Classroom Management Tips for BYOD

The days of standing in the front of the class are over! In order to know what your students are looking at, you must move around your classroom. Classrooms can be set up to make this easier on you, but I will be honest there are a few things that are still a struggle...

1. Small classrooms make it hard to walk around every desk to see if students are on task.
2. Small mobile devices (such as phones and ipods) make it hard to actually SEE what is on the device.
3. Classroom layouts sometimes makes it less feasible to wander the classroom while teaching.

What helps? Below are a few suggestions to help you monitor usage in the classroom.

Five Classroom Management Strategies for a "Bring Your Own Device" Environment:

1. Think about changing classroom desk set up or changing it during usage of devices to match the landscape to the activity so that you can move around your classroom for conferencing with individual students and "eyeballing" technology usage.
2. To make sure you can see what students are doing on their devices, require that they be kept flat or only slightly elevated. If students are at desks or tables, devices should not be placed in their laps. All phones can be required to be on desks during class and in "Airplane Mode."
3. When you want your students\\\' complete attention, require them to place devices face down.
4. Use consistent "key phrases" to control usage issues in the classroom. (i.e. - "face down," "hands on your heads/reach for the stars," "Shut down, 5 minute warning," "100% eyes")
5. Admit to your students that this is a very fluid, evolving process and new to you as a teacher but that you are willing to accept and adapt technology usage as a tool in the classroom. Also let them know that because this is new, there may be new rules and usages brought into your classroom environment as the year progresses and they have a responsibility to follow the guidelines.