Photo Credit: CAROLINA MARTINEZ
BY VIRGINIA PENIAS
Teachers at Cooper City High School have begun collecting students cell phones during class to avoid the distractions they pose.
For many students today, phones are no longer just used to talk. These practical devices can call, text, surf the web, send e-mails, take pictures and videos, use social media, and much more. But, like many things, with the good comes the bad and some students have used phones for cheating, cyberbullying, or just as an overall distraction from schoolwork. To combat this, Cooper City High School’s teachers have been coming up with their own ways to crack down on the cell phone usage in class.
“I don’t think students should have their phones out in class; I think it’s a distraction,” CCHS Film Teacher Janessa Puig said. “They focus less on what they’re supposed to do and it is detrimental to their education.”
Puig is very strict when it comes to cell phone usage in class. She believes that students are too attached and too dependent on their phones. As a teacher, she warns her students to keep phones away and out of sight so that she doesn’t have to take them away.
“It’s okay to unplug yourself from whatever else you’re doing and to just focus on one thing, but with your phones out, it makes doing that harder,” Puig said. “I always stay with my word, and when I see phones being used in my class, I take them away because I want my students to know that I’m the type of person who means what I say.”
Another teacher who has become well known for her cell phone policy is Gloria Perez, a Spanish teacher at CCHS. Many students adore Ms. Perez’ system because it keeps them engaged and focused in class, as well as providing opportunities for them to raise their grades.
“Five years ago, I started giving students the option to put their phones in a bin in the beginning of class, and every once in a while I would reward the students who put their phones away with extra credit,” Perez said. “Now, each quarter, I give these students 25 extra points for completing this simple task.”
She has designed this system to help students resist the temptation to check their phone during instructional time. However, if a student refuses to put their phone in the bin and takes it out during class time, Ms. Perez does not hesitate to take it away and enforce the Broward County policy.
“Students always ask me when I will be checking the phone bin and handing out the points,” Perez said. “ I know they really like this easy grade-boosting system.”
Rules vary with different teachers, and they each have their own pet peeves. But for some clever teachers who don’t like seeing phones out in class, implementing new plans has helped to abolish phone usage during instructional time in their classrooms.
