From May 2-May 8, CEMS and the Thomas Memorial Library partnered to support our students’ participation in Fairplay’s Screen-Free Week. While the national movement encouraged spending the week free of screen use for entertainment purposes, here at CEMS we invited students to set a personal goal for themselves that felt attainable.
Some of these goals included:
“One hour a day or less”
“Right when I get home don’t go right on my phone or ipad and go outside or get homework done.”
“I am going to not use my phone at all except for calling people or texting or maybe listening to music”
“No electronics after 9:30pm”
We also created a bulletin board of what we would like to do instead during that time:
After completing the week, students who completed their goal sheet and reflection received a certificate of achievement and a treat for their efforts!
Here are some of their reflections:
“It made me feel better because I wasn’t always having headaches”
“I was more calm and I noticed I went outside more”
“It made me feel like I had time for everything in a good day”
“It felt good to not be on my screen as much. On Friday, we went completely screen free and it was fun. It felt more interactive.”
“It made me notice how much fun I could have with not using screens.”
“I noticed that not going on Netflix/TV right after school helped me get my homework done and get prepared for sports after school.”
“It helped me sleep.”
Fifth graders Ben Rayback and Isaac Austin were two of many students who participated in Screen-Free Week!
We hope that students and families will take some of what they learned into the rest of the year!