Good morning! Do you use school-issued devices in the classroom? If so, do you like them? Do your students? We invite teenagers to share their thoughts. — The Learning NetworkScreens in School
Last fall, The New York Times surveyed 350 teachers around the country about technology use in the classroom. Here were some of the responses: Devices really do help make learning more flexible, accessible and engaging. — Christina Barreto, Sixth grade, Yonkers, N.Y. Teachers are constantly competing with their Chromebooks for attention. — Wesley Lima, High school English, Dartmouth, Mass. Devices should be treated like cigarettes for kids. — Joshua Lemere, Sixth-grade English, Westminster, S.C. Do any of those quotes reflect your own feelings about school-issued devices? How do your students feel about them? In our recent writing prompt, Is There Too Much Screen Time in School?, we invite teenagers to share their thoughts. Bring your students to the discussion, and we may publish their responses in a future Current Events Conversation, where we feature a selection of teen voices each week. Recent Times reporting about schools
More teaching resources from The Learning Network
Student Activity: Make a ‘good list.’
It’s easy to notice the bad things in our lives and in the world. But what if you made a list of the good things you have experienced lately, whether big or small? What would be on it? That’s the invitation for Melissa Kirsch’s new newsletter The Good List, where, each week, she’s rounding up “ideas, inspiration, artifacts, rituals and provocations that are, well, good.” Have your students try it: Make a list of three to five things that have given them joy, inspiration or hope recently. How did making that list make them feel? What do they think would happen if they did it every week? They can post their lists and their reflections, and read those from other teenagers, here. Before you go, see what teens are saying about holding parents responsible for school shootings.
Following the recent conviction of Colin Gray, the father of a teenage gunman who killed four people at Apalachee High School in 2024, we invited students to weigh in on the growing tactic of charging the parents of young perpetrators in mass shootings. Here are some of their responses: Parents are the first and biggest teachers of their children, so they are responsible for them. If they have a gun, they are in charge of teaching their kids the rules and keeping it safe. — Kyla, Minnesota The person that should be held responsible for the shootings is the person who did the shooting. Anything or anyone can be an influence (especially the internet), not just a parent. — Spencer, North Carolina I think that we should focus less on how complicit the parents are and more about how at fault the government is. If Congress and the president actually passed significant gun control legislation, then there would probably be a significant decline in school shootings. — Andy, New York We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to LNfeedback@nytimes.com. More next week.
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