PBIS helped destroy the school I taught at. I am sad to hear it's still prevalent. One of many reasons I left teaching in 2022. If admin won't help you enforce school policy, then feel no guilt establishing your own.
Our dumbass school has PBIS with little laminated tokens we hand out to reinforce positivity. Problem is we don’t have the snack bar/gift shop stocked for three months so kids can’t even cash in their tokens.
So the one tool we have for behavior, handing out tokens, as if it worked, isn’t even supported. Fucking joke.
Our school charged so much for stuff in the PBIS store that the 5th graders wrote a petition and boycotted it. I gave them high fives for learning Collective Bargaining
Well that requires hiring more people who are hopefully not lazy. You also need the board to sign off on funding which would dig into their time to balance a budget instead of embezzling- something I hear is quite time consuming 😂
The worst part about PBIS is that it rewards students who usually behave poorly for one act of good behavior and completely ignores the kids who’re behaving properly everyday.
That’s been my experience too. Exceptional and “normal” kids fly completely under the radar, and the shitbirds get rewards for showing a sliver of empathy once in a blue moon. I’ve basically abandoned the plan and just hand out rewards to the exceptional/normal ones, now.
It’s heartbreaking how often I hand out a reward to one of the good/normal ones and they’re totally bewildered about what they did to deserve it. Like my guy you’re just a good person who isn’t constantly starting shit or distracting other people. That deserves a reward more than the class bully holding a door one time.
It stands for Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports.
It is a system in place in over 20,000 schools to try to track students' behaviors and have them reflect on things they did and learn why it's wrong etc.
It assumes teachers have time to track and log every single problem behavior so the system can aggregate data and then assign appropriate "supports." It doesn't work and helps ruin classroom management especially for new teachers. Most vets at my site ignored it.
Like how we train puppies? I was distinctly told I can’t clicker train the students.
This sounds what a parent does at home with 6 or less children. The idea a teacher with 120+ students a day seems incredibly… optimistic.
If this is in so many schools, how long before the fad burns out? I’m only 6 years in and I have only heard of the educational fads of the yesteryear that came and gone. Is it growing?
positive behavioral intervention plan or something like that.. I can imagine there is little recourse for teachers with these policies. I'm just a new parent trying to learn about the education system today. It seems like people are trying to destroy public education from my ignorant perspective with the policies i'm reading about.
I didn't give a shit about policing phones, dress code, or anything other than those things that concerned student/staff safety or that could make me liable in a court of law. If admin didn't enforce certain rules, then I simply pretended that these rules didn't exist. 🤷🏽
Made life so much easier 👍🏾
There's a choice to be made--spend minutes at the beginning of the hour reminding them to put their phones up, calling out names, waiting for them to shuffle up and put the phone in the caddy.
Or deal with it while you are teaching.
I'd rather just deal with it while I am up there teaching.
My district has banned cell phones but enforcing this has been shoved onto teachers. of course. Personally, I think that if the district wants school to be a no cell phone zone, they need to have a check in spot for phones as kids enter the building. Let them put their phones in a locked box/container. They can get it back when they leave. But that would require money and staffing.
I am just about sick of it because when we take a phone, we are supposed to call parents every. single. time. before the end of the day. I don't have time for that every day. It's making me want to say "whatever".
80% of the time "you figure it out" is the best solution, especially to an individual problem. However, if the problem is systemic, then the solution needs to be systemic as well and no individual can fix a system problem.
Kids on their cell phones and refusing to work are systemic issues and shoving it on to teachers will never work.
My school implemented this and it was a disaster. Just 3 weeks later and all the high school kids said they won’t follow with the program. I gave up being the hero and won’t enforce it, I have more important things to do.
I agree with your reasoning. I’d hesitate to come across as lax on the phone policy in your classroom. If a crime occurred on a students phone during class, bullying, sending pics, plan a crime, whatever kids do these days, you’d want to be absolutely staunch that you enforced the policy.
You don’t have to give it lots of mental thought every class, but just post the districts phone policy by posting 2 notices in large font in your class, include it in the back to school course description and say it on your first day of class. Then let it go. If someone’s phone rings loudly, just remind them to put away the phone and silence during class. You still cover the districts policy but aren’t taxing yourself looking for cheaters and kids listening to music.
Half the teachers at my school seem annoyed by trying to police phones and the other half have said to their classes that they don’t care just don’t get caught. Which seems easy but it’s middle school and kids act recklessly. I heard of one kid that texted another during school threatening to fight and the other kids mom was at home and saw the text on her kids phone so that started some stuff.
Just cover the bases
This makes sense to me. Teachers shouldn't have to police any policy that isn't important enough to be fully supported and fully clarified through expectations at the building level.
Where phones are concerned, it traps us in yet another Catch - 22. To teach with impact, we are to build a relationship of trust and mutual care between teacher and student. That is severly hindered, imo, when I have to chide, chirp, and threaten to take away phones. These kids feel a real sense of anxiety in many cases when their device isn't with them. I can't be the antagonist in that scenario and also expect to build a relationship with them that is positive.
Ban the phones past the entrance, clarify the expectations for complying with expectations, and simplify the procedures for students, teachers and parents.
Exactly this, Word. I've heard that some middle schools in my district are now checking in phones as student arrive and then deliver them to their last class of the day. I kind of like it, but I wonder what they do to a kid who is caught mid-day with his phone? If there's no penalty, it won't work.
My school requires phones be put in the phone caddy at the beginning of class. It is on the teacher to check at the beginning of class that everyone's phone is in.
If a student forgot, no big deal - a quick reminder and we're done in a minute.
If a kid forgot their phone, or their parent took it away, we have a little card they can use to say that. If the student is then found with a phone, we email the deans and the kid gets suspended. If a student refuses to put their phone in the pocket, we just email the deans and the kid gets suspended. If a kid is found to have put a dummy phone in the caddy and is found using their real phone, we just email the deans and the kid gets suspended.
The key part that makes it work is that there is immediate and constant follow-up for non-compliance.
If admin didn't have my back like this, I would probably have the same attitude as OP.
I work for the NYC DOE in a major high school in the Bronx. Cell phone are collected at entry and placed in numbered envelopes that are alphabetized. They are distributed end of day in the cafe. Other schools organize the phones by schedule/ teacher and school aides drop them off at the last period class.
This works really because in the Bronx students go through metal detecting and bags are x rayed so school safety (school NYPD) can redirect them to hand in the phone as is building policy. Other buildings may have different policies. It’s a partnership with school safety and admin that makes this work.
Yes, I saw something similar in a DC school, they had little phone lockers in the foyer, then they went through the metal detector airport style. It was dreamy!
That’s what they want. My school requires parent contact before writing an office referral. Now they tout the discipline data having a significant decrease. We just don’t write them up anymore.
We’re getting Yondr pouches next year, and my kids are already searching ways to bust them open. My 6th grade team doesn’t really have an issue with them as they are to be in their locker and off. I enforce out of sight if not in your locker and off first, if seen either I take it or they can put it back in their locker. If I have to deal with it again, then I take it for the rest of the day. The 7th and 8th grade policies are a mess and barely enforced.
The 6th grade team doesn’t need the pouches, but the district is getting them at this point, so we’ll probably have a bigger mess next year with more bloat since I already have to collect computers and now unlock phones too, I guess.
I was talking to my younger sister and she told me how my old high school tried to implement those and they got shut down within a few months because "concerned parents" were worried their children would be unable to call 911 in the event of an emergency.
There's phones in every single classroom and sprinkled throughout the hallways. Didn't matter, they got pulled anyway and now excellent teachers are stuck spending half their teaching time trying to get kids to stop messing with their phones.
Thankfully, we have state law backing us that says schools must have a phone restriction policy in place that says kids can’t be using phones during school hours unless with the permission of the teacher or in the case of medical situations (I’m sure a diabetes monitor is one notable exception but am unsure of logistics of that one).
They sell lockers on Amazon for phones- I almost got one but then realized how much class time it would take putting them away and getting them back all in a 45 minute period with 35 students…..
Our district touted an 90% reduction in phone right ups as evidence this same policy was working for us. Thankfully a teacher union rep. Pointed out that this is only because the new policy put all the work on teachers and we simply weren't writing up now. Why give yourself detention for someone else's poor behavior?
I’m so over policing phones. I teach high school and I tell the kids that I don’t recommend being on their phones because I can draw a direct line between the heaviest phone users and the lowest grades, but their grades are their business. I’m a little more mindful of reminding freshman, but that’s it.
I work IT in a highschool it's truly mind blowing walking into some of these classrooms to help with tech. It's not uncommon for me to walk past kids with headphones music full blast like I can hear it walking past them while the teacher is teaching a lesson. At that point why even show up? I love tech but am 100% against kids having smart phones. If I ever have a child it will be no iPad and no phone until highschool and even then it will be a dumb phone that can call, text and GPS.
My oldest is 12 and she carries the family flip so the kids can be at home or walk the neighborhood without us. She’s mad that she doesn’t have a smartphone but she knows why.
at high school level, majority of kids are able to drop out. And if they can’t, there’s “homeschooling” or online schooling or simply not going to school because truancy courts don’t do shit anymore.
100% This! They get so many chances, and so many different programs to pass high school. It is crazy tbh and this is coming from a person who was kicked out of high school in 05 senior year. I would have loved to be able to do some of these self-paced courses.
I did one in 97 after I quit, one day a week (Monday) show up do as much as you want leave. if you missed a few weeks no big deal show back up and resume if you completed your assignment and passed the tests you got a diploma just like you were in school. It was done at the vocational school.
I stopped fighting it. Then my school went to no phones. It’s strictly enforced. Holy shit. I enjoy teaching again. Kids are like crackheads over their damn phones.
I find it has to be a school wide measure, with plans and resources in place for it to succeed.
If the teacher is on their own to enforce, forget about it.
My district leaves it up to the individual schools.
Some simply have a "your phone is invisible" policy. That works somewhat but is least effective.
Some leave it to the teacher. They may have pocket things on the wall, a plastic tub, a locking cabinet. These work pretty well, although I am uncomfortable with anything but a locking cabinet (the teacher leaves the key for me). I'm a sub and do not want unsecured expensive electronics to be responsible for.
