Phone Dependency

 The other day, I forgot my phone at home. 

No big deal, right?

Well, actually, the moment forced me to realize how much I rely on my phone, even at school.

The first indication that my cell phone was more important to me than I realized was when my principal approached me to ask about my Health Self-Assessment. I neglected to complete it on my cell phone that morning and administrators actually check those records. I had to fill out a paper form and submit it to the office to let them know I was COVID-symptom-free.

I provided some "payback-prep" to a teacher who missed hers, and she asked me to take her students to the playground for some outdoor time. I don't wear a watch, so I had no way to tell the time without my phone with me. Our school is still in the process of purchasing better walkie-talkies, so in the meantime, if there's an emergency outside, we are to use our ... cell phones. I misjudged the time and brought them in a bit early because I'm terrible at internalizing time spans. 

Then, I wanted to take photos of the kindergarten class I had that afternoon as they worked on a collaborative task. I planned to use the photos both as pedagogical documentation, to see who did what how, and as a way to share with families at home another example of the type of learning their children were engaged with - I emailed a batch of photos earlier, and even though it took a long time (and I'm still not finished emailing families), it was worth the effort. I received a lot of nice emails back acknowledging the pictures. With no camera, I had to ask the ECE if she would be okay with taking the photos for me. (These photos are of the class previous to that one, where I actually had my phone on me.)

At some point during the day, I wanted to translate something so that one of the ELL (English Language Learners) in the class I had would have a clearer understanding. I was out of luck - because it would take much too long to pull up Google Translate on the school laptop and it's much more convenient to tap the app on my phone.

I couldn't even call my husband in my car on the way home from school like I usually do, so that he could arrange to have dinner ready for when I return. (Yes, I'm lucky/spoiled.)

As this article indicates, the cell phone has replaced multiple devices and placed them in one convenient gadget. The union used to warn us not to use our personal devices, especially for taking photos of students, but especially during this pandemic, educators have had to supplement the meager technology tools they were supplied with by their employers with devices of their own. 

My own children are nearly at the stage where they want to get rid of their current cell phones and get "dumb phones"; they want to get off the train of constantly updating their device to the latest version. For me, I suspect that my phone will be a part of my "entourage" for a much longer time.