A week ago, Jeffrey DeMars from KARE-11 TV showed up at Kimball Area High School. Apparently, the station got wind of something different going on.
Katie Pettit is the new math teacher this year. She arrived after Bill Liedman retired last year.
The story was about math students who willingly gave up their cell phones for a week.
The reward? No math final.
The hitch? Ninety percent of her classes had to participate or everyone would have to take the final.
As it turns out, all but two (from among 70-some students) happily turned in their phones Monday, May 19. The phones went into a plastic bin for storage.
Apparently, teenagers willingly giving up their phones for a week is news.
?ÄúI got the idea after my class watched a YouTube video called ?ÄòLook Up,?Äô?Äù Ms. Pettit says. The short video showed how important it is to put your phone down, look up, and experience life.
While watching the video, Pettit observed many of the students using their phones. She says most of them couldn?Äôt put their phones down for a five-minute video.
?ÄúThe next day I came to class and asked who would like to not have a math final. Of course the whole class raised their hands. Some of those hands dropped when I told them what they would have to do in order for this to happen, though: Turn in phones Monday morning, and get them back Friday after school.?Äù
So, you may ask, how did it go?
?ÄúThis week has been great without the phones,?Äù Pettit says.
During the week without phones, students used their work time in class more efficiently, she found. Phones have become more of a habit than anything, she believes. ?ÄúFor many of the kids, their phones have turned into distractions that they?Äôre not even aware of.?Äù
Instead of a final exam, students have worked on chapter reviews that Pettit put together. They worked on them in class throughout the week, often in groups, and she corrected their daily work each night.
?ÄúIt?Äôs created about 10 times the work for me, correcting 70 ten-page review packets every night, but they are learning more in this week than any lesson I could teach them,?Äù Pettit says.
?ÄúI think that my students have learned a lot from this experience. They have learned to be more self-disciplined, and they now know from experience that they can live without their phones.?Äù Pettit adds that she would definitely do this challenge again.
Many in the area saw the bit on KARE-11 news that night. Word spread on Facebook too. The next morning, the Today Show on NBC included a bit of it on their program.
?ÄúThe media attention has also taught [students] more than I ever could. They have been able to experience first-hand the positive and negative effects of social media.?Äù
Pettit planned a day of reflection on the challenge for Tuesday this week. ?ÄúIt will be interesting to hear their perspectives of the whole thing.?Äù
Comments by students both on social media and in person reflect pretty much the same thing: they are likely to use their phones less, and didn?Äôt really miss them so much.
Ariel Laabs said she?Äôd go without her phone for a whole year if it meant getting a good grade in math.
Another student said she realizes now that kids get so busy recording their lives [with their devices] that they miss their lives.
Scott Laudenbach shrugged when asked how it went without his phone for a week. ?ÄúI just rode my bike more,?Äù he said.
Hmm. Maybe there?Äôs something to this! Maybe we can all learn something by putting our phones down more often, looking up, and interacting directly with life.
KAHS math teacher, Katie Pettit, hands out corrected papers to her second-hour math class. All bnut two students, from all of her classes, turned in their phones for a week in lieu of taking final exams. Staff photo by Jean Doran matua.