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As someone who went through school while phones were becoming increasingly popular, I have witnessed teachers struggle more and more with students paying attention during class and focusing on their phones. There have been many times where I snuck my phone out during a boring high school class, or left the room to use my phone. Looking back at my high school experience, I am very grateful for the teachers who had us put our phones at the front of the class so we could have them back after class. Those were the classes where I was engaged the most and got the most out of the lessons. 

Moving from Secondary to University was a shock to me. One, because it’s a completely different level of school, but also because Professors aren’t going to chase after you to make sure that you are understanding their content. I found that if I were to check my phone and scroll during a lecture I would miss a lot more than what I would miss in a high school class. I have also noticed my peers who scroll during class are the ones to ask for clarification after the class. This taught me how distracted I was actually getting from being on my phone. I quickly learned to focus during class and I will have plenty of time later on to mindlessly scroll. 

Belmont Secondary School in Langford, B.C., has banned cell phone use during instructional time. Students are given the choice to leave their devices in their lockers, or given the same option as I had, to leave their phones at the front in a phone holder. The school said in a statement that there are no restrictions on cellphone use outside of instructional time. Teachers can also schedule technology breaks. This gives the teacher the opportunity to still use technology within the classroom because, in today’s day and age, it seems almost unrealistic to have students work without technology- everything is online now. Considering students hand in a lot of assignments online, do online research, and have videos that can help with their learning, the use of non-personal devices adds a lot to their learning experience. 

Provinces like Ontario and Quebec have placed these rules for the whole province to ensure that all students are less distracted in a classroom, where as British Columbia has decided to leave it up to each individual teacher. I don’t think this creates an equal learning environments for students. Some teachers will allow phones to be kept on the student and that leads to more distraction from the class. Teachers who don’t allow phones to be kept on the students will have a more engaged learning environment. These students will be having very different outcomes. In order for students to be learning to the same degree, there needs to be a rule followed by all teachers to ensure that outcomes are more similar. 

“We are seeing improved mental health, we’re seeing decreased bullying, we’re seeing more engagement in class, we’re seeing more social interaction, kids are playing again instead of being on their phones and we’re seeing increased academic success”, says a teacher from Chatelech Secondary School on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast. This school has had a no phone during instructional time for just over a year now and they are seeing amazing results. Who wouldn’t want students to have these positive experiences during school? Is this not what we put children into school to do? Why wouldn’t you want there to be less bullying, more social interaction, and more academic success? It just seems like students are thriving when they are put in a space where they can focus and learn rather than do mindless scrolling while they should be learning. 

A lot of parents are used to having access to contacting their children at all times of the day now. Some parents may have an issue with not being able to contact their children during instructional times, but in the end, it will be far more beneficial for the children and their learning. If there were to be an emergency, the parent can always contact the school and the school will help the student get in contact with their parents. 

In my future classroom, I plan to have a “no personal device during instructional time” rule. If the assignment that we are working on requires research I will reserve the school Chromebooks or computer lab, whatever the school has available. I will have a safe space for students to put their devices for the day and I will return them at the end of the day. I want to create a space for students to learn, engage, build connections, and grow. I think that this space will be much more successful if phones are out of the picture. 

Hopefully B.C. soon takes the jump to make this a province wide policy. I believe that students through out the province will benefit greatly and be able to grow so much more when they are not stuck behind a screen. There is so much that we can learn from our peers and all we need ro do is look past their profiles and connect with them face to face.

As of this 2023/2024 school year, Saskatchewan schools have made a rule that requires students under 16 needing permission from their parent or guardian to change their name or pronouns at school. Consent is not required for students 16 or older. This is leaving teachers feeling uncomfortable and unable to protect their nonbinary or transgender students. 

Up until this year, teachers could accept students when they would come and tell their teachers how they wanted to identify. Whether they wanted to be she/her, he/him, or they/them, it was up to them. Now there will be another hoop to jump through when making any changes. Teachers must have a signed consent form from a parent of students under 16 if they want to identify as any other pronouns or name than given at birth. 

When asked why this policy is being enforced Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says “his claim that his government’s school pronoun policy was based on extensive consultations with parents, teachers and others, but a judge says there’s no evidence those occurred”. During conferences, Premier Scott Moe does not back down on his policy to enforce parental permission for students to change their names or pronouns.