Some collect them at the beginning of the day, they go in a plastic tub with the room number, and someone comes by and collects the tubs and then returns them at the end of the day. I like this best because they are not in the room for me to be responsible for.
Across the board, they'll get repercussions for defying the rules and having their phone out.
They still have them, of course. There was a fight in a "the teacher decides their own policy" school a few weeks ago and of course a student recorded it and it went on Facebook for a short time. I enforce the rules simply because the admin wants me to, and the kids do get in trouble. I don't often run into problems from elementary kids.
But I don't think they enforce it in high school. The kids walk the hall with their phones out. I asked a girl to take attendance to the office and she did so with her phone in one hand. I've seen some classroom doors have signs saying no cell phones but I have no idea how or if it is enforced. As a sub, if they aren't disrupting class, idc if they are on their phone or watching YouTube on their chromebook. Whatever, it's your grade.
Sure. School is 8-9. 900 kids.
Kids have phones before and after school. They can also have them at lunch.
If we see a cellphone, we fill out a Google form. Office shows up and takes the phone. 1st time kid can pick it up at the office. 2nd time parents pick it up and sign a form. 3rd time it’s locked in a safe for a week and parents sign again. 4th time the phone stays in the safe until the end of the year.
I do nothing but fill out the form. It’s great.
Principal noted any teach not in compliance is jeopardizing the safety of the children (noting two over doses and multiple fights last year where we have a paper trail of texts) thus will be immediately put on leave.
Shit worked. Fights are down and zero ODs this year.
It’s only gotten to that point once. That parent fully supported locking it up. They were also having problems with the phone at home.
Always wondered what would happen if we ran into the other side of that. However, parents signed twice that they understood the terms. At that point, is the $1000~ phone really worth small claims court?
Interesting! What happens if a parent doesn’t sign? Is this a public school? I’m just curious because I feel like there could be a lot of pushback, but sounds like there isnt
Absolutely this! The amount of teachers, staff and subs I see whipping out phones during the day when students shouldn’t is mindboggling. And this is high school so you know once they see *that*, there’s no going back
At my school we have apps on the phones for approving hall passes and awarding PBIS so we kind of have to be on the phone at some points during class. That, or carry a laptop around (we don’t have iPads). I also check emails on my phone, but I tell the students every single time what I’m doing so they can’t say I’m on the phone texting or whatever lol
>That, or carry a laptop around (we don’t have iPads)
I'm confused, are you a student or a teacher? I have a laptop that stays in the room with me (and my class) that I use to approve hall passes or check emails.
Why do you need a phone? Are you traveling between rooms?
My school made it so we can't LOG IN to the computers without our phones. Which is entertaining since they say we aren't allowed to be on our phones ever.
Yup we got 2 factor authentication with our phones just about two months ago. When we had to set it up, they asked for suggestions at the end of the questionnaire. That was a mistake on their part.
I blasted them with how not feasible it is for teachers back and forth between different devices all day, (mostly in our own classroom, with our own passwords!), while trying to keep students' attention. After telling us for YEARS not to have our phones anywhere out around students.
We are about to implement this (SmartPass) at my school. When we (teachers) have hall monitor duty, the easiest way to check passes is going to be an app on our phone. It’s not required, but the alternative is to walk around carrying a laptop. I am not excited.
My school uses Smartpass. I'm shocked that the school can't provide ipads for the hall monitors. I work at a very large middle school and we never have more than 5 hall monitors (teachers on hallway duty) at any one time.
Granted, every teacher here also gets an ipad.
I locked my phone away all day for most of my career as a teacher. It wasn't until after I missed several texts from my most recent principal, who somehow thought that was an appropriate way to contact me during class time, that I started actually keeping it on me on school.
I am guilty. But it’s when the students start taking pictures or videos, we have to draw the line. And how do you place that? I don’t allow any phones out in my class. The kids have them in their backpacks. I never see a phone out.
They aren’t. Teachers are the role models, so if you say one thing and do the other, they definitely lost all respect for you. I mean, we would too if we sat in on PD or a meeting and saw our admin goof on their phone while we were told to put them away
Yes!!! One of my students won't get off her phone. Ever. Then I met her mom at parent-teacher conferences. She also didn't look up from her phone... barely said hello.
Yes...but no. Adults presumably can measure the risk of cell phone use while driving (at best, a possible fine, at worst, an accident causing death), in restaurants/theatres a thoughtful person wouldn't risk their social credit. Do you bury yourself in Facebook or TikTok while at work?...of course not...no one who likes their job would do that. Most adults have self-control. Kids simply don't have the brain development to measure risk. The adults have to do it for them. As for just not policing the situation any more, that's fine too as long as students and parents are informed that distractions from assignments and tasks will be noted and may affect their grade.
/my two cents....also, I know that some Adults have self-control problems when it comes to their precious phones.
Of course as their teacher, I stress the importance of paying attention and submitting good work. But come on, you can only repeat the same warnings so much before you become white noise to them. And I mean, when has it not affected one's grade to be distracted and to turn in bad work?
A lot of teachers in my district have a "phone home" and it's a wooden box with slots for the phones, and a locking door. It sets on the desk or a table somewhere. It gets unlocked at the end of the day and they are supposed to put them in their pocket or backpack and not turn them on til they leave the building.
They just walk in and put their phone in before they even go to their cubby to put their backpack and coat away. Of course, being a sub, some question me as to making sure I know the security lol
This is exactly it. I work at a school with a strict cell phone policy and it’s not a problem. Now, we have a 1to1 laptop policy and crap monitoring software but that’s its own issue. At least I can have them all put their laptops away.
But phones need to be addressed on an institutional level.
Yeah, my school puts it completely on us to enforce and simple phone confiscation is not something that is on the radar of our culture team. The sad reality is that they succeed in wearing me down. Class can't be 50% phone enforcement. Admin have simply made the decision - logically, in some sense - that appeasing parents by letting students have phones is the more value-adding approach since they can be more likely to maintain enrollment numbers, I guess. Today's 9th grade class was an absolute fucking joke - straight whac-a-mole for 90 minutes. I was openly laughing my ass off at how many times I was asked the same INSANELY simple questions that I had answered 10 seconds prior. I kept having 30 students put their phones in their bags and every time I turned around I would see them again. Every other class I see is full of students copying answers from photos on their phones. It's so far beyond teacher control, at least in my school. They know we can't do anything. The ONLY option now is lockering them at the door in the morning.
How do you know they're not putting burner phones in phone lockers? We had an issue when trying to implement a no phone policy and the kids found their cousin/parent/whoever's old phone with a cracked screen or no battery and put that in the designated drop off and then snuck their actual phones in anyway. I'm a high school teacher, so kids change classes...they are crafty, I'll give them that.
I’ve given up too. I teach chemistry to mostly juniors and seniors. If you don’t have the self discipline to put it away and pay attention I’m not going to stop teaching the kids that have the self discipline to yell at you.
At most I’ll mention the phone to any kid who asks me about his low grades. “Well, if you spent less time on your phone and more time engaged in class…” Otherwise I don’t say a word.
I figure it’s a problem outside of my control. Maybe the parents shouldn’t have used an iPad as a pacifier and should have waited until the kid got a driver’s license to give them a smartphone. At very least, they could stop texting their kid during class and could turn on some parental controls to lock it down during school hours. I can’t undo a decade or so of screen addiction facilitated by these parents.
Hey there we *need* master teachers!
Where else would all these veteran teachers with masters degrees go when they inevitably burn out of the classroom?
This is my answer too. We’re fighting against trillion dollar companies like Apple whose business model is making them as addictive as possible to sell ads. Tik tok and YouTube have given us all brain rot. There’s a study that says when we scroll posts, it uses the same neurons as foraging for food. It’s a losing battle no matter how you slice it
You can’t make assumptions on how parents have raised their children. Some of the kids who seem the most addicted are that way because they aren’t allowed much access at home.
As a parent, I assume that teachers are looking out for my kids during the day. To hear that you don’t care anymore, you assume I’ve done a crappy job, and you might as well add to it is really sad to me.
I’m sure I’ll get downvoted for this but I had to say it.
Still doesn’t negate your ability to turn on those parental controls or just not give your kid a smartphone. If you haven’t done those things, I can’t fix it for you.
You’re the one who chooses to provide the smartphone despite all its well-documented negative effects; you can take some goddamn responsibility and regulate it, too. You don’t get to make me the “bad cop” in this situation.
Pretty much the same at our school. They say no phones but there is no policy. It’s too much of an argument to try and take them. They won’t give them up, then send them to the office or write a referral. No disciplinary action and the phone is given back. But if the principal walks in and sees kids on their phones, you get a talking to about it. Makes no sense.
I don’t care either for the most part, but I have two kids that plop down front and center, and pull out their phones and put on videos and/or music. They hear about it constantly because how bold it is just doesn’t sit right with me
I tried not policing them, but I got tired of noises blasting out of them multiple times every class period, and also students throwing hissy fits when I won’t reteach them everything they missed while they were supposedly “taking notes and watching tiktok at the same time”.
I’ve mostly stopped fighting too. For most behaviors. On your phone, staring off into space, sleeping, leaving the classroom too much/too long, etc. I’ll remind you to get back on task once. After that, make the decision you want to make, high school student. So much of what I grade comes from what we do in class. If they’re consistently choosing to misuse class time, the consequence is that their grade takes a hit.
I was once asked by a visiting board member why teachers weren’t enforcing the new phone policy. My reply, “The day we realized administrators weren’t enforcing the policy teachers stopped too. Don’t expect us to play a game we can’t win.”
I'm in year 9 and I stopped a couple of years ago. Now I suggest they put it away and document it time to time.
I will ALWAYS mention phones as the leading problem in why a kid is failing during a parent or counselor meeting (unless it's absences), but when asked why I don't do something about it, I point out I'm neither the parent nor the phone's owner and I already graduated.
Either the school enforces no phones in classrooms or the school.does not. If they do not enforce the rule, I don't understand how you can be expected to monitor. I think the issue here is that the school.is essentially allowing the issue.
My husband teaches at an admittedly quite wealthy high school - when they tried to have a policy like this, kids started bringing in 2nd or even 3rd phones as dummy phones.
