Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher on lunch break:

OMG THE NO CELL PHONES THING IS AMAZING! For the first time in YEARS kids are talking to each other. They are introducing themselves, willingly playing my silly ice breakers, fully engaging with their peers.

If you haven't been in a classroom recently, you have no idea how much they've taken over and how little footing we had to restrict them. Today felt like when I started 20 years ago.

So did teacher post this from her phone while watching kids?

Right? That's how you know it's a troll. I will be curious to hear how the day went though. Hopefully parents and teachers can report back this afternoon.

I'm not a troll. I'm a middle school teacher on cloud 9 that my students might actually interact with each other this year. It seriously is a magic bullet to remove the phones from the realm of possibility. One child had a phone snuck on her lap during one class today (quickly dealt with by admin), but every other kid followed the procedure and it was amazing.

All of the staff is smiling and positive. After first period we all were wide eyed in the hallway about how smooth it all went. Kids were acting like kids again, not screen zombies.

It remains to be seen if laptops will just replace phones (our students don't have computers yet this year), but we are all so optimistic.

Yep, people loving “no screens” so kids won’t use phones to message friends, but then the school gives kids computers so they can message each other all day long.

The county also has the new resource "lightspeed" to address this issue. As parents, you can create an account to see your child's online history at school (including youtube videos). Teachers have the ability to manage their classrooms, see what tabs/content students are viewing during class, and place limits. This is an excellent new resource and initiative! The county is doing what they can. I am very thankful for lightspeed and for the phone pouches! Thank you FCPS. And the governer for this new law!

Lightspeed was available last year.

Not everywhere. We were introduced to it yesterday and it’s a game changer. You can see what tabs kids have open (and close them), if they’re on a game or other website, you can push the link to force their screen back to where they should be. You can lock and unlock their screens to redirect attention if needed . You can also create block lists, so anytime they’re on devices in my class (which is rarely), the games sites/youtube/instagram (where they will try to chat since phones will be in the classroom storage) WILL be blocked.

Yawn. Just think - if the county never issued 1:1 laptops this would never even be an issue.

Oakton HS parent here. Not part of the pouch program but the school was very serious about stating the new rules and letting the kids know the consequences. Love it and love that my kids are grumbling. They need to understand that they don’t get to run the show anymore. As a GEN-X kid who was terrified of letting my parents know if I got detention, I’m so glad they are bringing that back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher on lunch break:

OMG THE NO CELL PHONES THING IS AMAZING! For the first time in YEARS kids are talking to each other. They are introducing themselves, willingly playing my silly ice breakers, fully engaging with their peers.

If you haven't been in a classroom recently, you have no idea how much they've taken over and how little footing we had to restrict them. Today felt like when I started 20 years ago.

So did teacher post this from her phone while watching kids?

Right? That's how you know it's a troll. I will be curious to hear how the day went though. Hopefully parents and teachers can report back this afternoon.

I'm not a troll. I'm a middle school teacher on cloud 9 that my students might actually interact with each other this year. It seriously is a magic bullet to remove the phones from the realm of possibility. One child had a phone snuck on her lap during one class today (quickly dealt with by admin), but every other kid followed the procedure and it was amazing.

All of the staff is smiling and positive. After first period we all were wide eyed in the hallway about how smooth it all went. Kids were acting like kids again, not screen zombies.

It remains to be seen if laptops will just replace phones (our students don't have computers yet this year), but we are all so optimistic.

Yep, people loving “no screens” so kids won’t use phones to message friends, but then the school gives kids computers so they can message each other all day long.

The county also has the new resource "lightspeed" to address this issue. As parents, you can create an account to see your child's online history at school (including youtube videos). Teachers have the ability to manage their classrooms, see what tabs/content students are viewing during class, and place limits. This is an excellent new resource and initiative! The county is doing what they can. I am very thankful for lightspeed and for the phone pouches! Thank you FCPS. And the governer for this new law!

This isn't new. Been around since Covid. For 5th and 6th grades, my child looked at over 100, sometimes 200, pages a day online. Thats many hours per daty.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher on lunch break:

OMG THE NO CELL PHONES THING IS AMAZING! For the first time in YEARS kids are talking to each other. They are introducing themselves, willingly playing my silly ice breakers, fully engaging with their peers.

If you haven't been in a classroom recently, you have no idea how much they've taken over and how little footing we had to restrict them. Today felt like when I started 20 years ago.

So did teacher post this from her phone while watching kids?

Right? That's how you know it's a troll. I will be curious to hear how the day went though. Hopefully parents and teachers can report back this afternoon.

I'm not a troll. I'm a middle school teacher on cloud 9 that my students might actually interact with each other this year. It seriously is a magic bullet to remove the phones from the realm of possibility. One child had a phone snuck on her lap during one class today (quickly dealt with by admin), but every other kid followed the procedure and it was amazing.

