Mini Training Series: Ep 1 Classroom Assistants & Cell Phone Use

Hi, I'm Sasha Long from The Autism Helper. I'm a special education teacher and board-certified behavior analyst. One of the most important jobs as a special ed teacher is being a manager for your team. It's really important that we work together with our classroom assistants or paraprofessionals so we can effectively meet the needs of our students. When I was a first-year teacher, I really didn't realize how important this part of my job was. It's imperative that we have strong procedures in place so that all of our team can work together. One obstacle in this is appropriate cell phone use. And this can depend from your— this can depend on your school's culture. Some schools have more strict guidelines in place of when cell phones can be out and when cell phones can't be out. So in those types of schools, it's easier for all, all staff to follow those rules. If your school has a looser school culture where it's not as clear on when cell phones can be out, when cell phones can't be out, it can be hard as a team leader to manage when appropriate cell phone use is in your classroom. If you're in this type of school, it's imperative that we set up expectations that are really clear for our staff so everyone knows when cell phones can't be out and when it's appropriate and when cell phones should not be out. Should. First up, you want to remove the temptation to grab your cell phone. This is something we're all guilty of. Yesterday I was waiting at a railroad crossing, there was a train coming by, my cell phone was charging on the seat next to me, and what did I do? I grabbed my cell phone, I'm checking Facebook, I'm checking my email. Soon the train is long gone and the person behind me is beeping because I haven't gone. We've all been there. Just seeing our cell phone, we're attached to it. We want to grab it, we want to check in what's going on, and sometimes we don't even realize we're doing that. The same thing happens in our classroom both with us as teachers and with our staff. So the first step in clearing the expectations with your staff on cell phone use is removing the temptation for even picking it up. So make sure that your staff in your classroom has a place to keep their belongings, which is just respectful and great practice as a leader anyways. Make sure everyone has a safe spot to put their purse, their coat, things like that. And then tell them, leave your cell phones in your purse during the day. Don't have it in your back pocket. Don't have it out on the table when the kids are working. So clarify on where cell phones should be during the day and make sure that everyone's aware of that. Next, just like we do with our students, you have to be the great role model for this. You can't tell your staff that they can't be on their cell phones during the school day if you're not following those same rules too. You can't be over on Facebook while you have kids that are taking a test if you've told staff not to do that. So you have to make sure that you're following the same procedures and guidelines that you've set up for your staff yourself. The exception to this rule might be that you need your cell phone out to communicate with parents. Not all of us are in classrooms where you have a classroom phone, and you might be getting texts or calls from parents throughout the day. Within our population, sometimes we need to keep close contact with different parents and situations. If that's the case, really clarify and tell that to your staff. Tell them why your cell phone is allowed to be out and why theirs isn't. If you get a call or a text in the middle of the day, let them know that that was from a parent. So make sure that you're being that model, and if you need that exception on why your cell phone should be out, You're being really explicit in letting them know. So it can be common to blame the school policy or school administrators for an unpopular guideline or rule like appropriate cell phone use. Instead of doing this, I recommend taking a more proactive approach and explaining why you think this policy is effective. Tell your staff, "These are the expectations our school has for cell phone use." you know, you can use your cell phone during lunch breaks, at your break, after school, you know, but cell phones can't be out when there's kids in the room or during the school day. Explain what the policy is, but then extend that and explain why that's going to create the best learning environment for our students and explain what detriment it would have to our kids if cell phones are out a lot. Think about the struggle that we have with making sure we have enough staff staff in our classrooms. This is a struggle in almost every school across the country, making sure that you have the right amount of classroom assistants or paraprofessionals that are entitled to your room. Think about it from the perspective of an administrator. If you were to walk into a classroom that has 3 paraprofessionals and 1 teacher, and a teacher's working with some kids, and 2 paraprofessionals are working with their groups, and the third paraprofessional has a few students that are working independently, and she's sitting on her cell phone while the kids are working on their own. What does that administrator think? They think, "Man, this classroom's overstaffed. I could pull that paraprofessional to help with recess duty, to help in a different classroom, to help photocopy." Extra staff is a rare commodity, and if your administrators think your class is overstaffed, they're going to be pulling that staff away. And the perception was probably right in that situation. Why