Mrs. Tumenas

I heard about this challenge today while reading a blog post on Edutopia. I set up class accounts for the students in grades 5 and 6. I will mention this to the students this week as an extra credit project which they can do at home. The 5th and 6th graders have used toondoo, a similar online application, to make comic strips in the past. Several 6th graders said they would like to try it. I will email the account codes to interested students and their parents.

Bitstrips for Schools, a popular online platform for using comics in education, is teaming up with the Cartoon Network to launch the comic challenge during Bullying Prevention Month.

Each week during the campaign, Bitstrips will release a new comic template that sets up a different situation, such as cyberbullying or cell phone bullying. Students start by using online drawing tools to create their own avatar, which is dropped into the template as the “star” of the strip. Students then respond to the situation by finishing the comic strip with dialogue, new characters, or special effects. Different activities might cast students’ avatars in the role of bystander, victim, or even a bully who has to face the consequences.

Finished comics can be published in an online gallery, giving students a wide audience for their work. At the end of the challenge, the best strips will be compiled in a downloadable anthology.

CC: http://www.flickr.com/photos/somegeekintn/

This year, instead of simply asking students what their goals for the year are, I qualified the question.  In the past, most of the responses have been about “getting good grades”. Although it is something that I am sure all the students, and their parents wish to happen, it really doesn’t help just to wish for good grades.  I asked students to try to be more specific, to talk about how they want to achieve their goals, make a plan. I was impressed with the way many students responded with more realistic goals and their plans to achieve them.  There are still a few students who haven’t had time to finish this up, or had some technical difficulties when recording, but I hope to have the last few added before the weekend.

Please note*: there are several “pages” of comments to this voicethread, so you will need to click on “more” down below the comment button to see all of the comments.

Parents are more than welcome to respond directly on the voicethread. Ask your student to help you. You can use their account and add an “identity” by clicking the little arrow to the right of the login name.

Dear Parents,
At the end of this booklet of information about the web sites which will be used in the computer lab is a link to the digital form which must be signed in order for your student to access these tools. It is also embedded in the blog post below..

All students in grades 4-8 will receive a sheet with all their usernames and passwords to bring home. If you would also like a copy to be emailed to you for your records, please email me.

This song and video were made for the Bridges of Peace and Hope Project in the spring of 2011. 6th graders (then), Emily Y., Cam S. and Alec G. wrote short narratives to describe BCD and where we live for their own version of the John Farrell song “Where We Live”, with assistance from Dr. Lederman. The class chose the images to add, from both our own media library and cc sources online. They worked in music class to create the drum track, learn and perform the song. Andrea V. was the assistant video editor. Thanks to John Farrell, Mrs. Hilliard, Mr. Lindenmaier, and Dr.Lederman for their work on this collaborative project.

CC By, NC, ND http://www.flickr.com/photos/wilmack

Welcome back to a new school year. This year we will be beginning some new global collaboration projects in Middle School computer classes. The 4th and 5th grade will try a new project. “A Week in the Life”- part of the award-winning global FlatClassroom series of projects.  Fourth grade will begin this project later in the month and if all goes well I will sign the 5th grade up to do a similar project beginning just before March break and continuing for the rest of the year.  The 6th grade will work with a school in El Salvador on a yet to be determined project, continuing a connection with the Academia Britanica Cuscatleca that the 6th graders made last year. I got to meet the teacher from El Salvador at a conference over the summer and it’s exciting to be able to collaborate again with her 6th grade students from Central America.

This is a description of the “Week in the Life” project:

‘A Week in the Life…’ is a Flat Classroom® Project for Elementary School students of approximately ages 8-10. The curriculum focus is Interdisciplinary, how we live, how we communicate, cultural understanding and awareness. The aim of the project is to join Elementary School classrooms globally with a view to exploring what life is like in each country through discussion, sharing and collecting multimedia to create final products together.

