Filinto Lima describes himself as someone from the last century. The director of the Dr. Costa Matos School Group, in Vila Nova de Gaia, in the district of Porto, is from a time, not so distant, when the commotion that followed the break bell had nothing to do with mobile phones. Today, the reality that concerns him is quite different. In public schools, and not only, there is a discussion on how to approach the excessive use of these devices, which technology has also made them gain expression as an educational tool in the classroom context. In school breaks, mobile phones now compete with games for the attention of children and teenagers, in an equation that has led several schools to ban their use. In the Costa Matos group, the ban is not on the table. The educational community he leads has chosen to find new paths. On Tuesday afternoon, he took the first of several steps that, they hope, can help students choose collective activities over any impersonal interaction offered by the mobile phone. The initiative-project of a physical education teacher at EB Dr. Costa Matos - one of the six educational establishments that make up the group - is painted on the floor, now transformed into a real-scale "twister". Students and other teachers who wanted to join, recognize its importance. Carolina was one of those who wanted to get to work. On the gray floor, she created, with the help of other students, a kind of rainbow. Blue, red, yellow and green make up a giant board where the last player to stand is the big winner. She explains that the great victory will be the conquest of some freedom from the screens. "I see many children on the playground with their cell phones. And, instead of being on their cell phones, they could be playing and making friends with other children from other classes," said Carolina Machado, who is still in the 5th grade. Year of schooling. João, Carolina's classmate, also has no doubts: traditional games can be "fun" and "as addictive as cell phones". Despite confessing that he will not stop using his cell phone, João believes that the hours he spends in front of the screen will decrease "a little bit", and he hopes that the same can happen with other colleagues. At the group's headquarters, where there are only students between the ages of 10 and 15, the expression of the problem is not yet the frightening reality of many high schools, but a concern. "Every day, when I entered the school, I realized that the children were on their cell phones. And this concern led me, within the scope of my internship, to think about a multidisciplinary intervention - involving teachers of Citizenship and Visual and Technological Education - to reduce the use of the cell phone. The idea that came up was to create fun games outdoors to motivate students to leave the screen," explained the Physical Education Teacher and project mentor Diogo Francisco. Designed to stimulate and develop emotional, cognitive, social and motor skills, and combat the harmful effects of excessive mobile phone use, the proposed activities include traditional games such as the Game of the Rooster - which will be painted on all the benches located in the school grounds -, or the Game of Glory, which in this version has students as pawns and motor tasks at each station. The participation of the students - initially called to test the idea before its application - was very positive, says the teacher who hopes that this initiative will also serve as an alert to the negative impacts on the physical and mental well-being of children and young people, in their academic performance. The risk of 'cyberbullying', often fueled by images captured on school grounds, is also a concern. Filinto Lima says that the phenomenon is not exclusive to schools, but that it cannot be ignored. Stressing that the use of technology in the classroom context is positive, the director of the group and also president of the National Association of Directors of Groups and Public Schools (ANDAEP), believes that increasingly greater coordination between school and family is necessary, and challenges parents to promote, at home, environments more free of technology. Despite the negative impacts, Filinto Lima rejects that the ban on the use of mobile phones in a school context be made by order, arguing that it must take into account the socio-educational reality of each group. A position shared by the Council of Schools, in an opinion released in October 2023, where it considers that the solution does not involve prohibiting and advocates that the groups themselves should decide. A school in Lourosa, in Santa Maria da Feira, was the first in the country to ban the use of mobile phones throughout the school, seven years ago. Since then, the limitation has been extended to others. At EB Costa Matos, guarantees Filinto Lima, the creation of spaces and the dynamization of the playgrounds will be evaluated in an intercalary way, which may lead to the transformation of other places for this purpose. As they are schools of the 1st cycle of basic education (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades), the initiative is not being replicated in the other establishments of the group. Read Also: Gaia will have two bike paths along the entire Avenida da República (Portuguese version)