A millenial's perspective

I love my phone. You could easily say I fall into the category of "obsessed and borderline addicted" to my phone. I don't like it when it's in the other room. I don't like it when it's on the kitchen table and I'm on the couch. BUT I KNOW WHEN TO BE POLITE.

I don't wear headphones while my teacher is talking. I don't blast music through my headphones while my teacher is talking. I don't take a phone call on speaker phone when I'm two feet away from my teacher who is talking and going over the assignment. I also don't pretend that I can't hear my teacher when she asks me to take off my headphones and put my phone away. I also also don't play a game while wearing my headphones while the teacher is talking.
All of the above incidences have happened - in the last two days.

Phone issues with teenagers are not a new challenge unique to this area or demographic. My last school had issues with this all the time! Still, they fell on the side of phones being banned from school and therefore not allowed to be in class, in the hallways, etc.

One of the biggest culture shocks here was the obvious phone usage in the halls (and in the classrooms). Students are taking pictures, talking on the phone, texting, snapping, etc. in the halls AND IN THE CLASSROOM while the teacher is teaching. Students position themselves in a seat by an outlet so that they can charge their phone during class. Students straight up ignore the teacher's instructions to put the phones away. Students take pictures of each other across the room in the middle of a lesson (I've seen this in my co-taught class).

**I do want to note that I realize that the power is in the teacher's expectations. I co-teach in a class where excessive phone usage is not a big issue. This class is also full of freshmen who are young and slightly more amenable to teacher demands.**

Today I had two interesting experiences.

(1) A student entered my classroom with his headphones in and music on (this was my first mistake). Class started and students were expected to complete the warm up assignment on the board. His music was audible through his headphones a couple of feet away. He ignored my prompts to take his headphones out and put his phone away. While discussing the warm up and prompting him to get started, he TOOK A PHONE CALL ON SPEAKER PHONE. I was truly appalled. What was happening at this point? I made an effort to "guide" his hand toward hanging up and putting his phone away, but I'm not allowed to touch the student or his property, so I couldn't really do anything. I attempted to give prompts and ignore his behavior (he was clearly testing me) while also praising the surrounding kids for ignoring and working hard on the task at hand. The student eventually took out his headphones, but later used his headphones during the independent practice (which I told him he could do). He still kept the headphones in while I talked to him.

(2) Today was our school's first Character Ed Advisory period (held once a month). Two teachers are given 25 random students and are supposed to lead character building lessons. While I introduced the discussion topic and welcomed the kids to the class, at least 4 kids had BOTH headphones in their ears. We were creating our class norms (rules) together (with very little success - kids were not responding at all) when a kid mentioned phones. As I broached the topic of politeness with phones and when to use them or not, I had to ask kids, some MORE THAN THREE times, to take out their headphones and put their phones away. One kid heard me, then purposely chose to keep his headphones in. My partner teacher went over to him and asked him to put his phone away. He pretended not to hear her and continued to play his game until she finally got through. Other kids were giggling at this point.

Here's the main issue people - I never wanted to sound like the older generation (no offense to my "older generation" friends) that say things like, "Kids and their phones - they are obsessed. They are so disrespectful. They can't even have real conversations...etc. etc." But I get it. I am truly shocked at the audacity of kids to blatantly disrespect teachers with regards to phone use. What is HAPPENING with kids these days? How do we instill general politeness in a generation of device-addicted teenage youths?

S.O.S.
Help.
#why

-Ms. Damron-