Cell Phones in the High School Classroom
As my educator colleagues know, I take a slightly different approach to cell phone use in my classroom. I firmly believe that our job as educators is not only to prepare students for college and careers but also for life. To that end, I cannot recall a time that I have been required to surrender my cell phone or place it in a caddy in my adult life. Even as an AP Reader with strict security protocols, I always had my cell phone in my pocket as did many other Readers in the reading room. Given this, I choose not to have a caddy in my room or require that students place their phones in it. Instead, I spend a substantial amount of time at the beginning of the year and as needed throughout the year discussing digital citizenship with my students. The gist of the conversation is that there are appropriate and inappropriate times to use your cell phone--and there are also a lot of gray areas! I use myself and personal anecdotes to make the point. For instance, this year during