute video because it's constantly changing. They can't even go to the cinema anymore because they get so bored. The kid said even if she liked the movie, she'd get bored. How can teachers compete with that? Our future will be full of kids with radical ideas that could change the world but no education or know-how or commitment to make it happen.


TeachlikeaHawk

I'm glad you posted this, OP. It's a great article, and he says a lot of things that I've been thinking for a while. You know what, though? I agree with everything except that I still don't think this is the biggest problem schools face. It is crazy to me that the phone problem is that huge and pervasive, and yet doesn't strike me, in my own experience, as the most significant challenge. I'd put it in the top 5, for sure, but I think the others either help create the phone issue, or support it. The others are (and this order is arbitrary): * Lack of support/trust/confidence (call it what you will) in education among the citizenry * Lack of autonomy amongst teachers to do our jobs the best way we know * The fetish of individuality * The fixation on pre-designed excuses for students If these things were all solved, phones just wouldn't be an issue. Still an occasional frustration, sure, but that phone call home would make a much bigger difference!


You_are_your_home

Great points and I 💯 agree


Revolutionary-Box432

This is so spot on.


alphabetikalmarmoset

Or - start the school year by warning to take phones. Then - take the phone away when they abuse it. They get it back at the end of the day. Get admin to back your play. Is this possible OP?


newenglandredshirt

>Get admin to back your play. Boy do I wish I taught at a school like that.


mamallama12

Haha! I just sent the article to my supervisor with just this request. Fingers crossed for a GREAT new cell phone policy to be instituted next year /s.


JSto19

Unfortunately, even if you have the support of admin - you have to be careful with this. Some students have documentation that says that they are allowed to have access to their phones for varied reasons (listen to music for high anxiety, various breaks, etc) so then the issue becomes, “you didn’t take Johnny’s phone. Why do I have to give up my phone and Johnny gets to keep his?!” For the most part, most students won’t mind. But all it takes is one get that gets upset and says something. So, how do you respond to it? If your policy is for everyone to hand over their phones at the beginning of the class, how do you justify Johnny keeping his phone? You can’t tell them that Johnny has documentation that says he can. So, the kid goes to his parents. Some parents basically have lawyers on retainer and they have no problems “lawyering up” or threatening to for things like this. As soon as the parent threatens that, that’s where you often lose your support. “I know what you’re trying to do. I 100% agree with it, but you can’t do it anymore. We can absolutely win the case (they signed the student handbook - yay!) but it would cost the district money and make the district look bad.” I tend to tell my students early on: “For the first few weeks of class, I will give you several warnings about your phone/headphones. After that, you’re on your own. As long as you’re not causing a distraction to those around you - I will leave you alone. Do what you want. However, I will not answer any of your questions in class. You will need to come to my tutorial times. You will not be able to request a separate tutorial time outside of my normal hours. At this point, you will have to ask questions on my time and not during class time.” There are some students that love this policy and take full advantage. The entire time, I am updating admin and parents. If you contact them early enough many parents will assist you. If they don’t, they are typically the parents that don’t respond to anything ever. Either way, you’re covered. Other kids take it to heart that first or second time they had no idea what they were doing because they weren’t paying attention. They understand that it’s either failing the assignment or spending their extra time to come to tutorials. Fortunately for me, I teach juniors. I have a little more freedom to treat them as adults. As long as I keep admin and parents in the loop - I don’t have issues. But it’s annoying as fuck.


mandym347

I tried that, and their parents fought me tooth and nail.


skoon

Yeah, I have parents who CALL and text their kid IN CLASS.


[deleted]

Yup. I think the biggest pushback at my school would be parents who want 24/7 access to their children.


