Cell phone ban in schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admin to teachers:
"We have a cell phone policy, but we are not enforcing it. It's too much work for us."
Also Admin:
"You are not engaging your students enough. They are on their phones instead of participating."
Also Admin:
"Grades are down. Have you told students to put phones away? Have you built a relationship? Have you called home about phone use?"

This is exactly what happens at my school. Besides making teachers frustrated, the kids are the ones who really suffer because they are constantly distracted by all the phones.

When they are not on their phones themselves, they are watching other kids make tik tok videos in school, hearing who posted what about a classmate on social media, etc. It’s become so much harder for students to learn at school and parents have no idea!

Exactly. The parents advocating here for cellphones in classrooms have no idea what goes on in a classroom despite attempting to act like authorities on the matter. Our admin actually said last year, “the kids are addicted. Imagine trying to take away a crack addicts fix. They’d have the same response.” Seems that the parents and kids are running the schools instead of the people in charge.

I have a sense of what goes on in a classroom. In 7th grade science they play an amoeba sisters video and then ask the kids to write a paragraph that answers some questions. For the students who are below grade level, their doc has all kinds of sentence starters and it’s essentially a Mad Lib where they just fill in a few blanks. The other kids just regurgitate what was in the video in a 5 sentence paragraph. They are given 30 minutes to complete this exercise when it takes my child 5 minutes. There is no enrichment offered. They can play “approved” games on the Chromebook for the remainder of that time. They are bored to death and there is no teaching going on. These same science topics were covered in 5th grade CES with an outstanding teacher who brought everything to life with creative planning, projects, and hands on lessons. The kids can tell the difference.

The reading and writing that went on in CES was more challenging than any MS English course and even honors for all at HS. It is unfortunate there are so few options for bright kids to be engaged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admin to teachers:
"We have a cell phone policy, but we are not enforcing it. It's too much work for us."
Also Admin:
"You are not engaging your students enough. They are on their phones instead of participating."
Also Admin:
"Grades are down. Have you told students to put phones away? Have you built a relationship? Have you called home about phone use?"

This is exactly what happens at my school. Besides making teachers frustrated, the kids are the ones who really suffer because they are constantly distracted by all the phones.

When they are not on their phones themselves, they are watching other kids make tik tok videos in school, hearing who posted what about a classmate on social media, etc. It’s become so much harder for students to learn at school and parents have no idea!

Exactly. The parents advocating here for cellphones in classrooms have no idea what goes on in a classroom despite attempting to act like authorities on the matter. Our admin actually said last year, “the kids are addicted. Imagine trying to take away a crack addicts fix. They’d have the same response.” Seems that the parents and kids are running the schools instead of the people in charge.

I have a sense of what goes on in a classroom. In 7th grade science they play an amoeba sisters video and then ask the kids to write a paragraph that answers some questions. For the students who are below grade level, their doc has all kinds of sentence starters and it’s essentially a Mad Lib where they just fill in a few blanks. The other kids just regurgitate what was in the video in a 5 sentence paragraph. They are given 30 minutes to complete this exercise when it takes my child 5 minutes. There is no enrichment offered. They can play “approved” games on the Chromebook for the remainder of that time. They are bored to death and there is no teaching going on. These same science topics were covered in 5th grade CES with an outstanding teacher who brought everything to life with creative planning, projects, and hands on lessons. The kids can tell the difference.

Yup. Another parent with zero clue. Hint: before you make posts with blatant lies, remember the curriculum is the same county wide, not school wide. We all know this isn’t true.

Zero clue? I witnessed this with my own eyes on the day when parents can come visit the classroom (usually around Veteran’s Day) for an open house. I have no reason to lie. Why would you accuse me of that? My kids say the entire science curriculum was taught using YouTube videos instead of teacher instruction. Health too. And health doesn’t have enough content to fill the class time so they have “free Fridays” where they are allowed to go on their devices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admin to teachers:
"We have a cell phone policy, but we are not enforcing it. It's too much work for us."
Also Admin:
"You are not engaging your students enough. They are on their phones instead of participating."
Also Admin:
"Grades are down. Have you told students to put phones away? Have you built a relationship? Have you called home about phone use?"

This is exactly what happens at my school. Besides making teachers frustrated, the kids are the ones who really suffer because they are constantly distracted by all the phones.

