Many schools ban the use of cellphones during the school day. This week’s article is about a proposal to use them as a reward. Go to the link below and read the article. Write a reflective comment that demonstrates you have read the article and addresses my questions.
Is Mr. Fryer’s proposal likely to make a difference in the New York City schools? Is it appropriate to reward students who do well? What kinds of incentives would work in our school? What sort things should students be rewarded for? How would you go about developing academic success in schools with students from low-income families?
Cellphones as incentives article
13 comments:
In my opinion, this idea of giving cell phones as gifts to students who are good would make a huge difference to the New York city school in lots of negative ways. This is not appropriate because of several reasons. First, students are SUPPOSED to study hard! That is what a student makes. If someone starts giving prizes to people who study hard, no one would study according to their own will, but study because of the phone! Secondly, there would some sort of border between who has a phone and who doesn’t. Students who don’t get the phones would be meant as “dumb” kids while those who have phones from the school would be “smart” kids. There would be more stress to those who are not really good at studying. Thirdly, from this, there would be those “not so bright but strong” kids who start bullying the “smart” kids and take their phones away after school. The “smart” kid would not be able to tell anyone because of the fear of getting beaten off. The bullying kids would use the phones free without having to study and no one to tell them off until a teacher or a parent finds out. I don’t think there should be any of these in any schools, including our school. This is just a waste of money! In my opinion, I think a student should just be awarded with something like a certificate or maybe a small trophy if the student did something EXCEPTIONALLY good or well. If there are low income families, the PTA or the government should donate some money to the school. If the poor student still doesn’t work hard and plays around, then the school shouldn’t support him/her. It is the student’s fault since they would have been given several warnings and a talk with a consultant.
"Cell Phones as Incentives" - Hytham
I think that this might actually make a difference for the better, especially if the students get both cell phones and free minutes, some people might be motivated money, probably most, but I would rather have a new cell phone and minutes. It is appropriate to reward students who do well because it motivates them to learn and is better for the student. I think that if our school rewarded us with money or free minutes it would be a good incentive. Students should be rewarded for receiving and keeping good grades, for athletes who really make a difference to school sports, and especially athletes who take a lot of time for sport and still manage to keep up good grades. I would motivate the students by providing the family with extra care if needed and some financial relief (i.e. less tuition) or financial help.
Mr. Fryer’s proposal would make a significant difference in New York City schools. Cellphones as a form of incentive would be an excellent way of encouraging students to do better and achieve better grades. It would educate more people, helping them get into universities and would be in a certain perspective beneficial to the economy. However, using objects, like cellphones, to make students have higher grades is immoral. By doing so we would be fueling greed into the minds of students. We would be giving the idea that everything they do in life must be rewarded. To give a form of incentive for academic work would not be possible if it weren’t something we wanted. As humans we often think in the present and not in the future. If were to look at ourselves in different perspectives than we usually do we would see what things we might truly need. A bus pass, for example, financial aid, scholarship opportunities should be things that people work towards.
"Cell phones as incentives"
I believe that Mr. Fryer's proposal is likely to have little if any impact on students grades because many students just don't care about their grades. All this proposal will do is make the very clever students happy while the other students just get more angry. Therefore i believe that it is not appropriate to award such a reward to students who are doing well in school. I believe that the only incentive that would work in our school would be a day of or some break if we did something good, nothing else is really needed. I would also go about developing academic success in school with students from low-income families by maybe giving some financial aid in the students interest if he/she did well.
By: Nadim K. 9th grade digital media.
In my opinion I think that Mr. Fryer's proposal is likely to have a big influence on many students, because many students with financial problems will improve academically to get cell phones . I believe that students with good grades should be awarded for their good grades and hard work, but not by giving them money or cell phones. They should be rewarded by getting extra time for lunch or being recognized by the school. A good way to reward students at ACS would be to let the students who gets good grades out to lunch ten minuets before the bell. if I had the choice to decide how to improve academic success I would put the student’s name with good grades on the Jordan newspaper.
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I think that Mr. Fryer’s idea might make a difference in the New York schools if there were enough schools to take him up on that offer. However it might overall deduct a lot of money from the state. For instance if each person gets $2000 if they pass and take an average of 3 AP’s then the state is looking at roughly $6000 per person. I do not think that it is appropriate to reward students for doing well. There reward should be the good grades. In a way it is bribing people to take the AP’s is that they will get money or a phone.
