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All teachers know that, particularly since the pandemic hit, cellphones have become an increasing problem in the classroom.
Here’s how I’ve handled them in my classroom over the past year, and it seems to be working out quite well:
First, our entire faculty agreed before school began last year that we would all enforce a no-cellphone room in the classroom – unless it was authorized by the teacher (to play a Kahoot-like game, for translation purposes, for music if students were working independently, etc.).
Secondly, I make an explicit “deal” with my students, which I project on the screen and regularly refer to during the year:
My part of this “deal” is to provide engaging lessons, do lots of small group work where they can choose their partners (or work alone if they prefer), write them excellent letters of recommendation (or references for court immigration cases) and let them put my number down on job applications, provide food (I bring in fresh fruit several times a week), and, because of the unique physical lay-out of my classroom (I have two rooms and picnic tables outside), they don’t have to be stuck in a small classroom when they do work.
Their part of the deal is to do their work, treat each other and me respectfully, and not put me in the position of being the “cellphone police.”
The purpose of this “deal” is ensure that we can all focus on learning. Because of that, an addendum to that deal is that I, too, need to focus on teaching, so that if students see me on my cellphone, they can ask me if it is school related (and I promise to answer honestly). If I am using it for personal purposes, I need to bring the entire class a treat of some kind the following day.
In make sure that I am “caught” by a student early in the year so I bring in a treat to one class and all my other classes can hear about it.
I also explain that if I see a student using their phone, they will receive a warning. The second time, I will ask them to give it to me, and that I expect they will do so immediately.
This arrangement has served my students and me well.
Do students still use cellphones? Of course, I have to give a a couple of warnings each day in each of my classes and ask a student to give me their phone about once every other week.
But, compared to all the other classroom management issues that could be occurring, that’s really nothing – it literally takes seconds away from instruction.
I know that a lot of schools use pouches, and more power to them. I tend to think the process we use does a better job of helping students develop longer term self-control over their personal technology, but who knows?
I’m adding this info to The Best Posts On Student Cellphone Use In Class — Please Contribute More.
Here’s a TikTok video I did summarizing much of what is in this post.
@larry.ferlazzo Handling cellphones in class#teacher #teachersoftiktok #esl ♬ original sound – larry.ferlazzo
All teachers know that, particularly since the pandemic hit, cellphones have become an increasing problem in the classroom. Here’s how I’ve handled them in my classroom over the past year, and it seems to be working out quite well: First, our entire faculty agreed before school began last year that we would all enforce instruction Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…
