EP5: What Do We Do About Cell Phones?

For this week's episode, we welcomed two outstanding teachers from Avondale School District to discuss unique and innovative ways to support staff and students with with cell phone policies and practices that keep the classroom focused on learning. Jennifer Bahorski, ELA Teacher at Avondale Middle School and Vanessa Wentzloff, Science Teacher at Avondale High School engaged our hosts Jay, Katie, and Steven in a lively discussion on Avondale's cell phone policy, including practical steps that teachers and school leaders can take.

Hosts: Jay Haffner - Literacy Consultant, Katie Morrison - Mathematics Education Consultant, Dr. Steven Snead - Supervisor of Curriculum & Assessment.

This podcast is proudly brought to you by Oakland Schools Intermediate School District in the great state of Michigan. Oakland Schools is an educational service agency that offers support services to school districts that are best delivered regionally and provide cost, size and quality advantages to those we serve. Oakland Schools is an autonomous, tax-supported public school district governed by Michigan General School Laws and is one of 56 intermediate school districts (ISDs) established in Michigan in 1962.

If you are an educator in Oakland County, Michigan, check out www.oakland.k12.mi.us to explore the services and professional learning opportunities available to support you. 

Have feedback for the hosts? We'd love to hear from you! Email steven.snead@oakland.k12.mi.us to connect with us. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:16

Good morning, good evening, or good afternoon, wherever you happen to be. Welcome to episode six. Woo! Insert explosion emojis, episode six of the Teaching Tomorrow Podcast. I am just one of your esteemed hosts, uh, Steven.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Joined by Katie Morrison, math consultant with Open School.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

And after six tomorrows, I'm still here today, Jay Hafner.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

They're dropping us with the jokes on episode six. He took a couple episodes to warm up, but now it's like really feeling the humor.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

There'll be no more jokes for the rest of this episode now that you've said it.

SPEAKER_06 0:54

So like to gentlemen, welcome to Teaching Tomorrow with Jay, Katie, and Steven. Today's episode, it's a hot one, y'all. We've had a couple hot ones already. This one's gonna be like muy caliente. What do we do about cell phones? The dog on cell phones. What do we do? So if you are listening out there, this we got a special treat for you. We have two amazing teachers from a phenomenal school district that uh is really doing some neat things around helping teachers and students keep teaching and learning at the focus, not TikTok at the focus in the classroom. Cell phones. So what do we do about cell phones? So, Katie, I'm gonna toss it to you first before we bring in our esteemed guest. You were a math teacher.

SPEAKER_05 1:39

I was in a class.

SPEAKER_06 1:40

You could use it for a calculator, right? Use it for instructional purposes. Question mark, question mark, question mark. What say you? What's what's going on?

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Yeah, I don't know. Like this is a this is a hard one. So in preparation for this episode, I was really thinking about prepared.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Of course you prepared.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Of course you prepared. And not only did I prepare, I brought a stat to drop on us. So I was thinking about this episode and really thinking about this idea of like policies that we have. So the National Institute of Educational Statistics cited that 77% of schools across the country have cited that they have a policy that prohibits cell phone usage in some capacity.

SPEAKER_06 2:21

77%.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

77%. And I thought about that.

SPEAKER_06 2:24

That's a statistical majority.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

Right, right? That is. Um, I thought about that and I was like, I wonder if it's less around the policy and more around the challenge of like how teachers bear that like burden of having to like enforce that policy in their classroom. And so I really I was thinking about because this is such a struggle, right? Like so much of like our students, ourselves like adults, right, are connected to phones and social media and everything that comes with that 24-7 access to I gotta track my Amazon order, right? Um, and so I think like the more I thought about like this episode and really thinking about like a stance was like we put a lot on teachers to say this might be the policy, but what does that look like inside of your classroom? How do you enforce it without it feeling like it's like this battle between you and the students every day?

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Yeah, and how long has it been a battle, feeling like it's a battle?

SPEAKER_03 3:24

I mean, oh there's a battlefield.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

That was Dr. Steven Sneed. Uh Did I just violate copyright right there? I think you did.

SPEAKER_03 3:33

I think to be honest, I think every episode Steven has had to come back with, did I just violate copyright right now?

