Device Policy

PHONES/PERSONAL DEVICE POLICY

1. Please place your device in your assigned pocket when you enter the classroom. If you come in late, or as the bell is ringing, please make sure to quickly and quietly place your device in the pocket before heading to your desk. Tardiness because you are using your device in the hallway is inexcusable - you need to be ready and in your seat by the time the bell rings. 

2. Please place your device in your assigned  pocket camera side down. 

3. Your device will remain in the pocket until receiving the all clear from your teacher. That could be a few minutes before the end of class; that could be when the bell rings.

4. BYOD: For all online assessments, you may be asked to use a school-issued chromebook. It is inappropriate to be using social media or any other messaging platform during class unless instructed to do so by the teacher. If you bring your own laptop or a tablet, you are expected to work on coursework only during the class meeting period. If you are using messaging platforms or working on outside classwork during our class time, you could be asked to use a school chromebook instead of your own device for the day or permanently moving forward. 

5. Smartwatches must be removed during all assessments. If smartwatch use becomes excessive or distracts from your learning, you will be asked to remove it.  

WHY?

• You do not need your phone/personal device for class. Taking pictures of notes or assignment announcements is not as effective as handwriting them anyway.

• It's a distraction. Even if you don't look at it, you'll be wondering what's going on behind the screen. (Read The Wall Street Journal article below.)

• It's making you anxious. FOMO.

• Unless you can provide immediate assistance in a life-threatening situation happening outside of school, you can wait to get messages from parents and other family members. Parents can always call the office and have a pass sent to class if they feel that a message cannot wait until the end of class. Your family knows you're in class. They want you to do well. They can wait.

• Research...see below.

• LOOK UP!

HOW SMARTPHONES HIJACK OUR MINDS - The Wall Street Journal

HAVE SMARTPHONES DESTROYED A GENERATION?- from The Atlantic

More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been. But they’re on the brink of a mental-health crisis. A sample of the research finds: 

• Teens who spend three hours a day or more on electronic devices are 35 percent more likely to have a risk factor for suicide, such as making a suicide plan.

• Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011. 

• 12th-graders in 2015 were going out less often than eighth-graders did as recently as 2009.

• Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on nonscreen activities are more likely to be happy

• Eighth-graders who spend 10 or more hours a week on social media are 56 percent more likely to say they’re unhappy than those who devote less time to social media. Admittedly, 10 hours a week is a lot. But those who spend six to nine hours a week on social media are still 47 percent more likely to say they are unhappy than those who use social media even less. The opposite is true of in-person interactions. Those who spend an above-average amount of time with their friends in person are 20 percent less likely to say they’re unhappy than those who hang out for a below-average amount of time.

• Forty-eight percent more girls said they often felt left out in 2015 than in 2010, compared with 27 percent more boys. Girls use social media more often, giving them additional opportunities to feel excluded and lonely when they see their friends or classmates getting together without them