How to get TRUE student buy-in for your “no phone” policy

Here’s an innovative way to get student buy-in for your cell phone policy, reduce distractions, and maximize class time.

It was developed by Ashly Hilst, a secondary teacher at North Clackamas Christian School in Oregon City, Oregon. Ashly has taught high school English for seven years in both public and private schools.

For the 2024 Summit for the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek, Ashly unveiled her innovative approach to managing cell phone use in the classroom, and it was so impactful I wanted to make sure more teachers had a chance to hear about it.

Her method focuses on conveying the message that “Phones don’t make good moments, people do.” drawing from personal experiences to connect with students.

In this episode, you’ll learn from Ashly how to establish clear expectations and consequences for phone use while allowing flexibility and gentle reminders. Discover for yourself how Ashly’s approach reduces stress levels and enhances the teaching experience by promoting responsible phone habits in the classroom.

Listen to episode 306 below,
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Teaching and being on phone patrol was exhausting

So let’s talk about cell phones. Can’t live with them, can’t live without ’em. They cause stress. Cell phones prior to coming up with this system were something that really stressed me out managing that in the classroom. It distracted the students. It was difficult to teach and be on cell phone patrol, and one of the things that created stress for me was feeling like I had to take care of the cell phones to be responsible. It’s my responsibility, but I didn’t want to. I just wanted to teach. And the reality is cell phones are part of our lives now and they’re not going anywhere. So I needed to come up with something that would allow us to use them for educational purposes when needed, but then get them put away when we didn’t need them.

So I tried all the traditional cell phone policies. Maybe you’ve tried some of these. I tried the cell phone holder method — “Put ’em in the cell phone holder when you walk in the door”. Not effective. I had to monitor that. I don’t have time. We have four-minute passing periods. I can’t stand there and make sure that the students all put their cell phones in the holder.  Zero-tolerance method — as soon as I see I’m going to take it from you and write it up. Cell phone jail method — I literally made a cell phone jail with washi tape. I was like, this will be so cute and fun and maybe if I bring a pinch of fun to it, it won’t be such a big deal for me.

And then I did the writeup for repeated infractions method where, Oh, okay, I’ll only write you up if I see you with the phone X number of times within a certain timeframe. None of those worked for me and here’s why. One, most of those take control out of the student’s hands. So it’s not teaching them how to use the cell phone correctly, it’s just telling them you don’t get to do this and I’m going to micromanage that.

I needed cell phones for learning. So putting them in the holder didn’t work because I’d say, “Okay, everyone, get your phones up for a Quizlet”. And they would look at me and look at the holder and I was like, now it’s going to be chaos. I’m just going to tell 26 students to stand up and run for their phones. Not a good system. It doesn’t teach them how to use the cell phone responsibly. It just tells them, don’t use it at all. And it treats students like kids. I felt like it was putting me in this push-pull relationship where I was against them, which I definitely believe that it’s important to have authority in your classroom, but that’s not my teaching style. And I think that especially with that age, going directly up against them like that actually just makes them more resistant. And then they just got sneakier.

So it was like all the systems I tried, they just didn’t put it in the cell phone or they just hid it better. It wasn’t working. It was stressful for me. And the kids were just still getting away with using cell phones.

The ‘made-to-stick’ approach

So I had a made-to-stick moment in the Las Vegas airport. I was flying home and I just had a layover and I’d been reading this book called Made to Stick (by Chip Heath and Dan Heath) and I had just been so stressed. It was over winter break. I had been so stressed prior to leaving with just cell phone pressure.

I’d been getting pressure from other teachers who were like, Well, what do you do with cell phones? And I feel like kids are always using ’em and they’re saying that they can use it in your class.

And I was like, I don’t let them use it in my class, but I also don’t jump on them all the time. I just felt so stressed when I tried to do that.

So I was feeling really anxious about it and I was reading this book and one of the things it said is a good idea is simple and unexpected. And so I was thinking, okay, let’s boil it all the way down to its essence: Why do I want them to not use their phones?

So these are some of the questions I asked myself: Why do I care about students using cell phones in my class? Really? Why don’t I like making the cell phone the villain? Why is that a problem for me to always be penalizing them and giving them consequences for using it? What are the real-life implications of students who can’t put their phones away?

One of my biggest beliefs is that when I teach them in my classroom, I have to explain to the kids why what we’re doing matters in the real world. What will students do when there’s no one to write them up for using their phone at the wrong time? And then what do I really want them to learn?

And as I sat and kind of wrestled through these ideas, I realized that ultimately my made-to-stick rule that I wanted to teach kids was phones don’t make good moments, people do.

This idea that they have to be on their phone is concerning to me, and it’s concerning to me not just because it’s disrespectful or gets in the way of their learning, but because it is going to interfere with the rest of their lives.

