With the cell phone policy becoming an issue at Black River Falls High School, many students are wondering why teachers are able to use technology such as phones and tablets and students are not.

Technology advancements have been very common in the last couple of years and many teachers have been finding different ways to use technology effectively in their classrooms. From phones to tablets like iPads, teachers are finding many ways to interact with students and make their teaching better as well. Different apps, Twitter, and grading are some of the ways teachers use mobile technology in the classroom. Brad Lobenstein, one of the English teachers, uses technology in many ways in his class.

“For creative writing, I have a rhyme generator app when I try to help students with their rhyming. I use that once and a while,” said Lobenstein.

“There is also this really sweet app that gives you a percentage for each grade. You put in a assignment and the number of questions and it gives you a percentage for each question.”

Besides phones, some teachers have started using tablets for different ways to teach the course. Math teacher Adam Kaszubowski uses his iPad to help making teaching easier and more effective in the classroom.

“One way I use technology is a program called Gradecam. I’m able to scan a student’s document to grade it. To use it, I create a document on the program, and then I use the camera to scan a student’s assignment like a scantron and I can show the student what they got wrong and how they did it.” said Kaszubowski. “Another way I use it is I use mirroring from my Ipad to my smartboard. Mirroring is where I can use my smart board to mirror my Ipad on the smartboard where I can walk around and talk to students while having things up on the smartboard.”

Teachers also use Twitter to inform their students and following different teachers to find different techniques and ideas. Twitter is an effective way for people to connect from far distances away.

“I use Twitter to get out announcements about my classroom and just the school in general,” said Justice Broker, English teacher. “I have my students follow me on Twitter so I can remind them on the assignments due or any announcement the school could use.”

“I follow teachers on Twitter to get information about different teaching techniques,” said Lobenstein.

When teachers are away from their laptops, using tablets and phones can give teachers a way to grade assignments when they are away from their laptops.

“I use my phone for emails when I am not at home and use Skyward grading when I am not near my laptop, when I am gone all weekend and not near my laptop.” said Lobenstein. “There have been a couple of times where my computer is being used to project something and I use my phone to do attendance or respond to emails so I can teach and do those other things as well.”