SPEAKER_02 3:37

I think I did so yeah, all right. Well, we violate copyright here. Uh, and you can research copyright on your cell phone while others are talking. Good reader, good reader. I love it. Uh yeah, so I'm I'm wondering, or just I often think like this seems like it's been a persistent problem, quote unquote problem, uh, and also a persistent opportunity for additional learning space in the classroom for quite a long time. Uh, you know, I've been in in the c when I started in the classroom back in 2005, uh, cell phones were in the early stages of being problematic in the classroom, but they were problematic.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

Yeah, because they were playing snake. Right. And that yes, the first kids. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

So it but it's but it's evolved over the course of time to the uh levels of of issues that that we we hear today. Um, so much so where kids are we're having students that find that they're just communicating with one another in the classroom through their cell phones, but not necessarily having like comfortability in conversations and during group work and student engagement. Um we we're just seeing a lot of like evolution of the problem, quote unquote problem, but it still continues to be a problem. And the solutions that we're uh bringing to the table seem to be far and wide. Uh, we haven't nailed down like one solution. But we're gonna nail it down today. We're gonna nail it down today after tomorrow podcast with J Katie and Stephen. And we have two guests that are here, not to put pressure on these two guests, no pressure to like say there are solutions and there are things that we can think about as educators to maybe start moving a little more forward down the field when it comes to cell phone use in the classroom. Yeah, there's a plug for a coaching series that Katie and I do call it forward down the field.

SPEAKER_06 5:33

I mean, I had the singing birdwalk, you got the PL pre PD plug. But I like that forward down the field. Great, great professional learning opportunity for coaches. Check that out. Yeah, check it out at school's website.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

But until then, why don't you introduce our guests and let's get into this?

SPEAKER_06 5:48

Well, I'll tell you uh when I was in the classroom, uh, and this is maybe a dated uh strategy, I don't even know if it works. I wouldn't do it now because cell phones are too expensive. I used to collect them, cell phones. When I used to see them, I used to take them, right? Because that was our policy. Um, and that was back when like cell phones were like 200 bucks. Okay. Uh at the as of the day of this podcast, the iPhone 17 has dropped. Uh, I think the iPhone 17 Pro Max is something like 1200 or 1300 bucks. Like these phones are thousand-dollar phones. I don't know about collecting them anymore, but but in terms of collecting, we've actually collected two very special guests for you. Uh-huh. See what I did there? We've collected two teachers who are at the forefront of this work in a very special school district, Avondale Schools. One of them is from Avondale Middle School, the other from Avondale High School. And they've done some really interesting and neat things with providing an environment to help redirect the focus back to teaching and learning. So, ladies and gentlemen, I want to introduce Jennifer Pahorsky. Say hey, Jennifer. Hi, everybody. Clap her if you're you're listening to your car. Yeah, everybody clap. Clap her, yeah, yeah. Hey, for the teachers. And Vanessa Winslov. Hey, Vanessa. Hey, how are you doing? Great. Awesome, awesome. So we asked you here today for this podcast, but because no, because we know that there's some interesting things happening in Avondale, uh, but a little different between your two schools. Uh, so Vanessa, let me start with you. Like, what's happening in your your space relative to cell phones? How is Avondale helping to support you? And then what do you do to support kids being focused in the class?

