During my practicum placement at La Conner High School, I had the fortunate experience of seeing the before and after of implementing YONDR pouches. YONDR pouches are neoprene envelopes, sized to fit modern cellphones that lock closed using a special pin that can only be unlocked with a powerful, YONDR provided magnet. They are used in schools and other settings to lock away personal devices to create distraction-free environments.
The Before
Beginning my practicum in January 2024, it was the first time I had entered a high school since I was a student in the early 2000s. The first iPhone came out the year I graduated, 2007 - making mine the last class to make it through a k12 education with zero smartphones.
This difference in my high school experience and the ones these students were having was obvious on my first day at the school. The phones were a problem.
Students were texting, shopping, playing games, and scrolling social media, with their eyes down and their focus narrowed. Teachers were perpetually reminding, asking and forcing students to put their devices away. It was a huge distraction and there was no clear policy or enforcement around the issue.
Thanks to some school improvement planning though, that all changed in the fall of 2024.
The Implementation
Being a small district on a single campus, La Conner hosts an annual "Braves Day," where students and families can come to get acquainted with teachers and staff, learn about resources, groups and activities, and just generally prepare for going back to school.
On Braves Day, I was able to man the information table for the YONDR pouches and share with the school community about this new system for creating a positive learning environment for all of the students. I demonstrated how they function, how to lock and unlock them, handed out info sheets, answered questions and helped dispel common misconceptions about safety or other concerns.
Along with this, YONDR provides robust roll-out assistance. Staff were given a presentation as part of the in-service days and students were given a Zoom presentation as well on the first day of school.
The After
What is really amazing is witnessing the changes that happen after phones are removed from the environment. Not only were students easier to engage in-class, but there were drastic differences to school culture overall. With everyone walking head-up, it became customary to chat and say hello in the hallways. - something I couldn't recall from the prior year.
Of course the YONDR pouch is a Tier 1 solution, and with it comes Tier 2 and 3 elevations. YONDR offers a detailed protocol to follow, in line with many of the positive case studies I had seen of phone-free schools.
In my student teaching it became regular practice for me to confiscate phones and write up students for not following school policy, but it was consistently the same students. Many of the students who for whatever reason the pouches were not a solution, were eventually put on specific phone plans that required parent meetings/ involvement. For most students, the pouches are an amazing solution.
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