<p>My son and I were just talking about this today. We are considering getting him a smartphone of some kind (he’s due for an upgrade before school starts) so that he can access outlook’s calendar. The monthly data charge would be taken from his allowance so the decision would be his. I think he’s leaning towards the 3G plan and taking a 30 “pay cut” a month. It just seems easier. He’ll have so much more to keep track of at Exeter.</p>
<p>Phones can be very powerful tools and I’d like for him to learn to use them to their full advantage.</p>
<p>Our public school still hands out planners to all students 7-12. My son never used them, even though teachers actually graded him on in in 7th grade. He didn’t use them because all of his teachers posted assignments and due dates on the school website so it seemed like a waste of time for him to write it down and I kept a household calendar with EC committments in it. My daughter uses the paper planner, but puts everything in it (ortho appts, dance things, rehearsals). The ONLY reason she doesn’t use her phone’s calendar is that if she were to take it out in class to enter an assignment, they would confiscate it. Rules are rules, you know. Discernment not allowed. :)</p>
<p>all preps get one, all other new students should receive an email sometime in the summer on whether or not you want a PEA ‘planner’ or not. it’s just a little book thing with 1 week spread over 2 pages, and it has the formats printed on each day (except the days with special activities/no classes). It comes in your PO box when you first get to campus iirc</p>
<p>you can write down homework for each class/appointments</p>
<p>quite a few kids use phones to take pictures of assignments, provided it is written on a whiteboard. but it’s also not too hard to just remember homework for 5-6 classes.</p>
<p>I use a whiteboard in my room to plan my homework/activities</p>
<p>I told my d it will be much easier to remember homework assignments at PEA than at her current school, because there will be homework in every subject due the next day :-)</p>
<p>Lol prepclassof82 that makes more sense. Thank you seikuu and neatoburrito!</p>
<p>@PEAteacher: Yes, I am still one of the kids who prefers a paper planner. I feel more organized when I am writing down all the homework after the class finishes. Entering stuff into my phone is too much work (it’s not a smartphone). Which brings me to another question: Are students allowed to carry their phones around with typing appointments and such in them and to answer calls in public (I know some boarding schools don’t allow it) during their free time?</p>
<p>i personally like paper planners more. i don’t like having too much on my phone (it’s an iphone) because i’ll rely on it too much. i’ll be using it to keep in touch, check email, entertain myself, for my music, check the weather, and a whole bunch of other functions. i don’t want to rely too much on my phone! and i don’t want to be one of those kids who would freak out and wouldn’t be able to function properly if their phone died.</p>
<p>I have never seen anyone use their iPhone to take a picture of an assignment…I think that would be overkill. Many teachers update the assignments online. This year I bought a planner to record my assignments but I ended up not using it at all except to record math homework (and even then I jotted most of the assignments at the end of the page in my notebook instead). This is not a big deal…</p>
<p>Our son was required to use a Planner book in his Middle School. As early as the 5th grade, he appreciated the value of it. He wasn’t perfect about using it, but he was pretty darned good about it. He was quite a busy kid in Middle School and he knows that the Planner helped him a lot by keeping him in constant touch with assignment deadlines, EC schedules, etc. It’s a resource he’ll continue relying on at boarding school. We also think that its use is excellent preparation for life “outside the bubble.”</p>
<p>urban, there’s no “ban” against phones; you can carry your cell phone around as you please. Just make sure that you remember to silence it before class starts (and that you don’t text during class!).</p>
<p>By the way, I have nothing against paper planners. If that’s what you like, go for it. You DO need to be organized in using your time, so figure out what works best for you.</p>
<p>BHAHAHHA, everyone does that at my current school, and we usually only get around 15-30 minutes of homework (well, it takes me 15 minutes…I don’t know about other people).</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Do the desks in the dorms have drawers, especially a file drawer?</p></li>
<li><p>Is a bookshelf provided?</p></li>
<li><p>Is there a mirror in the room?</p></li>
<li><p>Can my son practise his electric bass in his room with a small amp? If not, are there amps in the music building and/or student center?</p></li>
<li><p>If you have the “look sharp” plan, don’t you end up with a million hangers, or is there a recycling bin for them?</p></li>
<li><p>Are you provided with athletic clothes for prep spaz that the Academy washes afterwards or do you have to remember to pack you clothes and bring them back to wash yourself? Wouldn’t those clothes put you over the limit for the laundry plan?</p></li>
<li><p>Does anyone actually write their names in their clothes?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You know, moms think of the practical things. :)</p>
<p>neato, some while ago here on CC someone posted information about iron-on labels that they’d had good luck with. We bought 50 for $10 and they seem fine. You can find them [url=<a href=“http://www.prontolabels.com%5Dhere%5B/url”>http://www.prontolabels.com]here[/url</a>]. Our experience is that they’re more durable than “permanent” (Ha!) ink names written on clothes.</p>
<p>I have a feeling teachers (unless they live in the dorm) won’t be able to answer questions </p>
<ol>
<li>yes, standard desk have 3 drawers (1 file drawer) and 1 little pullout thing for keyboards</li>
<li>yes, although some books are too big to fit (vertically) in it</li>
<li><p>yes, on the back of the door, but bathrooms should also have large ones</p></li>
<li><p>there is a recycling thing for hangers. can’t remember which plan is the “look sharp”, but white hangers are for normal cleaning and copper ones are for dry cleaning. they all go in the same recycling stack though</p></li>
<li><p>I think you can get clothes from the academy (rent?)… but the laundry plan isn’t strict at all. I definitely get more than x number of shirts washed per week, just throw it all in the laundry bag and they’ll take care of it for you. E&R will sometimes dry clean clothes they think needs to be dry cleaned. If you want to avoid this there should be a form you can fill out so E&R doesn’t pay for any clothing damage but you can avoid a lot of random charges you don’t want. </p></li>
<li><p>maybe…? E&R have little tags on your clothes to track them going in and out of the system so they’re not lost that easily…</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks seikuu; I do live in a dorm but don’t always remember the details. Everything seikuu says coincides with what I know and remember. Regarding practicing an instrument, generally speaking he should do that in the music building, where they have rooms set aside for this purpose. There may be times during the day when he can do it in his room, but during study hours the floor needs to be quiet.</p>
<p>If you have a son, I would add a strong recommendation, in fact a plea, to write his name on his clothes. Teenagers have a tendency to leave their clothes all over the place, and boys can rarely recognize their own clothes, so I’m always finding stuff around the dorm that nobody claims. That includes shoes. Even the kid’s initials would be helpful.</p>
<p>The fact that they all kind of wear the same things compounds the problem. (At one school we visited, the rack from E and R was in the hallway and there were four identical blue striped button downs on it. My son owns one like it too.)</p>
<p>I’ve ordered the labels that Mainer suggested, but thanks for the reminder about the shoes. Hopefully, they don’t leave their underwear lying around in common areas! I don’t plan on ironing labels into those!</p>
<p>So I can presume that the music building have amps for him to just plug in to.</p>
<p>Don’t be so sure about the, ahem, “unmentionables”… I have found those in the hallway more than once. How they traveled there, I’m not sure about.</p>
<p>I don’t know about amps in the music building, but your son can ask any music teacher; they’ll be able to help him out.</p>