School vs Cellphones! A Parental Battle

Have you ever questioned your decision to let your child take a cell phone to school or wonder whether it is affecting their academic performance? Well I have some information you may want to consider prior to unleashing your kids into the wild wild west of hand held chaos. Here we go!

Now onto the business of cell phones and school! There may be a great deal of information that allows you to think that your child needs a cell phone. All those educational tech options are great but let's be real! There are only a handful of kids that are choosing Reading IQ over Roblox! Despite what you think you know about your kids cell phone usage you don’t know untl you know. Now power parents I’m not here to judge. It is extremely difficult to hear your kid cry because they are the only ones without a cell phone. Plus there are so many safety aspects like location tracking that will give you a piece of mind especially if your kid is involved in after school activities. So I am bringing you this information with the understanding that almost half of the country gives their kid their own cell phone around the ripe old age of 11. Even though we like to convince ourselves that we do this with the best intentions in mind, there are things we must keep in mind as we release our kids to school with their cell phones. A recent survey shows that the kids spend most of their cell phone time playing games and watching tv or movies. The category in which they were least engaged was homework.(sellcell.com) As kids become teens then enter the realm of social media which gives them more reasons to obsess over their phones and not their school work. As a teacher with 10 years of experience I have witnessed how both helpful and harmful these devices can be. Trust me I have witnessed first hand some of the seemingly addictive behavior students have when interacting with their phone. It's not pretty! However as always as parents have the ability to tip the scales regarding the possible damage that can be done when these devices travel to school with our kids. When we weigh how much time a student is using their cell phone for academic achievement versus pleasure the decision to limit access during school is a no brainer.

There are two main reasons why Power Parents would want to limit their kids cell phone use at s

chool. The first is that it adds a major distraction throughout the day. If you think that your kid has the superhuman ability to avoid such distractions in school ask yourself how often you sneak to take out your phone when you shouldn't… I’ll wait. Exactly! When students have access to games, messaging and social media during instructional time it will lead to lapse in learning which

will ultimately cause a student to fall behind in school. Once a kid receives a notification on their phone they are completely distracted. Now the only thing on their mind is how can I pull out my phone without getting caught. The other reason is that many students are dealing with negative affects on their mental health as a result of excessive cell phone use. Studies are continuously showing that the rates of depression, social isolation, anxiety, low self esteem and suicidal thoughts are directly correlated to the use of social media. This is pretty scary knowing that our kids spend a lot of time concerning themselves with how many likes a post will get. Despite these issues parents are thinking that a cell phone will lead their kid to being the next academic wiz! So what can power parents do to help safeguard some of the negative effects that can arise during excessive cell phone use while still allowing their child to take their cell phone to school . I have some tips that can help you help your kids steer clear of some of these problems.

Tip number 1: Research the different parent controls for your kids cell phones. Did you know that all major cellphone carriers like AT&T Verizon and T-Mobile offer free parental controls options with their plans. The options can be but not limited to restricting data and wifi usage during certain hours. You can also ban certain websites during these hours as well. So let's just say you want to allow Kahoot or quizlet, which are popular educational sites but want to ban snapchat and instagram you can do that. Just speak with your plan provider today to get more information.

Tip number 2: Speak with your kids' teacher to gain more insight into what educational apps are actually being used during school hours where phones are necessary. I am confident that there are not many that actually require a cell phone. The absolute majority of tech teachers “require” will be able to be accessed from a school computer or laptop. Speaking with the teacher opposed to just asking your kid will provide more clarity on technology use.Plus the more you know the better you will be prepared going into the next step.

Tip #3: Develop a technology plan with your kid! This may be quite tricky but don’t worry there is power in including your kid in deciding their own boundaries for cell phone use. It is important to share with them your monitoring ability as this will build trust in the beginning opposed to breaking it if they find out that you have snooped later on. Asking and using your kids input on how they use the phone during school will empower them by elevating their voice and opinion. Kids have a better chance of following the guidelines they themselves help set. Comment below if you want more information on how to set up these conversations.

Well that’s it for now. If you remember anything, Power parents is that you are ultimately in control of the cell phone. Despite what the tech giants tell us, cell phones are a privilege not a necessity. . Know that our kids are still developing and learning how to self-regulate and make their own decisions. By completely disengaging from the decision on cell phone usage in school you are running the risk dealing with the negative consequences that can occur when power parents take their hands off the reins too soon!. so that's it I hope you enjoyed this video make sure you like And subscribe for more content and as always love your kids and remember Smart Starts at home.