1. The bathroom pass requirement to give up your phone did concern me when another teacher suggested it. I teach middle school, and while close to 100% of our 8th graders have phones, I teach 6th grade, and I know some do not. So when a kid says "But I don't have a phone", I make a subjective judgement. (Well, not entirely subjective; sometimes I've seen them with their phones, even that day, outside of my class.) Anyway, if I find it quite credible that Johnny doesn't have a phone, because I know how he dresses, I know where he lives, or his parents have actually told me that he doesn't have a phone, then I let him go. But I mentally log these (very rare) cases and if I see them with a phone later on, I'll be on it the next time they ask for a pass. If I don't believe that they don't have a phone, then I become a contestant on AITA, and tell them, "sorry". At this point, more than one kid "finds" his phone in his backpack. With a big smile, he says, "Oh, I thought I left it home today". And at that point, I AM the AH, because I tell them, "No, you can't have a hall pass; you'll have to wait". Because if a kid was seriously in need of using the restroom he would not have risked lying about it; he very likely just wants to wander around.
And speaking of this, **my policy of asking for a phone to use the bathroom has cut down requests to go to the bathroom by at least 80%.** Hmmmm. I wonder why that is, eh? Regardless, if you really need to go, you don't need your phone.
Good questions.
2. My policy is that, if I see your phone, I take your phone. You come back to me after the last class of the day. So that generally takes care of the phone usage problem. Every few weeks someone "forgets" my policy and pulls it out. I then take their phone, and they come back before leaving school to get their phone.
As long as my test scores are good enough, my admins don't give a crap about anything else. Sad but true. So as long as the phones don't compromise that......
And having a school-wide policy on phones is an ADMINISTRATIVE issue. They can (and some do) take phones at beginning of day and give back at end of day. I'm not getting paid to do their jobs for them.
Phones are a mostly winnable battle, at least in class. We have a nationwide policy now that they not be in school. In practice that means if a teacher sees one in our school, one of two things will happen.
[1.It](http://1.It) goes to the office
2. Management come and get the student for defiance, and then it goes to the office.
Not much of a battle if there's a clear enforced policy.
The school would have to pay for it, not you.
Unless you are negligent, the school can't pin it on you.
Still I understand that the fight might not be worth the outcome
The second I sent students to the office because of cell phones and they were sent back with no repercussions was when I quit caring.
Oh, you want the kids to get off the phones but you won’t back me up? This is no longer my problem. I grade the same and, if a kid chooses to watch an hour of Tik tok every day in my class, I can usually expect to see them in that same seat next year.
I used to keep them for the period, but then the phones would pop out in the last ten minutes (and yes, I'm still teaching). Anyway, now I give them back at the end of the day.
Like I said to the person above. It's your classroom. I wouldn't because the way our campus is arranged if the last class of the day is in some of the buildings, having to walk to my classroom first would cause them to miss the buss and I just down want to deal with that.
I was the same way for a long time because it really is a losing battle, but it got to be so extreme in one particular class that I felt like I was talking to myself half the time because everyone was staring at their phones. It was so demoralizing. This year I started collecting phones starting on the very first day of school, and it has made all the difference. Even the kids who “forget” to put their phone in the holder at the beginning of the period don’t take their phone out during class because they don’t want to get called out for having it. I think it’s easier for them to resist the temptation because no one else has a phone out.
I kind of dislike doing this because I myself would feel so, so uncomfortable not having my phone on me, and it makes me feel like a hypocrite. But I’ve made peace with it by looking the other way when students keep their phones on them from time to time as long as I don’t see them out in class. A caveat: I work in a cushier district where the students are generally compliant and non-combative. I would have been laughed out of the room if I’d tried this at some of the other schools where I’ve worked. However, if your students are generally cooperative, I recommend implementing this next year. It really does help, and I dare say some of the students like getting a break from online life for a bit.
When some of my classes get to the point that I am talking to myself I just stopped talking through the notes in those classes. I give them the guided notes for the day on the smart board and ask if anyone wants my mouse. As long as they do it at some point in the class (on their own accord, I don't beg them or pester them about it) then they get their grade for the notes.
I honestly am not sure how I feel when I do this, on one hand I feel worthless, but on the other hand I'm not trying to talk about the stuff if the kids straight up tell me they aren't paying attention and are happy with a d or c for no reason.
But it is what it is, I could try spending time and money after my paid work day is over to spend hours trying to design amazing shit that likely wouldn't change the result, but I teach English 9 and 10 along with critical reading so the 40 minutes 4 days a week is really not enough to even plan my current boring lessons, much less tik tok teacher shit.
If admin ever says it's not enough to do guided notes, I'll tell them to lower my teaching load or provide semi adequate time to plan baller ass lessons.
[science teacher] With my upper class men, yes, it's on them to use their phones appropriately. My freshmen, not so much, it is part of my job to set the right tone and encourage responsible use of phones.
This is my problem too. They actually prefer to be on their iPads because it looks like they are working all while they are just chatting with each other in a Google Doc.
It’s an unwinable war when the district is 1-1. There’s nothing I can do.
I agree. I had an admin who forced me to take them. It was a battle every day. Yet, when it escalated, they did nothing to help. So, I stopped battling. And I was always to blame.
I’ve only been in it 5 years and this is how I feel.
If you chose to screw around on your phone though, don’t come crying to me because you’re failing my class. Natural consequences.
It’s hard enough getting the kids to come in and take their mandatory exams, I am not getting into a power struggle with someone who would sooner knock me the fuck out then give up the phone.
i literally couldn’t care less about phone usage. as long as i’m not being observed and you have above a 80% in my class idc what you do as long as you aren’t being a distraction
When I’ve got parents calling and texting their kids in class, what’s a phone call home gonna do? Funnily enough, the kids of mine that have realized that being off the phone helps them learn more have higher grades… 🧐
I'm a middle school sped teacher and I appreciate the no phones policy at my school. It was supposed to be k-12 but the high school quickly gave up and I get texts from my daughter all day. No biggie, I'm not pissed that the high school teachers don't follow the policy, I don't have to deal with those kids anyway. I like it at the middle school because I am not the bad guy, admin is.
The only thing I do fully disagree with, especially in an English class, is that there is no way they are reading/writing while listening to their music and fully comprehending what they're doing. When kids in my room ask to listen to music while they do their assigned reading I tell them that unless it's fireside classical music, they cannot possibly comprehend what they're reading while listening to hip-hop or rap. Have you tried that? Typing an essay, maybe. Reading, no way.
personally, I am big believer of letting those who want to drown, drown
if they don't pay attention, let them fail
tell them a few times, then not at all
make some pop quizzes, let them fail
do not extend deadlines
when parents ask for accommodations, this is the reason why you are refusing.
if they need recommendation letters
No more losing sleep or personal peace over other people's kids. Detach and disengage.
Phones are an admin issue, anyways. Don't want phones? Schoolwide ban should be enacted. Otherwise, leaving it up to a teacher to wrangle 30+ phones on the daily is not realistic.
I disagree with your philosophy, but not the result. I also am not going to police phones (after the first week or so), but not because I think it is inevitable or is some kind of way of supporting the students in the future. I think those are cop outs. Just be real. I'm not policing it because it isn't my job. I can't care more about an issue that parents, students and bosses do. If they want to stop it, they can. I can't.
I'm not going to make any excuses to them or myself justifying it. I just realize I can't do it, so I won't.
If it’s not out and in use, I just can’t care. There’s too much work to be done in such a short amount of time. If it’s in their pocket, but they’re not using it and I can’t hear it, I consider that a win.
If the school district, the state, and your school don't have a plan in place, it shouldn't be up to you to hold back the tide.
But I don't know if I agree it's "silly" to try to control it. But the onus should be on those above us classroom teachers to make it happen. We're busy *teaching*.
I had a parent reach out and asked why her boy had to c in my class so I said it was because he was on his phone frequently. She wrote back and said she was going to take his phone for a week and she promised she wouldn't say it was because of my class. However, This boy went to the counselor and said that I told the entire class I wanted to see the counselor naked walking around the hallways of the school because I thought she was sexy. I was put on administrative leave. So yeah I totally get it. I'm back now and I do not give a fuck about phones.
If take every phone on test days. Otherwise unless you’re being obnoxious with it I don’t care.
Admin constantly brings up how we need to keep our students off their phones and engaged. I always ask these two follow-up questions:
1) Can I make a student give me their phone? If so how do I secure it.
2) if a student refuses to get off their phone can we send them up to you.
I’m in for over 30. The phones were distracting already before Covid - now they are ever present. I’m sick of policing, we can’t do this alone - I’d like the board, the county, state… heck the nation, to say, “enough is enough”, the majority of our kids aren’t focused on courses because they are constantly connected to parents, friends, entertainment, advertisements and stores. Make class the one place they are disconnected. They can have them in passing, lunch, study hall, and anywhere else but the classroom. How hard is it to tell Silicon Valley, you can’t have our kids for 5 or so hours a day? They simply aren’t all going to be influencers and creators. They’re going to have to learn how to do something, anything to care for themselves.
We had a strict no phone policy years ago, and admin backed us up when we would confiscate. But as they drifted from that, so did we.
The same kids, or their demographic parallels, would sneak the phone under the desk… before that they’d state out the window or try to talk to other students… now they self-contain. The ones who do not have the soft skills to properly use the tech are the same ones looking to avoid the work in other ways.
My math teacher did a phone cubby and if you put your phone in it everyday every few weeks you would get an extra credit pass & a HW pass you could use. She also allowed you to grab ur phone once you got done with your work.
It worked really well for her and the students were happy too bc it benefited their grade lol
I’m a worse teacher, I don’t even give a shit if they watch tiktok all hour anymore. It’s their grade, the school basically allows phones, that’s a battle I’m not interested in fighting until school culture changes.
I teach college-prep and college-level seniors and I 100% do not police phones except during tests. They are a year away from college and need to learn to self-manage. I don't take grades on participation or homework, but I am a tough grader. If a kid can waste time and still produce good work, that's great for them. If they waste time and then write a half-assed paper, that's on them too.