SPEAKER_00 7:31

Thanks. You know, as a staff, we realized over the years just how hard this is to manage. And we tried different things throughout the years, and honestly, we really wanted a solid policy that was school-wide. So last school year, we started off with a policy that there was no cell phones at all during instructional time. And this also includes AirPods, headphones, their own laptops, anything like that. And what happens if I see Johnny on his cell phone in class, I go over, I take it, I put it in an envelope, and then the assistant principal gets it, emails home. And guess who has to pick it up? Yeah. The parent. Okay. Uh and after certain students get a certain number of violations, it kind of escalates. Um but it's really cool because the students are more engaged in general. So it used to be, you know, the kids no matter what in the hallways before this were always on their phones. Now we notice after we got we had this policy, kids are less likely to be on their phones, honestly. And they're having conversations. We notice the same thing uh in the cafeteria. We have huge homecoming assemblies at our school. Homecoming is huge. And in years past, kids are sitting there on their phones, everything like that. The first homecoming after this policy, the kids were so engaged. I've never I have not seen that level of engagement. It was amazing. Um another thing that I think is unique too is I think important, not just unique, is that when the students leave the classroom for any reason, choose the restroom, go to the office, they have to leave their cell phone. So we're also making sure that during that instructional time, completely protected, and I will tell you, they come back from the bathroom way faster. They're not walking around doing whatever. They're not making a Snapchat. Yeah, right. Back and forth, super fast. It's wild. And when we first started this, I think the students were like, are they gonna do it? Are they gonna take our phones? And we did. Yeah. And we were all on the same page that year. It does become exhausting. I'm not gonna lie. Okay, okay. Um, we come back this school year, same policy, same things. And it's been what, three weeks? A lot less cell phones confiscated. Nice. The kids understand the policy, they don't want to deal with it, the parents don't want to deal with it. So it's really cool coming into school year where the kids know the policy, and they they just know now not to be on them and put them away. So for me as a teacher, it's just so much easier because you don't have to worry about that extra thing. I remember when we didn't have this policy, kids would be on their phones and you would be like, put them away, put them away, and they wouldn't, and and it's you know, you don't want to let that kid fail, right? You can email home, all these things, and this all kids are held at the same expectation. And I think it's we've seen how positive this is just through, like I said, the hallways, the cafeteria, the homecoming assemblies. These kids are engaged because they're used to not having their phones.

SPEAKER_06 10:35

Wow. So it sounds like you really like over time created that culture and the condition like, hey, this is the way we do business here. You better get on board. And more and more kids are getting on board. That's nice.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yeah, it is nice. Um, I'm a science teacher, so for all of the science teachers, we're you know, totally for this, but all of a sudden we realize we use phones for a lot of things in class, like timers and calculators, and I use it in physics class for um taking videos. And all of a sudden we were like, we need to order timers, we gotta make sure everyone has calculators. And I was like, I need to find some type of software so my kids can analyze videos. So I think it also forced us to look at what resources we need and honestly get more creative. And now the software I use in my physics class is super fun. It's a video analysis, and like the kids get way more out of it than they used to like take a video on their phone.

SPEAKER_06 11:30

Yeah, yeah, wow. I mean, I I really like the uh putting taking the cell phone when we're going to the bathroom. I think that's smart for so many reasons. We won't elaborate here on the Teaching Tomorrow podcast, but um kudos to you to you all. Kudos to you for because I know it's hard to kind of like stay the course, you know. I mean, separating a child from their cell phone, oh my goodness. Like that that's a thing. So kudos, shout out to you, shout out to the the the science teachers out there.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Honestly, our whole like our whole school really embraced it, and I think that was the important thing. I remember last year when we talked about it at the very beginning of the school year, like you know, during the PD at the beginning of the year, everyone's like, Yes, I'm so excited. Like people were like rejoicing, like we were so excited to have that policy, and then watching everyone follow through from the administration level, from the teachers, and yeah, it got hard at the end of the school year. I'm not gonna lie. Um, it got difficult to keep it up and headphones and all that stuff, but coming back to the school year and seeing, like you said, that culture set was completely worth it.

SPEAKER_06 12:35

Nice. Well, I want to bring on your your partner here from the different building, uh, Jennifer Sput. You have a slightly different approach in in your space. Help me understand how do you deal with um with cell phones. So tell us what you what you do, what you teach.

SPEAKER_04 12:48

Oh, uh I teach English and drama.

SPEAKER_06 12:51

Shout out to the English and drama teachers.

SPEAKER_04 12:52

No, checking those papers.

SPEAKER_06 12:54

Yeah. Oh, tell me about it. I was a high school English teacher. Oh, I know all about it.

SPEAKER_04 12:58

Um, so middle schoolers are younger, and our building decided to not try to battle with the self-discipline of and the hiding of it. I'm not saying kids don't hide it occasionally, but we invested in a company that makes like these lockable pouches. Um, so our procedure is you walk in the front door, immediately the principals, both of them, which gives them a chance to like greet each student, they have this little magnetic thing, and you they watch you put your phone inside. It kind of looks like a pencil case and it snaps shut. And it's it really is just a heavy-duty like magnet, and they just close it, and then it is locked. So you'd have to like have heavy-duty scissors to open it. And really, we don't have kids doing that. You can have your phone off, but you can still have it like tracking your location, um, and they can keep that with them all day. So there is no we don't we don't track where the yonder pouch is, they're called yonder, y-o-n d R.

