FCPS Cell Phone Ban - Bell to Bell - the time is now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds great. But as a HS teacher in FCPS, I am not paid enough to fight your children and their constant habit to be on their phones. I am not their parent, and you're obviously not giving them parameters at home. The smart kids aren't on their phones. The dumb ones are. Even dumb ones with good grades.

We now need to also offer unlimited retakes.

https://www.fcps.edu/academics/grading-and-reporting/secondary

Not unlimited. You can only allow one retake attempt. The grade can just go up to 100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

Wrong. Don't blame the teachers. FCPS gives laptops to every student -- teachers can communicate through Schoology. The "real pressure" doesn't come from teachers. Parent up.

I am parenting up. My kids don't have phones even though a LOT of their peers do. I stand by what I said. The biggest pressure comes from adults who assume they do!!

You think kids have cell phones because THE TEACHERS expect them to? What kind of delulu land are you living in? If it’s the teacher’s fault then why did 21 of my 25 5th graders have cell phones in their backpacks? They can’t use them at school. I’m certainly not contacting them on it. And almost all have a better iPhone than I do.

For the parents of kids who are trying to hold out for later....SOME teachers, yes. Also other adult leaders in their lives. It's not a far walk from a teacher like you seeing most of the class with phones ...to one day assuming the class has phones available to take pictures for an assignment or to scan a qr code or whatever.
I want to hold out until they need a phone for safety reasons....but when not having one affects their ability to do an assignment or know about changes to extracurriculars....as a parent who wants to hold out, my hands become tied...

This is largely a chicken and egg problem. Are there a few teachers here and there who have no issue with phones? Sure. They're the same kind of crappy teachers who give Google Slide fill-out assignments that are two of three years below grade level and have kids "discuss amongst themselves" and call that "engagement" (we had instructional coaches like that this year). But the rest of us don't want them, and if a teacher tells students to use their phones to take a picture, she may just have decided to put to good use a device that she knows she can't control anyway. She would easily find a different way to do it if the phones weren't ubiquitous.

I can't tell you the number of times I've had parents blow up at me when I reported cheating with phones or addiction to phones. "He wasn't cheating--I was texting him." Oh really? Your kid told me there was nothing on the phone because he didn't have reception in the room. "You should have asked her--I'm sure she had a perfectly valid reason to be using her phone. I will complain to the principal." I'm sure she did--that must be why the phone was under the formula sheet, and the minute I moved the formula sheet she swiped to shut off the screen and slid the phone under the desk. "You should give her fewer assignments and less homework and check in on her more frequently" in response to telling them I can't get their child unglued from their phone for more than a minute and they're doing no work.

I didn't sign up for this and I don't care anymore.

I'm sure all of that happens....
But as a parent who does care and is trying to do the right thing for my kids development....I hope they have teachers who care enough to not force my hand on when they get phones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

+1 I have to agree. In MS, we had teachers allowing students to use their phones to take pictures of stuff in their biology class for their lab. That left my child out. Phones were also allowed on field trips. Again my child was left out. We finally relented and got a phone for them in the fall of 8th.

I posted before I got to your post, PP. This was our experience as well. I really didn’t expect teachers to do this making mine and the 1-2 other kids without phones left out —- especially since the teachers would also complain about phone use during school hours.

+1 and in high school it’s even worse. Teachers/coaches expect students to have phones.

100% — I’m not in favor of this but it the way things are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

+1 I have to agree. In MS, we had teachers allowing students to use their phones to take pictures of stuff in their biology class for their lab. That left my child out. Phones were also allowed on field trips. Again my child was left out. We finally relented and got a phone for them in the fall of 8th.

hysterical. You couldn’t handle your own parenting choices so caved and blame the teachers. Makes a ton of sense.

DP — you are out of touch with what happens in the classroom.

In fact, I’m not. I’m a teacher who has to fight every day with kids to put their phones away only to be blamed by parents who want to believe it’s MY fault their kid “needs” a phone.

I’m PP. My kids’s teachers have commended me for my kids not being glued to their phones. At the same time, many of them have given in.m and tell the students to just use their phones. Two had even criticized me for my 8th graders not having phones saying, well they can see if a classmate will share their phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I support a bell to bell ban. Phones should be in backpacks and away for the full day. I do need to be able to reach my kid after school though.

