Clusters of students enter the precalculus classroom in twos and threes — black hoodies on, heavy backpacks slung over one shoulder.
One-by-one, each University High School student does the same thing: Checks their phone.
Some pluck it out of zippered backpack pouches, others grab it from their jeans’ pocket.
Seizing the moment, teacher Thomas Gribble does a 180: Instead of a cell-phone ban reminder, he approaches the whiteboard.
“Now that I have your focused attention, check out this QR code. Let’s use that,” he says.
Cell phones point to the whiteboard, camera apps bring up the yellow squares on the screen, the students log into the focus:ed app.
On this day, part of class is dedicated to testing the app Gribble created and giving feedback on what happens when their phones lock down and turn into graphing calculators.
Once the phones lock, only apps like Desmos, an online graphing calculator and Canvas, digital classroom software, may be used. The phone will — ideally — become a calculator for about an hour in Room 114. Gribble aims to use the often-banned technology in his classroom, since more-often-than-not, it’s wielded anyway.
“For the most part (students) have a desire to learn and that desire has changed a little bit. It’s not as obvious as it used to be. Cell phones and social media have played into that,” said Gribble, 40. “With this app, I can push boundaries a little bit and present them with more and different types of ways of looking at math.”
More than three-quarters of public schools nationwide have a cell phone policy that prohibits students from using their cell phone during class, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. About 12% have a cell phone policy that allows teachers to decide whether students can have their cell phones during class, the center says.
Last April, the Arizona Legislature passed a bill to reduce cell phone and social media use in schools except for educational purposes and emergencies. The bill requires schools to create policies to reduce cell phone use. The Tucson Unified School District revised its cell phone policy in July to limit distractions and interruptions.
Students in Gribble’s precalculus class know the rules. Some are open to working within them.
“With the restrictions, (the app) makes me more attentive in class,” Avery, a sophomore, said. “I think the app’s really helpful, especially because I already have my phone and it’s tempting (to use) because it’s here in front of me.”
Another student craves the experience with the phone/calculator in this class that bridges college algebra and trigonometry. “I like using Desmos on my phone as a calculator better than using an actual calculator and the AP (exam) uses Desmos,” the sophomore said.
Similar apps to Focus:ed are available in the app store. Gribble has customized it for his classroom. He communicates with students, parents and administration on its use. Families may opt out.
Gribble, who currently teaches five sections of precalculus in year eight of his teaching career, talked with Arizona Luminaria about the app’s origin, his goals for it and his students and how he blends the two. The interview was edited for clarity and length:
Q: You have an engineering degree and you’ve worked at a magazine and a computer company, how did you become a teacher?
A: One of the things we did in that company in addition to doing customer support and helping educate customers on the different options, was community outreach where I would go to local middle schools and teach them computer literacy stuff and I just really liked it. I also liked tutoring in college. So teaching was always something that I thought I could be good at. When we moved to Tucson, I didn’t have many prospects in technology. I started substitute teaching and tutoring. I enjoyed it enough to get a master’s degree at the UA in teaching and teacher education. One of the requirements was student teaching. I was lucky to be placed with a really great mentor-teacher at UHS who happened to be retiring that year and it kind of just fell together. I am someone who has always wanted to do a really good job at what I do. I think one of the most important things about being a teacher is genuinely caring about what you do and the students.
Q: When did you start creating the app in earnest?
A: I started it about a week before school started this year. I unplug a lot in the summer and then two weeks before school starts I turn everything back on. I always try to do some meaningful reflection at the end of every year. At the end of last year, I was so burnt out from fighting kids on their phones. I thought I had to do something about this. I was hopeful because I knew (Arizona Gov.) Katie Hobbs signed a statewide ban on phones. That sounds awesome, but then I’m thinking about how does that get enforced?
Q: The creation of the app seems to fuse the teaching part and the creative/tech part of you. Do I have that right?
A: Yeah, that’s fair. I think this has always been true about me as a person: I like to try to figure things out and solve problems. That’s what engineering is. It’s identifying problems and then coming up with solutions and trying them and seeing what works. And that is something that I have also tried to put into my teaching, just literally how I teach and how I change policies in my classroom. But the app creation is certainly a much more obvious manifestation of that sort of desire and person and part of me.
Q: Where did the germ of the app come from for you?
A: When I first started teaching, most students had smartphones. But the use of social media and just the constant checking and distraction and stuff was a lot. Obviously COVID and online learning was the big catalyst for leaning on technology a lot more in education — with the one-to-one idea of every student having a device, like a computer and kind of generally getting away from paper and pencil and textbooks into digital resources.
I’m seeing this in education, somebody comes up with an idea and people are like “Yeah logically that would be great.” But then in practice it doesn’t exactly go the way you thought because it’s impossible to know without experimentation.
Second in a series
This series showcases educators who push through boundaries and find solutions for their students to learn. Check out our last one here.
And there’s never really intentional experimentation because you have ever-changing subject matter, you have ever-changing students. The subjects of your experiment are always evolving. I don’t blame educational policy makers for that, but I think this push of putting things online has started to become more permissive of having these devices always successful in the classroom and as a result the students don’t have the regulation ability to know that “No, it’s during class.” If I’m using my computer or phone it should only be for the purposes of what is intended right now versus like “Hey I have a game that I’m addicted to because it has addictive gameplay elements in it. I have social media algorithms that are like feeding my brain with a constant drip of dopamine.” So of course I don’t blame the students for this. I think this book “The Anxious Generation” has sort of helped me reframe, essentially the fault. We tried this thing and in retrospect, we’re pretty stupid about how we did it and as a result there has been damage done and that’s also incumbent upon us to fix it. This is not only me observing this. I’m just one teacher in Arizona and I’m not paid very much and I might have a normal job. I don’t feel like it’s up to me to figure that out. And so if that were to happen in my classroom, I would be just like, all right, this is outside of my abilities here. So, it’s an admin and parent conversation. It’s just that I can’t do that for every kid who has a tendency to want to open up TikTok and Snapchat and Clash Royale.
Q: Do you want to sell this thing?
A: I definitely started this for myself because last year when reflecting I realized that cell phones were so big and damaging to my students. I wanted to do this just so that in my classroom I could give them this so that then I’m not dealing with cell phones all the time. But then, I think I should probably see if I can monetize this somehow. My oldest brother has some background in technology and an MBA. He’s been working with me on some ideas. He has gone to some conferences and talked to people. And they have expressed optimism. They’ve been positive about it. There’s a lot of money being thrown around for educational tools right now. This doesn’t exactly fit that. It’s more like something that will enable the use of educational tools.
Q: Do the students seem to be into it?
A: Some of the kids are like, “Wow, this is really cool that you made this.” But the biggest and most notable reaction that I got when I tested it with them last week was this panic. There were two kids who were panicking after I got it set up on their phone. They were like “Mr. Gribble, OK I see that it’s working, but can you unfocus my phone now? And I’m like why? And they’re oh I just don’t want it to be focused right now. I’m like why? And they’re like ‘I just don’t, please.” I was actually encouraged by that reaction because that means it is worthy. I think there’s a lot of kids who know that they have this problem. I can’t force it. So all I can say is “there’s a school-wide phone ban. So you either use this app in my classroom and you can use your phone in the apps that I permit or you can just not use your phone at all. It’s totally up to you.”
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