678 Module 7 Discussion
Hello Class,
This is definitely a hot topic in today's classroom. Not only among students and staff, but one I get asked about a lot by parents and family members. How do I manage the use of technology in the classroom? This has become even a bigger issue with the intro of BYOT and 1:1 classrooms. I am also here to admit, that I often fail at doing a good job enforcing the rules I have in place. I am going to use this assignment to put together a more concrete contract of my rules for next year, and have a better, and more transparent, set of expectations for the students in my class.
In any given class period of mine I have students playing games, interacting on social media, even taking pictures or videos of themselves. Killing the students with kindness used to work, and asking them nicely to put the phones away used to buy me at least the rest of the period. Sadly, I am finding that isn't working anymore, and students only respond with rewards or consequences when it comes to using their devices in the classroom. Honestly, I get it because I often find myself on social media when I should be watching my daughter's ballet class, or even watching TV with my wife. I know going forward that dealing with social media has become the number one issue for classroom management as well as engagement with the material.
One of the biggest issues our school faces is that they refuse to have a concrete policy for the use of personal technology in the classroom. When talking to friends or family socially, they are shocked that kids are able to use their phones in the class or even bring them to school. The issue is that rules are different in different classrooms, and furthermore not reinforced by administration and the deans. We aren't allowed to confiscate or touch the phones at all, so students understand that and use it to their advantage. Parents also rarely help out when you email home and let them know there is an issue. Even if you directly connect phone use as a distraction impacting their child's grades, very rarely have I had a parent step in and remove the device.
I've interviewed a few other teachers for this assignment, and came up with a policy for my classroom combining things that they find work in their class. Hopefully, as a result, I will have a more concrete, fair policy in place next year that is easier to enforce. For this assignment, I have come up with the following contract and policy that I am hoping to enforce during the 2019-2020 school year. Hopefully this will result in a more clear understanding from students about how important it is for them to engage themselves in the class rather than distracting themselves with their devices. While explaining the contract I will also have students watch the Youtube Video: LOOK UP about what you miss when you are glued to your phone. If you haven't watched it yet please do so here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY (It has over 61 million views)
Here is the contract and policy I worked on for this assignment with a soft roll out of the program expected next school year:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17n8LO2_5CTkP_SPM42hgOIKyIed35R1MeSeFz7JI7KU/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you ,
Jim Nielsen
This is definitely a hot topic in today's classroom. Not only among students and staff, but one I get asked about a lot by parents and family members. How do I manage the use of technology in the classroom? This has become even a bigger issue with the intro of BYOT and 1:1 classrooms. I am also here to admit, that I often fail at doing a good job enforcing the rules I have in place. I am going to use this assignment to put together a more concrete contract of my rules for next year, and have a better, and more transparent, set of expectations for the students in my class.
In any given class period of mine I have students playing games, interacting on social media, even taking pictures or videos of themselves. Killing the students with kindness used to work, and asking them nicely to put the phones away used to buy me at least the rest of the period. Sadly, I am finding that isn't working anymore, and students only respond with rewards or consequences when it comes to using their devices in the classroom. Honestly, I get it because I often find myself on social media when I should be watching my daughter's ballet class, or even watching TV with my wife. I know going forward that dealing with social media has become the number one issue for classroom management as well as engagement with the material.
One of the biggest issues our school faces is that they refuse to have a concrete policy for the use of personal technology in the classroom. When talking to friends or family socially, they are shocked that kids are able to use their phones in the class or even bring them to school. The issue is that rules are different in different classrooms, and furthermore not reinforced by administration and the deans. We aren't allowed to confiscate or touch the phones at all, so students understand that and use it to their advantage. Parents also rarely help out when you email home and let them know there is an issue. Even if you directly connect phone use as a distraction impacting their child's grades, very rarely have I had a parent step in and remove the device.
I've interviewed a few other teachers for this assignment, and came up with a policy for my classroom combining things that they find work in their class. Hopefully, as a result, I will have a more concrete, fair policy in place next year that is easier to enforce. For this assignment, I have come up with the following contract and policy that I am hoping to enforce during the 2019-2020 school year. Hopefully this will result in a more clear understanding from students about how important it is for them to engage themselves in the class rather than distracting themselves with their devices. While explaining the contract I will also have students watch the Youtube Video: LOOK UP about what you miss when you are glued to your phone. If you haven't watched it yet please do so here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY (It has over 61 million views)
Here is the contract and policy I worked on for this assignment with a soft roll out of the program expected next school year:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17n8LO2_5CTkP_SPM42hgOIKyIed35R1MeSeFz7JI7KU/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you ,
Jim Nielsen
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