And agree the main problem is enforcement. Teachers need to know they can send the kid to the office and the admin will confiscate the phone until the parent comes to pick it up. That is what needs to be automatic and everywhere for it to work in practice.

FCPS won't do it they are afraid of lawsuits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is principals. They need to back teachers up be taking the phones and making parents come get them.

Another HS teacher here and I’m not taking your kids phone. I am not touching and keeping a kid’s expensive property in 2024. There is too much liability and they don’t pay be enough for that.

Ban your own child from using their phone bell to bell. Put your own consequences in place. Leave me to teach. I’ll parent my own kids and you parent yours.

If you think this petition will be effective (which it won’t), start one for laptops to lock those down and make them used for school only approved reasons. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is principals. They need to back teachers up be taking the phones and making parents come get them.

Another HS teacher here and I’m not taking your kids phone. I am not touching and keeping a kid’s expensive property in 2024. There is too much liability and they don’t pay be enough for that.

Ban your own child from using their phone bell to bell. Put your own consequences in place. Leave me to teach. I’ll parent my own kids and you parent yours.

If you think this petition will be effective (which it won’t), start one for laptops to lock those down and make them used for school only approved reasons. Thanks.

I’m PP and I would also support a petition on the laptop idea you floated. But your comment about just parent your own kid ignores the impact that OTHER KIDS being on their phones has on my kid too. Sorry - we need a rule to bar use in school and for them to be taken like anything else that kids aren’t allowed to have at school.

[Anonymous]

I'm not a teacher so I'll be the first to admit that if I was, I may care but as a parent I don't care if my kid is on a call phone or not. Is my kid doing in well in school? Yes? Great. That is my concern. My kid is in AP Classes and honors classes and has a 4.0 unweighted GPA. If he wants to use a cell phone sometimes and the teacher is not complaining about him, so be it. If I heard from the teacher that it was a problem, I would step in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a teacher so I'll be the first to admit that if I was, I may care but as a parent I don't care if my kid is on a call phone or not. Is my kid doing in well in school? Yes? Great. That is my concern. My kid is in AP Classes and honors classes and has a 4.0 unweighted GPA. If he wants to use a cell phone sometimes and the teacher is not complaining about him, so be it. If I heard from the teacher that it was a problem, I would step in.

Yeah of course you don’t care. You’re not sitting in a room of zombie kids who are scrolling endlessly and not conversing, engaging, living their life. I can’t tell you how BLEAK it feels to look into a classroom and see that. I took my students on a field trip this year (10th grade)- the bus rides were silent. The kids were on their phones. Halfway through the field trip most of them just found a bench and sat down to scroll rather than actually explore. You think it’s not a big deal when it’s your one kid but it’s the entire cohort and society he’s growing up in that is like this. It’s not ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

+1 I have to agree. In MS, we had teachers allowing students to use their phones to take pictures of stuff in their biology class for their lab. That left my child out. Phones were also allowed on field trips. Again my child was left out. We finally relented and got a phone for them in the fall of 8th.

hysterical. You couldn’t handle your own parenting choices so caved and blame the teachers. Makes a ton of sense.

You’ve got it wrong. My child was disadvantaged in science class by not having a phone to take pictures - that meant he had to hand draw from memory what he saw vs refer to a screen shot. In his high school language class, the teacher recommended a certain app to help. How does one access an app without a phone? We waited as long as we could but when his own classes started using phones and apps we knew it was time.

Yep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a teacher so I'll be the first to admit that if I was, I may care but as a parent I don't care if my kid is on a call phone or not. Is my kid doing in well in school? Yes? Great. That is my concern. My kid is in AP Classes and honors classes and has a 4.0 unweighted GPA. If he wants to use a cell phone sometimes and the teacher is not complaining about him, so be it. If I heard from the teacher that it was a problem, I would step in.

Yeah of course you don’t care. You’re not sitting in a room of zombie kids who are scrolling endlessly and not conversing, engaging, living their life. I can’t tell you how BLEAK it feels to look into a classroom and see that. I took my students on a field trip this year (10th grade)- the bus rides were silent. The kids were on their phones. Halfway through the field trip most of them just found a bench and sat down to scroll rather than actually explore. You think it’s not a big deal when it’s your one kid but it’s the entire cohort and society he’s growing up in that is like this. It’s not ok.