This could have many different outcomes. There are a lot of situations where children under 16 won’t have the support system at home needed to let them live their truth. Some of these students may not have a safe space at home and so they come to school feeling relief that they can be who they want to be. Even though we are moving into a much more accepting world, there are still people who are stuck in their ways and won’t accept others for who they are. 

Here is an example of what may happen. Imagine you are a teacher and you are teaching an eighth-grade class. A student comes up to you and asks for you to talk. The student expresses that they don’t identify with their given pronouns of she/her and they are non-binary and would like to use the pronouns they/them in the classroom. You would really like to let that student know that it won’t be a problem and thank them for telling you, but instead, you let the student know that you have to set up a meeting with their parents and have them give permission for this to happen. The student says that it is really important to them but their parents don’t agree with how they feel. This creates a super uncomfortable situation for both the student and you as the teacher. The student now doesn’t have a safe space where they can embrace who they are, and the teacher now has to address a student in a way that they don’t feel comfortable with and know that they are uncomfortable with it. This student will now struggle with this until they are 16 and can make the decision without permission from parents.

For some students, this could be an indifferent experience because they have an accepting support system behind them. Although it may be tough for anyone to express how they really feel, it is a lot easier when you are accepted no matter what. If the students who experience an unsupportive reaction hear from the students that experience a supportive reaction it may cause a divide between students that should be there supporting each other. The students who are not supported at home may feel resentment towards other students and that may cause more issues on top of the already present ones. So even though there will be positive experiences, there will most likely be more negative experiences.

Students are going to have a much harder time figuring themselves out and exploring their own identities. They have very little room to experiment and question. These kids will start to venture outside of their homes and schools and try to find safe places to be themselves in other areas. These other areas may not end up being as safe as they think it is. They will start being around older people who have the same experiences but these people might just be too mature for these young kids who are looking for people to confide in. These children can easily be taken down a bad path in this situation. This can cause lifelong implications that could have been avoided if there were safe spaces provided in their everyday lives as a child.  

Hopefully, the Saskatchewan government will realize the negative impact that this will have on the younger generation. This may have effects on what they are willing and able to do for the economy in the future. Having an accepting and encouraging community to support our youth will help this generation be the best they can be and live up to their potential, while also being themselves.

Throughout my schooling experience, I was graded on a proficiency scale from grades K-3 and then again in grades 8-9. For grades 4-7 and grades 10-12, I was given letter grades. Having experience with both types of grading, I have found that there are most definitely differences between the two. There are pros and cons. Each student will have a different experience and they will have different outcomes from their experiences. 

When being graded on the proficiency scale, my peers and I felt more relaxed. The levels that you could be performing at were Emerging, Developing, Proficient, and Extending. Emerging was for students who were not comfortable in the subject but could understand the basics. Developing was for students who were starting to grasp the ideas a bit more and were able to apply knowledge a little past the basics. Proficient was for students who were performing at an independent level and were comfortable with the information. Extending was for the students who would go above and beyond the expected learning. This scale took pressure off students for getting a letter grade, but also in my experience it didn’t encourage students to work as hard as they may have worked for a letter grade. I was always a student that wanted to get A’s and when I was switched back over to the proficiency scale in 8th grade, I found myself settling for proficient because I didn’t understand why I would need to put more work in if I didn’t need to. The extending grade was something that seemed unnecessary. My peers also felt this way. 

When being graded by percentage and letter grade, there is a far more strict criteria to meet these marks. When doing assignments you typically know at what level you’re doing assignments and what grade you want to get. There is a push to work harder to get a higher percentage. You always hear people talking about A+ students and honour roll, but with the proficiency scale, you don’t have that push for those goals. In my experience, a lot of students felt that when we were switched back to the proficiency scale after having a taste of letter grades, it felt like some of our maturity was taken away. This also discouraged some people to not working as hard for their grades. 

As of September 2023, British Columbia public schools from grades K-9 will be marked on the proficiency scale. Students in grades 10-12 will receive letter grades so that their post-secondary requirements will be met. “I think this is a way of getting across a better message about how a child is moving through that educational journey,” said Clint Johnston, president of the B.C. Teachers Federation. 