If they cannot control when they use their phone, if they do not have self-control around their cell phone, it’s going to get in the way of their relationships. And that was really what mattered.

And as soon as I thought of this idea, I started realizing, okay, this is perfect. I can teach them this and I can get behind this and it will help me follow up and it will help them have buy-in if this is why I’m doing it. And if I can explain to them why that goes beyond the classroom and beyond just this is the way it is, put your phone away. I don’t want to see this type of thing.

How I teach my students my cellphone policy to get their buy-in

So I got really excited about it and I ultimately made this presentation. This is the presentation that I share with my students, and this is ultimately the presentation that I designed to help communicate this sticky idea with my students.

I start with this slide talking about just being present and putting your phone down. Then I introduce to students expectations of what I expect them to do with their phones during class. And I get really specific here, and then I get clear with what’s going to happen if they choose not to do that or forget to do it, and how I’m going to respond.

But I get through that pretty quickly and the main emphasis is actually on this part starting right here. Why? So I give them expectations and then how I’ll respond if they fail to uphold the expectations. And then I quickly transition to, Okay, so you know what to do now, but why am I making this rule? Why is this important? And then I go over some of the reasons that they already know. And I don’t try to say that these aren’t good reasons. I tell them these are really good reasons, but it’s still not my reason. It’s not the reason that I want them to keep their cell phones put away.

I went through some statistics with them that I found that support this idea of how important it is to have our cell phones put away for focus, for learning, for just overall wellness.

And then I say, okay, so all those statistics are great, but here’s the real reason I’m doing this because phones don’t make good moments, people do.

And I remind them it’s not about respect, even though that’s important. It’s not about learning even though that’s important. It’s this idea that your life happens on your phone, it happens in front of you. And then I went over this quote from Up, I actually got this idea from a student after giving this presentation the first or second time, she said, “Oh my goodness, it reminds me of this quote from Up.” And we talked about that scene with Russell where he talks about missing his dad and how some of his favorite memories are when he sat with his dad on the curb and just counted cars and had kind of these boring moments.

And then this video I share with them, and I’m not going to share it here, but I shared this with my students last year when I went over this at the beginning of the year, and the response I got was incredible. I think they responded so well to it because it was such a personal story and it made it more of a people problem and not a classroom problem. So I think me showing them this moment where in this video my daughter’s making scrambled eggs, she’s three, and I was so proud of her that she knew how to make scrambled eggs.

So I was taking a video, but at one point she looked straight at me and said, “Put your phone down, Mommy.” And that was kind of when I had my realization of, Oh my goodness, my phone is getting in the way of my relationships. And so I played the video for the students and then I talked about how I love this video. And I also kind of hate this video because it makes me feel so sad that my daughter looked at me and she didn’t see me. She saw the phone. And I got, like I said, a really good response from students after sharing this video. So I’d really encourage you if you have any personal story you can share, it’d be a great thing to put in here.

Phones don’t make good moments, people do

And then I tie it back to them. I say, you might not have a daughter at home, but you have people at home who want to spend time with you. Maybe it’s a best friend, maybe it’s a sibling, maybe it’s a parent or some other relative, and they want you to put your phone down and be present with them. And I talk about how we’re going to have good moments in the classroom, and I want you to be here and be present for them.

Then I remind them and just close out with this sticky idea. Phones don’t make good moments, people do. This method — it’s effective. It has worked well for me. I’m not saying it’s perfect. We’ll get into that in a little bit. But it took my stress level and it went from a stress level of 9 out of 10 to 2 out of 10. It just dropped almost instantly. So it brought me great peace of mind and decreased the disruptions. It’s such a subtle method that cell phones don’t get in the way of my lesson anymore. Even when someone has it out, I’m able to just quickly address it and move on. And so obviously that makes my teaching more enjoyable.

So here’s why I believe this works. One, I think that this method of giving them a really firm why with that really clear made-to-stick idea that extends beyond the classroom gives them a why that they actually care about. You might not get a student to care that they need to be learning about fill-in-the-blank, and that’s important right now. And they’re like, Really? I kind of feel like social media or this game is more important right now.

They’re a little bit young to maybe realize the long-term implications still. But if you are able to connect with them about things, they matter. They love their families, they love their friends, and that is a powerful why. It focuses on learning a skill that is needed for life. So it becomes not about the classroom anymore. It’s like you’re going to need to know how to do this after you leave. And so it teaches them that skill. It’s based on training students, not just a rule to follow. So telling them, look, this is a muscle you need to work out. You need to work out your no-cell-phone muscle.

