This school year comes with changes, from grading to phone policies. Students have voiced their opinions about this school year, but teachers also have feelings as we are near the end of the first quarter.
English teacher Rachel Wilsdorf said that the new policies are benefiting students by teaching them accountability and setting guidelines for teachers. “It’s nice to have direct and stricter policies because it’s better for students’ accountability, and teachers can also reference these policies.”
Wilsdorf said the school year has gotten off to a great start. “This year has been great so far. Coming in as a new teacher in week four was pretty stressful, but overall, I’ve really enjoyed working with my students,” Wilsdorf said.
However, she does believe phone policies should be stricter and that students’ continuing use of AI should also be a focus for future policies. “I would personally like there to be a stricter phone policy. I don’t know what it would be, but the current policy seems to be having little effect. I still sometimes have to take students’ phones. But, from an English teacher’s perspective, I feel like a lot more energy could be going into students using AI on their assignments because that seems to be disrupting the workflow more than students’ phones,” Wilsdorf said.
Advocacy for stricter policies for phones seems to be a continuing trend amongst teachers. “The phone policy has helped, but I’m still implementing phone pockets. However, students have started not putting their phones away, and I feel as if it was putting away phones from the beginning of the day till the end of the day it would be more effective,” ceramics teacher Melinda Pierce said.
For Pierce, this year has been going well overall, and she enjoys working with students who make the class more fun. “The year is going good, I have positive students who I enjoy working with. They create interesting artwork, which makes the class more fun for everyone,” Pierce said.
Pierce also said she is happy about the new grading policy. “I am glad the 50% rule is gone because it stated that a student would still get 50% even if they didn’t turn in an assignment. The new policy in place teaches students more responsibility. So, I think in general the policies are helping, but we could definitely expand on them,” Pierce said.
Although new policies have been put into place, teachers may remain frustrated. “There hasn’t been much change. If the county really wanted to change phone policies, they should have prevented phone use for the entire school day,” a social studies teacher who requested to be anonymous said.
The anonymous teacher said that the school year so far has been, “more stressful, there is more on teachers’ plates this year, and more things we have to get done.”
In addition to a stricter phone policy, “there should be more discipline during class time enforced by the administration, such as enforcing kids to stay in class and not roam the halls. We should also bring back the attendance policy where five unexcused absences per semester loses a student credit for the class, and three tardies equal an unexcused absence,” the anonymous teacher said.
