Schools Today

[dominie]

I have been doing a bit of supply teaching (it pays for the holidays despite the 40% tax!) and my observations are as follows...... Kids are totally obsessed with mobile phones,snapchat, instagram and the inevitable Facebook, the genie is out of the bottle, schools cannot ban them and it would be impossible to police; use is restricted but in a typical lesson, it is not unusual to see 4 or 5 phones, a bluetooth speaker etc to be collected at the end of the period. The next gripe is water bottles which in most schools is allowed..... But the scrunching, squeezing, squirting and dropping becomes annoying. I still have the gift to maintain good classroom control but it isn't easy......just saying, anyway 3 months off now for good behaviour lol

[Tilly2]

Did you trip over any of the designer handbags, Dominie?

[Old_Geezer]

A school admin gets the class behaviour it deserves. It chooses to allow things. It tolerates misuse without sufficient consequence. They pass authority to the kids instead of imposing discipline from above.

I'm willing to accept that they have fewer options available than when I was a kid, but it the options are insufficient they should lobby MPs for whatever they are now missing and need to be reinstated.

[ummmm]

It's not just kids. You often see adults sitting at a table on their phones rather than talking to each other.

I understand it's more of an issue in the classroom.

[murraymints]

local schools here don't allow phones in class to my knowledge...

[fiction-factory]

One problem the schools face is that many parents expect to be able to communicate with their children at all times. Unless a school has a complete ban on phones in the classroom it will always be an issue. Having said that, I have found that when the work in lessons is enjoyable and sufficiently challenging the pupils are much less likely to resort to using phones.

I went to an excellent school and in my day we had other distractions (eg furtively listening to the Top 30 chart run down on our transistor radios or playing battleships/hangman)

[Peter Pedant]

I attend mixed ability adult classes ( as a pupil )
and there is a clearly an age divide

those under twenty - we wonder why they bother to attend - [ clearly they didnt learn much in skool - but that is a different matter ] - it is a technical subject ( book keeping ) but even simple things like face the front and listen to the fella when he opens his mouth because he knows more about it then they do - seems like Einstein's rocket science. as for stop texting ! well ..

[ yeah I know - Einsteen wasnt a rocket scientist ]

[Peter Pedant]

FF somehow I think that all the texting in class isnt parents cheecking up on their offspring

[fiction-factory]

I didn't mean to suggest it was. It certainly isn't. But when I have confiscated phones I have had angry parents insisting their little darling needs to have it on her at all times. And I have had parents ringing/texting pupils in class to pass on an important message (ranging from "do you want fish fingers for tea " to an update on gran's condition in hospital")

[ummmm]

If there is something important getting hold of the receptionist works pretty well.

[fiction-factory]

Yes. I have had that discussion lots of times but it only works if the school has a clear no phones policy and sticks to it at all times. Even in schools where they are supposed to be not allowed I still find some teachers who allow pupils to listen to music or use them as calculators.

[hc4361]

Schools should have signal blockers so that mobile phones cannot be used.

[gness]

And don't forget, Dominie...they know their rights!..... ;-)

Enjoy your gadget and bottle free break......x