SPEAKER_05 13:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 14:00

And they use them at other venues too, like concerts and and maybe comedians and that kind of thing. But um it went, I would say, game changer for sixth graders. I teach sixth grade, but seventh grade, 12s, 11, 12, 13, they're all that same age. It's a huge addiction. I would I would argue it might be one of the worst addictions in youth right now. Way more than drugs or anything that we think, ooh, addiction. And to be unilaterally off your phone for eight hours, I don't police anything. They don't generally break them and try to open them. Um and I won't go into the details of what if they forget them or are they free or all that.

SPEAKER_05 14:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:40

Um, we don't come from a super high uh socioeconomic district, and we made it work. Um, I would say game changer. There was no more policing. Um, there was no more calculation. I I I'm an English teacher, so we don't generally use calculators, but you know, they're two dollar plastic calculators. Um we have everything we need. You don't need a digital ruler, you can go old school. Like nobody really needs a phone when you're 11 in front of you. Um our fights and that's the hot take right there.

SPEAKER_06 15:09

Right.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

Well, really, don't. It's crazy. Another stat to drop at you guys. Katie's dropping stuff. She really did prepare it.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

At least one of us prepared.

SPEAKER_03 15:19

I mean, I I was looking up and noted that because I was like, when are kids bringing in cell phones, right? Like, are cell phones an issue in elementary school? Do they start being an issue?

SPEAKER_04 15:27

Well, my sixth graders have all had cell phones since their fourth grade.

SPEAKER_03 15:30

Yes. Nationwide, over 55% of 11-year-olds own their own personal cell phone.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

Wow. I would argue it's higher because my kids are the beginning of seventh, sixth grade, and like a lot of them aren't 12 yet. And I would say in my particular class, and I have 107 kids, total throughout the day, I'd say it's 80%. Yeah. Wow. And you can tell there are a lot of them, you can tell the difference between kids when we do a lot of talking about you know, social emotional things and their personal lives sort of come up. And the kids that have anything at all besides gaming, you know, hey chat, join the chat, you know, all that vernacular they use. If they're super like well versed in that versus this kid's got anything else that they do besides hours of gaming and cell phone use, like you can tell the difference in the student. It's just it matters that they spend a lot of time on a cell phone versus not.

unknown 16:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

So I wanted to ask uh either one of you, feel free to take this question. Um, in my experience back when I was an administrator, trying to set policies, work with teachers on uh you know appropriate cell phone use, fell into the red light, green light, yellow light, remember. Yes, I remember having the light.

SPEAKER_03 16:47

Yeah, and it was too wishy-washy. Way too wishy-washy, right? Again goes back to that stat where it relies on teacher, individual teachers to set individual policy and set individual enforcement.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

And so so often we we as as administrators we'd reach out to the parents and try and engage in conversations around ways we can partner with the parents in order to help, you know, help bring some sanity and some sense to this. And I often found parents were of two minds. Uh, number one, they agreed with us that they, you know, they don't want their students or their children having access to cell phones, using cell phones in the classroom. Classrooms are sacred learning spaces. And yet they wanted to make sure that their kids had a cell phone on them in the event that there's an emergency or they need to contact them. So there was always this sort of fine line. My question to you guys is as you both had moved forward in your spaces with these with these new policies, in what ways have you seen support andor pushback from the parents? Like, how's the parent community with you guys as teachers and teaching the kids and having conversations with the parents, how have they felt about the adjustments and changes that you guys are leaning into?

SPEAKER_00 17:58

I mean, I will be honest that I feel like I haven't heard of much pushback from it.

SPEAKER_05 18:04

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

You know, I think as parents, if you have to go pick up that phone because your child had it out in class, it is a huge inconvenience, and that policy is there for a reason. And I think that parents see that value you're talking about. But being able to have it with them and not just like locked away in a locker does have that peace of mind that I think is really important. I mean, I had a student who got their cell phone taken away, and their parent was like, I'll just get it when it's convenient for me. You got it taken away, that's a consequence. So there's natural consequences with all of this. So and he was like, honestly, I I see why they did that. I see why the parent did that, it makes sense. Um so I feel like generally it's been supportive because they know it's honestly better outcomes in the classroom for kids. I love it.