My oldest is so fed up with peers who cannot communicate verbally. He has a cell phone but he is desperate for people to talk IRL not text. And he is annoyed by teachers who are hamstrung or have given up on his peers cell phone use. Many times in HS PE they sit and do nothing, so out come the phones. It sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a teacher so I'll be the first to admit that if I was, I may care but as a parent I don't care if my kid is on a call phone or not. Is my kid doing in well in school? Yes? Great. That is my concern. My kid is in AP Classes and honors classes and has a 4.0 unweighted GPA. If he wants to use a cell phone sometimes and the teacher is not complaining about him, so be it. If I heard from the teacher that it was a problem, I would step in.

Yeah of course you don’t care. You’re not sitting in a room of zombie kids who are scrolling endlessly and not conversing, engaging, living their life. I can’t tell you how BLEAK it feels to look into a classroom and see that. I took my students on a field trip this year (10th grade)- the bus rides were silent. The kids were on their phones. Halfway through the field trip most of them just found a bench and sat down to scroll rather than actually explore. You think it’s not a big deal when it’s your one kid but it’s the entire cohort and society he’s growing up in that is like this. It’s not ok.

My oldest is so fed up with peers who cannot communicate verbally. He has a cell phone but he is desperate for people to talk IRL not text. And he is annoyed by teachers who are hamstrung or have given up on his peers cell phone use. Many times in HS PE they sit and do nothing, so out come the phones. It sucks.

My son is now in a private school with a bell-to-bell ban on phones. The difference in communication skills between the public and private kids is stark and really disappointing. The kids at his private school actually play during PE. They are constantly chattering and playing with each other. Obviously the teacher still has to deal with the usual lack of attention one would expect from kids his age, but it's nothing like at his old school. I was kind of lukewarm on phones until I saw how much of a difference it made to not have them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a teacher so I'll be the first to admit that if I was, I may care but as a parent I don't care if my kid is on a call phone or not. Is my kid doing in well in school? Yes? Great. That is my concern. My kid is in AP Classes and honors classes and has a 4.0 unweighted GPA. If he wants to use a cell phone sometimes and the teacher is not complaining about him, so be it. If I heard from the teacher that it was a problem, I would step in.

Yeah of course you don’t care. You’re not sitting in a room of zombie kids who are scrolling endlessly and not conversing, engaging, living their life. I can’t tell you how BLEAK it feels to look into a classroom and see that. I took my students on a field trip this year (10th grade)- the bus rides were silent. The kids were on their phones. Halfway through the field trip most of them just found a bench and sat down to scroll rather than actually explore. You think it’s not a big deal when it’s your one kid but it’s the entire cohort and society he’s growing up in that is like this. It’s not ok.

My oldest is so fed up with peers who cannot communicate verbally. He has a cell phone but he is desperate for people to talk IRL not text. And he is annoyed by teachers who are hamstrung or have given up on his peers cell phone use. Many times in HS PE they sit and do nothing, so out come the phones. It sucks.

My son is now in a private school with a bell-to-bell ban on phones. The difference in communication skills between the public and private kids is stark and really disappointing. The kids at his private school actually play during PE. They are constantly chattering and playing with each other. Obviously the teacher still has to deal with the usual lack of attention one would expect from kids his age, but it's nothing like at his old school. I was kind of lukewarm on phones until I saw how much of a difference it made to not have them.

I’m a teacher PP and have been saying for awhile the biggest difference you’re going to see between the quality of public vs private education in the coming years will come down to the privates that ban phones and the publics that don’t. Everything else will largely even out and privates are not better than public typically but the ones that ban screens and phones WILL see noticeable differences and it will set them apart from the sub-par public education kids will get between looking ar their phone all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a teacher so I'll be the first to admit that if I was, I may care but as a parent I don't care if my kid is on a call phone or not. Is my kid doing in well in school? Yes? Great. That is my concern. My kid is in AP Classes and honors classes and has a 4.0 unweighted GPA. If he wants to use a cell phone sometimes and the teacher is not complaining about him, so be it. If I heard from the teacher that it was a problem, I would step in.

Yeah of course you don’t care. You’re not sitting in a room of zombie kids who are scrolling endlessly and not conversing, engaging, living their life. I can’t tell you how BLEAK it feels to look into a classroom and see that. I took my students on a field trip this year (10th grade)- the bus rides were silent. The kids were on their phones. Halfway through the field trip most of them just found a bench and sat down to scroll rather than actually explore. You think it’s not a big deal when it’s your one kid but it’s the entire cohort and society he’s growing up in that is like this. It’s not ok.

