By Katie Durkin
I have been teaching for the past decade, and while I don’t always think about it, so much has changed for my middle school students during that time.
We’ve lived through international conflicts, a pandemic, and vast changes in technology. It is these changes in technology that have drastically altered the lives of adolescents, specifically middle school students.
With the introduction of smartphones and social media in the early 2000s and 2010s, the way in which students grow up and learn is decidedly different than in the past. Many of these technological advancements have found their way into middle school halls and classrooms, with students bringing their smartphones to school and then using them – either overtly or sneakily – throughout the day.
In the past, like many teachers, I have been policing these phones, often confiscating them when students are supposed to be focusing on their studies in academic classes.
But this year has been completely different.
It was announced at the beginning of school that our building would be going phone-free, meaning students would not be allowed to have their cellphones or smartwatches on their person or in their backpacks as they experienced their school day. As I write this at the end of first semester, I have already noticed a huge positive difference.
I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out why going phone-free has been so successful in our middle school space. Based on my reflection, there are three things that I’ve noticed about student life that I think are worth sharing that have led to our successful implementation.
1. Starting the year off strong
School leaders across the district had read the book The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt and were struck by his evidence and his recommendation for schools to be phone-free. Based on this research, the district administration decided that all of our schools would become phone-free zones. When our school and teacher leaders met as a leadership team in August, the plan to become a phone-free school was introduced.
Students and parents were informed of this policy before the school year started and knew that on the first day of school the expectation would be for the cell phones and smartwatches to be placed in lockers at the very beginning of the school day.
The administration also reviewed with students and parents how they could stay in contact with each other during the day, which included leaving messages with the front office or using the school phones to call home as needed.
The first day of school arrived and all the students already knew the expectation. To date, students have not needed any reminders to place their cell phones in their lockers at the beginning of the day.
2. Having a plan in place for discipline
With the implementation of the phone-free policy came a need for disciplinary action if a student violated the policy. I think having a plan for discipline from the start was another major factor in what has made the rollout of this new policy so successful.
Besides creating the expectation of cellphones being in the lockers on the first day of school, the administration also communicated a clear plan of action if students violated the new policy. This plan can be summed up as a “three-strikes, you’re out” approach.
The first offense for students being on their cell phone is a warning from the teachers to put it away in their locker. The second time they’re on their cell phones, students need to be sent to the office and their names are logged into the system as having been caught with their phones (the cell phone is then confiscated until the end of the day).
The third violation requires the students to once again go to the office and log their name into the system; the phone is confiscated again. However, this third time a parent or guardian is required to come to the school to pick up the cell phone and discuss our policy with school leaders.
As of now, I have not had any of my 7th graders commit even a first offense.
3. Modeling responsible use
The final major factor in our successful rollout has been the adults in the building modeling responsible use of cell phones. While teachers are still allowed to have their cell phones out on their desk, they are expected to not use it during the day unless there is an emergency.
One day, I did have a family emergency, and I couldn’t imagine having my phone on silent the whole day, not knowing when I could get updates. In the past, I would have just left my phone on my desk with the ringer on, but I wanted to make sure I was modeling responsible phone use with my students. Plus, I didn’t want them saying that one of their teachers was allowed to use their phone when they weren’t.
So that day I decided to be totally honest with them. I let them know that I was turning the ringer on my phone because of a family emergency and that if they saw me on my phone it was because I was checking for updates.
My students were very understanding – to the point that the next day (when everything had been resolved) many of them were asking politely if all was okay. I think the students now know that if they ever see me with my cell phone, there is a significant reason why.
The emergency argument
Some of the rhetoric that I’ve heard around students having access to devices has been that they would need them in case of an emergency. Some parents argue that they would like to have a way to contact their child at all times. I’ve thought about this as well. The counter-argument is that if students do have constant access to parents in an emergency, it could result in misinformation.
We have established a system in our schools so that if there is a serious emergency, emails and texts will be sent out to parents with a consistent message. In other cases, students have learned that if they want to contact their parents all they need to do is ask to use the school phones. They’ve adapted to this system very quickly and are always very respectful when asking to use a school phone to contact home.
What does the future hold?
Even with all of this success, I am curious to see what the future holds with phone-free schools. Yes, we have found the implementation in our relatively small four-school system to be seamless, but I am sure that other schools and districts have tried and not met with this level of success.
I believe the cooperation between the teachers, parents, administration, and students in our district has been key to the smooth transition to phone-free classrooms. I’m hopeful that being a phone-free school will prove to have a direct, positive impact on academic success this year and in years to come, and that we will all learn that we can balance our lives with new technologies and the responsibilities that come with being students and educators.
Dr. Katie Durkin (@kmerz610) has been teaching middle school students for over a decade, and currently teaches English Language Arts at public Middlebrook School (6-8) in Wilton, Connecticut, where she is the 7th Grade Team Leader.
Katie is a zealous reader of middle grade and young adult books and enjoys sharing her love and passion for reading with her students. In 2022 she earned her doctorate from Northeastern University, where her dissertation research examined the impact of classroom libraries on middle school students’ reading engagement.
Katie was the 2020 recipient of the Edwyna Wheadon Postgraduate Training Scholarship from the NCTE. She writes regularly for MiddleWeb and in early 2023 launched a two-teacher podcast, That’s Novel Reading.