was that staff member on their cell phone? So keep in mind how important it is to back up the policies but explain how it specifically applies to our classrooms. So maybe you've done a great job of clarifying all of these expectations with the staff in your classroom. You've removed the temptation and given them a spot for them to keep their cell phones during the day. You've explained why these policies are important and imperative for our classrooms. You've worked with staff on making sure that all of these expectations are really clear, and you've been a great role model on appropriate cell phone use during the day as well. Even if everything is laid out like this, sometimes you might still have staff members that are using their cell phone inappropriately during the workday. Maybe while kids are transitioning, they're looking at their cell phones. While kids are working independently, they're on their phone. When you're in gym class or specials, in the hallway, you see staff members on their phone. I encourage you in these situations to be very direct. It's very uncomfortable if you're not a confrontational person to do this, and it can feel weird and wrong. And you don't have to be mean about it, you don't have to be rude about it, it doesn't even need to be a big discussion. When you see that happening, or at the end of the day, go up to the person and say, "Please put your cell phone away." There needs to be no other discussion. They know what they were doing was wrong, and maybe they just needed that reminder. If you weren't able to tell them that during the day, at the end of the day just say, you know, reminder, Sherry, can we make sure to put our cell phones away during the day? And just leave it as that. It doesn't need to be in a negative tone, doesn't need to be in a nice tone, can just be indifferent. But you want to be direct in those moments and provide that immediate feedback. If you let those go because you feel uncomfortable or weird about kind of that confrontation, they're going to continue to happen. So if you don't say anything on Tuesday, it might happen again on Thursday, and then Friday, and then the following Monday, and then soon it's snowballing from a little problem to a really big problem. And then it is more awkward to bring it up. It's weirder to bring it up a month after it's been happening every single day than it would have been to just sit and nip it in the bud right away from the start. And kind of the philosophy I always think of is if you're not allowed to be on your cell phone if you work at McDonald's, You're definitely not allowed to be on your cell phone when you work in a school with kids. So don't feel bad about that because that's part of your job to be a leader and a manager. And in that moment, your job of telling them to put their cell phone away is just important as your job of giving a great reading lesson or taking data on discrete trials. So don't be scared to be direct in those moments. So one last thought, maybe you're watching this video and you're realizing that really you're the one addicted to your phone and you're the one that's going to struggle with these expectations and policies as many of us are, especially after a long summer of getting to go on Facebook whenever we want. It's an addictive thing, that little cell phone. So maybe in your classroom you want to create a culture of accountability and let your staff know that, hey, if you see me on my phone, call me out. And again, keep in mind those exceptions that might have to take place, like you're communicating with parents. But let your staff know that just in the same way you're going to be direct with them, that they can be direct back to you. That we want to have everyone on the same page with this policy. So there might be exceptions for you as the teacher when you're communicating with parents on a regular basis, getting texts or calls from parents. A lot of us have really great close communication with the parents of our students, so that's imperative to keep up. So letting staff know about that. Give staff members also the chance for those exceptions. We all know that there can be extenuating personal situations in our lives. Maybe a child is sick, maybe a family member is in the hospital, maybe you're expecting an important phone call related to housework being done. Those situations happen. I get it. Your staff gets it. We've all been there. So let them know that if they need those every now and then personal exceptions for some type of specific scenario going on in their life to just let you know. You want to be reasonable, just like you'd like to answer a call that you've been waiting on from a doctor, you want to let them answer that phone call too. So let them know that if there's an important exception they need to let you know at the start of the school day, and you can make that arrangement for who will be filling in if they need to step out for that important phone call. There's a lot that goes into being a great manager of your team. Clarifying the expectations for appropriate cell phone use is just one small piece of the puzzle, but it's an important one. I hope these tips and guidelines were helpful for helping you set up your class for success and making sure that all of your team is on the same page and you're not letting something little like a cell phone derail that. Thanks for joining us for our monthly Fun Size video trainings. Just like the Fun Size candy bar, these are short and sweet with a specific goal, with specific specific tips that you can apply to your classroom tomorrow. Be on the lookout for more coming soon, and please follow us at theautismhelper.com.