When they are not on their phones themselves, they are watching other kids make tik tok videos in school, hearing who posted what about a classmate on social media, etc. It’s become so much harder for students to learn at school and parents have no idea!

Exactly. The parents advocating here for cellphones in classrooms have no idea what goes on in a classroom despite attempting to act like authorities on the matter. Our admin actually said last year, “the kids are addicted. Imagine trying to take away a crack addicts fix. They’d have the same response.” Seems that the parents and kids are running the schools instead of the people in charge.

I have a sense of what goes on in a classroom. In 7th grade science they play an amoeba sisters video and then ask the kids to write a paragraph that answers some questions. For the students who are below grade level, their doc has all kinds of sentence starters and it’s essentially a Mad Lib where they just fill in a few blanks. The other kids just regurgitate what was in the video in a 5 sentence paragraph. They are given 30 minutes to complete this exercise when it takes my child 5 minutes. There is no enrichment offered. They can play “approved” games on the Chromebook for the remainder of that time. They are bored to death and there is no teaching going on. These same science topics were covered in 5th grade CES with an outstanding teacher who brought everything to life with creative planning, projects, and hands on lessons. The kids can tell the difference.

Yup. Another parent with zero clue. Hint: before you make posts with blatant lies, remember the curriculum is the same county wide, not school wide. We all know this isn’t true.

Zero clue? I witnessed this with my own eyes on the day when parents can come visit the classroom (usually around Veteran’s Day) for an open house. I have no reason to lie. Why would you accuse me of that? My kids say the entire science curriculum was taught using YouTube videos instead of teacher instruction. Health too. And health doesn’t have enough content to fill the class time so they have “free Fridays” where they are allowed to go on their devices.

DP but please don’t pretend to be an expert because you spent an hour in a class. Look up 7th grade science curriculum on MCPS… not that difficult to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admin to teachers:
"We have a cell phone policy, but we are not enforcing it. It's too much work for us."
Also Admin:
"You are not engaging your students enough. They are on their phones instead of participating."
Also Admin:
"Grades are down. Have you told students to put phones away? Have you built a relationship? Have you called home about phone use?"

This is exactly what happens at my school. Besides making teachers frustrated, the kids are the ones who really suffer because they are constantly distracted by all the phones.

When they are not on their phones themselves, they are watching other kids make tik tok videos in school, hearing who posted what about a classmate on social media, etc. It’s become so much harder for students to learn at school and parents have no idea!

Exactly. The parents advocating here for cellphones in classrooms have no idea what goes on in a classroom despite attempting to act like authorities on the matter. Our admin actually said last year, “the kids are addicted. Imagine trying to take away a crack addicts fix. They’d have the same response.” Seems that the parents and kids are running the schools instead of the people in charge.

I have a sense of what goes on in a classroom. In 7th grade science they play an amoeba sisters video and then ask the kids to write a paragraph that answers some questions. For the students who are below grade level, their doc has all kinds of sentence starters and it’s essentially a Mad Lib where they just fill in a few blanks. The other kids just regurgitate what was in the video in a 5 sentence paragraph. They are given 30 minutes to complete this exercise when it takes my child 5 minutes. There is no enrichment offered. They can play “approved” games on the Chromebook for the remainder of that time. They are bored to death and there is no teaching going on. These same science topics were covered in 5th grade CES with an outstanding teacher who brought everything to life with creative planning, projects, and hands on lessons. The kids can tell the difference.

Yup. Another parent with zero clue. Hint: before you make posts with blatant lies, remember the curriculum is the same county wide, not school wide. We all know this isn’t true.

Zero clue? I witnessed this with my own eyes on the day when parents can come visit the classroom (usually around Veteran’s Day) for an open house. I have no reason to lie. Why would you accuse me of that? My kids say the entire science curriculum was taught using YouTube videos instead of teacher instruction. Health too. And health doesn’t have enough content to fill the class time so they have “free Fridays” where they are allowed to go on their devices.

DP but please don’t pretend to be an expert because you spent an hour in a class. Look up 7th grade science curriculum on MCPS… not that difficult to do.

