All posts in Professional Development

Educators, as a collective of teachers, paraeducators and administrators, face significant challenges with high school students using social media during instructional time. With social media access unblocked or lenient cell phone 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 around 1:1 programs, filtering on the device, and more. This could further include guidelines for parental communication, especially in cases where parents encourage using social media to connect with their children. Read more…