For the most part, though, I don't think elementary-age students should have phones. I waited until my children were in middle-school and even then I only gave a smartphone to one, and told them if they broke it, that would be it for the foreseeable future. (I recently saw a fifth-grade student get mad at his and literally throw it in the middle of the street, breaking into pieces.)

I see that you aren't capable of realizing that I actually have access to this group on my laptop which easily bypasses the MCPS block / filter :p and that it doesn't take more than a few seconds to type out a post. (I learned typing the old-fashioned way, with IBM PCjrs in high school and then college, so knocking two quick sentences isn't really a hardship that you might think it is :p)

Anonymous wrote:I'm teaching a fifth grade class right now and four or five students already have their phones out and I can't do anything about it, really. It does make teaching considerably harder.

I see you are demonstrating the behavior by using your own phone to post on an anonymous forum. What do you expect?

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Anonymous wrote:If you have to insult a poster to make your point, maybe your position isn’t that strong. Some of these posters who say they are teachers are name calling (“idiot”) and acting very reactive to anyone who does not share their opinion. I’d recommend avoiding insults and practice actually trying to hear the other person’s point of view in an open minded way. I’m able to see how phones are like chocolate cake and can take attention away from important things. I never said this isn’t true. I just feel a ban is a step too far, personally, and that other policies are a better fit for the situation at hand.

How do other public schools manage to ban phones in class? Do you think their kids are suffering?

I have no idea what other school districts do. I think our school system has about 100 other systems in place that cause more “suffering” for students relative to this issue. The first one that comes to mind is shuffling students with known serious disciplinary issues from school to school rather than providing them appropriate non gen-ed placements/supervision/supports.

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Anonymous wrote:All the research is out, phones are awful for our kids. Not to mention they never belonged in classrooms to begin with. Is there any movement by MCPS to ban phones in classrooms? What’s the best way to organize for banning phones? School by school or at the MCPS level?

If you don’t want your child to have a phone, don’t give your child a phone. Why do you feel the need to make rules or bans for everyone else’s children?

Why is your kid having a phone so important to you? You think they won’t survive like everyone else used to without phones? You’re a major part of the problem.

Ok we also survived without the internet or email or Uber but like, times have changed.

Like, no sh*t times have changed. Doesn’t mean kids need to be on cellphones during class. Doesn’t mean they need them at school. Instead of pushing us forward like the Internet and email did, phones in a classroom setting are only holding kids back and hindering learning. It’s not rocket science to understand this but apparently for you, it is.

You’re entitled to your opinion but every parent who buys their child a phone and sends them with it to school obviously thinks the benefit outweighs the cost and that’s most people. If you disagree, don’t give your kid a phone. I haven’t found my child’s learning impacted by phones at all. Have you spent a lot of time observing this personally? How much time have you spent in the classroom making the determination that learning has been hindered and what wasn’t accomplished that would have been if the kids hadn’t had phones in their pockets?

DP. The thing about sending your child to school is that you stop being the arbiter of what the benefits and the costs are. If you disagree with what the system determines the rules are, homeschool.

That’s right. And my child’s school permits phones to be silent and in their pocket during instruction. I am satisfied with this policy. If you do not agree with your school’s policy, feel free to homeschool your child.

Or fight for sanity as many are doing in regards to a lot of the loony stuff schools are doing.

I'm teaching a fifth grade class right now and four or five students already have their phones out and I can't do anything about it, really. It does make teaching considerably harder.

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Anonymous wrote:Would it make a difference if it was a district wide policy? Some of the students are so disruptive without a phone, I'm not sure what difference it would make?

The policy already is districtwide. It's the enforcement piece that is left up to schools that leads to the variability with some schools enforcing the policy with fidelity and seriousness and others just looking the other way and letting kids do whatever they want.

Any school discipline at all is seen as the school to prison pipeline by progs. They simply live in Fantasyland.

Anonymous wrote:Would it make a difference if it was a district wide policy? Some of the students are so disruptive without a phone, I'm not sure what difference it would make?

The policy already is districtwide. It's the enforcement piece that is left up to schools that leads to the variability with some schools enforcing the policy with fidelity and seriousness and others just looking the other way and letting kids do whatever they want.

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Anonymous wrote:All the research is out, phones are awful for our kids. Not to mention they never belonged in classrooms to begin with. Is there any movement by MCPS to ban phones in classrooms? What’s the best way to organize for banning phones? School by school or at the MCPS level?

