How you can use your cell phone to get better grades

The year was 1999 and I had just been hired as a full-time high school biology teacher. As a reward for being hired, I bought myself a gift, my first cell phone. I was excited because this would allow me to communicate with my friends and family from virtually anywhere. I justified the purchase since my classroom did not have a telephone and my salary increase would allow me to assume some more monthly expenses. Last year my nephew got the first phone from him. He was 8 years old and it was his reward for being promoted from 3rd to 4th grade. Things have definitely changed in the last 12 years.

In 2010, the Pew Research Center reported that 75% of 12-17 year olds own a cell phone. This number has increased by 45% in 2004 and is probably more than three quarters of all students today. It won’t be long until every high school student in America brings their phone to school. Naturally, with so many students having access to cell phones, it makes sense that cell phones could be used to help students do better in school.

When students walk into my classroom, they can look for announcements on the board. They can see their upcoming homework assignments as well as the dates of upcoming tests or projects. As part of my daily classroom routine, I pay attention to these assignments at the beginning of class and remind my students to write their assignments in an agenda or notebook.

Every day I make my students write down their homework. I walk around the class and ask the students to show me what is written. A common problem is that many students often forget or lose where they wrote their homework for that night. Sometimes poor organizational skills cause students to lose where their assignments are written. For other students, they have a separate notebook for each class and write their assignments in various places.

A simple solution to this dilemma is for students to write their daily assignments on their phone. For a high school student, a phone is an essential possession that goes with them just about everywhere. While a student may leave a textbook or spiral notebook in a class and forget about it, they most likely won’t leave her phone behind.

In addition to a student always having their phone with them, they use it constantly. The Pew Research Center found through its study that text messaging is the primary method for cell phone communication among teens. 88% of teen cell phone users text as a form of communication and 54% text daily. The typical high school user (14-17 years old) sends and receives 60 text messages a day.

The technology is now available for students to use a standard notepad feature on their phone and write in a continuous building list what their nightly homework is for each class. If your phone has a calendar option, upcoming tests and projects can also be written. With most phone calendars, there is an option to set reminders about upcoming events. This is so powerful for a student to get a reminder at 6:30 pm as a signal that she needs to study for tomorrow’s math test.

If the student owns a smartphone (iPhone, Blackberry, Droid, or Palm), then the sky is the limit as to how their phone can help them keep track of all their assignments. While the specific apps available are unique to each phone, they all have a “To Do List” app that is free or very inexpensive. Awesome Note, Cozi, Evernote, and Lister have received positive reviews. The key is to find one that is available for your phone and works well for you. Every day I write my “To Do List” with Lister on my Blackberry and classify my entries as short-term, this week or priority. Then throughout the day, I check my list every time I use my phone to call, text, email, or even check Facebook. It keeps me focused and I add to the list or mark items as needed.

If you have an iPhone, I definitely recommend checking out the app called myHomework. It allows you to set up your class schedule, enter homework and assignments, view upcoming assignments on the calendar feature, and even displays reminders when you open your phone. With the constant development of new apps, it is only a matter of time before there are multiple apps available that specialize in organizing homework for all phones.

As we move into the 21st century, it is important that we take advantage of available technology to increase student achievement. Just as computers in school have gone from novelty to necessity, cell phones are proving they can have a positive impact on student achievement. I encourage you (or your student for all parents reading this article) to educate the teachers at your school on why using a cell phone to keep track of assignments is better than the old fashioned way of writing them down in a notebook. . Before long, I suspect bringing your phone to school will be as accepted as bringing a pencil.