{"id":44581,"date":"2023-04-26T22:39:20","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T12:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=44581"},"modified":"2023-04-26T22:39:20","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T12:39:20","slug":"a-wake-up-call-from-a-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=44581","title":{"rendered":"A Wake Up Call From A Teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-44582\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Male_Teacher-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Male Teacher\" width=\"1151\" height=\"863\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Male_Teacher-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Male_Teacher-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Male_Teacher-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Male_Teacher.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Yesterday, I shut down class about 5 minutes early and told my students I wanted them to just sit and talk to one another. Several of them immediately opened their laptops and began navigating to their favorite computer game.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">I said, &#8220;No, no laptops. I want you to have face-to-face conversations right now.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">After a collective groan went up, I observed something both wonderful and alarming. For the next few minutes, a couple of tables came alive with conversation. They looked at each other in the eyes and talked with great enthusiasm and interest. It was beautiful to watch and listen to.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">However, many students were deflated. They did not know what to do without some sort of entertainment from a device. A couple of them put their heads down and avoided eye contact with anyone. I went around the room to those students and tried to engage with them. Some of them mustered a few words, but most didn&#8217;t know what to do.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">I share this story as a wake up call for parents, grandparents, and guardians. It&#8217;s tragic to me that a large percentage of today&#8217;s youth do not know how to have real conversation, but it&#8217;s not their fault. It is our responsibility as adults to lead by example and hold our kids accountable. Unplug every day, talk, and listen to your children. Getting lost in a device does not help them cope with and overcome the things they&#8217;re going through mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. All it causes is isolation and depression. They need relationships; they need you.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">I plan on doing it again today.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, I shut down class about 5 minutes early and told my students I wanted them to just sit and talk to one another. Several of them immediately opened their laptops and began navigating to their favorite computer game. I said, &#8220;No, no laptops. I want you to have face-to-face conversations right now.&#8221; After a &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=44581\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A Wake Up Call From A Teacher&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-inspiration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44583,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44581\/revisions\/44583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}