The Evils of the Call Button Part 1

One of Jonnie’s posts  shows the good side of the call button. When you’re only going to be in a classroom for a day, the call button can be a life saver, but, in long-term situations, the call button is a black hole of trouble from which there is no return.I learned that through a series of very bad experiences.

I went into my second long-term sub position knowing it was temporary but indefinite. The high school English teacher had had a medical emergency at the very beginning of the year and was recovering from surgery. Most of the students had never met her. I was the only teacher they could associate that class with but, at the same time, not the real teacher. I knew it. They knew it. Their parents knew it. I did the best I could do, but I admit, it was a disaster.

I did try though, and part of trying was reading all the rules and procedures I could. I had learned that lesson from my first long-term job.  One of the procedures I found was the school-wide policy on teachers responding to cell phone usage in class. I was impressed that there was a school-wide plan  posted on the wall for everyone to see. Hallelujah!

The instructions were easy:

1.       When a teacher sees a student using an electronic device such as a phone, MP3 Player , or electronic tablet of any kind, he/she will collect the device from the student.

2.       The teacher will then label the device with the student’s name and place it in a secure place.

3.       The teacher will then call the front office using the call button and an available adminstrator will come to the class and collect the device.

The first time a student’s device is collected, he/she may reclaim it at the front office upon dismissal. For all subsequent offenses, his/her parent/guardian will need to claim it at the front office and further disciplinary actions will be taken.

Sounds good.

So, shortly after I found this, I caught a student blatantly using his iPhone during class in the last class of the day. I walked over and demanded he give me the phone. He gave it to me but he protested loudly, attracting the whole class’s attention.

I hit the call button.

I heard the clerk in the front office answer.

“Yes, how may I help you?”

“I’m in Mrs. Schulemann’s class and  I need an administrator to collect a phone.”

There was a suspicious pause on the other end of the intercom. I tried to save face.

Please tell me she knows what I’m talking about. The employees of a school don’t always know  or follow the published policies, but those policies are usually my only chance at appearing as knowledgeable as the other teachers.

“Um, ok. I’ll let them know.”

“Ok, thank you.”

The boy I took the phone from still looked shocked, but the other students started arguing. Some laughed and said teachers never did that anymore. Others swore vehemently that it happened to them all the time.

Oh Lord, help me.

Surely enough, a few minutes later, there was a beep from the intercom. This time I recognized the assistant principal’s voice.

“Ms. Gregory?”

“Yes?”

“ You can give the phone back to the student. I’ll come talk to you about it right after the bell rings.”

NO! Come get the stupid phone! Don’t you realize what you’re doing?

“Ok. Thank you.”

I gave the phone back to chants of “Yeah! That’s right!” from the rest of the class. Face lost.

The bell rang shortly after that, dismissing the students for the end of the day. I sat there  ten minutes waiting for the assistant principal to come talk to me about the phone incident, but she never came. She wasn’t in her office when I checked there either.

I figured it was a case of an over-zealous substitute trying to follow antiquated rules that the rest of the school had long ago forgotten but had never officially taken off the books. It happens.

However, the next morning in the hall I passed a non-teaching faculty member, (I call her that because I don’t know what the heck her job is) and she asked me how things were going with the class. I gave her as generic an answer as I could; it’s a hard situation but I’m hanging in there, blah blah, blah.

(Side note: My fiance and I went to the same elementary school, and this woman worked there at the time. Neither of us liked her then either. She doesn’t remember us.)

Then she asked, “ And you had a cell phone or something at the end of the day yesterday?” as if she was confused and concerned.

“Yeah, I did. I took it up and called the office for them to come get it.”

Her voice grew very cheery, but she suddenly became very interested in the wall. “Yep! That’s what you do!”

Could’ve fooled me! Heehee!

Later on in this little adventure I passed an administrator coming out of a classroom carrying a plastic baggy with a labelled cell phone in it.

Now on my Christmas list

You see, the problem with the call button is that when you use it, you transfer classroom leadership from yourself to the school administrators. This can sometimes work, but you take a lot of risk doing it. In this case, I ran the risk of being directly contradicted in front of students who already had little motivation to follow me. 

~Kelli 

P.S. I believe smart phones and other similar technology could be used productively in class for several reasons, but I was following school policy and another teacher's lesson plans.