If you don’t want your child to have a phone, don’t give your child a phone. Why do you feel the need to make rules or bans for everyone else’s children?

Why is your kid having a phone so important to you? You think they won’t survive like everyone else used to without phones? You’re a major part of the problem.

Ok we also survived without the internet or email or Uber but like, times have changed.

Like, no sh*t times have changed. Doesn’t mean kids need to be on cellphones during class. Doesn’t mean they need them at school. Instead of pushing us forward like the Internet and email did, phones in a classroom setting are only holding kids back and hindering learning. It’s not rocket science to understand this but apparently for you, it is.

You’re entitled to your opinion but every parent who buys their child a phone and sends them with it to school obviously thinks the benefit outweighs the cost and that’s most people. If you disagree, don’t give your kid a phone. I haven’t found my child’s learning impacted by phones at all. Have you spent a lot of time observing this personally? How much time have you spent in the classroom making the determination that learning has been hindered and what wasn’t accomplished that would have been if the kids hadn’t had phones in their pockets?

I’m a teacher, so I observe this happening on an hourly basis. You might THINK your kid isn’t the problem, but I can assure you, 99.9% of kids who show up at school, misuse their phones in class. It affects everyone. I suggest you educate yourself on the issue before attempting to sound like you actually have a clue what it’s like in a classroom these days.

My kids know which teachers have good classroom management skills, and who is engaging in their classroom. The students absolutely behave differently in classes where the teacher establishes mutual respect and delivers meaningful classroom experiences.

Truly hilarious post. Tell me you don’t work in education without telling me….

Would it make a difference if it was a district wide policy? Some of the students are so disruptive without a phone, I'm not sure what difference it would make?

Anonymous wrote:If you have to insult a poster to make your point, maybe your position isn’t that strong. Some of these posters who say they are teachers are name calling (“idiot”) and acting very reactive to anyone who does not share their opinion. I’d recommend avoiding insults and practice actually trying to hear the other person’s point of view in an open minded way. I’m able to see how phones are like chocolate cake and can take attention away from important things. I never said this isn’t true. I just feel a ban is a step too far, personally, and that other policies are a better fit for the situation at hand.

How do other public schools manage to ban phones in class? Do you think their kids are suffering?

If you have to insult a poster to make your point, maybe your position isn’t that strong. Some of these posters who say they are teachers are name calling (“idiot”) and acting very reactive to anyone who does not share their opinion. I’d recommend avoiding insults and practice actually trying to hear the other person’s point of view in an open minded way. I’m able to see how phones are like chocolate cake and can take attention away from important things. I never said this isn’t true. I just feel a ban is a step too far, personally, and that other policies are a better fit for the situation at hand.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:All the research is out, phones are awful for our kids. Not to mention they never belonged in classrooms to begin with. Is there any movement by MCPS to ban phones in classrooms? What’s the best way to organize for banning phones? School by school or at the MCPS level?

If you don’t want your child to have a phone, don’t give your child a phone. Why do you feel the need to make rules or bans for everyone else’s children?

Why is your kid having a phone so important to you? You think they won’t survive like everyone else used to without phones? You’re a major part of the problem.

Ok we also survived without the internet or email or Uber but like, times have changed.

Like, no sh*t times have changed. Doesn’t mean kids need to be on cellphones during class. Doesn’t mean they need them at school. Instead of pushing us forward like the Internet and email did, phones in a classroom setting are only holding kids back and hindering learning. It’s not rocket science to understand this but apparently for you, it is.

You’re entitled to your opinion but every parent who buys their child a phone and sends them with it to school obviously thinks the benefit outweighs the cost and that’s most people. If you disagree, don’t give your kid a phone. I haven’t found my child’s learning impacted by phones at all. Have you spent a lot of time observing this personally? How much time have you spent in the classroom making the determination that learning has been hindered and what wasn’t accomplished that would have been if the kids hadn’t had phones in their pockets?

I’m a teacher, so I observe this happening on an hourly basis. You might THINK your kid isn’t the problem, but I can assure you, 99.9% of kids who show up at school, misuse their phones in class. It affects everyone. I suggest you educate yourself on the issue before attempting to sound like you actually have a clue what it’s like in a classroom these days.

