Common Sense Media Lessons and How to Teach Them

Since our school system adopted Common Sense Media in lieu of i-Safe, I have tried teaching it a couple of different ways. The website features videos on these and other topics:

1. Digital Citizenship
2. Cyber Bullying
3. Communicating Online
4. Digital Etiquette
5. Movie Reviews
6. Following Your Digital Trail

The first year I taught we all watched a couple of videos together, discussed them, and created group posters to hang in the hallways.

The next year I tried something different. I gave all of the students headphones and allowed them to select their own videos to watch with a partner at a computer. The students loved selecting their own videos, but they watched all sorts of videos on high school levels to elementary school so that it resulted in all of them having different experiences with online digital citizenship learning.

I love the variety in teaching and aiming to perfect a lesson. Here's what I will try next. We will all watch a video together (they are all only two to five minutes long) and then I will direct them to a choice of a about five videos. Now, a few might stray a watch some of the enticing high school videos, but they can also log on at home and watch. I'll let you know how it goes!

Websites I Can't Live Without -

To all the librarians who are participating who are participating in the 20-day blog post challenge, I can't wait to see what you share!

I use lots of different websites like these listed below in order of least to most usage:

Technology for Teachers - Here's one that a lot of bloggers know about, but I just checked the site and must admit that I am kind of disappointed today. The guy who writes the blog is a teacher and listed Phrasal Stein as a good app to use.

I immediately went to the app on my i-Pad to download and there is only one review - which says to me that it really hasn't been used that much. The reviewer said, "it's a neat idea, but..." and I'll let you decide for yourself whether to use it or not.

The best thing about this website is that it gives you all the "hot technology" in one spot - especially if you are not a big techie. If you DO use technology a lot, you will have heard of the neat apps and websites listed here more often than not I have found.

Twitter - Lots of technology, teacher tips and parent tips come from Twitter. Just search for a hashtag and sort through what you find!

25 Best Technology Websites - The American Association of School Librarians website is THE best site for finding out about new technologies. That's where I found out about Edmodo before our district even became a user. There is technology here for every subject - and it's very cutting edge. Be the first to use it!

Google - Google is by far the best search engine to me and has the best apps on the web. I have tried Bing and Yahoo for general searches when I am not doing academic research and it's just not the same! Try it!

App-designing Challenge - Student Work

Makerspace Libraries - This is my fave website lately where I have been learning about turning libraries into makerspaces. Check it out or just do a Google search!

STEM - Do you know what it means?

This weekend I heard a great advertisement about STEM. As an educator, I have known what STEM means, but as a parent - do you know what it means?

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The advertisement was geared to parents and was asking them to ask their children what career they were interested in. It also encouraged parents to get their kids interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math because those subjects are where the jobs will be in the future.

And that's where the Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) comes in...

Did you know that the AVL has a huge amount of resources on colleges and careers? Just click on the Career Library tab.


 This page will appear.

The site displays an Exploration Center, a Resource Center, an Activity Center and over to the left students can click on resume creator and a Search for Colleges tab on the sidebar.

This resource is valuable and all parents should see it!

College tuition, fraternities and sororites, subject majors, and a whole world await this discovery in this online resource.

Middle school is not too early to think about STEM and college.

E-mail me if you have questions about navigating the website!

More Information on Phishy Things...

Kids by now have probably been talking about the great videos they have seen on online tracking and cyberbullying produced by Common Sense Media.

Here's another one put out by our own government that looks equally as informative and friendly to use. Information on scams, protecting yourself online and securing your computer's safety is available.

Check it out and let me know! Compare it to www.commonsensemedia.org. Which do you like better?