Cell phones at school and in the classroom...

Recently, our school allowed students, ages 10 to 14 to start bringing cell phones to school. Some teachers have actual curricular uses for them in the classroom, but most teachers, that let students bring cell phones to the classroom on a daily basis, allow students to listen to music while they work in the classroom to cut down on chatter while students perform the guided practice or write for assignments. Maybe that is a good idea, but I am not so sure. Is listening to music the magic bullet to keeping students focused, or is it one more avenue to avoid daily social situations that is essential for development in a work environment?

What the resulting outcome is, is an incessant use of cell phones during lunch, recess, and before and after school. I catch more kids sneaking a text to their friends in other classes than any other misuse of a cell phone, which is generally not allowed to be used at all, unless I specifically have asked the previous day for students to bring their devices for use in class for a specific activity.

Maybe once the novelty dies down, students will be more appropriate, but the bigger effect of cell phone usage on campus is less social interaction, isolation, and less interaction with people that are not your friends accessible through your device, whether through texting, Facebook, or other social networks.

Here are some videos with a negative view of cell phone usage, followed by a couple of videos showing positive effects of cell phones in the classroom.

Anti Cell Phones at school Videos:
After I saw this I put down my cell phone... Does this really happen... Yes!
Portlandia... Technology loop trying to keep up with social media...
The Cyber-bullying Virus Does this happen at your school? Gossip at light speed.
Too late to apologize As elementary friendships shift to new social alliances, the cell phone may accelerate the break with old childhood friends with more destructive tools.

Pro Cell Phone at school Videos:
Bring your own device at Carson School, Fairfax, VA... When used as directed, no complaints
Star Trek meets South Park - the How and Why of BYOD
BYOD for Whitehall School - guidelines and requirements
BYOT Rockwell, Texas, 2011

Links:
Can you give up your cell phone for a day? - article

From the file, So you have some problems, but how do you face them

Here are some videos of various people, that despite their personal issues - whether health related, economic, social, or the conditions of their family, they have all decided that there are things worth living for that keep them going everyday...

Right Before Dying From A Rare Lifelong Disease, Sam Revealed His Three Secrets To Happiness

Landfill Harmonic

Art in Prison

Why doesn't my school have an effective system for recycling and composting student lunch waste?

Why can't Marin County, California, get its act together and implement a real compost management system, as well as a recycling program at the public schools in the county? It seems like such a waste, quite literally, that most schools throw most of their waste into landfill receptacles every day. Of the 10,000 students across Marin County, waste from 10,000 lunches consumed daily, are often thrown directly into landfill receptacles.

But a lack of a 21st Century waste management system is the plight of American Schools and their surrounding municipal, county, and state governments across the United States.

Video Clips to inspire everyone to think about this idea:

A wild bird hatchery where chicks die from ingesting human solid waste products - here

Waste Management Single-Stream Recycling of West Virginia and Pennsylvania

Recology of San Francisco

TED - Charles Moore - the Great Pacific plastic trash island

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch


What I remember watching as a kid:

Keep America Beautiful (Crying Indian) Commercial


Some Modern commercials, public service reminders, and short clips:

Think Ecologically - Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

Return it! It's worth it!

What does it mean to be green? A book for 4 - 8 year olds (that adults should read as well).

The Little Earth Charter - Principle One Respect all living things

Bullying videos that have a different take than most

1. Maybe, bullying starts with the parents?... Check out this video from France. I usually do not like videos that model bad behavior for the ideas they may generate, this video takes the behaviors to such extremes. Watching adults acting like 10 year olds in front of their peers, is not as far from the truth as I thought (Google search - corporate bullying at work).

2. Watch a newscaster take on a viewer email that attacked her body type.

3. A Poem that reveals the life of a bullied teen. Live Version and Animated Version.

4. Maybe, just maybe, a bully is actually insecure and needs some time to explore his own struggle - from Key and Peele (mature language)

5. Strain. A Silent Film. 

6. Contemplate a world where people are judged by their sexual orientation from an early age. I wonder how early this starts. This is a great twist on the classic Twilight Zone, Eye of the Beholder episode from 1959.

7. Bully - animated short.