Parenting Alert

Parenting Alert!

Without a doubt my school is in stage one, “Control by Authority”. I talked about how I can go into a classroom and the message on the board or the teacher is stating for them to put their ipads face down. We have rules in place for students about using and not using their ipads at certain times or in certain areas of the school. We have consequences for students who do not “play” by the rules, by removing their games from their portal. However, I agree even with all of these things, if the student still wants to really play an Internet game, or surf the web, draw in an app, or check email, it can be done.

I believe that self-discipline is a learned skill. It is not just a school skill it is a life skill. So parents we NEED you. Teach your children how to be self-disciplined starting at a young age. Helping them understand the concept of self-discipline and restraint will get them ahead in life. Self-discipline is a required skill when trying to prioritize. Knowing when you can be a little lacks and when you really need to buckle down and get to work, all play a part in how much you let yourself be distracted. We really are asking a great deal from middle school students when we put the technology in their hands, tell them to stay on task, and don't really teach them about self-discipline and prioritizing.

My first reaction to the idea of the Freedom program is “wow, that is really bad that adults need to lock themselves out of the Internet to stay off of it.” In my opinion this really goes back to how you control yourself. If you can't control yourself as an adult then you need more help than an app, it is reaching addiction level, which is always scary. As for technology control in our school system we have guided access which is a built in feature within the ipad. We block certain websites like any other school, but we don't have anything else at this time that works on the ipads. I did like the idea of the “eyes on the teacher” app. We have “Vision” for our computer labs, but there is not an equivalent program for the ipads at this time that I am aware of. I think a better way of engaging the students would be to use a program like Nearpod where the teacher presents to the students and the students ipad is also displaying the presentation. The slides are controlled by the teacher and the teacher is made aware if the student leaves the presentation.

To wrap up all these thoughts, we need to work with the technology not try to fight it because I do believe we will lose every time. So we need to use it to our advantage by using apps like Nearpod or a guided access when necessary. Must importantly we need to teach the importance of self-discipline and prioritizing. However, this is a monumental task if left until middle school. We need the parents to step up and start this life skill at a young age. It will pay off more than they will ever know.