As students were greeted back to school for the 2015-2016 year at Ralston Valley, they were also greeted with a major change in the way the classrooms are being run.

From teachers creating more of a learning atmosphere, than lectures, to the math department collecting cell phones during class, things have certainly evolved.

Every student has experienced a class of dead silence when suddenly one cell phone rings, distracting the entire class for a short period of time. Yet, most students have also been in a class when multiple people are distracting themselves and others by using their cell phone.

The math department decided to take a stand against these distractions and create an environment for all students to succeed, creating the new policy after reviewing increased instances of cheating and the constant distractions in the classroom from previous years

From now on, students are expected to place their silent cell phone in a numbered holder on the wall to ensure that students are in an active learning environment.

Scot Gause, an engineering and geometry teacher at RV, stated how the cell phone rule was created for two reasons.

“It allows for fewer distractions,” Gause said, “while adding to the integrity of the classroom, the tests, and the quizzes.

“[We were] constantly being fed-up with kids being distracted,” Gause went on to state, “and an incredible, exponential increase in cheating. It’s micro distractions all period long, and if we can eliminate that, that’s great.”

Lisa Miller, an Algebra II and Geometry teacher at RV, shared how there is a “huge” difference in the learning environment now.

“I’ve had a couple of kids and many parents thank me for the new policy,” Gause added to Miller’s statement.

Gause informed parents of the change earlier this year.

“I told parents at Back To School night that we had a teacher a couple of years ago who had all their kids put their phones on vibrate, and put them on the whiteboard,” Gause recounted. “[The teacher] was going to teach his normal lesson, and write tally marks [for] how many times a phone buzzed occurred.

“In a 45 minute time frame,” Gause continued, “there were like 195 buzzes that went off.”

The new cell phone policy was created to help students focus more on the learning process and to succeed.

“Cell phones are a great resource,” Gause said. “We all use them. There is no question about it. But ethically, how we use them, when we use them, the timing of it all; it all matters. We are just trying to find a balance. It’s not that we are against cell phones.”

Still, students will find the new rule challenging.

“I think some students misinterpret that rule, as that we’re just trying to hammer them and be mean about it, but really we just care about them learning,” Gause explained. “That’s the ultimate goal. The more learning accomplished the better.”