Beyond Integration

  The Influential Parent - Episode 9, Summer Care Tips   With devices going home for the summer in our district, we wanted to take some time to share some tips for parents that will help them set some guidelines for technology use over the summer. We also encourage you to go to your school's website to locate the summer resource page, allowing your child to continue their learning over the summer. Here is another resource to locate camps for your child(ren) to participate in throughout the summer. Online Camps for a Summer of Learning Adventures , Common Sense Media

  The Influential Parent - Episode 8, My Child Wants to Create a TikTok - Now What? Your child has come to you and said, I want to create a TikTok video. Or, maybe they have already started creating TikTok videos but you haven't had the conversation around TikTok. It's not too late. Join us in this episode to learn about the pros and cons of our children creating TikToks, or maybe even you creating videos. Hear how you can support your child on the journey to create a successful experience and a positive digital footprint.

  The Influential Parent - Episode 7, So Your Kid(s) Want TikTok? TikTok is gaining momentum with a variety of age groups, especially our kids. It is a fun and creative way for anyone to watch, create and share videos. Whether you are new to TikTok, your child wants a TikTok account, or have been using it for a while, we share some fun facts and tips to help parents navigate the consumer side of this popular social media platform.  

  The Influential Parent - Episode 5, The Digital Habits That Impacts Ourselves Picking up where we left off last week, we talk more about notifications and the phenomenon of DOOMSCROLLING (du-duh-duhhhh!!) How does scrolling and scrolling through social media affect our children (and ourselves) physically, mentally, and emotionally? How does endless time in front of a screen affect young brains? Amanda also challenges Nikki with the question: How much time do you think your kids spend on a device each day?  We dig into these interesting topics this week! 

  The Influential Parent - Episode 4, The Digital Habits that Impact Ourselves How much time do you spend on your device? It may be more than you think. In this episode, we spend some time talking about how you can become more aware of your digital habits by using an app. And what about those notifications? Do you have them turned off or on? Listen in to hear our perspectives on what these phone notifications can lead to. 

Teaching in a 1:1 environment is truly a great opportunity for both you and your students. It allows for immediate access to the most recent information, endless opportunities for students to create and demonstrate their understanding of the concepts, as well as personalizing the learning for your students. However, I am often hearing that the devices are becoming a distraction. Students become off task and are on websites or apps that are either inappropriate or unwanted at the time. The first instinct for the teacher is to take the device away. However, it is a learning tool, just as a paper, pencil, and book are learning tools. We certainly do not take those away from our students. We deal with the behavior, redirect students to get back on task and reinforce to use the device appropriately. So, over the break, I took an opportunity to read a book called Classroom Management in the Digital Age: Effective Practices for Technology-Rich Learning Spaces by Heather Dowd and Pat Green. I...

What is your school doing to inform parents of internet safety, media balance, and learning with technology? What are you doing, as an educator, to provide ongoing information so parents are learning how to “monitor” their child(ren)’s technology use at home? Just as we did not grow up in the digital age, the parental community in each of our schools did not either. They are just as unequipped and unaware as we are when it comes to digital citizenship. As an educator, it is imperative we are knowledgeable and stay up to date with how to develop our students to be responsible online users. Much of what we do with our students is online and can be overwhelming, ensuring they make the right choices and be informed users of the internet. Many of our students are currently developing an online reputation that will impact their future. Just as we are learning how to teach this to our students, parents need to learn what steps they can take to keep their child(ren) safe and...

In a time-honored “beginning of the year tradition,” teachers are going to start the year off going over classroom rules, procedures, and expectations for the year. They will cover everything from bathroom passes, sharpening pencils, turning in assignments, entering and exiting the classroom along with many other expectations.  How much time will classroom teachers spend talking about their digital expectations for students? With schools moving to a 1:1 environment and more and more students showing up with cell phones, it is time to spend just as much time on students' online behavior as you do on their physical actions.  As the teacher, you establish the culture of your classroom with high expectations for student behavior and student to student interactions, both online and face-to-face.   Because accessing devices for learning is an integral part of teaching and learning in Richland 2, it is important that conversations about behavior and consequences h...

https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/curriculum One of the critical areas we, as educators, focus on daily with our students is being a responsible citizen in our society. We work on building character skills on a daily basis in various ways, whether it is circle time/morning meeting, community building activities or reteaching those quick lessons when students need a “refresher” on those good habits of mind. The question is, how do you implement the learning required for students to be responsible “digital” citizens? So you know where to start? Common Sense Media has recently released some new and revised lesson plans that are FREE and completely ready to use. Here are some highlights of what you can find on their website: Lessons are organized based on revised topics under the big umbrella of “Digital Citizenship” . This list also reflects the new “scope & sequence” where the first topic is more general, progressing to a more complex topic. ...

Source: http://dailyutahchronicle.com/2015/11/29/a-brief-history-of-memes-and-how-theyre-destroying-our-political-culture/ Everybody loves a good meme.  From teachers to students, these days memes provide a lot of entertainment.  Have you ever thought about assigning memes as student work, though?  Asking kids to make and share memes could get us further in the engagement battle and really the kids are doing much more than creating memes.  See some examples below: My Favorite Mistake Meme So often teachers spend tons of time reviewing student work and providing feedback only to have it be ignored by the kids.  What if you asked students to meme their favorite mistakes?  This would force them to review the work and the feedback, and if you as a teacher only identified where the mistake was rather than what the mistake was, it could force them to do some focused error analysis.  Teachers can then anonymously share memes that addre...

Do you need a new approach to getting your students to analyze graphs, draw conclusions and even evaluate the reliability of the information? Well, I just saw this on another blog I follow, Teacher Tech with Alice Keeler , and was intrigued by the instructional activity that encourages students to participate in an online moderated conversation about the data and their observations. Graphs display information about politics, policies, pop culture, and daily life topics, bringing in a variety of content related to most classrooms. Students 13 and older can participate in the online moderated conversation, but don't let this discourage you if you teach younger students. Have a whole group discussion and use the teacher account to add the comments, allowing students to have that online learning space opportunity. The 3-day process of analyzing graphs and contributing to the online discussion with the New York Times is the same each week. 1. On  Tuesdays,  the...

We recently wrote a blog discussing the importance of creating digital learning spaces with our students. These relevant and meaningful ways of communicating online assist our students in learning to be responsible and effective communicators no matter the tech tool used. We want students to understand that the internet provides opportunities for connecting with like-minded people and collaboratively learning with others. We always hope that our students and children use good judgment when they are online, however, there are times when comments are posted that are hurtful and meant to humiliate another person. What is cyberbullying?  As defined by Common Sense Media , the use of digital media tools to deliberately humiliate and harass others often and deliberately. Cyberbullying is similar to face to face bullying. It can be harassing someone, pretending to be someone, or spreading rumors. The use of online tools enhances the embarrassment because it becomes more pub...

The beginning of the school year can be overwhelming. From learning new students’ names, establishing norms and classroom rules that students must follow in the classroom to then developing a classroom culture that is safe and conducive to learning, it's no wonder that teachers are unusually exhausted in those first few weeks.  As educators, it is the same “beginning of the year” lecture every time and it is the same presentation for the students every year. Teachers want to ensure students understand what is expected and what a good citizen does in class and school each day. Students practice being a good citizen each day and learn from the mistakes made. When an unacceptable action occurs in the classroom, at lunch or during recess teachers take that moment as a learning opportunity to correct it for the future in hopes it won’t happen again. So as I ask you, can we empower our students to learn to be responsible citizens in the digital space by giving them frequent opportuniti...