SPEAKER_06 18:52

I wonder if they put like 20 staples on the envelope to make it like super inconvenient to take the phone out. That's very mature. But maybe an evidence-based strategy.

SPEAKER_04 19:03

Well, like middle school's kids are a little younger. Um and I we we have had a little pushback about not being able to contact your student. Okay. Um and what if there was an emergency? You know, in the wake of all of the things that happened in schools, especially locally, you know, think Oxford and all that. And so all of our evacuations and drills include a bag with a heavy-duty pair of scissors. If you had to cut it open, I could. Okay. And immediately, and you know, we leave with our class list, um, this flip chart thing, a whistle and uh scissors in this thing. So in the unlikely event that I would have to do that, I can. I would also argue that you know, a good administrator is gonna have to sit and explain that you know, you may have to not have that super convenient factor of what did you have for lunch today, or like you you can't contact them, but it's not it's not there's an emergency. It's silly stuff. Like, yeah, it's super easy to contact your kid. And most of the time, let's be honest, it has nothing to do with contacting your parent. Or they want to know, did you turn in your homework? Or like you you need to separate, and so it's more of a burden on administrators because our school is the exact same thing. I do not have to argue with anyone. I take it and I hand it right to the administrator, and it's the exact same they'll do an explanation, they'll say your kid is safe, you can still have the location on, you can see them moving down the little hallway, you know they're there, you know they got to school, and we all have phones in every class. So if you need to pick up my phone and call home and say cheerleading is canceled, you know, you can still do that. And I I think that it's uh kind of hard to sell something when you're really saying, Yes, life is gonna be more inconvenient for you. So that pushback, nobody wants more inconvenience, but yeah, I love it. I just don't even have to think about cell phones anymore. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 20:55

Wow, I don't have to think about cell phones anymore.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Yeah, so we were talking earlier in uh about a study that we had read that said that even students who have their cell phone in their pocket, it's not on their desk. If that cell phone buzzes, vibrates, or rings, that it breaks their attention so much so that it takes like five minutes in order to redirect just attention back towards whatever's happening in front of them. Also liking that to uh distracted driving. It's a very similar situation. When your phone might be next to you while you're driving, the phone buzzes, you look away from it, it breaks your attention so much so that it takes like two to three minutes before you're focused back on the road. So we talk about cell phones almost being like a uh a public health issue when it comes to our ability to focus and pay attention. Since you guys have implemented this policy, what are you seeing out of your students as far as their ability to focus perhaps for longer periods of time? Are you seeing a difference in their attention spans and their ability to focus on the work going on in the classroom?

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Yeah, I really find that they're way more willing to have conversations. Yeah, so communication. Yeah, just communication in general. They're they're more comfortable having those conversations. And you know, you're I feel like years ago when I used to say turn and talk, there'd be nothing, and now it's totally different. When they used to come in and you know be on their phones before class started, they wouldn't start their warm-up and get started, and now they know they shouldn't even have them when they walk in the classroom beyond them. So now you walk in and they're just starting their warm-up as soon as the bell rings. So I feel like it takes away that distraction. And for us, especially someone who does inquiry-based learning, the conversations are everything. And now they're having them to like the next level.

SPEAKER_06 22:46

Right. Nice to the next level. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

So they're actually turning and talking when you say turn and talk.

SPEAKER_04 22:52

Yeah, I can't even imagine trying to do anything school related when you could just have your phone right in your lap and you're sitting scrolling. Right. Nobody would be doing anything.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

And you're sitting next to someone trying to have a conversation directly by the teacher, and they're on their phone. So what do you do, right? And now that's just all taken away.

SPEAKER_04 23:09

Right, because they're not for so for the middle school, they're all taken away. I mean, they are present, they don't really have to hide them. They're little pencil case.

SPEAKER_06 23:18

Like, are they on in the case? So that do they turn them off?

