Yesterday, I had a student *gasp* who probably had their cell phone with them. I think it was hidden in the front pocket of his hooded sweatshirt. We have a no cell phone policy at school and have tried to enforce this in all classes. The way the student was sitting and the way he kept his hand in his pocket I was pretty sure it was there. But no matter what angle I stood, no matter how many conversations/excuses I could come up with to try to catch him with it, I couldn’t catch him in the act of sending a text message.
I tried “sorting books” behind his desk. I would shoot quick glances his way to catch him when he thought I wasn’t paying attention. I tried helping others around him to try to get a better angle. Nothing worked.
About halfway through class I took a breath and thought for a moment. At that point I had spent 30 minutes of class worrying if a student may or may not have had a cell phone. He was getting his work done and wasn’t distracting anyone in class. He even asked a few clarification questions on his assignment. Ultimately, I was so focused on “catching him” that I was missing out on all of the other things going on in class.
As someone who tends to always try to follow the rules and gets frustrated when others don’t, it’s easy for me to get caught up in being the rule enforcer. I get on these kicks where I want to ensure that everyone is doing the right thing 100% of the time, and if they don’t they should have consequences. But that misses the point of education. My job is to create an environment where students can learn, grow, and thrive. Do I hope all students follow the rules all of the time? Of course. But I don’t want to sacrifice learning by devoting all of my energy into catching kids doing something wrong.
If I catch a kid breaking a rule I’ll enforce it, but I’m not going to spend precious time and resources on gotchas.
