Hellobee Boards

I don't know anything about them but that sounds so typical of bad school policy. I guess in my mind the question should not be "do they distract," because everything is a distraction and all students suffer from having motivation issues, but is it a better distraction than phones, notes, chatting, roughhousing, or the other things kids do when they are bored.

I am in no way against traditional butt-in-seat education, but when I hear stuff like that I get so annoyed because instead of leaning into a kid's natural motivation, schools so often attempt to create extrinsic rewards or use punishment. Bugs me. Just because a kid is sitting there doesn't mean he's listening and if you can tell they'd rather spin than work, that at least helps you to know as a teacher what you can do to make it more relevant to them.

My kiddo had a stim necklace to help with his thumb sucking and it would make me so frustrated if teachers considered that a distraction

We just got an email from my step-daughters school yesterday (she's in 8th grade) asking parents to not send fidget spinners to school with their kids.
I haven't seen them myself, other than the news stories lately, but I think the school should be allowed to make that call.

I see so many of my students with these! They are a fad. Not every student needs a fidget. However, they are allowed in my classroom as they do work for some students. BUT, you need to have rules/guidelines for how to use them. If your fidget becomes a distraction for others (or yourself) it is gone because it is not effective.

We just bought them for the girls, but they can't bring them to school.

I'm a teacher and I can't stand them. I work primarily with students with ADHD, (intervention) and they have been nothing but a distraction for those students. Maybe they work for some students, but they don't work for my ADHD students, who play with them on the table under the table on their friends heads. I don't mind a student fidgeting. I fidget myself. I don't mind a student standing, or having a special type of chair, or a squishy ball or anything like that. But a fidget spinner makes noise, attracts the attention of other students around them, and they have apparently are trading and stealing them from each other. I have asked them to not bring them to my class. If I can't get my students to focus on their reading because they are playing with the toy, and there is no point in them being in my reading group.

I have one that my coworker 3D printed for me. I work in IT and use it mostly when I have a difficult problem that I need to concentrate on. It helps keep my mind from wandering!

Yeeeeesss, I work in a middle school, so they've been all the rage for a while now. Our school hasn't banned them--we just include it in our general classroom management. I allow them until they distract others in the class, then I have them put it in their pocket.

It's such a minimal issue, in the long run--same with the bottle flipping and the homemade flubber this year that has been popular. I just nicely (generally, haha) ask my students to put it away if it's distracting others, and they do--problem solved.

They are not bothering me and lots of kids at my school have them. I just don't let them play with it in class. I'm kind of hoping LO will ask for one because I really want to play with one!