Essential Questions Which Will Be Answered:

• What are the similarities and differences among children around the world?
• How can we connect with each other through our commonalities?
• How does your geography where you live impact your topic?

Students in mixed global classroom teams will:

1. Do some research on a week in the life of children in their school around these topics:

• School time
• Languages & Clothing
• Housing & Transportation
• Leisure time
• Food & Celebrations
• Environment

2. Complete a team project demonstrating found information to the rest of the group.

3. Upload their multimedia to the project wiki.

4. View all the group projects and compare and contrast the results.

Tools used:

• Edmodo
• Wikispaces
• Other multimedia online tools for sharing and creating artifacts

Many middle school students enjoy online games. A currently popular game, Transformice, is an example. It’s an online Flash based game, requires a very simple signup and you’re in. It’s actually a fun game, the object being to collect the cheese and bring it back to the mouse hole the fastest. There are lots of obstacles and strategies, and it even involves physics and cooperation. What could be better? It’s fun, a little bit educational and the kids enjoy it. Unfortunately, there is a chat room attached… and the language used is casually sprinkled with profanity.
Kids can join teams with strangers and form an online relationship with them. Now this can be fine, as long the parents are aware of what the children are doing. Are they allowed to chat in the chat room? Are they allowed to play on a laptop in their own room? Do you limit their screen time? Have you visited the websites and played these games? Are there parental controls on the games that you can activate?

These are some of the questions that parents need to be asking before allowing a middle school age child access to the online world. It can be full of fun, entertainment and learning. But, just as you probably don’t drop your child off at an amusement park to wander by themselves, the online world has its own caveats. We spend time in class talking about online safety. The kids know the drill, but they are kids. They simply don’t have the maturity to make decisions without your help and guidance. What they learned in class may not seem to apply to that nice gamer they play with on Transformice. The others playing the game may be 10 year old boys or unsavory characters trolling for vulnerable kids who are playing a popular online game.

What are your rules for your kids? Do you talk with them and help them make the connection between what they learn at school about online safety and the games and sites they play and visit at home? As teachers we can teach, preach, about online safety, but the school environment is used primarily for sites that we have researched and vetted and we can see the students’ screens at all times. The games your children play online can be great fun, and educational. They can teach them to strategize, connect them with amazing people, and allow them to explore the world. Just make sure that you are there to help guide them along the way.

Google has come out with a new series of tech training videos- aimed especially at parents. Actually it’s appropriate for anyone with a limited knowledge of how to use technology. You may find some useful, either for yourself, or your own parents.

As all of the students in my classes know- we “do” internet safety every year. It is an ongoing topic, an ongoing challenge, in an ever-changing environment of new digital devices and new ways to connect and interact… but most importantly- new ways to learn. A friend shared this video, which really illustrates the point that teaching our children is a shared responsibility. Parents and teachers need to understand the new digital environment we are now living in and work together to help their children, and young adults learn to navigate responsibly.

Photo credit BenK CC:by-nc-nd

Each year in computer class we talk about online safety. Every year it seems to be more complicated, with new issues like cyberbullying and sexting cropping up. However, despite the new twists and turns, it really all comes down to parents. While your child is in school, there is really very little he or she will come in contact with online, without an adult a few feet away. At home, it could very well be a different story. Children are often allowed to have their own computers, laptops, iphones or other devices in their rooms, where it may be easier to make mistakes in judgement without a parent being aware of what has happened.

Right or command click here to download a free version(pdf) of security expert and author, Linda McCarthy’s book “Own Your Space – Keep Yourself and Your Stuff Safe Online.” Or you can go to the website and download it by chapter. The book is over 250 pages with chapters on hackers, phishing, bullying, etc. (large file ~13MB)

As we finish up our preliminary projects in grades 4-7, we will be learning more about internet safety and digital ethics. This is an interview on CommonSense Media with Howard Gardner, educator and psychologist at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It’s short video with some pertinent questions and answers from a well known expert in the field.  Click on the picture to go to the interview.