All of the staff is smiling and positive. After first period we all were wide eyed in the hallway about how smooth it all went. Kids were acting like kids again, not screen zombies.

It remains to be seen if laptops will just replace phones (our students don't have computers yet this year), but we are all so optimistic.

Yep, people loving “no screens” so kids won’t use phones to message friends, but then the school gives kids computers so they can message each other all day long.

The county also has the new resource "lightspeed" to address this issue. As parents, you can create an account to see your child's online history at school (including youtube videos). Teachers have the ability to manage their classrooms, see what tabs/content students are viewing during class, and place limits. This is an excellent new resource and initiative! The county is doing what they can. I am very thankful for lightspeed and for the phone pouches! Thank you FCPS. And the governer for this new law!

Lightspeed was available last year.

Not everywhere. We were introduced to it yesterday and it’s a game changer. You can see what tabs kids have open (and close them), if they’re on a game or other website, you can push the link to force their screen back to where they should be. You can lock and unlock their screens to redirect attention if needed . You can also create block lists, so anytime they’re on devices in my class (which is rarely), the games sites/youtube/instagram (where they will try to chat since phones will be in the classroom storage) WILL be blocked.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher on lunch break:

OMG THE NO CELL PHONES THING IS AMAZING! For the first time in YEARS kids are talking to each other. They are introducing themselves, willingly playing my silly ice breakers, fully engaging with their peers.

If you haven't been in a classroom recently, you have no idea how much they've taken over and how little footing we had to restrict them. Today felt like when I started 20 years ago.

So did teacher post this from her phone while watching kids?

Right? That's how you know it's a troll. I will be curious to hear how the day went though. Hopefully parents and teachers can report back this afternoon.

I'm not a troll. I'm a middle school teacher on cloud 9 that my students might actually interact with each other this year. It seriously is a magic bullet to remove the phones from the realm of possibility. One child had a phone snuck on her lap during one class today (quickly dealt with by admin), but every other kid followed the procedure and it was amazing.

All of the staff is smiling and positive. After first period we all were wide eyed in the hallway about how smooth it all went. Kids were acting like kids again, not screen zombies.

It remains to be seen if laptops will just replace phones (our students don't have computers yet this year), but we are all so optimistic.

Yep, people loving “no screens” so kids won’t use phones to message friends, but then the school gives kids computers so they can message each other all day long.

The county also has the new resource "lightspeed" to address this issue. As parents, you can create an account to see your child's online history at school (including youtube videos). Teachers have the ability to manage their classrooms, see what tabs/content students are viewing during class, and place limits. This is an excellent new resource and initiative! The county is doing what they can. I am very thankful for lightspeed and for the phone pouches! Thank you FCPS. And the governer for this new law!

Lightspeed was available last year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher on lunch break:

OMG THE NO CELL PHONES THING IS AMAZING! For the first time in YEARS kids are talking to each other. They are introducing themselves, willingly playing my silly ice breakers, fully engaging with their peers.

If you haven't been in a classroom recently, you have no idea how much they've taken over and how little footing we had to restrict them. Today felt like when I started 20 years ago.

So did teacher post this from her phone while watching kids?

Right? That's how you know it's a troll. I will be curious to hear how the day went though. Hopefully parents and teachers can report back this afternoon.

I'm not a troll. I'm a middle school teacher on cloud 9 that my students might actually interact with each other this year. It seriously is a magic bullet to remove the phones from the realm of possibility. One child had a phone snuck on her lap during one class today (quickly dealt with by admin), but every other kid followed the procedure and it was amazing.

All of the staff is smiling and positive. After first period we all were wide eyed in the hallway about how smooth it all went. Kids were acting like kids again, not screen zombies.

It remains to be seen if laptops will just replace phones (our students don't have computers yet this year), but we are all so optimistic.

Yep, people loving “no screens” so kids won’t use phones to message friends, but then the school gives kids computers so they can message each other all day long.

The county also has the new resource "lightspeed" to address this issue. As parents, you can create an account to see your child's online history at school (including youtube videos). Teachers have the ability to manage their classrooms, see what tabs/content students are viewing during class, and place limits. This is an excellent new resource and initiative! The county is doing what they can. I am very thankful for lightspeed and for the phone pouches! Thank you FCPS. And the governer for this new law!

I have an older high school students at a school NOT on the pilot program.

I asked them if kids had their phones out today. They said no, except for a few prople checking messages at lunch.

I then asked why they thought the phones are away.

Their response was that there was a new state law, everyone's parents warned them about it, and no one was sure what the law means, so they don't want to have their phones out to make the principal ask for pouches.

This is just one kid, one day.

