High school students face significant challenges with social media use during instructional time, a concern shared by educators, including teachers, paraeducators, and administrators. With social media access unblocked or lenient smartphone policies, we are losing precious minutes meant for learning. Even when a smartphone or device is out of sight, the cognitive hook for a digital distraction, luring a student away from the lesson, can take 23 minutes to recover. In short, we must protect instructional time. Protecting instructional time requires establishing clear boundaries with students, which may involve implementing or adopting new policies on 1:1 programs, device filtering, and hard stops on device use at night (among many ideas). This could also include guidelines for parental communication, especially when parents encourage their children to use social media to connect. Read more…

Sometimes, when unraveling a concern and offering solutions, we lose the forest for the trees. It’s easy to get caught up in details, and I’m guilty of this. Too much context can obscure an issue’s seemingly obvious conclusion or solution. For leaders and problem-solvers, the key is to present clear, concise recommendations upfront. If the minutiae become overwhelming, simplicity is often the best path forward.

A guiding principle I often return to is: Don’t check your passions at the door. However, not everyone shares the same passion for a particular issue. Many may lack the interest or the bandwidth to dive deep into problem identification and solution design. Read more…