3 Times the Charm?
OR
Spend $130 Bucks and Literally Give Kids the Power!
I've discovered that the mix of the digital divide, possible turbulent home lives, and general teenage forgetfulness results in a loss of power. Yes, they usually admit that they fall asleep with their phone next to them and not plugged in. Shocker. It seems that some of my students who DO have devices (yes, there are still a lot who do NOT) show up to school with a low or no charge. A device that they LOVE to use for social connections and fun in the hallways and during free time. Oh yeah, and sometimes in class for learning, too! Without that device they feel a serious gap in their daily lives.
We fill that gap.
A few years ago, I was inspired by the charging lockers I saw during a visit to the Hillwood High School Library in Nashville with the ISTE Board of Directors and I wanted to support our BYOD pilot program and our kiddos by giving them a place to recharge their devices in school.
Spoiler: My first two tries at this were total failures.
But hey, not every innovation turns out to be a home run, amirite? You still gotta swing for the fences! (Yeah, that's my first sportsball metaphor, friends! - W00t!) Don't worry, I'll give you the low down as to why I think they flopped below - but if you're reading just for the success (so far!) I'm gonna share that first.
Because I think we've now hit on a really easy, relatively low cost, & popular way to give my kids the power they crave and need.
Approximate cost for 8 chargers & 10 cords = $130 bucksSet of 5 charging lockers & delivery = $1300.00 bucks (details & links below)Piece of mind not worrying that kiddos will have their devices stolen or locked out on your watch? Priceless!
Procedure:
� Kids (and staff) can request a charging device, first come, first serve anytime before 2pm. I also bought 2 flat chargers for staff to borrow. Kids come first. Always.
� We keep the chargers on a shelf behind the Circ counter
� Kids must first show that their phone has less than 30% charge to get one. (We found at first some kids just wanted it for the cool factor)
� We don't lend them out for the charging of fancy headphones - these are for devices that could possibly be used in the classroom.
� Kids can borrow the charger alone or with a multi-device cord. They must initial to agree to pay for the loss or damage of the device & cord (Yeah, we know this isn't really enforceable)
� We ask that kids agree not to let the device out of their sight - if they're asked to share it - we trust them to keep track of it.
� We also ask that kids bring back the device at the end of the day. Do they always remember? Nope! That's why we collect their last period class teacher (I, or my amazing Media assistant Kathi Bell, calls classrooms at the end of the day to get them back - or we track them down the first period of the next day. 
Some days we're cleaned out of chargers within the first 5 minutes of school. I'm making a sign for our front door that says "Yes, We Have Awesome Chargers to Borrow!" or "Sorry, All Chargers Have Been Borrowed" with Bitmoji cartoons. � This is a complimentary service. We also reserve the right to not lend out a charger on a early dismissal day or to a kiddo who has proven to be unreliable. But that hasn't happened yet.
Don't tell my students, for all my fierceness [snaps Z formation] I'm kind of a soft touch. One of my kids told me that his mom took the only charger at home on a business trip so I loaned him the charger for a few days till she got back. Another kid said that they didn't have a working charger at home and had to wait 
You never know what kinds of things kids are struggling with at home. What if a kid doesn't have a computer at home and just a mobile device and needs to do homework? This is important! We can help fill the gaps that the world & circumstance gives to these kiddos.
� Here's my high tech sign out sheet that's printed on bright PINK NEON paper & on a clipboard on our circ desk. Fancy.
My kids tell me you can get these chargers at Five Below. I haven't tried them yet. If we lose a lot over the year, I might give them a whirl. The multi device cords are CHEAP! They sometimes stop working and can break. So far, so good though and this has been a LOT less headache than those fancy expensive charging lockers.
Want to hear what problems we encountered with those? Keep reading!
1. My First Try
It consisted of a tall AV cart with 2 USB charging hubs and I bought a bunch of multi-ended charging cords. It was on the honor system - come into the Media Center, plug in your device, check out a book or read, and charge while you were there. Still had my disclaimer, though!
Your device, Your Responsibility
It worked great, for a long while - everyone respected the rules and "baby sat" their devices as they charged. Then, unknowingly, we had a kid leave his device unattended for a few classes and it went missing. Fail!
2. Take Two: Piloting Charging Lockers
I had a new principal who was cool enough to agree to pilot a locking charging station similar to what I saw in Nashville years ago. He agreed & we spent $1300 to get five lockers set up on a TV cart.
My new (yes, another new) principal decided to move it into the teachers lounge. It stayed there for a year. And yes, I had to save a few for teachers who forgot their self-selected temporary pass code. And yes, sometimes the batteries would die and I'd have to 0ver-ride and unlock to save their device. It was a PAIN! Read all about them here -back when I was optimistic & hopeful that they would be great!
The NOT so great discovered truths
about the charging lockers.
No lie, they turned out to be a total pain in the butt. We had MANY, many, times where a kid forgot their self-selected 4 digit temporary code and had to use the over ride key. That was SO annoying. Both for us and for them. It was always at the end of the day, trying to catch their bus, too! So add rushed panic to the situation.
Greedy Battery Gobblers
The lockers also gobbled up batteries. The locking mechanism used AA batteries, so it was independent from AC.
A few times a locker lost battery power during our after school program with a device stored inside and I wasn't around to save it with my over ride key. Which caused a couple very distraught teens to suffer going without their beloved device until we could get it open the next day. It also caused a few parents to be mad. No one likes that!
Also, if the door gets slammed or moved, sometimes the battery pack would get dislodged and stopped working - which caused me to have to get out my Phillips head screw driver and do some maintenance.
Tie One On!
We also had to zip tie the multi device charging cords inside the lockers - as kids liked to borrow them. A few teachers did, too! ;-) We eventually got them back, but it would slow down and hinder the next customer who needed a cord. We went though a LOT of cords.
These lockers cost about $1300 bucks. Buying info & links on my first Got Charge? blog post. Ouch -- just checked and they're now up to $1,444 for the EDU price. Eep!
So save 90% of your money and try the cheapo errr inexpensive portable chargers first.
Because, NO ONE wants to be responsible for a kids only device but it's AWESOME to be responsible to give POWER to a kid and their beloved device!
Your turn!
What am I missing here? Any other suggestions? Successes? Wins? Fails? Do you give your kids an opportunity to re-charge? IF so, why or why not? Please hit me up in the comments and share your thoughts!
Scurvy SPAM! Sorry, Svetlana from Vladivostok - I don't want to subscribe to your sexy web cam, I'm sure it's lovely - but stop leaving comments expecting me to publish them -same thing with report writing cheating schemes, as IF! I won't. Ever. Full stop.