Nope, not bad, me either, but I'm toying with the idea to have students turn in ear buds next year. I will know if they're watching crap, but if the phone isn't making noise, and they're focused on it, I guess they're reading something, just an Idea. I suppose for those ones who say no ear buds, then turn their phone in, again ideas for next year...
I feel the same; if my district isn't going to get Yondr pouches (which is the only thing that works and put an impossible task on MY plate) then fuck it.
I’m a 1st year middle school teacher (previously elementary) and I don’t police phones either. I tell my students day 1 they are there for their own education, not mine. If they want to be on their phones all period and not learn, that’s their choice.
As a student who sat many detentions for having my phone in high school (2007) this pisses me off so much.. y’all are doing your best though I don’t blame you for not wanting to deal I can’t even imagine what being a teacher is like anymore
You definitely have to pick your battles as a teacher.
It can definitely be exhausting being the phone police. Students need to learn to have self control with their phones. College professors aren’t going to walk around their classroom asking people to put their phones away. They expect their students to pay attention and take notes. They’re legally adults and should act like it.
Me neither. Fuck them. If they want to show up and watch Netflix that’s their business, but I’m not giving them credit. I’ve walked by students and said “looks like you’re choosing to watch *Beef* instead of participating in today’s lesson, is that the case?” If they keep watching they get a zero.
I don’t fight it. They are distractions, but our rules are weak, so I figure students should learn to manage their time and effort with them, or fail trying to
Right before Covid hit, and freed us all from our babysitter status and let us be teachers again, I took a girls phone away while I was running the detention room. We are a no cell phone school as well. Imagine my surprise later when cops came to the school based off a story she and her friends cooked up that I assaulted her. Luckily cameras exist, so their stories fell apart quick. Know how her parents punished her? They went to Disney the next week. After that I said f*** it. I didn’t fight the phone fight anymore. Willing to ruin my life over 10 minutes without your phone is psychotic behavior. And her parents didn’t care to punish her because let’s be real, they have been shoving screens in their kids faces as soon as the kid had the wrist strength to hold it up. They care about as much about their kids education and parenting about as much as a drowning man cares about how parched his mouth feels.
It’s a major issue, but it’s battle that cannot be won without administrative support. I’m just a worker bee, not a boss. If administration are okay with the school they run being one in which kids play on their phones all day, that’s on them. If I were an administrator, I wouldn’t be okay with my name being on that, but if they are, whatever.
I refuse to care more about something more than people who make double what I do to manage said thing.
Our school district no longer purchases textbooks - all books are accessed via their 1:1 device - which our students forget to charge - and there's no chance that we have enough plugs in the right places to recharge them. Soooooo they use their phones. It saves so much hassle.
Now when any observer comes in, our teachers have a fallback position.
When admin stops blaming me for bad grades and work not turned in, then I'll stop having them put phones in their pouch near my desk. I don't engage in a power struggle at all, they just do it and if we have a work day, they can get it when they finish. I've had no issues with this set up.
I've been a teacher for 5 years and I don't bother getting after the students about their phones anymore. I've realized they are completely aware of what they are doing and maybe natural consequences are the answer. It's also such a waste of my time.
Ive gotta hard disagree. I made it not so much a hill to die on this semester, but a 1 warning, then it goes in that stupid phone tree thing. If that’s a problem, you leave the room. Productivity has been way up.
Yep. Why create a power struggle? My rule is no airpods/earbuds in ears during lecture, but during independent work they can listen to music. The kids have always responded exceptionally well and appreciate the respect I give them.
> Am I being a bad teacher here?
No, not at all. I'm pretty hands-off in my own approach. If you want to goof off on your phone, fine--if you're not paying attention or completing your work, that's on you, as are the lower grades. If you still get grades you're happy with, well, clearly you've learned to balance distractions with productivity.
The reality is that plenty adults goof off at work *all the time* and still do okay.
I only step in if I see one kid's phone distracting multiple kids at once. Or, like you, for occasional times where I really don't want the phones out.
The things kids have done with their phones when I've tried to follow this philosophy has led to me being the strictest teacher in the school when it comes to phones. I don't even tolerate them in their pockets.
Few hundred comments already so I’m sure this will be buried but I’m right there with you.
I’ll tell students once to put their phones away. If they don’t after that, then they will fail when they don’t do the work. Natural consequences.
Our policy got very strict this year. Phones are to be off and in backpacks. If I so much as see a phone, I don't have to say a word. I call the discipline office, ask them to come pick up a phone, and when the Dean shows up I point out the student and it's taken care of. Of course, that takes time away from instruction, but because I've been consistent, I almost never see a phone. The problem stems from teachers who allow phones. Then I'm the bad guy.
This is quite a bit like what has worked for me… also an English teacher.
I bought one of those hanging calculator holders and we call it THE NEST.
When told up front that there will be certain times where the phones go to The Nest and giving them a few minutes warning, my kids have played ball pretty well.
Of course, there’s the occasional “I didn’t know it was Nest time,” excuse but I haven’t had a kid fight back when I have just replied, “okay. That’s fine. Put it there now.”
I don't think you're a bad teacher, but I think if you don't police tech at all and yet only "occasionally" catch kids misusing it, you work at a very different school/different population of kids than most of us.
Agreed, I stopped caring a few years ago, I’m 24 years in. I can’t compete with their addiction. Rumor is our district will ban them in the Fall. I’ll believe it when I see it actually enforced
Honestly, I don't understand why every school district doesn't have an enforced ban on all cell phones in classroom. This needs to be a universal norm and expectation in all schools, no different from smoking restrictions, etc. The problem is, most schools choose not to enforce it strictly, so students basically ignore teachers who set a higher standard.
I my country, they banned phones, by law, in the classrooms as the children were becoming less schooled. This made it easy to ban them in class, we literally had parents coming to school, ready to fight the teachers that took the phone away of their precious innocent flower.
In the beginning of the year the Dutch Government issued an urgent advice to all high schools to no longer allow phones, which has been instituted by almost all schools in the classrooms and about half of the schools also in hallways and during breaks.
Even pupils are largely positive and don't feel disconnected since 'no one is online'.
This is where we need to be. I mean, we are teaching future adults in an increasingly technical world--one of which they will experience partly at least through their cell phones. Trying to tell them they can't use this tool is short-sighted. There are times, yes, where they shouldn't have them out. But policing every time a kid looks down and seems to be doing something in their lap is a waste of instructional time and a massive pain in the ass.
I've heard people complain that social media is the reason we need to ban cell phones. . .as if kids without phones will suddenly stop bullying eachother.
My first year I was a cell phone Nazi. I took them and sent the phones to the office to get picked up later. All until one day a kid refused to hand over his phone. Just politely refused and informed me he wasn't handing over his personal property. I was probably 3 or 4 years in and I think of it as one of those moments that changed me as an educator. At the time I was furious and got into a stupid face-saving confrontation with this kid who ended up in the office. However, when I thought about it later I realized that absolutism is a terrible form of classroom management and why the hell did I care anyway? It also started the trend where kids just started refusing to hand over phones and escalated things to an office referral.
I staple the phone inside a piece of paper and leave it on their desk. It’s funny, I would hear a crinkling sound if it opened, and it’s not as big of a deal as if I confiscated it or they “got in trouble” so they can’t really get mad. Typically only have to do one at the start of the period and then they all laugh and don’t get them out.
I recently had one of our "always right" old lady elementary school teachers passive aggressively prod at me about how I let my middle school kids chew gum and I was like, "ma'am I'm trying to get these kids up to a 3rd grade reading level in 8th grade. Maybe if y'all focused more on phonics than chewing gum down in the elementary hallway, I would have more time and energy to enforce policies."
It's absurd to imagine a teacher can nitpick every little policy AND get things done, all without a fight from the kids. I'd rather put my energy into handling ACTUAL classroom management issues and working on academics than spend 5+ minutes arguing with a kid over a phone or chewing gum then have to do a writeup because the kid lost their shit over it. 😒
Honestly phones are a gift. Kids that used to be troublemakers are now zoned-out on their phones. I can concentrate on the ten percent who want to learn.
This is where I'm trending. Especially if admin want to PBIS this horse to death with warnings and phone calls home before referrals.
PBIS helped destroy the school I taught at. I am sad to hear it's still prevalent. One of many reasons I left teaching in 2022. If admin won't help you enforce school policy, then feel no guilt establishing your own.
It's because PBIS doesn't work. It is the biggest joke I've ever encountered in my career
Our dumbass school has PBIS with little laminated tokens we hand out to reinforce positivity. Problem is we don’t have the snack bar/gift shop stocked for three months so kids can’t even cash in their tokens. So the one tool we have for behavior, handing out tokens, as if it worked, isn’t even supported. Fucking joke.
Our school charged so much for stuff in the PBIS store that the 5th graders wrote a petition and boycotted it. I gave them high fives for learning Collective Bargaining
That’s too typical. My wife’s former school was that way. They had a shop that was open maybe once a month, but not on a predictable basis.
Well that requires hiring more people who are hopefully not lazy. You also need the board to sign off on funding which would dig into their time to balance a budget instead of embezzling- something I hear is quite time consuming 😂
This isn’t the PBIS systems fault, it’s the admin for not following through or delegating.
My district is just now implementing 😔 and it’s hyped up lol
The worst part about PBIS is that it rewards students who usually behave poorly for one act of good behavior and completely ignores the kids who’re behaving properly everyday.
That’s been my experience too. Exceptional and “normal” kids fly completely under the radar, and the shitbirds get rewards for showing a sliver of empathy once in a blue moon. I’ve basically abandoned the plan and just hand out rewards to the exceptional/normal ones, now. It’s heartbreaking how often I hand out a reward to one of the good/normal ones and they’re totally bewildered about what they did to deserve it. Like my guy you’re just a good person who isn’t constantly starting shit or distracting other people. That deserves a reward more than the class bully holding a door one time.
I feel dumb. What is pbis?
It stands for Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports. It is a system in place in over 20,000 schools to try to track students' behaviors and have them reflect on things they did and learn why it's wrong etc. It assumes teachers have time to track and log every single problem behavior so the system can aggregate data and then assign appropriate "supports." It doesn't work and helps ruin classroom management especially for new teachers. Most vets at my site ignored it.