+1 Even if your kid is capable of leaving their phone in their bag (and that's a big IF), all the other kids who are not are a distraction because your kid is looking at the kid with the phone in his hands and getting that itchy phone feeling. Think about how many times you've caught yourself subconsciously reaching for your phone or really wanting to look at it when you see someone else pick theirs up. As a teacher, I do not want to handle kids phones for all of the reasons mentioned in this thread, but I would support a ban where a phone out in the classroom gets a kid sent to the office and there are consequences like parent has to pick up or detention. But the school needs to put these rules out at the beginning of the year.

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Anonymous wrote:All the research is out, phones are awful for our kids. Not to mention they never belonged in classrooms to begin with. Is there any movement by MCPS to ban phones in classrooms? What’s the best way to organize for banning phones? School by school or at the MCPS level?

If you don’t want your child to have a phone, don’t give your child a phone. Why do you feel the need to make rules or bans for everyone else’s children?

Why is your kid having a phone so important to you? You think they won’t survive like everyone else used to without phones? You’re a major part of the problem.

Ok we also survived without the internet or email or Uber but like, times have changed.

Like, no sh*t times have changed. Doesn’t mean kids need to be on cellphones during class. Doesn’t mean they need them at school. Instead of pushing us forward like the Internet and email did, phones in a classroom setting are only holding kids back and hindering learning. It’s not rocket science to understand this but apparently for you, it is.

You’re entitled to your opinion but every parent who buys their child a phone and sends them with it to school obviously thinks the benefit outweighs the cost and that’s most people. If you disagree, don’t give your kid a phone. I haven’t found my child’s learning impacted by phones at all. Have you spent a lot of time observing this personally? How much time have you spent in the classroom making the determination that learning has been hindered and what wasn’t accomplished that would have been if the kids hadn’t had phones in their pockets?

DP. The thing about sending your child to school is that you stop being the arbiter of what the benefits and the costs are. If you disagree with what the system determines the rules are, homeschool.

Rules in school should be based on child wellbeing not lazy parenting. Smart Phones have no benefit to schooling or child/teen brain development at all.

It is not lazy parenting to provide a teen who travels alone to/from school and after school activities a way to reach a parent or 911 in an emergency. There’s no need to have phones out during instruction, but also no reason to characterize teens carrying phones as lazy parenting.

Teens have been traveling alone to and from school and activities for a looonng time. The only thing that has changed is that now phones are readily available in kids pocket and some prevailing idea that this somehow keeps most teens safer. Yet short of parent feels, I’ve seen no evidence that it actually keeps them safer.

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Anonymous wrote:All the research is out, phones are awful for our kids. Not to mention they never belonged in classrooms to begin with. Is there any movement by MCPS to ban phones in classrooms? What’s the best way to organize for banning phones? School by school or at the MCPS level?

If you don’t want your child to have a phone, don’t give your child a phone. Why do you feel the need to make rules or bans for everyone else’s children?

Why is your kid having a phone so important to you? You think they won’t survive like everyone else used to without phones? You’re a major part of the problem.

Ok we also survived without the internet or email or Uber but like, times have changed.

Like, no sh*t times have changed. Doesn’t mean kids need to be on cellphones during class. Doesn’t mean they need them at school. Instead of pushing us forward like the Internet and email did, phones in a classroom setting are only holding kids back and hindering learning. It’s not rocket science to understand this but apparently for you, it is.

You’re entitled to your opinion but every parent who buys their child a phone and sends them with it to school obviously thinks the benefit outweighs the cost and that’s most people. If you disagree, don’t give your kid a phone. I haven’t found my child’s learning impacted by phones at all. Have you spent a lot of time observing this personally? How much time have you spent in the classroom making the determination that learning has been hindered and what wasn’t accomplished that would have been if the kids hadn’t had phones in their pockets?

DP. The thing about sending your child to school is that you stop being the arbiter of what the benefits and the costs are. If you disagree with what the system determines the rules are, homeschool.

That’s right. And my child’s school permits phones to be silent and in their pocket during instruction. I am satisfied with this policy. If you do not agree with your school’s policy, feel free to homeschool your child.

And our MS policy is the same. Guess what? Kids get their phone out of their pocket any chance they get. This happens to every single teacher in our school, even *gasp* the engaging teachers with excellent classroom management. The kids simply don’t care and know nothing will happen to them bc admin won’t enforce anything. Whether you like it or not, phones are a huge problem and they are ruining public education. Feel free to homeschool YOUR kid if you can’t handle them being at school without having constant contact with them. You’re the problem.