Teacher Leaders is a program sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers that seeks out to group instructors that are willing to research a topic within the world of education that urges attention.
The goal is to bring these important matters to light, introduce them backed with data, findings and recommendations and finally ACTION.
My topic? Why do Smartphones merit separate NYC DOE regulation?
A survey was sent to ALL stakeholders in our school communities.
PARENTS – STAFF and the most important one, STUDENTS
The survey asked multiple questions about Smartphones in the classroom.
Although some of the answers were expected – 100% of all respondents stated YES, I own a smartphone, others were surprising. POSITIVE activity is at a HIGHER RATE than NEGATIVE ones experienced by students, over 50% of all students.
This is sigh of relief for all us that worry incessantly about how smartphones are and will continue to affect our children emotionally.
My ultimate goal was to bring attention to:
SMARTPHONES HAVE TRANSITIONED FROM TREND TO ESSENTIAL NECESSITY.
From a lifeline from parent to child, to a storage device that holds your life’s moments in sometimes unsaved images, to digital currency that has the power to replace your actual wallet and be used to pay for items with a single tap, all of these things are just a few capabilities of today’s phone.
Long gone are the day’s when we used them to just ‘TALK’; today we experience ANXIETY if we don’t have them near and in too many cases, it’s the last thing we see before we go to sleep, not our children, not our loved ones that may sleep beside us….. it’s a smartphone.
We know it’s importance.. now we need legislation to establish it.
After all of the hard work completed by myself and my colleagues in this cohort, I am reminded of the purposeful work we are dedicated to and more importantly WHO we do it for, our students.
Thank you to all that participated in my project’s journey.. students, parents and staff that offered data.
The administrators at Fashion High that gave support and guidance, and made my research possible.
And finally my external support system, friends, family, my partner John Gaffney and my therapist.. I can today, because you exist.