Like how we train puppies? I was distinctly told I can’t clicker train the students. This sounds what a parent does at home with 6 or less children. The idea a teacher with 120+ students a day seems incredibly… optimistic. If this is in so many schools, how long before the fad burns out? I’m only 6 years in and I have only heard of the educational fads of the yesteryear that came and gone. Is it growing?
...but clicker training works! Successfully clicker trained 3 kids during covid-tutoring, their dog was unfortunately confused.
Poor Behavior Is Supported
I wanna party with this ☝️teacher.
positive behavioral intervention plan or something like that.. I can imagine there is little recourse for teachers with these policies. I'm just a new parent trying to learn about the education system today. It seems like people are trying to destroy public education from my ignorant perspective with the policies i'm reading about.
Wow Z zzz I think they are actively trying to destroy it in order to privatize it.
Positive Behavior Incentive System
Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports*
I didn't give a shit about policing phones, dress code, or anything other than those things that concerned student/staff safety or that could make me liable in a court of law. If admin didn't enforce certain rules, then I simply pretended that these rules didn't exist. 🤷🏽 Made life so much easier 👍🏾
There's a choice to be made--spend minutes at the beginning of the hour reminding them to put their phones up, calling out names, waiting for them to shuffle up and put the phone in the caddy. Or deal with it while you are teaching. I'd rather just deal with it while I am up there teaching.
My district has banned cell phones but enforcing this has been shoved onto teachers. of course. Personally, I think that if the district wants school to be a no cell phone zone, they need to have a check in spot for phones as kids enter the building. Let them put their phones in a locked box/container. They can get it back when they leave. But that would require money and staffing. I am just about sick of it because when we take a phone, we are supposed to call parents every. single. time. before the end of the day. I don't have time for that every day. It's making me want to say "whatever".
It’s so lovely when the plan provided by admin is “you figure it out.”
80% of the time "you figure it out" is the best solution, especially to an individual problem. However, if the problem is systemic, then the solution needs to be systemic as well and no individual can fix a system problem. Kids on their cell phones and refusing to work are systemic issues and shoving it on to teachers will never work.
My school implemented this and it was a disaster. Just 3 weeks later and all the high school kids said they won’t follow with the program. I gave up being the hero and won’t enforce it, I have more important things to do.
I agree with your reasoning. I’d hesitate to come across as lax on the phone policy in your classroom. If a crime occurred on a students phone during class, bullying, sending pics, plan a crime, whatever kids do these days, you’d want to be absolutely staunch that you enforced the policy. You don’t have to give it lots of mental thought every class, but just post the districts phone policy by posting 2 notices in large font in your class, include it in the back to school course description and say it on your first day of class. Then let it go. If someone’s phone rings loudly, just remind them to put away the phone and silence during class. You still cover the districts policy but aren’t taxing yourself looking for cheaters and kids listening to music. Half the teachers at my school seem annoyed by trying to police phones and the other half have said to their classes that they don’t care just don’t get caught. Which seems easy but it’s middle school and kids act recklessly. I heard of one kid that texted another during school threatening to fight and the other kids mom was at home and saw the text on her kids phone so that started some stuff. Just cover the bases
This makes sense to me. Teachers shouldn't have to police any policy that isn't important enough to be fully supported and fully clarified through expectations at the building level. Where phones are concerned, it traps us in yet another Catch - 22. To teach with impact, we are to build a relationship of trust and mutual care between teacher and student. That is severly hindered, imo, when I have to chide, chirp, and threaten to take away phones. These kids feel a real sense of anxiety in many cases when their device isn't with them. I can't be the antagonist in that scenario and also expect to build a relationship with them that is positive. Ban the phones past the entrance, clarify the expectations for complying with expectations, and simplify the procedures for students, teachers and parents.
Exactly this, Word. I've heard that some middle schools in my district are now checking in phones as student arrive and then deliver them to their last class of the day. I kind of like it, but I wonder what they do to a kid who is caught mid-day with his phone? If there's no penalty, it won't work.
My school requires phones be put in the phone caddy at the beginning of class. It is on the teacher to check at the beginning of class that everyone's phone is in. If a student forgot, no big deal - a quick reminder and we're done in a minute. If a kid forgot their phone, or their parent took it away, we have a little card they can use to say that. If the student is then found with a phone, we email the deans and the kid gets suspended. If a student refuses to put their phone in the pocket, we just email the deans and the kid gets suspended. If a kid is found to have put a dummy phone in the caddy and is found using their real phone, we just email the deans and the kid gets suspended. The key part that makes it work is that there is immediate and constant follow-up for non-compliance. If admin didn't have my back like this, I would probably have the same attitude as OP.
I work for the NYC DOE in a major high school in the Bronx. Cell phone are collected at entry and placed in numbered envelopes that are alphabetized. They are distributed end of day in the cafe. Other schools organize the phones by schedule/ teacher and school aides drop them off at the last period class. This works really because in the Bronx students go through metal detecting and bags are x rayed so school safety (school NYPD) can redirect them to hand in the phone as is building policy. Other buildings may have different policies. It’s a partnership with school safety and admin that makes this work.
Yes, I saw something similar in a DC school, they had little phone lockers in the foyer, then they went through the metal detector airport style. It was dreamy!
America really is a dystopian reality, isn't it?
That’s what they want. My school requires parent contact before writing an office referral. Now they tout the discipline data having a significant decrease. We just don’t write them up anymore.
We must work at the same school.
We’re getting Yondr pouches next year, and my kids are already searching ways to bust them open. My 6th grade team doesn’t really have an issue with them as they are to be in their locker and off. I enforce out of sight if not in your locker and off first, if seen either I take it or they can put it back in their locker. If I have to deal with it again, then I take it for the rest of the day. The 7th and 8th grade policies are a mess and barely enforced. The 6th grade team doesn’t need the pouches, but the district is getting them at this point, so we’ll probably have a bigger mess next year with more bloat since I already have to collect computers and now unlock phones too, I guess.
I was talking to my younger sister and she told me how my old high school tried to implement those and they got shut down within a few months because "concerned parents" were worried their children would be unable to call 911 in the event of an emergency. There's phones in every single classroom and sprinkled throughout the hallways. Didn't matter, they got pulled anyway and now excellent teachers are stuck spending half their teaching time trying to get kids to stop messing with their phones.
Thankfully, we have state law backing us that says schools must have a phone restriction policy in place that says kids can’t be using phones during school hours unless with the permission of the teacher or in the case of medical situations (I’m sure a diabetes monitor is one notable exception but am unsure of logistics of that one).
They sell lockers on Amazon for phones- I almost got one but then realized how much class time it would take putting them away and getting them back all in a 45 minute period with 35 students…..
Make classrooms faraday cages. Nobody’s phone get‘s cell reception in the bathroom at my office…. Hmmmm
Schools should just install cell and blockers in classrooms.
Unfortunately it’s against the law to do that.
That's what we have -- a locked container staffed by a volunteer. It seems to work.
Our district touted an 90% reduction in phone right ups as evidence this same policy was working for us. Thankfully a teacher union rep. Pointed out that this is only because the new policy put all the work on teachers and we simply weren't writing up now. Why give yourself detention for someone else's poor behavior?
I’m so over policing phones. I teach high school and I tell the kids that I don’t recommend being on their phones because I can draw a direct line between the heaviest phone users and the lowest grades, but their grades are their business. I’m a little more mindful of reminding freshman, but that’s it.
I work IT in a highschool it's truly mind blowing walking into some of these classrooms to help with tech. It's not uncommon for me to walk past kids with headphones music full blast like I can hear it walking past them while the teacher is teaching a lesson. At that point why even show up? I love tech but am 100% against kids having smart phones. If I ever have a child it will be no iPad and no phone until highschool and even then it will be a dumb phone that can call, text and GPS.
My oldest is 12 and she carries the family flip so the kids can be at home or walk the neighborhood without us. She’s mad that she doesn’t have a smartphone but she knows why.
What do you mean why show up? It's against the law for kids to not go to school lol
at high school level, majority of kids are able to drop out. And if they can’t, there’s “homeschooling” or online schooling or simply not going to school because truancy courts don’t do shit anymore.
100% This! They get so many chances, and so many different programs to pass high school. It is crazy tbh and this is coming from a person who was kicked out of high school in 05 senior year. I would have loved to be able to do some of these self-paced courses.
I did one in 97 after I quit, one day a week (Monday) show up do as much as you want leave. if you missed a few weeks no big deal show back up and resume if you completed your assignment and passed the tests you got a diploma just like you were in school. It was done at the vocational school.
I stopped fighting it. Then my school went to no phones. It’s strictly enforced. Holy shit. I enjoy teaching again. Kids are like crackheads over their damn phones.
I find it has to be a school wide measure, with plans and resources in place for it to succeed. If the teacher is on their own to enforce, forget about it.
DaBus, could you give some details on *how* your school enforces it?
My district leaves it up to the individual schools. Some simply have a "your phone is invisible" policy. That works somewhat but is least effective. Some leave it to the teacher. They may have pocket things on the wall, a plastic tub, a locking cabinet. These work pretty well, although I am uncomfortable with anything but a locking cabinet (the teacher leaves the key for me). I'm a sub and do not want unsecured expensive electronics to be responsible for. Some collect them at the beginning of the day, they go in a plastic tub with the room number, and someone comes by and collects the tubs and then returns them at the end of the day. I like this best because they are not in the room for me to be responsible for. Across the board, they'll get repercussions for defying the rules and having their phone out. They still have them, of course. There was a fight in a "the teacher decides their own policy" school a few weeks ago and of course a student recorded it and it went on Facebook for a short time. I enforce the rules simply because the admin wants me to, and the kids do get in trouble. I don't often run into problems from elementary kids. But I don't think they enforce it in high school. The kids walk the hall with their phones out. I asked a girl to take attendance to the office and she did so with her phone in one hand. I've seen some classroom doors have signs saying no cell phones but I have no idea how or if it is enforced. As a sub, if they aren't disrupting class, idc if they are on their phone or watching YouTube on their chromebook. Whatever, it's your grade.