SPEAKER_04 23:21

We we tell them to turn the volume off so they're like not beeping, but I don't have a ton because all the other kids, for the most part, that they know also there's nobody texting you. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe a parent. Yeah, like they're all I mean, they especially in sixth grade. Eighth grade has a little less compliance, but that's eighth graders. Yeah, yeah. My students in seventh grade, they're not willing to get them taken away because if you violate the policy, it's the exact same thing. And the office is closed and it is locked up in a safe. Even if it's a twelve hundred dollar phone. Yeah. The qu but to your question, is it what what am I seeing? You know, there's still the phone and I'll call it screen addiction problem that really that does isn't changed because they're still going home and doing this. But the game changer is there's it's not just that I can have them engaged in the classroom, but all the drama that happens during the school day. Yes. Like the infractions of cyberbullying, taking pictures of each other, posting things, threatening each other. I mean, uh this altercation, blah, blah, blah, isn't happening. So you have to figure out where that they have to physically see each other.

SPEAKER_05 24:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:31

Um, so that has been a game changer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:34

It's more, it's more that than it is like, are you scrolling through well, they don't do Facebook, but TikToks or whatever.

SPEAKER_06 24:41

It's Facebook for the old people. Yeah, that's like us. Sounds like My Facebook. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

Yeah. I think I just I think it's really interesting to see if as you continue on through this to sort of see if students are actually learning in school how to disengage from a screen and how that may carry over into other spaces outside of school. We all, as people, have screen addiction problems and we're too addicted to our screens. Facts. But if we can teach and set a precedent in class that it's okay to disengage from a screen, maybe it carries over at home and kids start finding other they're making choices for a little less screen time, a little more sleep time. That was always a big concern I had as a teacher. Kids coming in like zombies, and you ask them what happened, and they're like, Oh, I was up texting all night and or on a screen. Or on a screen, right? Gaming or something.

SPEAKER_04 25:40

It's dumbfounding to me how many kids say, I'm so tired because I was up till and they love to like kind of brag about it, especially in middle school. Like, I was up till two playing, you know, fill in the blank. And I'm like, wow. I'm so glad that you're also not doing more of it, you know, during at lunch and yeah, during the day. Like your neuropathways, like, let's not even get into like the science of you know, if we had more time, we should get into it.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

Yes, yes, episode 2.0 Yes. How cell phones are affecting your brain. Your brain. Yeah. Neuropathways and screen. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:18

Right now, we're gonna electrify our neuropathways and transition to our hot takes segment. This is our segment where we're gonna do something wild and crazy. I mean, not that wild and crazy, but a little bit relative to this topic, we're gonna invite all of our hosts and our co-hosts if they have a hot take relative to this to this topic. And I've been sitting here thinking about my experiences. Like I used to be the prior to your very excellent practices and policies in Davidale schools, I used to take some cell phones and like have them in my desk, like no safe. And I wouldn't do that anymore. But in thinking about basket. Yeah, like a little basket full of cell phones. Um, my hot take is no cell phones during lunch. No cell phones during lunch. Like have the kids, and you know, again, back in my day in 1872, there were no cell phones. You ate, you, you conferred with the people around you, you sat with your friends, you actually had real conversations. Sometimes I see like tables full of young people out in the world, and they're they're sitting next to each other on their phones.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

Every single kid's on their phone.

SPEAKER_06 27:25

Every single kid's on a phone. It's so normal. Now, it's and as we've we've normalized that, right? And what might the lunchroom experience be? It might be a little headache at first, but what joy and connection, and even just the the the science and joy of like eating your food slowly, right? And enjoying the meal in company. So I say, I know my own children will hate me. I love you all. Uh, no cell phones during lunch. Katie, what do you say?

SPEAKER_03 27:53

Yeah, so my hot take is for teachers and districts that haven't set these like policies that sort of take it away from the teacher. So the teacher is still feeling like they're doing this like battle and it feeling like it's a battle and a fight every day. Um, and so my hot take is what if phone-free zones were like a liberation from technology? Right? Like, I don't I I feel like this is so like out there, like liberate yourself from technology. Um but like kids are addicted to cell phones. I mean, adults are too. And if we framed our class as a place where students can fully unplug, focus, breathe without a world where students and teachers are never offline, maybe this space can feel like a place where you can liberate yourself from the screen.

SPEAKER_06 28:44

Liberation with that. Jay, what about you, brother?

