Written By Senior Field Instructor, Amy Kopkin Atkins

As you can imagine, asking an 8th grader to part with their phone, is like asking a 3 year old to part from their favorite stuffie. They try denial, “Oh Miss, I didn’t bring it with me today,” or they try to appeal to a sense of safety, “But my parent needs to be able to get ahold of me.”

On Angevine Middle School’s first field day of the semester, the students were trying all of these tactics and more to avoid giving up their screen addiction. Ultimately, they all reluctantly agreed, and we loaded into the SUVs for a trip up to mud lake.

The effects of the lack of screens was immediately apparent. In my van, within a matter of minutes, one student suggested we play the alphabet game, and all of the students jumped into the game of looking for letters of the alphabet on the street signs that we passed. Once we got to Z, another student contributed another game suggestion. Everyone was engaged, everyone was connecting.

Upon arriving at Mud Lake, and learning about ponderosas, the students ran over to the red hued trees to discern if there were more butterscotch or vanilla notes in the sweet smelling sap. They threw themselves into team building games and environmental education games with excitement and huge smiles.

One student said, “I know you don’t really know me, but I’m normally really quiet in class. Today, I spoke up and got more involved than I ever have.” The one seventh grader in the class of eighth graders said that while he is typically more quiet than the other students he really had a great day.

We concluded the day with secret pals, an activity where each student observes another student to “catch them doing something good”. As students complemented one another, they built more lines of connection that can be developed more deeply during their class time and on their upcoming overnight.

Were they thrilled when they got their phones back at the end of the day? Of course. Will it be difficult for them to give them up on the next trip? Probably. But like anything worth doing, it takes practice and often a little reluctance. Luckily, for this group, the time off their screens paid off in richer connections and miles of smiles.