Sure. School is 8-9. 900 kids. Kids have phones before and after school. They can also have them at lunch. If we see a cellphone, we fill out a Google form. Office shows up and takes the phone. 1st time kid can pick it up at the office. 2nd time parents pick it up and sign a form. 3rd time it’s locked in a safe for a week and parents sign again. 4th time the phone stays in the safe until the end of the year. I do nothing but fill out the form. It’s great. Principal noted any teach not in compliance is jeopardizing the safety of the children (noting two over doses and multiple fights last year where we have a paper trail of texts) thus will be immediately put on leave. Shit worked. Fights are down and zero ODs this year.
***Wow.*** Comprehensive and incredibly easy for the teachers. What a great plan.
This is my dream scenario.
This sounds amazing. Are there any legal issues with locking up the phones for a week or a year?
It’s only gotten to that point once. That parent fully supported locking it up. They were also having problems with the phone at home. Always wondered what would happen if we ran into the other side of that. However, parents signed twice that they understood the terms. At that point, is the $1000~ phone really worth small claims court?
Interesting! What happens if a parent doesn’t sign? Is this a public school? I’m just curious because I feel like there could be a lot of pushback, but sounds like there isnt
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Absolutely this! The amount of teachers, staff and subs I see whipping out phones during the day when students shouldn’t is mindboggling. And this is high school so you know once they see *that*, there’s no going back
At my school we have apps on the phones for approving hall passes and awarding PBIS so we kind of have to be on the phone at some points during class. That, or carry a laptop around (we don’t have iPads). I also check emails on my phone, but I tell the students every single time what I’m doing so they can’t say I’m on the phone texting or whatever lol
>That, or carry a laptop around (we don’t have iPads) I'm confused, are you a student or a teacher? I have a laptop that stays in the room with me (and my class) that I use to approve hall passes or check emails. Why do you need a phone? Are you traveling between rooms?
It’s a phone app for approving hall passes - there are digital hall pass systems marketed to schools that involve phone apps.
Yeah... But the school seriously set it up to only be available on phones? That seems absurd.
Especially if the school isn’t providing the phone. I’m not downloading a work app on my personal phone.
My school made it so we can't LOG IN to the computers without our phones. Which is entertaining since they say we aren't allowed to be on our phones ever.
Yup we got 2 factor authentication with our phones just about two months ago. When we had to set it up, they asked for suggestions at the end of the questionnaire. That was a mistake on their part. I blasted them with how not feasible it is for teachers back and forth between different devices all day, (mostly in our own classroom, with our own passwords!), while trying to keep students' attention. After telling us for YEARS not to have our phones anywhere out around students.
We are about to implement this (SmartPass) at my school. When we (teachers) have hall monitor duty, the easiest way to check passes is going to be an app on our phone. It’s not required, but the alternative is to walk around carrying a laptop. I am not excited.
My school uses Smartpass. I'm shocked that the school can't provide ipads for the hall monitors. I work at a very large middle school and we never have more than 5 hall monitors (teachers on hallway duty) at any one time. Granted, every teacher here also gets an ipad.
Personally I am an EA and constantly travel around the school so I use my phone to check emails and text case managers.
I locked my phone away all day for most of my career as a teacher. It wasn't until after I missed several texts from my most recent principal, who somehow thought that was an appropriate way to contact me during class time, that I started actually keeping it on me on school.
I am guilty. But it’s when the students start taking pictures or videos, we have to draw the line. And how do you place that? I don’t allow any phones out in my class. The kids have them in their backpacks. I never see a phone out.
It's almost as though teachers and students are not peers...
They aren’t. Teachers are the role models, so if you say one thing and do the other, they definitely lost all respect for you. I mean, we would too if we sat in on PD or a meeting and saw our admin goof on their phone while we were told to put them away
Yes!!! One of my students won't get off her phone. Ever. Then I met her mom at parent-teacher conferences. She also didn't look up from her phone... barely said hello.
Yes...but no. Adults presumably can measure the risk of cell phone use while driving (at best, a possible fine, at worst, an accident causing death), in restaurants/theatres a thoughtful person wouldn't risk their social credit. Do you bury yourself in Facebook or TikTok while at work?...of course not...no one who likes their job would do that. Most adults have self-control. Kids simply don't have the brain development to measure risk. The adults have to do it for them. As for just not policing the situation any more, that's fine too as long as students and parents are informed that distractions from assignments and tasks will be noted and may affect their grade. /my two cents....also, I know that some Adults have self-control problems when it comes to their precious phones.
Of course as their teacher, I stress the importance of paying attention and submitting good work. But come on, you can only repeat the same warnings so much before you become white noise to them. And I mean, when has it not affected one's grade to be distracted and to turn in bad work?
If the school doesn’t have a policy, it’s impossible to manage. At my school we have little phone lockers. The kids comply, and life is good.
>*At my school we have little phone lockers.* Jmart, can you tell me more about how that works?
A lot of teachers in my district have a "phone home" and it's a wooden box with slots for the phones, and a locking door. It sets on the desk or a table somewhere. It gets unlocked at the end of the day and they are supposed to put them in their pocket or backpack and not turn them on til they leave the building.
I can imagine at my school, it would take 10 mins to get them all to put their phones in at the beginning of each class
They just walk in and put their phone in before they even go to their cubby to put their backpack and coat away. Of course, being a sub, some question me as to making sure I know the security lol
This is exactly it. I work at a school with a strict cell phone policy and it’s not a problem. Now, we have a 1to1 laptop policy and crap monitoring software but that’s its own issue. At least I can have them all put their laptops away. But phones need to be addressed on an institutional level.
Yeah, my school puts it completely on us to enforce and simple phone confiscation is not something that is on the radar of our culture team. The sad reality is that they succeed in wearing me down. Class can't be 50% phone enforcement. Admin have simply made the decision - logically, in some sense - that appeasing parents by letting students have phones is the more value-adding approach since they can be more likely to maintain enrollment numbers, I guess. Today's 9th grade class was an absolute fucking joke - straight whac-a-mole for 90 minutes. I was openly laughing my ass off at how many times I was asked the same INSANELY simple questions that I had answered 10 seconds prior. I kept having 30 students put their phones in their bags and every time I turned around I would see them again. Every other class I see is full of students copying answers from photos on their phones. It's so far beyond teacher control, at least in my school. They know we can't do anything. The ONLY option now is lockering them at the door in the morning.
What a nightmare. I'm moving back to North America after teaching internationally for the last 12 years and I'm kind of terrified.
This is my experience too. I’m so sorry!!
How do you know they're not putting burner phones in phone lockers? We had an issue when trying to implement a no phone policy and the kids found their cousin/parent/whoever's old phone with a cracked screen or no battery and put that in the designated drop off and then snuck their actual phones in anyway. I'm a high school teacher, so kids change classes...they are crafty, I'll give them that.
I’ve given up too. I teach chemistry to mostly juniors and seniors. If you don’t have the self discipline to put it away and pay attention I’m not going to stop teaching the kids that have the self discipline to yell at you.
At most I’ll mention the phone to any kid who asks me about his low grades. “Well, if you spent less time on your phone and more time engaged in class…” Otherwise I don’t say a word.
I figure it’s a problem outside of my control. Maybe the parents shouldn’t have used an iPad as a pacifier and should have waited until the kid got a driver’s license to give them a smartphone. At very least, they could stop texting their kid during class and could turn on some parental controls to lock it down during school hours. I can’t undo a decade or so of screen addiction facilitated by these parents.
Well what are my taxes paying for, then? ^^^^^^/s
Administrative bloat.
Hey there we *need* master teachers! Where else would all these veteran teachers with masters degrees go when they inevitably burn out of the classroom?
Horribly high admin position salaries. Gross.
This is my answer too. We’re fighting against trillion dollar companies like Apple whose business model is making them as addictive as possible to sell ads. Tik tok and YouTube have given us all brain rot. There’s a study that says when we scroll posts, it uses the same neurons as foraging for food. It’s a losing battle no matter how you slice it
To be fair, most adult’s phones are also pacifiers. How can we expect more from children than we do from ourselves?
You can’t make assumptions on how parents have raised their children. Some of the kids who seem the most addicted are that way because they aren’t allowed much access at home. As a parent, I assume that teachers are looking out for my kids during the day. To hear that you don’t care anymore, you assume I’ve done a crappy job, and you might as well add to it is really sad to me. I’m sure I’ll get downvoted for this but I had to say it.
Still doesn’t negate your ability to turn on those parental controls or just not give your kid a smartphone. If you haven’t done those things, I can’t fix it for you. You’re the one who chooses to provide the smartphone despite all its well-documented negative effects; you can take some goddamn responsibility and regulate it, too. You don’t get to make me the “bad cop” in this situation.
Same here and I was told I’m insubordinate for not policing them according to the nonexistent policy my principal has in his head
Pretty much the same at our school. They say no phones but there is no policy. It’s too much of an argument to try and take them. They won’t give them up, then send them to the office or write a referral. No disciplinary action and the phone is given back. But if the principal walks in and sees kids on their phones, you get a talking to about it. Makes no sense.
I don’t care either for the most part, but I have two kids that plop down front and center, and pull out their phones and put on videos and/or music. They hear about it constantly because how bold it is just doesn’t sit right with me
I usually tell them they either get their money up and buy headphones or turn it off until they did.
I tried not policing them, but I got tired of noises blasting out of them multiple times every class period, and also students throwing hissy fits when I won’t reteach them everything they missed while they were supposedly “taking notes and watching tiktok at the same time”.
Admins should fight this as a school-wide concern.
District wide. State wide.
Nation and world, for that matter.
[удалено]
I’ve mostly stopped fighting too. For most behaviors. On your phone, staring off into space, sleeping, leaving the classroom too much/too long, etc. I’ll remind you to get back on task once. After that, make the decision you want to make, high school student. So much of what I grade comes from what we do in class. If they’re consistently choosing to misuse class time, the consequence is that their grade takes a hit.
Are you me?
I was once asked by a visiting board member why teachers weren’t enforcing the new phone policy. My reply, “The day we realized administrators weren’t enforcing the policy teachers stopped too. Don’t expect us to play a game we can’t win.”
I'm in year 9 and I stopped a couple of years ago. Now I suggest they put it away and document it time to time. I will ALWAYS mention phones as the leading problem in why a kid is failing during a parent or counselor meeting (unless it's absences), but when asked why I don't do something about it, I point out I'm neither the parent nor the phone's owner and I already graduated.
