Teachers attempt to limit distractions with 'Phone Home'

by Daniel Jacobs ’19 and Griffin Harrington ’19

Students leave their phones in designated spots in some classes to focus on academics. This article appears courtesy of The Peabody Press.
Several teachers in the USN community have adopted a system that allows students to become more focused in the classroom.

The “Phone Home” initiative was started by Mr. Haber at the beginning of the year, and serves as a place for students to leave their phones during class. Just above pockets for the cell phones, there is a picture of E.T. with the words “Phone Home” at the bottom of the picture.

“Basically, I created the Phone Home to stop students from shifting their attention elsewhere instead of in the classroom,” said Haber. “It wouldn’t be fair of me to expect students to be fully present...when their phones are constantly begging for their attention.”

Dr. Masullo adopted the Phone Home two weeks into the school year to maintain a level of focus within the classroom.

“The purpose of my Phone Home is to minimize the number of distractions the students encounter during instruction and listening time.”

But constant distractions are not the only reason Masullo decided to introduce the Phone Home. He said that phones can make people upset by reading one text or one email at the beginning of class, keeping them sad for the rest of the period. 

“It’s hard to watch, as a parent or a teacher [who] cares for the welfare of their students, as students experience the emotional roller coaster that technology can put you on sometimes. Technology often distracts a student’s mind from where it should be in the class and takes him or her to a place quite distressing for them.” 

Students, however, have mixed feelings about the system. Sophomore Eli Murphy, a student in Haber’s Western Civilizations class, thinks that although the Phone Home is mostly a good idea, there are some drawbacks. 

“If I want to work on a project and want to use my phone to quickly look up information from Google while not using my computer, I can’t use my phone like I can in other classes,” said Murphy.  

Murphy said that the Phone Home could be helpful in some classes but could also create negative consequences. 

“In math, for example, the only thing you will probably use your phone for is a calculator, but because you usually have a calculator, it’s unnecessary to have it anyway. But for a class like Western Civ, you might need the phone to look up dates or important people.” 

Sophomore Amara Payne also agrees that there are some downsides with the Phone Home.

“Sometimes the Phone Home is helpful, but there are times when it’s not. For example, I forgot my phone in the Phone Home. I didn’t realize it until later, and I started to freak out.”

Masullo recommends the Phone Home for any teacher trying to limit interruptions.

“If a teacher thinks this would be beneficial in their classroom, I encourage them to experiment,” he said.

“Something I want people to understand is this is not a punishment. This isn’t something I made because someone got in trouble.” 

The teachers who have created or adopted the Phone Home see results and enjoy using the system. Students, on the other hand, say that it is effective in some ways, but that the Phone Home does have some flaws.
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