Second Day

Section 1:  Today’s class…

                I found the info on how to present very informative.  Lots of ideas and examples of how these concepts are used are always given but…  I would like to have some discussion about how those ideas and examples might be translated to other grade levels. (more interactive discussions please!)

Section 2:  Common Sense Media web site and Digital citizenship…

                I have used this site before to get a review of web sites, movies, or books for kids both as a parent for my 8 year old son and as a teacher.  I was surprised to see all the teacher lesson plans and other resources, I just didn’t explore that part.  I likes some of the posters to put in the classroom, did not like some of the lessons.  This past year I had a class blog that students could write in.  We had a lot of good discussions about how to use the internet safely and responsibly.  When I looked at the Common Sense scope and sequence I got some ideas of how to expand on that next year.  I would like to include identity theft and spam and how to protect your devise, and how to protect our minds from all the advertisements.  My favorite thing I found on the site was a unit called “Boys, girls, and media”  It was about gender roles and how they are portrayed in media.  I want to see what a 4^th grader has to say on this topic! 

                The idea of digital citizenship should be addressed in the classroom.  I am a big proponent of teaching children citizenship and we are in a global world, so how that citizenship idea translates to communication has value.  

Section 3:  The Don’t Lecture Me story was interesting.  I feel like a lot of that makes sense, humans learn better when they are engaged, Duh!  I went to an alternative type of college so this is preaching to the converted.  Make learning interesting, make it relevant, make it active.  Where it can be challenging I think is when you are teaching the building blocks, grammar, spelling, number sense.  How do we make those relevant?  How do you convince a nine year old that it is important to learn?

-Arline