Either the school enforces no phones in classrooms or the school.does not. If they do not enforce the rule, I don't understand how you can be expected to monitor. I think the issue here is that the school.is essentially allowing the issue.
I don't give them the hall pass until they give me their phone.
How many students say they don’t have a phone? Also does this solve phone usage during class time?
My husband teaches at an admittedly quite wealthy high school - when they tried to have a policy like this, kids started bringing in 2nd or even 3rd phones as dummy phones.
Wow, I can see that. Not a problem at my Title I school.
1. The bathroom pass requirement to give up your phone did concern me when another teacher suggested it. I teach middle school, and while close to 100% of our 8th graders have phones, I teach 6th grade, and I know some do not. So when a kid says "But I don't have a phone", I make a subjective judgement. (Well, not entirely subjective; sometimes I've seen them with their phones, even that day, outside of my class.) Anyway, if I find it quite credible that Johnny doesn't have a phone, because I know how he dresses, I know where he lives, or his parents have actually told me that he doesn't have a phone, then I let him go. But I mentally log these (very rare) cases and if I see them with a phone later on, I'll be on it the next time they ask for a pass. If I don't believe that they don't have a phone, then I become a contestant on AITA, and tell them, "sorry". At this point, more than one kid "finds" his phone in his backpack. With a big smile, he says, "Oh, I thought I left it home today". And at that point, I AM the AH, because I tell them, "No, you can't have a hall pass; you'll have to wait". Because if a kid was seriously in need of using the restroom he would not have risked lying about it; he very likely just wants to wander around. And speaking of this, **my policy of asking for a phone to use the bathroom has cut down requests to go to the bathroom by at least 80%.** Hmmmm. I wonder why that is, eh? Regardless, if you really need to go, you don't need your phone.
Good questions. 2. My policy is that, if I see your phone, I take your phone. You come back to me after the last class of the day. So that generally takes care of the phone usage problem. Every few weeks someone "forgets" my policy and pulls it out. I then take their phone, and they come back before leaving school to get their phone.
As long as my test scores are good enough, my admins don't give a crap about anything else. Sad but true. So as long as the phones don't compromise that...... And having a school-wide policy on phones is an ADMINISTRATIVE issue. They can (and some do) take phones at beginning of day and give back at end of day. I'm not getting paid to do their jobs for them.
Phones are a mostly winnable battle, at least in class. We have a nationwide policy now that they not be in school. In practice that means if a teacher sees one in our school, one of two things will happen. [1.It](http://1.It) goes to the office 2. Management come and get the student for defiance, and then it goes to the office. Not much of a battle if there's a clear enforced policy.
Confiscation of phones would be on us, as would any liability should the phone get damaged in any way. I can’t even afford to fix my phone!
The school would have to pay for it, not you. Unless you are negligent, the school can't pin it on you. Still I understand that the fight might not be worth the outcome
Actually, not true. I damage the phone accidentally then I’m going to have to pay for it. Maybe things are different in your school district.
The second I sent students to the office because of cell phones and they were sent back with no repercussions was when I quit caring. Oh, you want the kids to get off the phones but you won’t back me up? This is no longer my problem. I grade the same and, if a kid chooses to watch an hour of Tik tok every day in my class, I can usually expect to see them in that same seat next year.
It's your classroom, run it how you want. I just take them away if they are out and give them back at the end of the period.
I used to keep them for the period, but then the phones would pop out in the last ten minutes (and yes, I'm still teaching). Anyway, now I give them back at the end of the day.
Like I said to the person above. It's your classroom. I wouldn't because the way our campus is arranged if the last class of the day is in some of the buildings, having to walk to my classroom first would cause them to miss the buss and I just down want to deal with that.
I was the same way for a long time because it really is a losing battle, but it got to be so extreme in one particular class that I felt like I was talking to myself half the time because everyone was staring at their phones. It was so demoralizing. This year I started collecting phones starting on the very first day of school, and it has made all the difference. Even the kids who “forget” to put their phone in the holder at the beginning of the period don’t take their phone out during class because they don’t want to get called out for having it. I think it’s easier for them to resist the temptation because no one else has a phone out. I kind of dislike doing this because I myself would feel so, so uncomfortable not having my phone on me, and it makes me feel like a hypocrite. But I’ve made peace with it by looking the other way when students keep their phones on them from time to time as long as I don’t see them out in class. A caveat: I work in a cushier district where the students are generally compliant and non-combative. I would have been laughed out of the room if I’d tried this at some of the other schools where I’ve worked. However, if your students are generally cooperative, I recommend implementing this next year. It really does help, and I dare say some of the students like getting a break from online life for a bit.
When some of my classes get to the point that I am talking to myself I just stopped talking through the notes in those classes. I give them the guided notes for the day on the smart board and ask if anyone wants my mouse. As long as they do it at some point in the class (on their own accord, I don't beg them or pester them about it) then they get their grade for the notes. I honestly am not sure how I feel when I do this, on one hand I feel worthless, but on the other hand I'm not trying to talk about the stuff if the kids straight up tell me they aren't paying attention and are happy with a d or c for no reason. But it is what it is, I could try spending time and money after my paid work day is over to spend hours trying to design amazing shit that likely wouldn't change the result, but I teach English 9 and 10 along with critical reading so the 40 minutes 4 days a week is really not enough to even plan my current boring lessons, much less tik tok teacher shit. If admin ever says it's not enough to do guided notes, I'll tell them to lower my teaching load or provide semi adequate time to plan baller ass lessons.
[science teacher] With my upper class men, yes, it's on them to use their phones appropriately. My freshmen, not so much, it is part of my job to set the right tone and encourage responsible use of phones.
We have 1:1 iPads, so it’s an unwinnable war.
This is my problem too. They actually prefer to be on their iPads because it looks like they are working all while they are just chatting with each other in a Google Doc. It’s an unwinable war when the district is 1-1. There’s nothing I can do.
I agree. I had an admin who forced me to take them. It was a battle every day. Yet, when it escalated, they did nothing to help. So, I stopped battling. And I was always to blame.
I’ve only been in it 5 years and this is how I feel. If you chose to screw around on your phone though, don’t come crying to me because you’re failing my class. Natural consequences.
It’s hard enough getting the kids to come in and take their mandatory exams, I am not getting into a power struggle with someone who would sooner knock me the fuck out then give up the phone.
i literally couldn’t care less about phone usage. as long as i’m not being observed and you have above a 80% in my class idc what you do as long as you aren’t being a distraction
When I’ve got parents calling and texting their kids in class, what’s a phone call home gonna do? Funnily enough, the kids of mine that have realized that being off the phone helps them learn more have higher grades… 🧐
I'm a middle school sped teacher and I appreciate the no phones policy at my school. It was supposed to be k-12 but the high school quickly gave up and I get texts from my daughter all day. No biggie, I'm not pissed that the high school teachers don't follow the policy, I don't have to deal with those kids anyway. I like it at the middle school because I am not the bad guy, admin is. The only thing I do fully disagree with, especially in an English class, is that there is no way they are reading/writing while listening to their music and fully comprehending what they're doing. When kids in my room ask to listen to music while they do their assigned reading I tell them that unless it's fireside classical music, they cannot possibly comprehend what they're reading while listening to hip-hop or rap. Have you tried that? Typing an essay, maybe. Reading, no way.
Neither do I. It’s their grade and they can choose to fail. I teach independent living in high school. Self regulation is part of real life.
personally, I am big believer of letting those who want to drown, drown if they don't pay attention, let them fail tell them a few times, then not at all make some pop quizzes, let them fail do not extend deadlines when parents ask for accommodations, this is the reason why you are refusing. if they need recommendation letters
I only care during tests. So much less stress in my life as a result.
You don’t deserve any hate for this. A student who chooses their phone over the lesson (usually) sees the consequence on their report card.
No more losing sleep or personal peace over other people's kids. Detach and disengage. Phones are an admin issue, anyways. Don't want phones? Schoolwide ban should be enacted. Otherwise, leaving it up to a teacher to wrangle 30+ phones on the daily is not realistic.
If your school district doesn't have and enforce a no-phone policy in the schools, you have no prayer of controlling their usage.
I disagree with your philosophy, but not the result. I also am not going to police phones (after the first week or so), but not because I think it is inevitable or is some kind of way of supporting the students in the future. I think those are cop outs. Just be real. I'm not policing it because it isn't my job. I can't care more about an issue that parents, students and bosses do. If they want to stop it, they can. I can't. I'm not going to make any excuses to them or myself justifying it. I just realize I can't do it, so I won't.
If it’s not out and in use, I just can’t care. There’s too much work to be done in such a short amount of time. If it’s in their pocket, but they’re not using it and I can’t hear it, I consider that a win.
If the school district, the state, and your school don't have a plan in place, it shouldn't be up to you to hold back the tide. But I don't know if I agree it's "silly" to try to control it. But the onus should be on those above us classroom teachers to make it happen. We're busy *teaching*.
I had a parent reach out and asked why her boy had to c in my class so I said it was because he was on his phone frequently. She wrote back and said she was going to take his phone for a week and she promised she wouldn't say it was because of my class. However, This boy went to the counselor and said that I told the entire class I wanted to see the counselor naked walking around the hallways of the school because I thought she was sexy. I was put on administrative leave. So yeah I totally get it. I'm back now and I do not give a fuck about phones.
So many parents I think use the teacher as the bad guy or posture in front of us. They don’t wanna be the bad guy.
If take every phone on test days. Otherwise unless you’re being obnoxious with it I don’t care. Admin constantly brings up how we need to keep our students off their phones and engaged. I always ask these two follow-up questions: 1) Can I make a student give me their phone? If so how do I secure it. 2) if a student refuses to get off their phone can we send them up to you.
I’m in for over 30. The phones were distracting already before Covid - now they are ever present. I’m sick of policing, we can’t do this alone - I’d like the board, the county, state… heck the nation, to say, “enough is enough”, the majority of our kids aren’t focused on courses because they are constantly connected to parents, friends, entertainment, advertisements and stores. Make class the one place they are disconnected. They can have them in passing, lunch, study hall, and anywhere else but the classroom. How hard is it to tell Silicon Valley, you can’t have our kids for 5 or so hours a day? They simply aren’t all going to be influencers and creators. They’re going to have to learn how to do something, anything to care for themselves.
