When I was in school (early 90s-ish) Digital Citizenship was not even a thing. "Digital" was used when referring to the alarm clock that I got from Grandma for Christmas! I don't know if any of the rest of you have gotten to experience the relief of not having to read the hands on a clock any longer- but PHEW was I happy for that alarm clock!
Put simply, the term "Digital Citizenship" means handling your internet interactions responsibly. It is not that different from the traditional concept of citizenship. Our children are now surrounded by this crazy, fast-paced world of technology and are bombarded every single day with new things to try to understand. We set them loose into a scary cyber-world where information, images, videos, and news is (literally) at their fingertips. Many of you have probably added safety features to your children's devices. The school uses protocol and procedures to protect them here. But the reality is, our kids are more tech savvy than we could ever realize or believe! Just this week I spent some time with a class talking about the legality/illegality of taking a screenshot, saving it to your computer and then using it as your wallpaper or profile picture. Is it easy to do? ABSOLUTELY! But is it appropriate? No way. As much as I would love to make a beautiful actress my profile picture- I am not that person and don't have permission to use the image. I compared it to walking into a store. Yes, there are products all around. They are right in front of us as we walk through the aisles. BUT we don't walk out of the store with an apple unless we pay for it first. We don't leave the library with a book unless we request permission first. Online images are the same concept. Just because a Google Search yields results for JoJo does not mean we have permission to use JoJo's picture as the wallpaper on our device. I walked them through ways to search for images that we do have permission to use. (FYI- the easiest way to do that is to add +creative commons to the end of what you are searching.) You are not going to be able to shelter your children from everything they may see or encounter on the internet. But please, open up the door for conversation. Talk to them about your expectations. Give them boundaries. Set protections on their devices. Encourage them to talk to you about things they see as they are on their devices. It never hurts to give a stern reminder that these are valuable tools that we use and it is our responsibility to use them appropriately! I leave you with one last analogy- giving your child free reign of an internet connected device is the same as handing a 15 year old the keys to a Porsche. There will be a basic knowledge of driving and rules of the road but no solid foundation for being safe in a very powerful machine. It is our job to provide guidelines and expectations that will keep them safe! Take a minute to check out these resources for more information: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/privacy-and-internet-safety https://www.parenting.com/article/keeping-your-child-safe-on-the-internet http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/
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This week marks Computer Science Education Week. A few facts from the website https://csedweek.org:
Share your experiences in the Comments section! Let's begin with a sneak peek of website additions you will find in the next week. First, I will be adding a Holiday Gift Idea page. There you will find a list of a few of the best STEM related toys out there. STEM is a buzz word right now. Toy manufacturers eat that stuff up! So if you search "STEM toys" in any search engine, you will get a million good ideas. Let me just say that you cannot go wrong with anything that will require problem solving, creative thinking, building, fixing, and just actively DOING. If you should find something especially cool, send me an email so I can add it to my list!
The other addition to the website will be information about the annual Hour of Code week which is December 3rd through the 9th. I will be including some family fun. Don't be left out of this awesome celebration of Computer Science! Now, what you have all come here for... an UPDATE. Well Kindergarten classes have been rocking our way through the Engineering Design Process and in our journey, we have also talked about story elements. We have helped several Fairytale characters solve problems by designing and building structures to meet their needs. A beanstalk for Jack, a Chair for Baby Bear, a crate for the Gingerbread Man... And our final project will be building safe houses for the Three Little Pigs. We will even have a visit from the Big Bad Wolf to test out the houses! Stay tuned for some really awesome pictures of our Wolf visit. In the meantime, check out the pictures of our other structures. First graders learned about animal habitats and adaptations that help them to survivie in their environments. Then we took that knowledge and helped a traveler friend prepare to live in one of our habitats. We had to dress him/her and pack a suitcase with supplies they would need. So much fun! Our next unit is all about light and sound. Second Graders are officially computer programmers. We have created a game with a main character that has to travel to a target without bumping an obstacle. The player controls the character with buttons and we even have a You Win screeen and a You Lose, try again! Some kids went above and beyond and created multiple levels and multiple scenes. We are know working on a Turkey Disguise. After Thanksgiving we will start a new unit studying our "S" in STEM. Science here we come! Third Graders completed an intense unit on Genetics. We studied inherited and acquired traits in humans and then took a close look at plants. They did a wonderful job with some really big terms: genotype, phenotype, dominant gene, recessive gene, and inheritance. Our next unit will cover the "E" in Stem. Look out world, we're switching from Geneticists to Engineers! Fourth Grade is about to design a vehicle that will keep an egg from cracking when it crashes into a wall. Yikes! Hopefully our amazing janitors will not be too upset with me. I believe in our kids. The eggs are NOT going to break! Fifth Grade has studying infectious diseases. We know a lot about how to protect ourselves from the flu. And not a moment too soon as flu season is upon us! But now we are diving into our robotics unit. All students tend to love this unit. It is an adventure for sure! Come back soon for pictures and updates. As always, email me if you have any questions. So last week in one day I went from building wagons with construction paper... to creating a paper flower phenotype based on a randomly drawn genotype... to discussing pathogenic bacteria and viral infections... to building a Pendulum! I love my job.
