Andrew Kessel

Hr. 1
Mr. Geist
19th of February, 2016
The use of Cell phones within School
Technology is surrounding the world today, it is used in every aspect including
hospitals, office buildings, and fire departments, even in schools. Mostly involving
schools, students should be allowed to use their cell phones in school, as they are a part
of their generation today. With different supporting arguments, people could easily say
that there is no need to ban the use of cell phones in schools, they can help in many
different ways. By keeping our community updated with all the new technologies out
there will help make a more useful point to all of these new gadgets, especially in
schools.

Knowing that many people own a cell phone and that cell phones can be used for
many different, countless things feel that the use of cell phones should be allowed. In
class there are not always enough calculators for every student to use, most likely every
student in the room will have a cell phone, and on that cell phone there is always a
calculator, allowing the use of these phones for school use they can then lower the
districts budget now being able to subtract calculators. Not only can students use their
phones for tools, they can also use educational tools to help them learn online. As said by
Maddie Rossi; "Teachers use technology as an aid to classroom learning. I've seen
students use smartphones to look up information, take notes, take pictures of PowerPoint
slides or check online dictionaries in an English or foreign language class. Some of my
teachers have even designed class activities that use cellphones, such as a game where
students text their answers to review questions to a website. Cell phones can really be
helpful, even within the school policies. Every phone has either a memo pad or a notepad,

in schools they give each student an assignment book which is supposed to be used
throughout the school year to write down their school assignments and work needed to be
completed. In this world today every teenage student has their cell phone steady on hand
which their school assignment book should be, but are not. In this case if students could
have their cell phones in class they could put their work into their cell phones with an
alarm and never miss an assignment due.
Teachers should give their students a certain amount of time to put their
assignments in their phones so they will only be able to use their phones for school
related things. Parents are starting to shift their views on the school policies, and they are
saying that they should have the right to their cell phones. Josh Higgins, a journalist,
talked to a few local parents in Chicago. Most of the parents had the same idea; "As a
parent, I can see parents pushing for it when you think of the shootings that happen," she
said. "However, with youth, (having a phone) is a very natural part of their ecosystem. It
doesn't make sense to close that opportunity for them when they go to school." She said
parents and teachers are realizing educational value of mobile phones, as new features
have made these devices relevant to education. "Most people are now coming to school
with a computer in their pocket," Higgins said.
By giving students a limited time on their phones, it therefore restricts the usage
of the cell phones, and they cant just have it out blatantly whenever they want to have it
out. During class the teacher may ask the students to research something, while taking the
whole class down to the library would take too long, many students have internet access
on their cell phones which could be used at the tip of their fingers. This would save time
and would allow the teachers more time to teach. The camera devices on the cell phones
can come in handy also, if a student is absent a friend can take a picture of their work and
send it to their friend to keep him/her updated with missing work. This would of course
have to be permitted by the teacher, to make sure it is not considered cheating. This

would be for class notes or something, not an assignment for a grade.

There will always be problems with cheating on tests, although to solve this problem
since the teacher already knows that every student has a cell phone, the students would
have to take their cell phones out, turn them off and place them on the corner of their
desks during test time. The use of cell phones in school may take away the students urge
to use them, which would than create a better learning place for these students. This
would relieve the stress of the teachers, as well as the students, because since they are not
allowed to use, they are not as tempted to do go on their phones. There is a school that
has a fair set cell phone policy, that has restrictions for phones, but students still get to
use them. A journalist, Sonja Sharp, interviewed a school chancellor, and asked about
their successful cell phone policy. The chancellor said, Schools, in drafting their own
rules, could allow students to use phones only during certain times and in certain
locations. If schools don't devise a system, the default policy would let students bring
cellphones into the building, but require them to be stored out of sight during the
academic day. All cellphones will be prohibited during exams. This would completely
get rid of the fact that there would be cheating with cell phones in school. People
shouldnt worry about the cell phones being a cheating advocate.
People or teachers might be against cell phones, as they seem as if they could be
or are a distraction. These people think if that the students are allowed to have their
phones, they will always be on them, and they wont do any work, since they are glued to
this cell phone. But, this could easily be countered. Teachers could easily enforce their
own policies about the cell phones. For example, you could use your phone during class
to take notes, write down due dates, etc... But when it comes to a test or quiz, as done
with some teachers at Blue Valley West High school, students must put your phone inside
of a pocket. This prevents stress of the usage of cell phone during a test or quiz.
In conclusion, cell phones could be a good thing, and should be allowed in all

schools for the use of different purposes. Those purposes being for education, their divine
right to have it, but also with restrictions. Although there could and should be restrictions
of the use of phones, they should at the least, let the students use their cell phones for
educational purposes. It would be an overall better environment for the children/students
at the school. Technology is a part of this generation now, and kids should be able to live
with the different types of technology coming out, within school grounds. If communities
dont start using technology soon, they will start to fall behind, and they could never
appreciate technology, as they never really coped with it. There are so many educational
activities on the internet that could be used, for school and other reasons. We should use
the internet more often, rather than printing out 135 worksheets.
Grading
Criteria
Description
Points
Content
Clear argument about social issue 0
10
20
30
40 =
and Ideas
Support uses
ethos
30/40 Aakash need to show more
logos
pathos, maybe in argument paragraph.
pathos
30/40 Alex K - what Aakash said, also
4 or more credible sources used
support your arguments.
Antithesis addressed and refuted
/40 Self grade
Organizati
Effective introduction and
0
10
20
30
=
on
conclusion include hook, thesis,
and final statement
20/30 Aakash - try to organize
3 organized paragraphs include
paragraphs based on outline.
claims, explanations, and
30/30 Alex K- looks good, well
transitions
organized.
Sequence is logical
/30 Self grade
Diction/
Writing is all in 3rd person
0
5 10
15
=
Syntax/
Quotations are embedded and
Conventio
properly cited within the essay
15/15 Aakash - write a comment
ns
0-3 Errors in grammatical
15/15 Alex K - write a comment
structure
/15 Self grade
Publicatio
n/
Appearanc
e

Creative title/rough draft ready on

editing day 2/16-17
Proper MLA formatting; heading
that includes student name,
instructors name, class, and date
Works cited page is appended.

10

15

10/15 Aakash Sauji need work cited

page
10/15 Alex K - need to cite your
sources
/15 Self grade