Building relationships is the key to classroom management. I am a firm believer in this basic foundation of sound teaching. Knowing the goals and interests of your students and tailor-making your lesson plans to engage with their unique learning styles makes any job of an educator easier in the long run when students exit your classroom with a stronger academic foothold and sense of citizenship. However, what no one prepared me for is one of the biggest roadblocks in education and engagement: multiple Chromebook tabs and the cellphone.
Technology in the classroom is supposed to make note-taking easier, make finding answers to questions quicker and give students the ability to access multiple resources with a couple of keystrokes. You don’t have to go to the library to access news articles, academic articles or differing viewpoints on topics, you can flip open your Chromebook and access all of that information within a 45-minute lesson. However, you can also access Snapchat, Instagram, Youtube, the addicting snake game and even different sports games that are going on in the world. I have had to stop multiple students from accessing football games while I’m talking about Social Studies topics. The solution is not to ask students to put all technology away and keep your classroom a device-free zone. Most jobs after our students graduate high school involve devices and tech tools, we need to teach students how to use it responsibly.
I have had basic classroom rules since I have started teaching: be responsible, be respectful and be engaged. However, over time and with the aid of a graduate-level class I’m taking at the University of St. Francis (EEND675), I realize that I need tech rules in my classroom as well.
Rule Number One: Put your cell phone away. You don’t need it on your desk. You don’t need it in your lap. You can zip it away in your bookbag. You don’t need to feel it vibrate. You are not trading stocks or writing an investigative journalism piece, the cell phone can wait, silently, in your backpack. I have about an 80% success rate with this rule in the classroom. Other students need constant reminders but they do put the cellphone away from sight once I remind them.
Rule Number Two: Look to the daily agenda regarding Chromebook use. Every lesson in my class does not use a device. Sometimes you need your Chromebook and sometimes you don’t. We might even use it for 5 minutes for a quick Google Form check or for the whole period while you are researching for a project. Green means use the device, yellow means place it on your desk, and red means you don’t need it during today’s lesson.
The Last Rule: If your Chromebook isn’t on you, you cannot use your cellphone. You need to be responsible for bringing your educational device fully charged, just like you remembered to bring your cell phone fully charged. Since a cell phone is not an educational device, you can use paper and a writing utensil, just like when I was in school and walked 5 miles in the snow to go anywhere, with no shoes too (add another old school reference for drama).
Hopefully, with these rules, responsible technology use can be shared amongst the teacher and students and an effective learning environment with tech tools will be an opportunity and not a hindrance.