Talk to your kids. This is normal. In English in hs they watched a video instead of the book. They did not even get a copy of the book. We had to buy it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the common refrain - parents know best - has caused a lot of damage. There are so many clueless and dumb parents and letting them rule the roost is a big mistake.
All the experts say it is time to get cell phones out of schools. Why is MCPS not listening to them

I do not think parents rule at MCPS at all. If that were the case, the Ethiopian/Muslim parents who were protesting the removal of the ELA LGBT opt-out would have gotten their way. Same thing for the MVA, which was cancelled despite those parents being very vocal about that not being their desired outcome.

Are there individual parents who make noise and are inconvenient? Sure. But parents have very weak and limited power in MCPS.

The cell phone issue has far more to do with inept, lazy admin who don't want to do their job or get their hands dirty with enforcing the cell phone policy. Some of that is because many admin lack communication, diplomacy and decision making skills that are required to build the trust and consensus that is required to make a cell phone policy ban actually work. And MCPS's top brass refuses to recognize this competence gap and just keeps pushing the problem down to school-based leadership, regardless of how well school-based leadership implements or doesn't implement these policies.

Our current failed state with phones in schools is due to the ongoing crisis of leadership in MCPS, not parents.

The BOE needs to go. However, parents are the ones who decide about pone usage and parents can choose not to send a phone with their kids. I think it interesting the most vocal send their kids with phones to school. If you are against it don't give your kid one. Simple. In less MCPS puts in pay phones, for us, we will send a phone home.

This post is barely literate but I can make out the gist of it. No- the district decides the rules and regulations of a school-NOT parents. Simple. If they say no cellphones, then no cellphones. Just like your kid can’t bring a weapon to school even if you as a parent think your kid needs to carry a gun for protection. See how that works?

We don't have a no cell phone policy and my children will be going with cell phones as MCPS schools have serious safety and communication issues. See how that works. If there is a gun in the school, I want my kid to call me so I can come get them. Great example of WHY we need cell phones in the school. School shooters for one.

Cellphones aren’t going to save your kids in a school shooting incident. Yes, everyone’s aware there’s no cellphone policy in place which is why people are discussing it on this forum. Are you new to the planet or just the internet?

They can call 911.

911 needs one call

Not 500

There are no pay phones or phones accessible to kids.

You missed the point. Not shocking. Pay phones are not necessary to report a school shooting.

You are missing the point and you aren't answering if you send your MS and HS kids with phones. The answer is yes, and you don't want to supervise it so you want the school to do it for you. My kid has multiple activities at school and outside school. The school ones often change the times/days with little notice so we need to know for pick up. We don't get a bus.

We know. You won’t shut up about it. No, I don’t send my kids to school with phones. They have activities too. (Like most kids-yours are not special.) guess what? We all survive just fine. You make very strange assumptions about people without knowing anything about them. You seem to think “good parenting” all boils down to sending a kid to school with a phone. Such a strange way of thinking.

Let me guess yours are in elementary school and you don’t actually need to drive them to school and activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the common refrain - parents know best - has caused a lot of damage. There are so many clueless and dumb parents and letting them rule the roost is a big mistake.
All the experts say it is time to get cell phones out of schools. Why is MCPS not listening to them

I do not think parents rule at MCPS at all. If that were the case, the Ethiopian/Muslim parents who were protesting the removal of the ELA LGBT opt-out would have gotten their way. Same thing for the MVA, which was cancelled despite those parents being very vocal about that not being their desired outcome.

Are there individual parents who make noise and are inconvenient? Sure. But parents have very weak and limited power in MCPS.

The cell phone issue has far more to do with inept, lazy admin who don't want to do their job or get their hands dirty with enforcing the cell phone policy. Some of that is because many admin lack communication, diplomacy and decision making skills that are required to build the trust and consensus that is required to make a cell phone policy ban actually work. And MCPS's top brass refuses to recognize this competence gap and just keeps pushing the problem down to school-based leadership, regardless of how well school-based leadership implements or doesn't implement these policies.

Our current failed state with phones in schools is due to the ongoing crisis of leadership in MCPS, not parents.

The BOE needs to go. However, parents are the ones who decide about pone usage and parents can choose not to send a phone with their kids. I think it interesting the most vocal send their kids with phones to school. If you are against it don't give your kid one. Simple. In less MCPS puts in pay phones, for us, we will send a phone home.

