Fighting fire with illegal fire
We're on our own here in HISD. No one wants to enforce discipline around these parts. In fact, we even have a picture of our superintendent, Terry Grier, visiting with a student in a school and the student has ear buds around his neck. (Quick tip to Dr. Grier: If the student has ear buds around their neck, those ear buds are USUALLY attached to electronics, which AREN'T allowed in schools. Just sayin').
So, what are we as teachers to do when we look out over a classroom and see only the tops of our students' heads as they text/play video games/FB---whatever they feel like doing that moment instead of class work?
We buy illegal cell phone blockers (totally banned by the FCC) from other countries for around $30. And they work. They stop the kids from staring continously at their cell phone screens. But then there's a chorus of complaints from the students---they know all about the blockers and complain VERY LOUDLY when they can't do what they want to do. AND they are quiet when entranced with their cell phones.
What's a teacher to do? Then again, we are lucky to teach in a low income school because they tend to have old cell phones. The students who have managed to upgrade/steal/spend all their money on a Blackberry/Smart Phone and other advanced wireless devices require an upgrade in wireless blocking technology of around $150 or more.
And that's above most teachers' pay scale and budget. Then again, it would be *nice* if our superintendent would stoop to getting on the students and parents and tell them to just STOP IT!!! After all, we pay him enough money and he's ineffective---just think how happy we would be if we gave him that same amount and he was effective.