How you can use your cell phone to get better grades
The year was 1999, and I had just been hired as a full-time high school biology teacher. As a reward for being hired I bought myself a gift, my first cell phone. I was excited that this would allow me to communicate with my friends and family from virtually anywhere. I justified the purchase since my classroom did not have a telephone and my salary increase would allow me to assume a few more monthly expenses. Last year my nephew got his first phone. He was 8 years old and it was his reward for being promoted from 3rd to 4th grade. Things have definitely changed in the last 12 years.
In 2010, the Pew Research Center published that 75% of youth ages 12 to 17 have a cell phone. This number has increased by 45% in 2004 and is probably more than three quarters of all students today. It won’t be long until every high school student in America is bringing their phone to school. Naturally, with so many students having access to cell phones, it makes sense that cell phones could be used to help students get better grades in school.
When students enter my classroom, they can look for announcements on the board. They can see their upcoming homework assignments as well as the dates of upcoming tests or projects. As part of my daily classroom routine, I pay attention to these assignments at the beginning of class and remind my students to write their assignments in a planner or notebook.
Every day I make my students write their homework. I walk around the class and ask students to show me what is written. A common problem is that many students often forget or lose the place where they wrote their homework for that night. Sometimes poor organizational skills cause students to misplace where their assignments were written. For other students, they have a separate notebook for each class and write their homework in various places.
A simple solution to this dilemma is for students to write their daily assignments on their phone. For a high school student, a phone is an essential possession that goes with them pretty much everywhere. While a student can leave a textbook or spiral notebook in a class and forget about it, he most likely won’t leave her phone.
Besides a student always having their phone with them, they use it constantly. The Pew Research Center found through its study that texting is the leading method of cell phone communication among teens. 88% of teen cell phone users text as a form of communication and 54% text daily. The typical high school user (14-17 years old) sends and receives 60 text messages a day.
The technology is now available for students to use a standard notepad feature on their phone and write on a continuous building list what their nightly homework is for each class. If your phone has a calendar option, upcoming tests and projects can also be written. With most phone calendars, there is an option to set reminders about upcoming events. This is so powerful for a student to get a 6:30 pm reminder as a cue that she needs to study for tomorrow’s math test.
If the student owns a smartphone (iPhone, Blackberry, Droid, or Palm), then the sky is the limit as to how their phone can help them keep track of all their assignments. While the specific apps available are unique to each phone, they all have a “To Do List” app that is either free or very inexpensive. Awesome Note, Cozi, Evernote, and Lister have received positive reviews. The key is to find one that is available for your phone and works well for you. Every day I write my “To Do List” with Lister on my Blackberry and categorize my entries as short term, this week, or priority. Then throughout the day, I check my list every time I use my phone to call, text, email, or even check Facebook. It keeps me focused and I add to the list or mark items as needed.
If you have an iPhone, I definitely recommend you check out the app called myHomework. It lets you set your class schedule, enter tasks and assignments, see upcoming assignments in the calendar feature, and even displays reminders when you open your phone. With the constant development of new apps, it’s only a matter of time before there are multiple apps available that specialize in organizing homework for all phones.
As we move into the 21st century, it is important that we take advantage of available technology to increase student achievement. Just as computers in school have gone from being a novelty to being a necessity, cell phones are showing that they can have a positive impact on student achievement. I encourage you (or your student for all parents reading this article) to educate the teachers at your school on why using a cell phone to keep track of homework is better than the old fashioned way of writing it down in a notebook. . Before long, I suspect that bringing your phone to school will be as accepted as bringing a pencil.