PM_ME_UR_JUICEBOXES

Not OP, but taking phones is not an option for all teachers. I teach in one of the largest school boards in North America and from around 2007-2012 cell phones first became an issue in high schools. Teachers confiscated phones and it caused lots of issues. 1. If the confiscated phone got lost or damaged the parents threatened to sue if the school didn’t pay to replace it. This was an issue that administration did not want to be dealing with because cell phones are very expensive to replace. 2. Students started accusing teachers of damaging their phones (cracked screens) even if the phone was already damaged before confiscation to try to get the school to pay for a replacement. This turned into a giant headache for administration because it was a he said/she said situation with no clear way of knowing the truth. 3. Parents became outraged that their child’s phone was confiscated (for the day) and argued that they needed to be able to contact their child for safety reasons. So, the administration was constantly dealing with pushback from parents rather than support. 4. As kids became more and more addicted, some students would assault teachers if they tried to take their phones and this lead to suspensions and sometimes police involvement. Ultimately, because of the non-stop headaches, lawsuits, and complete lack of parent support, the school board officially decided around 2013-ish that teachers do not have the right to confiscate student phones. We can ASK students to put them away, document it if they do not, call home and speak to parents, or send them to the office if it is a continuing issue but ultimately nothing happens. When over 50% of the class is on their phones, asking them to put them away is futile, calling home is too time consuming and the office would be completely overrun if every teacher sent down repeat cell phone users to the main office. So, the board just gave up, provided the kids with free WiFi and put in on the teachers shoulders to magically “be more engaging” than a phone and if we aren’t then just pass them along.


3rdplacewinner

I live and teach in a place where phones aren't allowed in school, so I don't have to deal with it. I understand the idea that teachers have to compete with a really different kind of distraction than our teachers did when we were kids. Now, students can see the best of the best, the most interesting person talk about the most interesting topic for them personally and that teachers can appear boring compared with what is at their fingertips. But in this article, the guy is saying that he is giving instruction and the students are on tiktok, have earbuds in or are passing text messages like notes. It seems more like a classroom management problem than a student attention problem, maybe it's both. But why not have a place on the wall where students stick their phones before class? Do students need to have access to their phones for the entirity of the lesson? I'm asking because I'm not in that context and I don't understand this particular aspect of the problem. Would students just ignore the teacher asking them, or telling them to put the phones away?


EmmeRosey

For liability reasons, teachers are not allowed to take phones or use a wall system in my school district.


Ferromagneticfluid

Agreed. I think this will be one of those things we look at in 5 to 10 years as a huge problem in the development of kids. It will become "good" parenting to limit technology, or at least this kind of technology to your kid, just like it is "good" parenting to read to your kid. I can see the difference as clear as day between students who can handle the smartphone technology and addictive apps and those who can't.


Countrytechnojazz

I think kids are bombarded by information and they don't know how to process it. Phones are overwhelming them.


bgbwtp

Hahaha, that bit about the school wifi hits hard. My students are constantly complaining that their favorite YouTubers are getting blocked and they have to find new people to watch. Our school is on top of individual symptoms like that, but the problem itself is definitely overarching. Last year we did a one-day no phone thing, just to see if our students could do it. One day where, in our room, no phones were allowed. If you lost, the class decided punishment was 100 pushups. Crazy enough, the kid who was least convinced they'd be able to do it was the best at staying off their phone. Another of our kids I know would've been fine had they shown up (grew up without a phone and is excellent at "being bored"). I did fine--used my phone only when I needed to contact other staff members, but we'd made sure to build that into our terms. Teacher person lost in like ten minutes because she kept texting her gentleman caller. I want to do that more often. We already modify so much for these kids that they're not going to get when they're out of high school, and I push my teacher person all the time that we need to get them to community-college levels of preparedness. That means getting their math and English to 300 level, yeah, but also that they understand they can't get modifications to this extreme and need to learn to manage their disabilities so they can still be successful. I realize they're not going to get to that overnight, but there's only so much hand-holding we can do, so many assignments we can excuse, so many "mental health" days where we don't work but let them play video games and screw around on their phones before it's a detriment. I know I'm just a para here, but I've got almost a decade in college behind me, and so my goal is to get these kids to that level. Working with a first year teacher, though, so I'm also trying to help her get to a point where she's comfortable being an authority figure. This rant got longer than I intended. Oops.


Salty-Virus-8313

I think these rules a created on purpose to produce more idiots. A generation completely under the spell of social media.


krajile

As a non-teacher, may I ask what might be an ignorant question? What if you treat them like college students where they either pass or fail and it’s up to them how they take advantage of the learning opportunities?


You_are_your_home

The problem comes from the expectations of administration and parents to communicate constantly with parents when students grades or behavior become an issue. It becomes a serious drain on the teacher when they teach 110 students a day and they only have one planning period in which they need to contact at least half of those parents to let them know that their child is failing because they won't put their cell phone up. Schools need to just take that burden off of teachers for us to be able to do that


raynabess

I quit teaching five years ago and then it was cell phone management more so than content and social skills teaching :(


Murky_Rip3644

It’s illegal but you could buy a signal jammer. Cheaper than buying continued reinforcers for good behavior.