Kindergarten classes have just wrapped up the first unit on Forces and Motion. We have studied pushes and pulls in various ways over the past 8 weeks. We just learned the steps of the Design Process (Click here to see the PLTW version) and how using it will help us solve even every day problems. The we discussed a problem that our friends have- they want to put up a swing set but there are a lot of heavy rocks piled where they want to put it. So we designed and built something to solve the problem. Click here for few pictures. First Grade will be ending the Animal Adaptations unit by dressing a traveler and packing a suitcase full of supplies to survive in one of four habitats. Using our knowledge of habitas, survival needs and the examples of adaptations from animals that live there, we will decide the best way to equip our traveler. Second Grade has been exploring coding. Do you know the difference between a program and an algorithm? We do! (At least we should. Lol!) Our final project will be to put together the mini-challenges we've been doing to create a game. We will talk about software engineers, game technicians, and the ins and outs of creating a good video game. Coding apps such as Scratch Jr and Tynker are available for Apple and Android devices. Search "Kids coding" and see what you get. Third Grade is learning about plant genetics. We have learned about genotypes, phenotypes and even explored a Punnett Square. Our final project is right around the corner- we will be tracing the genetic history of a few plant samples. The words Petri dish, pipette and seed sample will be thrown around. I remember learning all of this in high school! I am amazed at how our 8 year olds can absorb this information. #geneticcodesarecool! Fourth Grade began building with the Vex Kits. There is a website with build instructions. So far we have made a Pendulum and a car. These were used to investigate potential and kinetic energy as well as motion. In the near future, the students will have to modify the base car to hold an egg and keep it safe as it collides with the classroom wall. The kits that we use in class (third grade-simple machines, fourth grade- transportation and fifth grade-robots) can be purchased at this site. Smaller versions can be found on Amazon or in stores like Walmart or Target. They are through a company called VEX Robotics. These would make great Christmas presents. Just sayin! Fifth Grade classes ventured into the wonderful world of bacteria (both good and bad) and viruses. Micoorganisms can be so fascinating. Our vast knowledge of communicable disesases and how they spread will be put to the test when we attempt to get to the bottom of a mystery illness. Although I know many students have enjoyed learning about infectious diseases, most are chomping at the bit to start robotics. We will begin the robotics unit right after Halloween. Thanks for checking in. All kidding aside, I do love my job. I enjoy going from topic to topic in rapid fire throughout the day. I love exposing the kids to information and ideas that are outside of the classroom walls. We are scientists, engineers, and problem solvers every minute of class. Take some time to explore on your own at home. Check out this website I found this week. It has 239 links for STEM Related fun! Send me an email of anything cool you discover. I would love to include some blurbs from home in my next post! Welcome to the Spotlight on STEM section of our site! I plan to pop in here every other week and give you an update of what we've been doing and what is coming around the corner. If you haven't heard about the wonderful world of STEM yet, there are links in this site to catch you up on me, what STEM stands for, and resources for STEM related activities. All classes so far this year have had a lesson on The Power of Yet and Growth Mindset. Which is basically the idea that you aren't going to understand everything the first time you do it. Making mistakes is a good thing for you and with each mistake you learn something new and your brain gets stronger. This is very hard for even most adults to grasp. Getting things "right" and doing this "to mastery" is ingrained in us from a very young age. Being able to give yourself permission to make mistakes, make a mess, and learn as you go is quite a challenge. You would be amazed at how quickly the kids begin to recognize when they 'fail' at something that they have actually gained a bit of knowledge to help them move forward. We even celebrate it sometimes! YOU FAILED and it was EPIC! Each grade level has begun the first unit of the year. In the PLTW curriculum, these are called Modules. Here's a peek at what each grade is learning: Kindergarten is learning about forces and motion. Our vocabulary focus are the words push, pull, force, friction, and collision. We are investigating these terms in many different ways. As a final project, we will be building a wagon to haul some very heavy rocks. Our friends really want to put up a swing and they need our help to clear the area! First Grade has been studying animals, their habitats and the adaptations they have to survive in those habitats. We are taking a close look at ways animals get food, protect themselves, and move around in their environments. Our final project will be to send a human (a paper doll) into a specific habitat and we must dress him and pack a suitcase with essential supplies. Second Grade are learning about programs and algorithms. We will be using our computer science knowledge to create a game complete with main character, obstacles, move arrows and a win or lose screen! We began with unplugged coding activities such as helping Rosie find her bones and helping Fairytale characters navigate Fairytale Forest! Third Grade has started out this year as Geneticists. We are studying inherited traits in both people and plants. At the end of this unit we will be helping a farmer plan for his crop based on the genetic make-up of his plants. Do you remember the words Genotype and Phenotype? Ask your third grader for a refresher course. Fourth Grade is going to use the Engineering Design Process to solve a transportation problem. Throughout this unit we will learn about force, motion, speed and collisions. In the end we will keep an egg from cracking during a high speed collision with the wall! Fifth Grade saw first "hand" how quickly germs can spread through our classroom. We were all infected with glow germs after just ONE person began the spread during a hand-shaking activity. We are learning infection prevention, protection, and our body's reaction to infections. We will also learn about bacteria, viruses and communicable versus noncommunicable diseases. At the end of this unit we will solve the mystery of an illness spreading around school. |
Mrs. Schoff's
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