Making it a people problem, not a classroom problem

And so that’s not just for class, that’s important. Sure, not even just for work, but for your personal life. You need to have a strong no-cell-phone muscle. It acknowledges the permanence of cell phones in our lives. Some of those other systems don’t put your cell phone in jail or put it in a holder. I know some people have systems like that set up in their house, and that’s great. A lot of people don’t. And the reality is, we have cell phones, they’re here to stay, they’re not going anywhere. And we use them all the time for educational purposes. And so this is like, okay, I’m going to teach you when’s an appropriate time to use it and teach you to think, oh, I forgot to put my cell phone away. Lemme put it away — out of sight, out of mind type-of-thing.

It makes it a people problem, not a classroom problem. I think this generation in particular can feel a little bit attacked when it comes to technology. And so acknowledging, no, I struggle with it too. I’m not good at this either, but I’m working on it. And it’s important that we work on it. I mean, honestly, you guys think about the last staff meeting you went to. Be honest. How many times did you look at your phone? Or how many times did you see the person next to you pulling their phone out?

It’s a people problem. It’s not a student problem. I also really like this method because I like the expectations I set up at the beginning where it’s just if I see a phone because it’s an impartial trigger, if I say you’re using a phone, then they can argue with me about, well, but I’m not using it for whatever. And then it becomes a, I have to make an in-the-moment decision about whether that phone use qualifies as a violation — it’s too messy.

If I see a phone, it goes in the holder. And I will say, and I’ll talk about this in a minute, but I will sometimes give them chances. And I know there are differing schools of thought on that, but for the fact that I want this to be enjoyable, low-stress, and training, and I found it effective to usually be like, oh, I’m seeing some phones. So really impartial trigger. It’s like if the phone is visible, then there it is. And then it connects to a why that I’m deeply, deeply passionate about.

How to create a policy that’s personal for you and your students

So how to do this in your classroom, how can you apply this? Obviously, you don’t have to do that same presentation that I do. I wrote that really literally from the bottom of my heart. If you want to create your own presentation or even take the copy of my presentation and tweak it, please do.

I recommend that you start with the why. I do think that’s a big part of why this matters. Explain why you want to keep their cell phones put away and surprise them with it. Really avoid those lines. They’ve heard their whole high school career. Avoid being like it’s disrespectful or any, it’s not that you can’t touch on that. And I am very honest. I’m like, it is disrespectful, but that’s not why I care. Here’s why I care. So dig deep to find out why it matters to you as a human in the world, not just as a teacher. And then I would encourage you to try to make it personal if you can. Like I said, the responses I got from students when I shared that video.

What happened when I introduced these ideas to my students

So I did this two years without the video, and then the third year I did it with the video and the response was much higher because of that. It was impactful for them to see physical evidence of the way my phone got in the way of my relationship with my daughter. And so if you have a photo or a story that you can tell of your own moment where you realized that being on your phone was getting in the way of things, it could be really powerful for them.

Make a plan that you’re going to follow through on. So this was a big reason why a lot of the cell phone policies didn’t work for me initially because the system I had set up was one that I didn’t like and didn’t want to follow through on.

So then every time it happened, I would try to make an excuse of why I didn’t have to actually write this student up because I didn’t like it. So make a plan. You’ll actually follow through on it. I recommend choosing an impersonal trigger, like seeing the cell phone at all. Clearly communicate this, whatever it is, trigger when X happens, I will. And communicate those next steps. Make it something you’ll actually do. And I also really encourage you to make it something that’s respectful of student autonomy. So that’s another reason why I don’t like taking the phone. Some teachers will take the phone, keep it in their desk, and then run it up to the office during lunch, and then the office confiscates it for the whole day, and then the student has to go sign it out or go to the office to get it back.

It’s not that that’s totally disrespectful, but it does take the power out of the student’s hands completely. And also, honestly, cell phones are really expensive, and I don’t want to have someone’s $600 cell phone sitting at my desk. Even if it’s like I’m going to send you to the office, obviously I don’t really recommend that. That would be disruptive and they would miss out on learning opportunities. And that’s why I like this system. They don’t have to leave the room, but it’s still them actively basically performing their own consequence. They have to walk over and put the phone in the cell phone holder, and they have to remember to pick it up on their way out the door.

Don’t take cell phone violations as a personal insult

This advice is something that I really had to learn. Don’t take it personally when you see them using it.

Just because they’re on the phone doesn’t mean that it’s a sign of disrespect to you. It’s really hard when you’re teaching and you’ve worked really hard on a lesson and you see a student, there’s something so gut-wrenching, it’s like a punch in the gut. It’s like, Wow, I’m just totally tuning you out for something else. So it can feel really personal, but it’s really, I think effective, much more effective to be very unaffected by it. To not take it at all personally, to have a very calm tone with them and just very, even this isn’t about me and you, this is just about, Hey, oh, I see a phone. Hey, Johnny, can you put it in the cell phone thing? Thanks. Sometimes I’ll even just tap on the phone and then point if I’m talking so that it doesn’t even interrupt the flow of class.