This post is barely literate but I can make out the gist of it. No- the district decides the rules and regulations of a school-NOT parents. Simple. If they say no cellphones, then no cellphones. Just like your kid can’t bring a weapon to school even if you as a parent think your kid needs to carry a gun for protection. See how that works?

We don't have a no cell phone policy and my children will be going with cell phones as MCPS schools have serious safety and communication issues. See how that works. If there is a gun in the school, I want my kid to call me so I can come get them. Great example of WHY we need cell phones in the school. School shooters for one.

Cellphones aren’t going to save your kids in a school shooting incident. Yes, everyone’s aware there’s no cellphone policy in place which is why people are discussing it on this forum. Are you new to the planet or just the internet?

They can call 911.

911 needs one call

Not 500

There are no pay phones or phones accessible to kids.

You missed the point. Not shocking. Pay phones are not necessary to report a school shooting.

You are missing the point and you aren't answering if you send your MS and HS kids with phones. The answer is yes, and you don't want to supervise it so you want the school to do it for you. My kid has multiple activities at school and outside school. The school ones often change the times/days with little notice so we need to know for pick up. We don't get a bus.

Maybe learn to check your email during the day. Ours email every parent on the team as soon as there is a change. If they don’t- ask them to. Incredibly simple yet you seem to think it’s the most difficult thing without a phone. Outside activities? We always get texts from the coaches/program coordinators. If they don’t- ASK. You sound incompetent while also so self assured… terrifying.

Well, we don’t get text or emails and it’s up to the kids. Our one team refused to communicate and had a private app parents were not allowed on which was wildly inappropriate. No way you have hs kids in mcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admin to teachers:
"We have a cell phone policy, but we are not enforcing it. It's too much work for us."
Also Admin:
"You are not engaging your students enough. They are on their phones instead of participating."
Also Admin:
"Grades are down. Have you told students to put phones away? Have you built a relationship? Have you called home about phone use?"

This is exactly what happens at my school. Besides making teachers frustrated, the kids are the ones who really suffer because they are constantly distracted by all the phones.

When they are not on their phones themselves, they are watching other kids make tik tok videos in school, hearing who posted what about a classmate on social media, etc. It’s become so much harder for students to learn at school and parents have no idea!

Exactly. The parents advocating here for cellphones in classrooms have no idea what goes on in a classroom despite attempting to act like authorities on the matter. Our admin actually said last year, “the kids are addicted. Imagine trying to take away a crack addicts fix. They’d have the same response.” Seems that the parents and kids are running the schools instead of the people in charge.

I have a sense of what goes on in a classroom. In 7th grade science they play an amoeba sisters video and then ask the kids to write a paragraph that answers some questions. For the students who are below grade level, their doc has all kinds of sentence starters and it’s essentially a Mad Lib where they just fill in a few blanks. The other kids just regurgitate what was in the video in a 5 sentence paragraph. They are given 30 minutes to complete this exercise when it takes my child 5 minutes. There is no enrichment offered. They can play “approved” games on the Chromebook for the remainder of that time. They are bored to death and there is no teaching going on. These same science topics were covered in 5th grade CES with an outstanding teacher who brought everything to life with creative planning, projects, and hands on lessons. The kids can tell the difference.

Yup. Another parent with zero clue. Hint: before you make posts with blatant lies, remember the curriculum is the same county wide, not school wide. We all know this isn’t true.

Not a lie. We can log onto these game accounts and see how long they were on. You can also check the chrome book history and other things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the common refrain - parents know best - has caused a lot of damage. There are so many clueless and dumb parents and letting them rule the roost is a big mistake.
All the experts say it is time to get cell phones out of schools. Why is MCPS not listening to them

I do not think parents rule at MCPS at all. If that were the case, the Ethiopian/Muslim parents who were protesting the removal of the ELA LGBT opt-out would have gotten their way. Same thing for the MVA, which was cancelled despite those parents being very vocal about that not being their desired outcome.

Are there individual parents who make noise and are inconvenient? Sure. But parents have very weak and limited power in MCPS.

The cell phone issue has far more to do with inept, lazy admin who don't want to do their job or get their hands dirty with enforcing the cell phone policy. Some of that is because many admin lack communication, diplomacy and decision making skills that are required to build the trust and consensus that is required to make a cell phone policy ban actually work. And MCPS's top brass refuses to recognize this competence gap and just keeps pushing the problem down to school-based leadership, regardless of how well school-based leadership implements or doesn't implement these policies.

