Stop…using your phone

            Mr.Gross, English 1 and German teacher at Hazelwood Central High school, is pulling over any student who runs his red light. Sort of.

To deal with technology usage in his classroom, he created a stop light to direct usage much like real traffic.

Using scrap wood and a few electrical items from eBay, he crafted a traffic light with one purpose: to stop technology from hindering learning time.

The concept is simple enough; red light means “no technology,” yellow means “technology only for learning,” and green means “free use of technology.”

Mr.Gross admits this is a very different approach at enforcing classroom rules, because most teachers just write students detentions for violations.

“I was trying to find a new and innovative way to deal with students’ technology without writing a ton of referrals,” he said.

Of course, students still have a mind of their own and can pull out their phones whenever they want.

That’s why he put an incentive behind the process.

If a class makes it 45 days without a red light violation, they earn a prize of some sort (food party, movie day, extra credit, etc.).

One may ask, how do you know if the policy has been violated?

If you ask any of Mr.Gross’ students, there’s no way you wouldn’t know.

When somebody is caught with technology out during a red light, Mr.Gross blares a siren from his soundboard, which his students know all too well.

“It has to be the loudest thing I’ll hear all day,” said Edward Becton, student in his German 2 class.

“You definitely can’t sleep with that thing going off,” said Michael Landrum, who takes Mr.Gross’ German 3 class.

You might ask, can a light and a siren really stop students from using their phones?

“The light works well for my German classes, not so much my English class, said Gross.

In order to help classes keep track of the amount of successful days they earn, there are boards in the front of the room, with each class’ streak.

Although no class has earned a prize yet, Mr.Gross feels that he created a system where phones are much less of a distraction, and the students have something to move towards while keeping their phones away.

“It’s not so bad once you get used to it. You get the important work out the way, then the light turns green”, said Donnel Foster in his German 2 class.

You don’t need to speak German or English to understand Mr.Gross’ traffic light: it’s common sense.