I look forward to staying connected as we try to figure out this next chapter in screens and education. I have 100% the same struggles in my teaching. I find that the moment the task becomes difficult is the moment the phone, reflexively, comes out. The phone is a refuge from productive struggle, the thing I value most as a teacher. My observation has been that the phone is more damaging to students who have had less success in school in general. A horrible negative feedback loop.

I have taken the opposite approach and told students I won’t take their phones because they (and I) need to learn to deal with them. We have had a significant amount of violence on campus this year and it is always recorded by students running after their phones towards the fight, it is always created by students running after clout on their phones before the fight. I don’t have a lot of confidence that my way is right it just fits better into the gravity of my classroom.