Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Troll_Bait]

Students, rights groups upset about phone confiscations

[Ekuboko]

At my school, the homeroom teacher collects students' phones in the morning and gives them back after school. I think this is a good system. Of course there are always the odd kid that doesn't hand theirs in.

I caught a girl on Friday using a cell phone in class. She came to me after school expecting to get it back. I know that my school's rule is one week, so I told her if she had a problem, she could talk to my co-T. The funniest thing is that she was whining about how it's her sister's phone (even better!) and 20mins later she even tried to trade that phone with another one for me to keep for the week!

[mrsquirrel]

Get them to take the battery out.

you don't want 500,000W of phone sitting in your desk.

Batteries are easier to keep as well.

[bosintang]

I think a teacher should have the right to confiscate the cellphone, but they should not be reading the students information on the phones, text messages, or otherwise. That goes overboard.

[mrsquirrel]

At my old school in Thailand kids were allowed to do what they wanted with cell phones until some boys (including the VP's son ) decided to make dirty movies behind the school.

The girls mother complained and threatened to go to the newspapers about how the school couldn't control it's kids (which was true - however I don't think she thought about dragging her slutty daughters name through the mud)

Principal decided that it was a good idea to hold students phones in the morning until the end of the day. Never really worked though. Kids just lied or handed in old cellphones so that they could keep theirs to use.

[Harpeau]

I guess it's a little different in universities. Myself, my policy is that they must put their phones on buzz. If their phone rings, then they have 20 seconds or less to answer and check to see if it's an emergency or not. If not, then tell their friend when they can call back.

Now if their phone rings or I catch them text messaging, I charge them 500 won~ paid immediately, on the spot. (Sometimes they have to bum it from a friend. )

I'll buy a juice for a couple of the students every week or so, or a pizza at the end of the year for the whole class.

I say, hit them where their pocketbook is. It's one of the best ways to see change take place.

BTW, sometimes their phones will just buzz and they wont even answer it. I seldom catch people text messaging in my class. Things are much smoother these days.

Going back to the high school situation, I think it's important to encourage maturity and proper cell phone etiquet. I would rather that they not be separated from their cellphones in case of a REAL emergency taking place. But ultimately I would suggest that they use their cellphones outside of the classroom time and once the class actually commences they need to put them away, or loose them.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

My school also has the policy of students handing their phones in to the homeroom teacher at the beginning of the day and getting them back at the end. It doesn't stop the problem entirely but it sure helps. Whenever I catch a student with a phone I make her do an extra assignment (like lines or copying out a page of the textbook) before she gets it back at the end of the day. It seems to work very well. Students playing with phones is not a big problem in my classroom and any who do get to do yet more work in English; but, since I'm still being softer than a lot of KTs would the students aren'tt angry at me.

[Milwaukiedave]

[kurva anjad]

[formerflautist]

There's a teacher here who will take phones away for a month if they aren't turned into her first thing in the morning. It's my policy that if I catch a student using it then it's mine until the end of the day. That goes for any electronic object. I know one teacher who makes his students write a letter of apology. The offender doesn't get the phone back until the letter is mistake free.

[khyber]

having a cell IS a privilege and to use the grounds of "freedom of communication" borders on completely ridiculous.

When I got back to canada to teach high school science will have the following policy:

Students must have their cellphones ON their desk with the battery REMOVED and sitting BESIDE the phone. Anyone caught using their cellphone will have it conficated for 1 week.

[twg]

I find the banning of the phones in the class has become more difficult with the addition of Korean/English dictionaries to them. I believe an ESL student should always have a dictionary on hand, but you can't really tell if they're messaging or looking something up. So I have to walk around looking over their shoulders.

It doesn't help that the Korean staff are absolute pushovers when the kids want their phones back.

[antoniothegreat]

[Milwaukiedave]

Fortunately I don't have a big problem with cell phones as I'm in an elementry school. It seem like (percentage wise) there are only 10-15% of the kids that have phones in my school.

I do feel like sometimes getting things enforced is a pain in the @@@ because I'm not on equal footing with the Korean teachers. Like I said in another thread, the toy guns really bother me. If I had it my way, I'd take the damn thing and destroy it with a hammer. Then again, I'm leaving in a month so it's not a big deal anymore.

[riley]

I think it's ridiculous for elementary students to have cell phones. There's absolutely no need for them to have one. They're not allowed to have one so when I see it, I take it, but I try to give it back by the end of the day.

WHat the hell anyways though with these parents? Do they have such a need to talk and worry about their kid that they have to reach them at any time of day? God, cut the damn strings.