Our current failed state with phones in schools is due to the ongoing crisis of leadership in MCPS, not parents.

The BOE needs to go. However, parents are the ones who decide about pone usage and parents can choose not to send a phone with their kids. I think it interesting the most vocal send their kids with phones to school. If you are against it don't give your kid one. Simple. In less MCPS puts in pay phones, for us, we will send a phone home.

This post is barely literate but I can make out the gist of it. No- the district decides the rules and regulations of a school-NOT parents. Simple. If they say no cellphones, then no cellphones. Just like your kid can’t bring a weapon to school even if you as a parent think your kid needs to carry a gun for protection. See how that works?

We don't have a no cell phone policy and my children will be going with cell phones as MCPS schools have serious safety and communication issues. See how that works. If there is a gun in the school, I want my kid to call me so I can come get them. Great example of WHY we need cell phones in the school. School shooters for one.

Cellphones aren’t going to save your kids in a school shooting incident. Yes, everyone’s aware there’s no cellphone policy in place which is why people are discussing it on this forum. Are you new to the planet or just the internet?

They can call 911.

911 needs one call

Not 500

There are no pay phones or phones accessible to kids.

You missed the point. Not shocking. Pay phones are not necessary to report a school shooting.

You are missing the point and you aren't answering if you send your MS and HS kids with phones. The answer is yes, and you don't want to supervise it so you want the school to do it for you. My kid has multiple activities at school and outside school. The school ones often change the times/days with little notice so we need to know for pick up. We don't get a bus.

Maybe learn to check your email during the day. Ours email every parent on the team as soon as there is a change. If they don’t- ask them to. Incredibly simple yet you seem to think it’s the most difficult thing without a phone. Outside activities? We always get texts from the coaches/program coordinators. If they don’t- ASK. You sound incompetent while also so self assured… terrifying.

Well, we don’t get text or emails and it’s up to the kids. Our one team refused to communicate and had a private app parents were not allowed on which was wildly inappropriate. No way you have hs kids in mcps.

That’s your choice to leave your kids in programs run horribly. Maybe time to step it up and be a better parent. (Your favorite line!) definitely have kids in both MS and HS. You’re just a mess of a human being.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 32 pages to discuss a fictional cell phone ban that isn't happening?

Yup. MCPS knows it is a big problem but throws up their hands claiming there is nothing they can do. Same as with school start times. We are a real ‘can do’ district!

Our school tells us kids need phones for their school id to check in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 32 pages to discuss a fictional cell phone ban that isn't happening?

Yup. MCPS knows it is a big problem but throws up their hands claiming there is nothing they can do. Same as with school start times. We are a real ‘can do’ district!

Our school tells us kids need phones for their school id to check in.

Also have some classes where it's needed like digital photography. There were literally assignments that required the kids to take pics with their cell phones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admin to teachers:
"We have a cell phone policy, but we are not enforcing it. It's too much work for us."
Also Admin:
"You are not engaging your students enough. They are on their phones instead of participating."
Also Admin:
"Grades are down. Have you told students to put phones away? Have you built a relationship? Have you called home about phone use?"

This is exactly what happens at my school. Besides making teachers frustrated, the kids are the ones who really suffer because they are constantly distracted by all the phones.

When they are not on their phones themselves, they are watching other kids make tik tok videos in school, hearing who posted what about a classmate on social media, etc. It’s become so much harder for students to learn at school and parents have no idea!

Exactly. The parents advocating here for cellphones in classrooms have no idea what goes on in a classroom despite attempting to act like authorities on the matter. Our admin actually said last year, “the kids are addicted. Imagine trying to take away a crack addicts fix. They’d have the same response.” Seems that the parents and kids are running the schools instead of the people in charge.

I have a sense of what goes on in a classroom. In 7th grade science they play an amoeba sisters video and then ask the kids to write a paragraph that answers some questions. For the students who are below grade level, their doc has all kinds of sentence starters and it’s essentially a Mad Lib where they just fill in a few blanks. The other kids just regurgitate what was in the video in a 5 sentence paragraph. They are given 30 minutes to complete this exercise when it takes my child 5 minutes. There is no enrichment offered. They can play “approved” games on the Chromebook for the remainder of that time. They are bored to death and there is no teaching going on. These same science topics were covered in 5th grade CES with an outstanding teacher who brought everything to life with creative planning, projects, and hands on lessons. The kids can tell the difference.