Will the kids keep them away? Probably not. But for today, at least, the new state law created motivation for many of the kids to kerp their phones away so our high school doesn't get pouches.

Time will tell.

Anonymous wrote:I thought they weren’t starting this until after Labor Day? Not sure where I heard that though.

They’re not starting until after Labor Day.

Anonymous wrote:Did the pilot MSs figure out how to get all the phones back to the right kids at dismissal? This seemed to be a question last week at orientation

Ours starts right after Labor Day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought they weren’t starting this until after Labor Day? Not sure where I heard that though.

I know the information about the HS program said it starts 9/3. I don’t know about the MS program.

Ah that’s probably where I got it that date from. Interesting that they started MS right away. Were there any snafus getting the pouches unlocked at dismissal?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher on lunch break:

OMG THE NO CELL PHONES THING IS AMAZING! For the first time in YEARS kids are talking to each other. They are introducing themselves, willingly playing my silly ice breakers, fully engaging with their peers.

If you haven't been in a classroom recently, you have no idea how much they've taken over and how little footing we had to restrict them. Today felt like when I started 20 years ago.

So did teacher post this from her phone while watching kids?

Right? That's how you know it's a troll. I will be curious to hear how the day went though. Hopefully parents and teachers can report back this afternoon.

I'm not a troll. I'm a middle school teacher on cloud 9 that my students might actually interact with each other this year. It seriously is a magic bullet to remove the phones from the realm of possibility. One child had a phone snuck on her lap during one class today (quickly dealt with by admin), but every other kid followed the procedure and it was amazing.

All of the staff is smiling and positive. After first period we all were wide eyed in the hallway about how smooth it all went. Kids were acting like kids again, not screen zombies.

It remains to be seen if laptops will just replace phones (our students don't have computers yet this year), but we are all so optimistic.

Yep, people loving “no screens” so kids won’t use phones to message friends, but then the school gives kids computers so they can message each other all day long.

They aren’t actually on computers all day long.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher on lunch break:

OMG THE NO CELL PHONES THING IS AMAZING! For the first time in YEARS kids are talking to each other. They are introducing themselves, willingly playing my silly ice breakers, fully engaging with their peers.

If you haven't been in a classroom recently, you have no idea how much they've taken over and how little footing we had to restrict them. Today felt like when I started 20 years ago.

No way you are a middle school teacher on the first day of school, with little time to eat and thinking you will take those few min to post here. Again, on the FIRST day of school. Maybe you have the last lunch to actually have a noon lunch and not in the 10 or 11am hour. -former MS teacher

Okay. I'm a 20 year veteran middle school teacher. My first week is planned out, copied, organized. I can't plan beyond that until I know where my kids are (they are taking pretests and I'm meeting with small groups starting Friday). I'm twiddling thumbs at lunch this week waiting until I have grading to do and data to analyze. The first week is probably the slowest week of the year. We were mandated to do nothing but "relationship building" for the first 4 days, content can start Friday.

Middle school sounds worse now than when I left, if it’s mandated you can’t teach content for 4 days and need to fill it with fluff relationship building all day. I apologize and see how you have time to post on DCUM during the school day. It sounds awful, even without phones.

So...middle school parents & teachers? How did it go?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher on lunch break:

OMG THE NO CELL PHONES THING IS AMAZING! For the first time in YEARS kids are talking to each other. They are introducing themselves, willingly playing my silly ice breakers, fully engaging with their peers.

If you haven't been in a classroom recently, you have no idea how much they've taken over and how little footing we had to restrict them. Today felt like when I started 20 years ago.

So did teacher post this from her phone while watching kids?

She literally said it was her lunch break.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher on lunch break:

OMG THE NO CELL PHONES THING IS AMAZING! For the first time in YEARS kids are talking to each other. They are introducing themselves, willingly playing my silly ice breakers, fully engaging with their peers.

If you haven't been in a classroom recently, you have no idea how much they've taken over and how little footing we had to restrict them. Today felt like when I started 20 years ago.

So did teacher post this from her phone while watching kids?

Right? That's how you know it's a troll. I will be curious to hear how the day went though. Hopefully parents and teachers can report back this afternoon.

I'm not a troll. I'm a middle school teacher on cloud 9 that my students might actually interact with each other this year. It seriously is a magic bullet to remove the phones from the realm of possibility. One child had a phone snuck on her lap during one class today (quickly dealt with by admin), but every other kid followed the procedure and it was amazing.

All of the staff is smiling and positive. After first period we all were wide eyed in the hallway about how smooth it all went. Kids were acting like kids again, not screen zombies.

It remains to be seen if laptops will just replace phones (our students don't have computers yet this year), but we are all so optimistic.

Yep, people loving “no screens” so kids won’t use phones to message friends, but then the school gives kids computers so they can message each other all day long.