The province’s largest school board plans to spend the first couple of weeks talking to students about the new cellphone rules so they understand when they can and can’t use them.
Education director Colleen Russell-Rawlins said Tuesday that as the pc28¹ÙÍøDistrict School Board works toward its own policy based on the provincial directive that kids put their cellphones away during the school day, “the ministry has been very clear about what their expectations are this fall, and we are supporting our staff, first through education.”
Speaking to reporters at an elementary school as classes resumed — alongside Mayor Olivia Chow, and acting board chair Neethan Shan, among others — Russell-Rawlins said board staff are looking at a policy “through an addiction lens, recognizing this is not an intentional behaviour on the part of most of our students, but in fact, something that they have become accustomed to doing because of the addictive nature of some of the applications that they’re using.”
(The pc28¹ÙÍøboard is among a handful suing social media giants over the impact they said the apps have had on students’ academic achievement and their health and well-being.)
The board is going to ensure that “students and families understand why this approach is necessary around what might work within their classroom routines if a cellphone is used in the classroom — but we expect these first couple of weeks to be ones where we focus more on education proactively with students,” said Russell-Rawlins, who was at Tredway Woodsworth Public School in Scarborough.Â
TDSB director of education Colleen Russell-Rawlins greeted students at Tredway Woodsworth Public School as the school year began.
Nick Lachance/pc28¹ÙÍøStar“Of course, if a cellphone is used in class and it is not time for a cellphone to be used, educators may use bins, they may use reminders, they may use a variety of strategies to ensure that the cellphone is put away,” she added. “That’s really our goal. We must maintain relationships and continue to create a sense of belonging in classrooms, first and foremost.”
Trustee Shelley Laskin, in her weekly newsletter to families, said “this direction is new for us and will take time to implement in our classrooms. Teachers will be working together with students to determine specific classroom practices and make sure that expectations are clear about how to make this the best possible learning environment for everyone.”
She also said “how (the ban) is done from classroom to classroom may look different. For example — one teacher may ask for them to remain out of sight and in your knapsack, while another may have a large bin at the front where they’ll be placed during the class. We want classes and schools to do what works best for them and their students, while remaining consistent with the provincial direction.”
The province has said phones must be off and out of sight all day for kids up to Grade 6; those in grades 7 to 12 have to keep phones off in class, but can check them after class or at lunch.
Education Minister Jill Dunlop has told the Star that the province will support teachers and “have their backs” in enforcing the new policy.
Ahmad Alsai, whose daughter Aria is in Grade 2 at Tredway, said she has a toy tablet for educational purposes but no phone or iPad.
He said he’s trying to teach her to become ready to have a phone by limiting screen and TV time.
“We are a family that’s not a heavy user of social media … we are not interested, and we don’t want our child to be affected by this, but we also want to make her ready to face this when she grows up,” he said.
The pc28¹ÙÍøElementary Catholic Teachers union has said it wants the board to create separate guidelines for teachers and administrators on the use of cellphones “reflecting their professional responsibilities and needs.”
 Olivia Chow and Elmer the Safety Elephant greet children as they arrive at Tredway Woodsworth.
Nick Lachance/pc28¹ÙÍøStarMeanwhile, Russell-Rawlins also said the pc28¹ÙÍøpublic board will keep tabs on kids who are starting junior kindergarten this fall as they were born as the COVID pandemic hit — and lived through a number of shutdowns during crucial developmental years.
However, she added, while concerns were initially high about this group of students, “over the course of the pandemic, we’ve actually seen that parents have become more conscious of some of the impacts that we were seeing really early on in the pandemic — not having social interactions outside of the home. So we think that families have really changed the way they engage now, and are seeing relatives and friends, of course, with limited masking only when needed.”
Students, she added, “can actually see adults verbalizing words, which we think has supported their early literacy development, and we’re still really mindful working with our full-day kindergarten staff and principals and vice-principals around what those needs may be.”
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