I left my teaching job eight years ago when teen cell phone use started to become a real problem.
When teaching Spanish -AR verb endings, I routinely play a CD with a funky rhythm without lyrics that goes perfectly with the chant “-O, -AS, -A, -AMOS, -ÁIS, -AN.”
I would often do a silly old man style dance around the room while the students sang the ending to the beat. Sometimes, I would jump on the heater to lead the class, waving my arms back and forth and shouting out the ending louder, as if I was listening to a band's ballad at a concert.
While I was taking a class in my final year, three students secretly took out their phones and recorded me doing the latter. I saw one person, and I told him, “Stop it,” and “Please delete it.” My assistant principal called me into his office a little later that day along with the other two I had missed.
I had no problems and neither did my students. They were good kids and were probably enjoying their lessons and wanted to save some of it for posterity. Nonetheless, a request was made to remove the video.
My (and my deputy principal's) complaint is that there is no shortage of stories about cell phone videos being edited/sliced and used in… offensive ways. (I'm reminded of a story about a teacher who was a high school cheerleader. One day she was doing a cheer routine in class, and a student recorded it, which was later taken out of context.) It wasn't hard to imagine the video I shot. On YouTube with the caption “Look what my Spanish teacher was doing in class today instead of teaching”… This meant spending an inordinate amount of time explaining things to school district staff and parents.
more: A new app rewards students for staying away from their phones during class.
When the cell phone era began, our district rule was that students could have cell phones, but they had to be put away during class. (As you might expect, this wasn't too intrusive.) In my final year, I got permission to let my kids use their phones to help translate a large project.
Naturally, I had to be on top of them to see what purpose the phone was being used for. class.
Many of my former colleagues tell me that their cell phone problems have increased severalfold since I retired. What makes the problem even worse is that weak managers refuse to enact consequences for repeat violations. “Just write it down!” Administrators say things, but when teachers do that, nothing happens.
Meet Mitchell Rutherford, a biology teacher from Arizona. He quit his job as a teacher after 11 years due to his cell phone addiction.
Something has changed to engage people more deeply. [cellphone use]. It's like a frog in boiling water. It seems like it's always becoming an issue. And finally I thought: Oh, it's boiling now. …
Teachers everywhere recognize that this is a problem much bigger than our schools, much bigger than school policies and small-scale enforcement. Our school has a policy, and our district has a policy. But I believe that approaches to solving the problem of cell phone use must come from all angles, including at a much higher level. That means holding tech companies accountable for creating the most addictive apps and products in the world. I've seen it done on purpose.
I'm not sure “holding tech companies accountable” is a viable proposition. How do you decide what is “most addictive”? Isn't it a product? estimated To appeal to consumers? Perhaps age restrictions on cell phone purchase/use (e.g. tobacco products) will limit children's access (we can't expect this), but in the meantime, what is needed is for schools to fully adhere to a consistent cell phone policy.
(Teachers and administrators don't expect much from this because they have more pressing issues to deal with. And they, especially administrators, don't even take care of it. Those appropriately.)
In his conclusion, Rutherford focused on what was probably the best solution. “As my daughter grows up, I will be the strictest dad ever. I wouldn't put a cell phone or iPad in her sights for years. My plan is to never let my little girl see me on my phone.”
I hope more parents follow his example.
What does it do? you Think? Are students required to have their cell phones in class? Please let us know in the comments.
more: More students would give up having children and eating meat than using cell phones to help combat climate change.
Image: ChristianWiediger/Unsplash; dave hoover
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