I agree! I was part of the pilot program at the high school where I taught 7 years ago for the Yondr pouches. The school adopted the pouch the following year. It was a game changer! So much more social interaction, engagement, and fewer disciplinary issues around harassing students on-line, stealing phones, cheating, and taking videos without students' permission. It's not enough to ban phones in the classroom, they need to be out of the students' hands all day. This is the most humanizing thing we can do as educators.
Thank you Christopher for this article. I am a parent and independent school trustee in Los Angeles. I have 2 children, aged 13.5 and 9. Neither of them have a phone or tablet. My son has an Apple Watch he wears once in a while and a laptop he got by school requirement when he started 7th grade. I am a huge and committed advocate for zero phones at school. My son’s school has a policy of no phones in middle school. I’m praying they extend it to high school. The problem I’m grappling with is that now many of the kids are using their laptops in lieu of their phones. It is not the same but still an issue. Thoughts?
Honestly, I am not too worried about a high schooler having a cell phone, and if they don't have one I would expect that they would do things like using their laptop as a workaround. At a certain point, since we don't have "house phones" anymore, not having the ability to text and call can interfere with age-appropriate socialization. I just don't want the phones on in the classroom!
Thank you for sharing your experience as a parent and school trustee, Christopher. It’s great to hear your perspective on the importance of limiting phone use at school.
I have a ongoing into kindergarten, so I am not experienced enough yet with cellphones in schools. I am curious about how you think this kind of ban would effect student use of AI. On the one hand, it will keep from students wanting to generate their own AI content instead of actually learning how to do things themselves. On the other, it could keep educators from incorporating AI collaboration in the classroom, thus missing an opportunity to teach how to use it ethically and effectively. Anyway, curious about your thoughts here. I don't have an opinion either way.
I agree! I was part of the pilot program at the high school where I taught 7 years ago for the Yondr pouches. The school adopted the pouch the following year. It was a game changer! So much more social interaction, engagement, and fewer disciplinary issues around harassing students on-line, stealing phones, cheating, and taking videos without students' permission. It's not enough to ban phones in the classroom, they need to be out of the students' hands all day. This is the most humanizing thing we can do as educators.
Thanks for sharing this experience, Sasha.
That’s great to hear! Yondr pouches really made a difference in my classroom too.
Thank you Christopher for this article. I am a parent and independent school trustee in Los Angeles. I have 2 children, aged 13.5 and 9. Neither of them have a phone or tablet. My son has an Apple Watch he wears once in a while and a laptop he got by school requirement when he started 7th grade. I am a huge and committed advocate for zero phones at school. My son’s school has a policy of no phones in middle school. I’m praying they extend it to high school. The problem I’m grappling with is that now many of the kids are using their laptops in lieu of their phones. It is not the same but still an issue. Thoughts?
Honestly, I am not too worried about a high schooler having a cell phone, and if they don't have one I would expect that they would do things like using their laptop as a workaround. At a certain point, since we don't have "house phones" anymore, not having the ability to text and call can interfere with age-appropriate socialization. I just don't want the phones on in the classroom!
Thank you for sharing your experience as a parent and school trustee, Christopher. It’s great to hear your perspective on the importance of limiting phone use at school.
I have a ongoing into kindergarten, so I am not experienced enough yet with cellphones in schools. I am curious about how you think this kind of ban would effect student use of AI. On the one hand, it will keep from students wanting to generate their own AI content instead of actually learning how to do things themselves. On the other, it could keep educators from incorporating AI collaboration in the classroom, thus missing an opportunity to teach how to use it ethically and effectively. Anyway, curious about your thoughts here. I don't have an opinion either way.