Smartphones out when school is in?

When there’s a discussion about smartphones in schools people generally fall into one of two groups. One, you think the benefits outweigh the negatives and you are happy for students to use phones at school and access them when required for learning, or two, you think they get in the way of learning and distract students constantly throughout the day.

Read how one school has banned their use and how the Speaker of the Upper House and former teacher Shelley Hancock is proposing a national ban in schools for smartphone devices.

“Since late 2016 Willoughby Girls has imposed restrictions on smartphone use. From the time students walk in the gate they are expected to switch off their phones and put them in their pockets, where they must be left until they walk out the gates at the end of classes.” Sydney Morning Herald, 17 March, 2018

To read the full article click on the link below.

Smartphones out when school is in

‘To This Day’ by Shane Koyczan

A powerful TED talk by poet Shane Koyczan about growing up, life, finding identity and bullying. It includes his poem “To This Day”. Well worth the 12 minutes and five seconds of your life.

The second video below is Shane’s poem “To This Day” put to animation. This video is a bit shorter (7 minutes 37 secs) as it is only the poem. If you wanted to do something around bullying with students this video is very powerful and could be a great discussion point.