The other day I had the one of the best days I have ever had as a teacher! The reason was simple yet so profound. So what did I do you ask? I took away my students' phones!
Now the beginning of class was a struggle. I put out a crate, had them put their names on a sticky note, and collected them among a chorus of moans and groans as well as some not-so-nice things said under their breath.
Once they were collected, I immediately went into my lesson. On this particular day, my students were working on their research projects which incidentally required them to use the internet.
Within the first five minutes of taking their phones away something incredible happened...my students were actually interacting face-to-face. Teenagers were having face-to-face conversations and laughing without watching a YouTube or Vine video! They were working hard and enjoying being in the moment, and not behind a phone. At the end of class, as I was handing the phones back to them, I had several students say" Wow, did you see how hard we were working without our phones?!" They actually appreciated it a little, probably not as much as they appreciated getting them back but it was still a great accomplishment!
This started me thinking....we have become a society that doesn't have face-to-face conversations. Sometimes we don't have any conversations at all! We go out to dinner and don't talk, we play on our phones. Family time consists of watching videos or liking our family members' posts. Technology is slowly taking over our lives and it is sad.
We need to put the phones down, step back, and actually look at people as people and not a "friend" on social media. To have a generation of millennials realize that they don't need to be attached to their phones was a miracle...even if it was only for 60 minutes. Let's do society a favor and put our phones down and interact as normal, human beings!
Oh and one last thing. While their phones were confiscated, they couldn't get facts on the web rather they had to use a printed book...crazy I know! One particular student looked at me while holding up a book and said (with a straight face) "I didn't realize how many facts you could find in this thing. I thought everything was online. This is an amazing resource!" I didn't know if I should be happy or shed a few tears!
Now the beginning of class was a struggle. I put out a crate, had them put their names on a sticky note, and collected them among a chorus of moans and groans as well as some not-so-nice things said under their breath.
Once they were collected, I immediately went into my lesson. On this particular day, my students were working on their research projects which incidentally required them to use the internet.
Within the first five minutes of taking their phones away something incredible happened...my students were actually interacting face-to-face. Teenagers were having face-to-face conversations and laughing without watching a YouTube or Vine video! They were working hard and enjoying being in the moment, and not behind a phone. At the end of class, as I was handing the phones back to them, I had several students say" Wow, did you see how hard we were working without our phones?!" They actually appreciated it a little, probably not as much as they appreciated getting them back but it was still a great accomplishment!
This started me thinking....we have become a society that doesn't have face-to-face conversations. Sometimes we don't have any conversations at all! We go out to dinner and don't talk, we play on our phones. Family time consists of watching videos or liking our family members' posts. Technology is slowly taking over our lives and it is sad.
We need to put the phones down, step back, and actually look at people as people and not a "friend" on social media. To have a generation of millennials realize that they don't need to be attached to their phones was a miracle...even if it was only for 60 minutes. Let's do society a favor and put our phones down and interact as normal, human beings!
Oh and one last thing. While their phones were confiscated, they couldn't get facts on the web rather they had to use a printed book...crazy I know! One particular student looked at me while holding up a book and said (with a straight face) "I didn't realize how many facts you could find in this thing. I thought everything was online. This is an amazing resource!" I didn't know if I should be happy or shed a few tears!