In out school I think you would have to offer something like a laptop because the majority has cell phones and many have line. A laptop is of more caliber here compared to a cell phone, in most cases we would have a better phone then the one that the school would offer. Students I think should be rewarded for having a good GPA and have many community service hours + be a regular participant in extra curricular activities. To develop academic success I would reward the students maybe with a high scholarship opportunity at some good state colleges to give them something to look forward to.
Considering the fact that New York City schools are extremely large and diverse and often have low-income children, Mr. Fryer’s proposal is likely to make a difference. However, although it may elicit a better academic response from students, it is not the best method of doing so and in my opinion, is actually detrimental to a child’s development since it enforces materialistic ideals rather than the more abstract, yet beneficial, rewards of education. The proposal has a “Machiavelli” aura about it considering the fact that Mr. Fryer believes that it is okay to instill such materialistic ideals if the end result is better academic results, which will most likely be measured in grades and statistics rather than in what the child has actually gained from the learning experience. It is appropriate to reward students who do well; however, this should not be focused through material objects. If material objects are used to reward a student, then the student must also be reminded of the other, more abstract, beneficial aspects of doing well in school. From my own personal experience at ACS, I believe that incentives that would most likely work are junk food, ipods, and free time. Students should be rewarded for their creativity in learning and for their ability to use higher-level thinking. For example, if a student devises a new and effective method in solving a mathematical equation, then they should be rewarded for their creativity in problem solving and “thinking outside of the box.” In order to develop academic success in schools with students from low-income families, schools should devise methods to give away things such as scholarships, which would be more beneficial and long-lasting for a student than a Motorola cell phone that will be outdated in a few years.
"Cellphones as Incentives"
I think that Mr. Fryer’s proposal would actually make a difference in the New York City schools and probably other places too. It is appropriate to reward phones to students who do well so they can later on keep up the good work and study hard but it's also a bad reason because the others who don’t get a phone will think there not smart or might be jealous and steal other student's phones. This would not be a good idea in our school because of those reasons. Certificates would be a good reward other than phones. I would treat the student's in schools that have low-income families normal like everyone else so that they feel comfortable and also help them if help is needed.
Ousmane Yonis 9th Grade Digital Media.
I think Fryer's proposal has great potential of making a difference in New York city because there are a lot of public schools there in which kids can't afford luxuries such as cell phones. Fryer could actually give them a chance to experience luxuries such as cell phones by assessment of their intelligence not their family's income. It is appropriate rewarding students who do well because some students don't think education is enough motivation for them to do well. They don't think it's worth it sometimes and that's why they slack off; but if they're shooting for something that they would like to have they're more likely to do well. In our school we should be able to have more privileges as incentives. For example, the school could give us the opportunity to go off school grounds during study hall or be able to use cell phones during lunch or break. I think students should definitely be rewarded based on their performance in AP courses. Not only for exam scores but also their grades in the class itself. It takes a lot of work to get a B or higher in an AP class, it should be rewarded so the students would be motivated to do even better. I would probably do what Fryer is doing. These unfortunate kids are coming to school not for the sake of education, but just as a result of societal pressure. If more incentives were to be used in schools, the students' academic performance would definitely improve.
In my opinion, Mt. Fryer’s proposal is definitely likely to succeed in New York City because NYC has many unfortunate families who cannot afford luxuries such as a cell phone. In my opinion, people who are smart and bound to be successful in life should be rewarded for their hard work in school. Having such a prize can also motivate students to do better in school, increasing the education/ literacy rate and giving their poor families a chance to get jobs and make a reasonable income. Incentives such as privileges to successful students would definitely work, especially in ACS. I know for junior and seniors, it would be a great privilege to be able to leave school grounds during study hall or if your study hall is at the beginning of the day you can come late or if it is at the end of the day you can leave early. Also for middle school students could be rewarded with homework passes or maybe long break. Students should be rewarded for performance in classes especially honors and AP. Students should also be rewarded for improvement, i.e. a student in English who had a D 1st quarter and now has a B. I think that Fryer’s incentive is a great way to get children to go to school not because they have to, but because they want to; they want to learn and grow up and work at a successful job.
Cellphones as Incentives
I think that the kids may be inspired to study harder for the tests if they can get to use their cell-phones during school hours. I also think that giving them free minutes will also inspire them to do better on their tests. I think that people who get a higher grade than 90% on their test should deserve this reward. An incentive at this school should be to either get a free lunch from the lunch place and other sorts of things. I think that people should be rewarded if they do well on a test or if they do well on the exams. I would try and develop academic success in schools with students from low-income families by rewarding them with credit for their cell-phone and other things like that.
Sasha
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