And then remember your goal and the real-world significance of this. Keeping that in mind when you see the cell phone, it’s not about Johnny ignoring you at that moment. It’s about teaching Johnny not to ignore anyone, not just you personally, but don’t ignore anyone. Don’t ignore your teacher. Don’t ignore your boss. Don’t ignore your mom. Don’t ignore your girlfriend or whatever. And then lastly, remember that you mess up too. Cell phones are addictive for grownups too. So I think that also really helps. And I think that’s why I do give chances. I’m not always like the second I see it. Sometimes I’ll see three cell phones out and I know that what happened is I had them use it for an educational activity. I forgot to remind them. And so they just forgot to put them away. And you’re human. And I would forget to put my phone away too.

So just saying like, “Oh, I’m seeing a few cell phones. Let’s get those put away”. And then expecting them to get put away quite quickly and then addressing it if it’s not, I think is really helpful.

So what it’s really like in my classroom? So first of all, I had a parent talk to me after this presentation. She was like, I’m really mad at you, Mrs. Hilst. And I was like, Oh, no. Why? It was during a parent conference. And she said, I have been telling my daughter over and over and over how important it is that she doesn’t let cell phones run her life and how she needs to put it away sometimes and she needs to be present. And she has ignored me. She came home the other day after your presentation and said, Mom, phones don’t make good moments, people do.

And she’s like joking, obviously. But she was like, I’m so mad at you. I’ve been saying that to her for months. And she never listened. So I’ve gotten really good feedback from students as well. We revisited it in January and I was giving out lollipops for like, Okay, what do we do when we see a cell phone? How does that work? And then somebody raised their hand and I said, “Okay, why is that our rule?” And the student nearly fell over herself. “Phones don’t make up memories. People do.” So it sticks. It does stick. And not with every student. I’m not trying to make it sound like it’s some perfect utopia, but it does stick. So yes, they still slip up. Just yesterday there were three phones out on the desks, and I had to say exactly what I said, oh, I’m seeing some phones, guys. Let’s get those put away.

And they forgot and they instantly put them away. And I saw no more phones for the rest of the class. And sometimes they do. There are one or two students who will still push it. Usually, that’s just when I know I need to like, okay, nope, it needs to go in the holder more quickly than I maybe would. No morning that time. I’ve seen you do that earlier this week. It needs to go in there.

Have fun with it. So I’ll sometimes be like, “Oh my gosh, I see phones. I’m closing my eyes, I’m counting to five. And when I open them, I don’t want to see any phones. I hate phones.” Just jokingly, really silly, and a little bit dramatic. Whatever you do that fits your teaching style and your personality, try to make it a little bit fun sometimes. Don’t always make it so serious about, Oh my gosh, cell phones. At least that has worked for me in decreasing stress.

And then follow through. I will say usually it’s the first week especially, you’re going to have to have probably multiple students put their phones in the cell phone holder. So just mentally prepare yourself that for the first seven days, you’re going to be enforcing this and you’re going to be putting cell phones that you’re going to be saying, Billy, put it in there. Susie put it in there. Because it’ll decrease after that. But they just want to know. They’re going to just test. They’re going to be like, are you serious about this?

And then I really encourage this part: Make regular reminders part of your routines, because that will prevent you from always being like, oh no, do I need to have them put it in the holder or should I just give them a warning? Just say. So I start my class with, Okay, go ahead and put your cell phones away now. We’re going to get ready into learning, blah, blah, blah.

So right after they’re due now, which sometimes allows them to use their phone for various purposes. And so right after they’re due now I go out and say, okay, the timer goes off, beep beep. I go, alright guys, we got a great lesson today. Let’s get all those cell phones put away now, blah, blah, blah. And then same with after. If you let them use it for a Quizlet or some other educational activity. Okay, guys, we’re done with that. Now I want to get those cell phones back in your backpacks. Remember I don’t want to see ’em type of thing. I also suggest if you have year-long classes that you remind them in January because you will see it slip, it’s like you forget. You don’t forget. I shouldn’t say that.

You get caught up in busy semester stuff and it becomes easier and easier to just let little things slide and it becomes easier and easier for the kids to let little things slide. I think that’s just the reality of teaching. Maybe that’s an area I need to grow in. And that’s not actually true. But for me, my experience has been that it’ll slip a little bit. You just need to reassert the expectations for yourself and for them and follow up for that week again, right after you kind of are like, Nope, nope, nope. This is what we’re going to do. This is what we said we’d do. And then usually they’re back in the rhythm of it again.

Thank you so much for listening to this. I hope you found even just one nugget that was helpful. That’s my hope. I’m just really appreciative of everything that Angela has done in the team at 40 Hour Teacher Workweek because it has been such a lifesaver. So thank you so much.

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