Yup. Another parent with zero clue. Hint: before you make posts with blatant lies, remember the curriculum is the same county wide, not school wide. We all know this isn’t true.

Zero clue? I witnessed this with my own eyes on the day when parents can come visit the classroom (usually around Veteran’s Day) for an open house. I have no reason to lie. Why would you accuse me of that? My kids say the entire science curriculum was taught using YouTube videos instead of teacher instruction. Health too. And health doesn’t have enough content to fill the class time so they have “free Fridays” where they are allowed to go on their devices.

DP but please don’t pretend to be an expert because you spent an hour in a class. Look up 7th grade science curriculum on MCPS… not that difficult to do.

Ok, the PP is not an expert but can you address the example she observed? Because similar to that poster, I too have observed a concerning mount of overreliance on YouTube videos to "teach" and then phone time as a reward for getting work done early by many teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 32 pages to discuss a fictional cell phone ban that isn't happening?

Yup. MCPS knows it is a big problem but throws up their hands claiming there is nothing they can do. Same as with school start times. We are a real ‘can do’ district!

Our school tells us kids need phones for their school id to check in.

Also have some classes where it's needed like digital photography. There were literally assignments that required the kids to take pics with their cell phones.

Now that's smart!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admin to teachers:
"We have a cell phone policy, but we are not enforcing it. It's too much work for us."
Also Admin:
"You are not engaging your students enough. They are on their phones instead of participating."
Also Admin:
"Grades are down. Have you told students to put phones away? Have you built a relationship? Have you called home about phone use?"

This is exactly what happens at my school. Besides making teachers frustrated, the kids are the ones who really suffer because they are constantly distracted by all the phones.

When they are not on their phones themselves, they are watching other kids make tik tok videos in school, hearing who posted what about a classmate on social media, etc. It’s become so much harder for students to learn at school and parents have no idea!

Exactly. The parents advocating here for cellphones in classrooms have no idea what goes on in a classroom despite attempting to act like authorities on the matter. Our admin actually said last year, “the kids are addicted. Imagine trying to take away a crack addicts fix. They’d have the same response.” Seems that the parents and kids are running the schools instead of the people in charge.

I have a sense of what goes on in a classroom. In 7th grade science they play an amoeba sisters video and then ask the kids to write a paragraph that answers some questions. For the students who are below grade level, their doc has all kinds of sentence starters and it’s essentially a Mad Lib where they just fill in a few blanks. The other kids just regurgitate what was in the video in a 5 sentence paragraph. They are given 30 minutes to complete this exercise when it takes my child 5 minutes. There is no enrichment offered. They can play “approved” games on the Chromebook for the remainder of that time. They are bored to death and there is no teaching going on. These same science topics were covered in 5th grade CES with an outstanding teacher who brought everything to life with creative planning, projects, and hands on lessons. The kids can tell the difference.

Yup. Another parent with zero clue. Hint: before you make posts with blatant lies, remember the curriculum is the same county wide, not school wide. We all know this isn’t true.

Zero clue? I witnessed this with my own eyes on the day when parents can come visit the classroom (usually around Veteran’s Day) for an open house. I have no reason to lie. Why would you accuse me of that? My kids say the entire science curriculum was taught using YouTube videos instead of teacher instruction. Health too. And health doesn’t have enough content to fill the class time so they have “free Fridays” where they are allowed to go on their devices.

DP but please don’t pretend to be an expert because you spent an hour in a class. Look up 7th grade science curriculum on MCPS… not that difficult to do.

Ok, the PP is not an expert but can you address the example she observed? Because similar to that poster, I too have observed a concerning mount of overreliance on YouTube videos to "teach" and then phone time as a reward for getting work done early by many teachers.

It's fine. Lighten up seriously.

[Anonymous]

Glad this is just some posters fantasy and the county has no plans to implement any of these extreme policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Glad this is just some posters fantasy and the county has no plans to implement any of these extreme policies.

Glad you feel the need to repost this every 10 posts to reassure yourself. It’s going to happen whether you like it or not.