Texting in Class: 7 Easy Steps... (Just kidding, but oh-my-goodness, there are so many Wikihows on this topic)

This past Friday I spent my day subbing, and it was fantastic. Why it was fantastic is quite a mystery to me, as 1) It was Friday, 2) It was Valentine's Day, and 3) The kids had a sub, for goodness sakes'. Everyone (okay, almost everyone) was very much on-task and well-behaved, except for the last class of the day, when I had to emergency-sub for another teacher at the school who had to leave at the last minute. Since he was unable to create a sub plan, and the students had finished the last task he had given them, he was left with basically no choice but to equip me with the only two DVDs he had on hand at the time (A Knight's Tale and The Day After Tomorrow), and instructions to allow his 20 students to choose which one they would be watching while I subbed. This made for an easy instructional day, but a not-so-easy management day. 

This particular school has chosen to embrace technology in the classroom, and because of this, students are allowed access to their phones at all times. During the movie, I looked out across the classroom and what I saw was that about 80% of students were engaged... with their cell phones. And I sat back and thought to myself, well, what am I gonna do? On what grounds could I ask the students to put their phones away? It's not like they were missing out on valuable instruction. But it just felt wrong, somehow. All this texting and gaming in class. So I decided that tonight I would take to my own technological device and investigate this texting-in-class issue.

So, in case you are feeling a little slow today, and because I like routines, this post's topic is:

1. Texting in Class

1. TEXTING IN CLASS
So my investigation all began with an article called "Tough Questions on Texting in the Classroom," which actually focused on University Marketing students, but the concepts discussed could be related back to high-schoolers. It brought up a great point about how terrible humans are at multi-tasking, and how, if students are texting while trying to listen to their teacher AND take notes, they are definitely doing a poor job at two of these things... and my money is on listening to their teacher and taking notes (teens are, after all, rather social creatures).  I decided I needed to learn more.

My search took me to a website called Edutopia, and a topic called "Texting in the Classroom: Not Just a Distraction." According to this website's stats (taken from a Nielson survey in 2010 - which means that these numbers will have likely risen substantially since), people between the ages of 13-17 send an average of 3339 text messages per month. This means that teachers are, without a doubt, going to have to face the issue of texting in class, especially in schools which permit personal devices in the classroom.

As I continued to read this Edutopia article, I thought of my Friday subbing experience. I thought of the lack of engagement, and the tidal wave of texting, brought on by the movie students were expected to watch, and I realized two things: 1) Texting in the classroom is inevitable and so, rather than waste time scolding students for doing so, and taking personal devices away, I need to focus my energy on teaching students under which circumstances it is appropriate, and non-detrimental to do so, and 2) Texting occurs not out of a lack of respect for the teacher (I had taught the kids I subbed for before and have established good relationships with them), but out of boredom, or a student's belief that what they are learning in class is not important enough to listen to. So as a teacher, to combat texting in classroom, I need to make sure that my lessons include information and activities that my students either won't want to miss, or can't afford to miss. 

While I've adopted the approach of working with texting (because I believe it is inevitable, and it is the future of communication - I mean, I text during class too, simply because I am very busy, and there are times when I really do need to communicate with someone), I'm sure many other teachers (modern and traditional alike) have not, and likely for good reason. I would like to hear the other side of the story, if anyone would like to share! I would also like to know if teachers can be held liable for any inappropriate text messages that are sent out during their classes (I feel as though this would be out of the teacher's control, but I am just a lowly educator).

As always, thank you for reading.