POLICY: Poly High School provides teachers with a new way to address cell phone usage in class.
By Roman McCree, Staff Writer
During the 2018-2019 school year, Poly takes on the task of battling a recurring problem plaguing most classrooms. Hoping to deal with inappropriate cell phone usage, Poly provided teachers with various signs to show students if phones are allowed that day. Replicating the idea of a traffic light, each sign is labeled with a color and rules on when phone usage is permitted. In theory, this is supposed to be an easy way for students to know when phone usage is and is not permitted, without having to ask the teacher everyday.
But will this fix the problem? Students still have to be reminded to put their phones away, or to take out their earbuds. So should the effort be exerted on setting the signs up, or just telling students what is expected like teachers have been doing in the past? Even if these signs are posted in every classroom and used everyday, kids will still ignore them and disobey them. Just like a traffic light: even when it’s red and is telling you to stop, people still run that red light. Some teachers already started enforcing these signs very heavily and from the results it seems to be working, but as the school year continues on, will the signs still have the same effect? We can’t expect the “red light” sign to stop every kid from going on their phones, but staff expects that more people will be able to acknowledge the rules and adhere to them.
Will these signs even work? What if the teacher isn’t on top of changing them and making sure students check it? Without an effort from the teacher to make sure signs are posted in easily visible areas, a positive result can’t be expected. Can’t there be an easier way to fix this problem? At first, the signs seem almost useless, as you wonder how they could possibly stop someone from using their phones. However, this is a great start to cracking down on excessive phone usage at school. These signs can clearly tell students that they are either in the right or wrong, and act as a way to say a teacher already warned the class. This will allow for teachers to crack down on usage very easily,as they can warn students both verbally and with the sign, before a punishment is decided upon.
This is just one small step in the direction of having cell phones become only a tool in class and less of a distraction. Being able to regulate when phones are used allows teachers to stop micromanaging cell phones and focus more on teaching their students. Although signs seem like a simple solution, sometimes the simplest of things are all it takes to solve a complicated problem. In a day and age when technology is always advancing, there needs to be a way to dictate when cell phones can be used as a way to further education, and not as a hindrance to the progression of a class or student.