Cell Phones in School Parent Letter

Hello Wonderful Staff, Parents, and Administration,

Here at Prospect Ridge Academy we are striving to create academic, social, and ethical leaders of our children. Because of this, we as teachers are always reflecting on new ways to teach our students that will better prepare them to be great leaders. I am trying something new in my class and I am very excited about all the possibilities introducing this new technology will bring.

We are going to be using the students’ personal cell phones for academic purposes at school. Cell phones are real world tools. All the learning we do in school is not supposed to stay at school. It is supposed to go out into the world with our students. As we work with cell phones in class, I hope the students will be able to apply their learning to the real world and use some of the skills we practice at school in their own lives. I also hope that they might see their cell phones as technology tools and resources; not just as a way to txt their BFFs. 

There are so many ways this kind of technology can be utilized by our students. Any phone with Internet access can be used to do research. We have some handheld devices and tablets at school, but there are never enough to go around. We can take pictures for projects on their phones, as well as take videos for presentations. Students can use phones to look up a word in the dictionary as they are reading, or check their spelling as they are writing. They can check their work in math with a calculator, or use a stopwatch to time a science experiment. Using phones at school will make it more accessible for students to text each other from home to do group work or check on homework assignments. The possibilities are endless!

I am absolutely aware of the risks to using this kind of technology in our school. The students and I will be having many in depth discussions about appropriate use of cell phones in the classroom. I will have them help create our class cell phone rules, and all students will sign them in the form of a contract, agreeing to the rules. Any infraction of the rules will result in loss of cell phone and technology privileges. I will also be contacting their parents in this situation. Whenever cell phones are being used in the classroom I will be closely monitoring the students to assure they are on task and using their technology appropriately.

Please feel free to email me with any questions or concerns you may have. I will keep you updated of how we are progressing in our cell phone beta test. I appreciate all of your support!

Christie Cutshall