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Yeah, I just I want to elevate as a hot take something that's happened that you mentioned earlier that's happening in in Avondale. And I think there's two keys to approaching this issue that sometimes it's a trap we fall in and we fail at, which is why we keep coming back to this issue. And there's two C's I want to highlight communication and consistency. You mentioned both uh that's the hot take is set a policy, communicate the heck out of it over and over to everybody, and then be consistent with it. You are in year two with this. How many times have we set policies around this? They don't last two weeks, they don't last two days or two hours. There was a commitment to do something for an entire year and then repeat that and see what adjustments we can make and go into a second year. And that's where I think you guys are really starting to see some traction here. Communicate and be consistent for longer than uh a school year. Give it a shot and come back on our podcast for season two, and we'll talk about the ways in which we're all liberated from technology on a technological based platform and podcast.

SPEAKER_03 29:58

But at least then you can listen to it.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

But just checking in, Jay, are you saying C's are good?

SPEAKER_06 30:03

C's equal degrees.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

Yeah, I just want to say Jay would say.

SPEAKER_06 30:07

C's equal degrees. So we'll leave it to our guests. Any hot takes? So the so and thank you so much for sharing uh these wonderful ideas, tips, and strategies with our teacher listening audience. Uh we hope that you glean some knowledge and insights. I certainly did in this episode, but do you have any lasting or parting hot takes?

SPEAKER_04 30:25

I guess if I understand hot takes right, I think mine would be teach uh kids about the science of like screen addiction. It should be in health public health. Yeah, it should be a good idea. Like all state of Michigan studies have to do health. Talk to me. But I would put that in there as a like science and like, yeah, can we just snap some of the things? Yeah, give her some snaps. Yeah, mic snap. Like it it should be taught unilaterally across schools, starting in sixth grade.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

Yeah. I agree with that. That's a good hot take. I think mine would be. I talked to some elementary school teachers actually about this a few years ago, is banning the smart watches because they're starting to see them in elementary schools right now. And you know, kids will try to text on theirs and stuff. But they'll try during class to, you know, draw a little bit on there. But smartwatches too at all levels. Too distracting. Too distracting.

SPEAKER_06 31:20

That's pretty hot. Apple and Android would not be pleased with this podcast. But they're not sponsoring it.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

I was just gonna say they're not sponsoring it. They're not sponsors. This is brought to you by Oakland Schools.

SPEAKER_06 31:31

Right. And my main man Jay is gonna take us out. All right, yes.

SPEAKER_02 31:34

Uh reiterate, we have no sponsors. That's right. We make no money from sponsors. It's all about for the love of teachers.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

That's right. Steven Sneed, Trademark Violates on various episodes.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

All right. Well, that'll do it for today. That is uh that is our episode uh 1.0 on cell phones. I think we've all made a determination that we're gonna need a 2.0 to continue this conversation. Yeah, a huge thank you to Vanessa and Jennifer both for joining us today. I mean, by the end of this episode, you were adding sound effects and snaps into the mics.

SPEAKER_03 32:11

Giving better hot takes to the case.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

Giving better hot takes than like.

SPEAKER_06 32:14

I feel like am I being replaced as one of the hosts here by the CJ.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

Maybe we do need to prepare for this.

SPEAKER_06 32:19

Don't worry. Oh, look at I got some riz. I'm gonna tell my kids today. Someone said I teach medical school. You gotta say the words. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:27

Well, we hope that all of you out there listening will join us next time. We're gonna be uh diving into a conversation around ways in which kids can lead us in their learning right there from the classroom. Right. Kids leading us in their learning. And for this episode, we're gonna be joined by uh ELA high school teacher Peter Hahn. That's my guy. Yeah, he's a lot of people's guy. He's my guy too. Yeah, Pete Pete's my guy too. Uh Peter Hahn from Oak Park High School and Casa. Uh, so we hope you make some time out of your busy schedules to join us again. In the meantime, don't forget to follow or subscribe to Teaching Tomorrow wherever you get your podcasts. Smash the like and leave us a rating or comment. It does help other educators find these conversations. If you liked what you heard, please share this episode with a colleague who could use a little inspiration during the hectic school year that is now upon us. Until next time, keep teaching, keep learning, and keep building the tomorrow your students can believe in. Because here at Teaching Tomorrow, we believe in you. See you next time. Bye bye.