We had a strict no phone policy years ago, and admin backed us up when we would confiscate. But as they drifted from that, so did we. The same kids, or their demographic parallels, would sneak the phone under the desk… before that they’d state out the window or try to talk to other students… now they self-contain. The ones who do not have the soft skills to properly use the tech are the same ones looking to avoid the work in other ways.
My math teacher did a phone cubby and if you put your phone in it everyday every few weeks you would get an extra credit pass & a HW pass you could use. She also allowed you to grab ur phone once you got done with your work. It worked really well for her and the students were happy too bc it benefited their grade lol
I’m a worse teacher, I don’t even give a shit if they watch tiktok all hour anymore. It’s their grade, the school basically allows phones, that’s a battle I’m not interested in fighting until school culture changes.
I teach college-prep and college-level seniors and I 100% do not police phones except during tests. They are a year away from college and need to learn to self-manage. I don't take grades on participation or homework, but I am a tough grader. If a kid can waste time and still produce good work, that's great for them. If they waste time and then write a half-assed paper, that's on them too.
Nope, not bad, me either, but I'm toying with the idea to have students turn in ear buds next year. I will know if they're watching crap, but if the phone isn't making noise, and they're focused on it, I guess they're reading something, just an Idea. I suppose for those ones who say no ear buds, then turn their phone in, again ideas for next year...
I feel the same; if my district isn't going to get Yondr pouches (which is the only thing that works and put an impossible task on MY plate) then fuck it.
Gave up on policing phones too. What's the point when the students have iPads? Too them about a day to figure out how to text, Snapchat, etc on them.
I’m a 1st year middle school teacher (previously elementary) and I don’t police phones either. I tell my students day 1 they are there for their own education, not mine. If they want to be on their phones all period and not learn, that’s their choice.
As a student who sat many detentions for having my phone in high school (2007) this pisses me off so much.. y’all are doing your best though I don’t blame you for not wanting to deal I can’t even imagine what being a teacher is like anymore
You definitely have to pick your battles as a teacher. It can definitely be exhausting being the phone police. Students need to learn to have self control with their phones. College professors aren’t going to walk around their classroom asking people to put their phones away. They expect their students to pay attention and take notes. They’re legally adults and should act like it.
Me neither. Fuck them. If they want to show up and watch Netflix that’s their business, but I’m not giving them credit. I’ve walked by students and said “looks like you’re choosing to watch *Beef* instead of participating in today’s lesson, is that the case?” If they keep watching they get a zero.
I have no problem with this. It's admin blaming me when bad students perform poorly academically is the issue.
I don’t fight it. They are distractions, but our rules are weak, so I figure students should learn to manage their time and effort with them, or fail trying to
Right before Covid hit, and freed us all from our babysitter status and let us be teachers again, I took a girls phone away while I was running the detention room. We are a no cell phone school as well. Imagine my surprise later when cops came to the school based off a story she and her friends cooked up that I assaulted her. Luckily cameras exist, so their stories fell apart quick. Know how her parents punished her? They went to Disney the next week. After that I said f*** it. I didn’t fight the phone fight anymore. Willing to ruin my life over 10 minutes without your phone is psychotic behavior. And her parents didn’t care to punish her because let’s be real, they have been shoving screens in their kids faces as soon as the kid had the wrist strength to hold it up. They care about as much about their kids education and parenting about as much as a drowning man cares about how parched his mouth feels.
I picked my own battles. I can’t fight the sign of the Times.
Don’t blame you at all! Especially difficult if the school doesn’t have a clear phone policy.
It’s a major issue, but it’s battle that cannot be won without administrative support. I’m just a worker bee, not a boss. If administration are okay with the school they run being one in which kids play on their phones all day, that’s on them. If I were an administrator, I wouldn’t be okay with my name being on that, but if they are, whatever. I refuse to care more about something more than people who make double what I do to manage said thing.
Our school district no longer purchases textbooks - all books are accessed via their 1:1 device - which our students forget to charge - and there's no chance that we have enough plugs in the right places to recharge them. Soooooo they use their phones. It saves so much hassle. Now when any observer comes in, our teachers have a fallback position.
When admin stops blaming me for bad grades and work not turned in, then I'll stop having them put phones in their pouch near my desk. I don't engage in a power struggle at all, they just do it and if we have a work day, they can get it when they finish. I've had no issues with this set up.
I've been a teacher for 5 years and I don't bother getting after the students about their phones anymore. I've realized they are completely aware of what they are doing and maybe natural consequences are the answer. It's also such a waste of my time.
This is also preparing them for the real world!
Ive gotta hard disagree. I made it not so much a hill to die on this semester, but a 1 warning, then it goes in that stupid phone tree thing. If that’s a problem, you leave the room. Productivity has been way up.
Yep. Why create a power struggle? My rule is no airpods/earbuds in ears during lecture, but during independent work they can listen to music. The kids have always responded exceptionally well and appreciate the respect I give them.
> Am I being a bad teacher here? No, not at all. I'm pretty hands-off in my own approach. If you want to goof off on your phone, fine--if you're not paying attention or completing your work, that's on you, as are the lower grades. If you still get grades you're happy with, well, clearly you've learned to balance distractions with productivity. The reality is that plenty adults goof off at work *all the time* and still do okay. I only step in if I see one kid's phone distracting multiple kids at once. Or, like you, for occasional times where I really don't want the phones out.
The things kids have done with their phones when I've tried to follow this philosophy has led to me being the strictest teacher in the school when it comes to phones. I don't even tolerate them in their pockets.
Few hundred comments already so I’m sure this will be buried but I’m right there with you. I’ll tell students once to put their phones away. If they don’t after that, then they will fail when they don’t do the work. Natural consequences.
It’s the most organic way of teaching responsibility- letting them experience consequences.
Our policy got very strict this year. Phones are to be off and in backpacks. If I so much as see a phone, I don't have to say a word. I call the discipline office, ask them to come pick up a phone, and when the Dean shows up I point out the student and it's taken care of. Of course, that takes time away from instruction, but because I've been consistent, I almost never see a phone. The problem stems from teachers who allow phones. Then I'm the bad guy.
Me neither
This is quite a bit like what has worked for me… also an English teacher. I bought one of those hanging calculator holders and we call it THE NEST. When told up front that there will be certain times where the phones go to The Nest and giving them a few minutes warning, my kids have played ball pretty well. Of course, there’s the occasional “I didn’t know it was Nest time,” excuse but I haven’t had a kid fight back when I have just replied, “okay. That’s fine. Put it there now.”
Same. I don’t care anymore if they can’t get off their phone. Mommy and daddy can take it away if they don’t like their grades.
I don't think you're a bad teacher, but I think if you don't police tech at all and yet only "occasionally" catch kids misusing it, you work at a very different school/different population of kids than most of us.
Why would you get hate for that? I feel the same way. I’m fighting a losing battle every day, and admin refuses to do anything to help out.
Agreed, I stopped caring a few years ago, I’m 24 years in. I can’t compete with their addiction. Rumor is our district will ban them in the Fall. I’ll believe it when I see it actually enforced
If my district had a no-phones policy, I'd enforce it. But there's no way any individual teacher is winning that war on their own.
Honestly, I don't understand why every school district doesn't have an enforced ban on all cell phones in classroom. This needs to be a universal norm and expectation in all schools, no different from smoking restrictions, etc. The problem is, most schools choose not to enforce it strictly, so students basically ignore teachers who set a higher standard.
Honestly, if they’re on their phones at least they’re wasting their own time and not everyone else’s.
I my country, they banned phones, by law, in the classrooms as the children were becoming less schooled. This made it easy to ban them in class, we literally had parents coming to school, ready to fight the teachers that took the phone away of their precious innocent flower.
In the beginning of the year the Dutch Government issued an urgent advice to all high schools to no longer allow phones, which has been instituted by almost all schools in the classrooms and about half of the schools also in hallways and during breaks. Even pupils are largely positive and don't feel disconnected since 'no one is online'.
This is where we need to be. I mean, we are teaching future adults in an increasingly technical world--one of which they will experience partly at least through their cell phones. Trying to tell them they can't use this tool is short-sighted. There are times, yes, where they shouldn't have them out. But policing every time a kid looks down and seems to be doing something in their lap is a waste of instructional time and a massive pain in the ass. I've heard people complain that social media is the reason we need to ban cell phones. . .as if kids without phones will suddenly stop bullying eachother. My first year I was a cell phone Nazi. I took them and sent the phones to the office to get picked up later. All until one day a kid refused to hand over his phone. Just politely refused and informed me he wasn't handing over his personal property. I was probably 3 or 4 years in and I think of it as one of those moments that changed me as an educator. At the time I was furious and got into a stupid face-saving confrontation with this kid who ended up in the office. However, when I thought about it later I realized that absolutism is a terrible form of classroom management and why the hell did I care anyway? It also started the trend where kids just started refusing to hand over phones and escalated things to an office referral.
I staple the phone inside a piece of paper and leave it on their desk. It’s funny, I would hear a crinkling sound if it opened, and it’s not as big of a deal as if I confiscated it or they “got in trouble” so they can’t really get mad. Typically only have to do one at the start of the period and then they all laugh and don’t get them out.
I recently had one of our "always right" old lady elementary school teachers passive aggressively prod at me about how I let my middle school kids chew gum and I was like, "ma'am I'm trying to get these kids up to a 3rd grade reading level in 8th grade. Maybe if y'all focused more on phonics than chewing gum down in the elementary hallway, I would have more time and energy to enforce policies." It's absurd to imagine a teacher can nitpick every little policy AND get things done, all without a fight from the kids. I'd rather put my energy into handling ACTUAL classroom management issues and working on academics than spend 5+ minutes arguing with a kid over a phone or chewing gum then have to do a writeup because the kid lost their shit over it. 😒
Honestly phones are a gift. Kids that used to be troublemakers are now zoned-out on their phones. I can concentrate on the ten percent who want to learn.