You walk into class and you’re 1 minute early so you take out all of your supplies. You notice the teacher isn’t fully prepared yet so you take out your phone for a quick second and check your text messages.

5 minutes later, the teacher eventually calls your name and you’re astonished to realize that your phone has taken up your concentration, and your teacher is asking you a question that you don’t know the answer to! You look around and you see all your classmates staring at you. You feel completely embarrassed so you shout out an answer that someone whispered into your ear. Thankfully, it was the right one.

You turned your phone off and you are ready to pay attention but as  you look to your right, your friend takes out his  to listen music you tell yourself  “ would never make that same mistake again.”

Phones can be a big distraction in class and in life. And the class periods become too long which result in students having no other choice than to use their phones. Phones can be a very distracting device in any classroom at the iSchool.

Ms. Coughlin, a 9th grade English Teacher does a great job at trying to keep the whole class focused on the assignment.Ms. Coughlin felt very passionate about having students being focused.  “99% of the time taking away a phone prevents distraction.”.  “I think it is important that there must be trust (between the student and the teacher) that they will get there phone back.”

Mr. Borg a computer teacher is a believer of no cell phone usage during the Silent Commons. He reminds all of his students every day that the Silent Commons is where you can sit and actually finish your assignment. He believes that phones should not have any involvement during your schoolwork. He states, “Because these devices are designed to grab your attention. And this is the last place you need it to.” He continues on to say,  “A teacher provides structure that you might not have freshmen year. But when you are an upper classmate, you should know this.”

Freshman Coltrane Cho believes that having a phone in class isn’t the best idea. He stated, “ I never have my phone out in any class. I don’t really think it worth getting in trouble.” Coltrane like  other students does not believe in using his phone in class.  He thinks using phones are a waste of time in general. He continued on to say that “Students would get distracted no matter what you take away from them, it’s a personal thing but I think phones are the biggest problem.”

Selina Li, who is a sophomore at the iSchool, believes that phones are a necessity in our digital lives. She states, “You can’t blame us if we’re using our phone we’re really bored.” Selina believes that it is hard to not use your phone when the class isn’t boring. Majority of the time, many classes are very boring, and as a result is that students go to the bathroom for a long period of time and use their phones. Selina feels that teachers should compromise with students that always take out their phone.
Phones can be a distraction in class. Students should be responsible, and they should know when an appropriate time is to take out their phones.