My oldest is so fed up with peers who cannot communicate verbally. He has a cell phone but he is desperate for people to talk IRL not text. And he is annoyed by teachers who are hamstrung or have given up on his peers cell phone use. Many times in HS PE they sit and do nothing, so out come the phones. It sucks.

My son is now in a private school with a bell-to-bell ban on phones. The difference in communication skills between the public and private kids is stark and really disappointing. The kids at his private school actually play during PE. They are constantly chattering and playing with each other. Obviously the teacher still has to deal with the usual lack of attention one would expect from kids his age, but it's nothing like at his old school. I was kind of lukewarm on phones until I saw how much of a difference it made to not have them.

I’m a teacher PP and have been saying for awhile the biggest difference you’re going to see between the quality of public vs private education in the coming years will come down to the privates that ban phones and the publics that don’t. Everything else will largely even out and privates are not better than public typically but the ones that ban screens and phones WILL see noticeable differences and it will set them apart from the sub-par public education kids will get between looking ar their phone all day.

DP. I'm a teacher and totally agree. The exclusive privates will advertise "screen free" school days, with the possible exception of laptop carts in classrooms that are used very sparingly or 1:1 laptops that stay at home to be used during student illness or other emergencies where the child cannot attend school. Cell phone bans will be strictly enforced and parents will pay big money for it to happen. Those who won't follow the rules get kicked out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a teacher so I'll be the first to admit that if I was, I may care but as a parent I don't care if my kid is on a call phone or not. Is my kid doing in well in school? Yes? Great. That is my concern. My kid is in AP Classes and honors classes and has a 4.0 unweighted GPA. If he wants to use a cell phone sometimes and the teacher is not complaining about him, so be it. If I heard from the teacher that it was a problem, I would step in.

Yeah of course you don’t care. You’re not sitting in a room of zombie kids who are scrolling endlessly and not conversing, engaging, living their life. I can’t tell you how BLEAK it feels to look into a classroom and see that. I took my students on a field trip this year (10th grade)- the bus rides were silent. The kids were on their phones. Halfway through the field trip most of them just found a bench and sat down to scroll rather than actually explore. You think it’s not a big deal when it’s your one kid but it’s the entire cohort and society he’s growing up in that is like this. It’s not ok.

My oldest is so fed up with peers who cannot communicate verbally. He has a cell phone but he is desperate for people to talk IRL not text. And he is annoyed by teachers who are hamstrung or have given up on his peers cell phone use. Many times in HS PE they sit and do nothing, so out come the phones. It sucks.

My son is now in a private school with a bell-to-bell ban on phones. The difference in communication skills between the public and private kids is stark and really disappointing. The kids at his private school actually play during PE. They are constantly chattering and playing with each other. Obviously the teacher still has to deal with the usual lack of attention one would expect from kids his age, but it's nothing like at his old school. I was kind of lukewarm on phones until I saw how much of a difference it made to not have them.

I’m a teacher PP and have been saying for awhile the biggest difference you’re going to see between the quality of public vs private education in the coming years will come down to the privates that ban phones and the publics that don’t. Everything else will largely even out and privates are not better than public typically but the ones that ban screens and phones WILL see noticeable differences and it will set them apart from the sub-par public education kids will get between looking ar their phone all day.

DP. I'm a teacher and totally agree. The exclusive privates will advertise "screen free" school days, with the possible exception of laptop carts in classrooms that are used very sparingly or 1:1 laptops that stay at home to be used during student illness or other emergencies where the child cannot attend school. Cell phone bans will be strictly enforced and parents will pay big money for it to happen. Those who won't follow the rules get kicked out.

I'm the private school parent and the "no phones" policy was a huge selling point for us. The school is overall fairly low-tech. The kids write their essays. Only longer assignments and state assessments are done on the computer and there are no 1:1 laptops. They do computer lab time, but it's primarily for understanding the technology and how to use the software. Hard copy books only. If he misses school, I go to the school in person to pick up a packet of work for him to make up. He does have an Apple Watch for the walk to and from school, but he has to put it away as soon as he enters the building and can't put it back on until the bell rings. They enforce strictly. In the couple of years since he transferred from his public school, I've seen huge gains in his focus and motor skills because he's having to use both more frequently. He still gets his ipad time in the evenings, but I'm okay with it because I know that he's not seeing a single screen at school.