Educator Observation Guide
Connect Phone-Free is designed to create opportunities for conversation, collaboration, reflection, and face-to-face interaction. This guide helps educators document what they observe when using toolkit resources.
Please do not record student names or other identifying information.
Activity Snapshot
Toolkit Resource Used:
- Connection-Building Activity
- Classroom Conversation Deck
- Five Days to Connection
- Who Am I Online?
- Other: __________
Setting:
- Classroom
- Advisory / Homeroom
- Lunch
- Club / Organization
- After-school program
- Other: __________
Before the Activity
What did the environment look like before the activity began? Check any that apply.
- Students were already talking with one another.
- Students were mostly quiet.
- Students were working independently.
- Students appeared comfortable without their phones.
- Some students appeared unsure what to do during downtime.
- Students were interacting mostly within established friend groups.
- Other: __________
During the Activity
For each statement, select the response that best reflects your overall observation.
The resource encouraged face-to-face interaction.
Students appeared engaged in the activity.
Students appeared comfortable participating.
The resource encouraged students to listen or respond to one another.
The resource was easy for me to use.
The activity made productive use of phone-free time.
Also Notice the Challenges
Positive interaction isn't the only useful observation. Did you notice:
- Students reluctant to participate
- Difficulty beginning conversations
- Students repeatedly thinking about or asking about their phones
- Students uncomfortable interacting outside established friend groups
- One or two students dominating the activity
- Students preferring to observe rather than participate
- Difficulty sustaining conversation
- Conflict or disagreement
- No noticeable challenges
- Something else: __________
After the Activity
Overall, how much did this activity encourage face-to-face interaction?
- Not at all
- Slightly
- Moderately
- Significantly
- Unsure
Compared with typical phone-free downtime, students interacted:
- Much less
- Somewhat less
- About the same
- Somewhat more
- Much more
- I don't have enough information to compare
Would you use this activity again?
- Yes
- Maybe, with changes
- No
One Moment Worth Remembering
Describe one interaction, response, or moment that stood out. Do not include student names or identifying details.
Something Unexpected
Did anything happen that you did not expect?
- Yes
- No
If yes:
Next Time
If you used this activity again, what would you change? What would you keep?
Quick Reflection
Finish this sentence:
When students were given something intentional to do with phone-free time, I noticed...
The purpose of this guide is not to demonstrate that every phone-free activity works. You may observe: engagement, discomfort, connection, resistance, conversation, silence, collaboration, indifference. All of these are useful observations. Document what happened—not what you expected to happen.
What This Guide Does — and Doesn't — Measure
- Participation
- Face-to-face interaction
- Collaboration
- Observable engagement
- Social comfort or hesitation
- Challenges
- Educator observations
- What a student was thinking
- Why a student behaved a particular way
- Whether a phone caused a behavior
- Whether one activity changed a student's mental health
- Whether every student experienced the activity similarly
Observation provides one piece of the picture. Student feedback provides another.
Why This Matters
Alpha Rho Sigma's Honors in Action research found that phone-free environments may create additional opportunities for face-to-face interaction, while individual experiences and outcomes vary. Documenting both successful and challenging experiences helps us understand not simply whether a phone was absent—but what happened in the space that absence created.