For future generations who haven’t experienced anything different from the proficiency scale, I think that this will be enjoyed by the students and the parents. It does give a more personal version of feedback and I am very interested to see how this impacts students’ education and educational goals. Imagine growing up and instead of thinking about wanting to be an A+ student, you want to be an extending student. This takes away the focus on getting that exact number based on one set of criteria and allows students to take their learning into their own hands and extend past the goal in their own way. 

In the end, this is a positive thing. There can be an issue for the students who, like me, were given letter grades and then switched back to the proficiency scale. This can cause some relaxation and less of a drive to do as well as you may have done before. Looking back on it now, I think I would have tried harder to learn in STEM 8 and do my homework more if I had gotten a letter grade at the end of the semester, but students who know nothing else won’t know what it’s like to want a certain letter grade until they get to post-secondary preparation. These upcoming students will have a whole different outlook on their studies than my generation and I am very interested to see how things unfold for them in their education experience. 

As an assignment, we were asked to prompt a Gen AI service with a question that we would reflect on. I chose to use Chat GPT and ask a question about AI in elementary schools. After reading what AI has to say about the question, “What are some benefits of Gen AI for elementary school teachers?”, I have done some reflecting on what I think some benefits are. I think that AI is a great tool to help build an education. It has its perks, but there should never be a reason to fully depend on AI in a classroom. Teachers can use it to assist them in their everyday jobs but they should be open about it and only use it for things that don’t require a human connection. 

Before reading what AI had to say, I had thought briefly about the benefits for elementary school teachers when using AI. Some of the ideas that I had come up with were that it could help make lesson plans, could answer questions quickly, and could assist in making a randomized selection of things like a number or listing the class. 

After reading what AI had to say, I was quite impressed with what it could offer. The idea that AI could be the support that teachers need is fascinating. There is such a shortage of support in classrooms, especially elementary classrooms, that even though AI can’t take over the human connection that is made between teachers and students, it can actually benefit the relationship. Some ideas that Chat GPT gave me were if a student couldn’t speak English very well you could use AI to help communicate with that student. Another idea is if a student has a specific learning need, AI can help create a personalized learning plan for that student. I think that the idea of being able to receive support whenever you may need it is super beneficial. I had never thought about the fact that AI can help with marking. This is a tool that can help teachers out immensely. The AI can do the basics of marking and the teacher can focus more on spending time giving feedback. This may improve students’ work even more because teachers will have more time to give more feedback. This is all at the tip of your fingers.

I do think that it is important to remember that students also have access to this platform now. This will impact students of all ages because they have the opportunity to use this for assignments. There has already been a use of these AI services in the older students and I’m sure some younger students will start getting use of it for some things as well. As teachers, we will just want to ensure that students are getting the learning needed and not relying on AI to teach them. 

 In my opinion, being open with students about using this tool is also important. Hiding the fact that work or ideas may not be coming from you or your past knowledge may lead students to not trust you when they find out. If I had a teacher who was relying on AI to bond with their students or make their lesson plans, it would feel like they didn’t care as much as someone who was using it only here and there and doing the bulk of their job on their own. It should only be used as an aid, not an easy way out of doing work. Being able to tend to your student’s needs is a part of being a teacher. We didn’t go through all the years of schooling and training to let a computer do our job for us. Most people become teachers to have those connections and help teach future generations, it would be a waste of your time and their time if you left it up to a computer. Students have the same access that we have to this technology so if they realized that they could do exactly what we do from the comfort of their own home that is going to take away from their want and need to enjoy being at school. 

Before this assignment, I had never used AI before. I had heard about it around the University and from peers, but I found myself scared to use it. I felt that using this service would take away from the importance of learning being done. After thinking about it more and using it for the first time, I am not feeling scared anymore. I understand that it can be a benefit to me in my career as long as it is used properly. I will remember the importance of human connections and learning from other humans but also use AI as a tool to support any needs that I may have in a classroom. It will be beneficial for my students and I. 

I found that the overall answer that Chat GPT gave me was very helpful. The layout was easy to follow, there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of information, and it got to the point. I was easily able to reflect on what was said and even learn something new. I definitely will be using it as a tool in the future.