Our first lesson in our Digital Citizenship unit was about Identity and Use. We talked about how it is important to be a good person online and offline and how our actions can influence those of others and even hurt someone else's digital footprint. Much of the information I gathered was from Common Sense Media's Digital Citizenship Curriculum and I put a shark spin on it. I have to say, although I have been told that Digital Citizenship and sharks seems like an odd combination, it is working so far. Kids are actually engaged in the activities and it gives me a purpose in teaching them how to do things in Google Slides.
Today we dove into Digital Citizenship fins first! Yesterday, everything was so new new and different to the students that I was so glad I decided to do the STEAM activity first before the lesson. Today we read the story Misunderstood Shark and all of the students loved it! I love it anytime I can include a book as part of a lesson. It gives everyone a common experience/storyline to build from.
Our first lesson in our Digital Citizenship unit was about Identity and Use. We talked about how it is important to be a good person online and offline and how our actions can influence those of others and even hurt someone else's digital footprint. Much of the information I gathered was from Common Sense Media's Digital Citizenship Curriculum and I put a shark spin on it. I have to say, although I have been told that Digital Citizenship and sharks seems like an odd combination, it is working so far. Kids are actually engaged in the activities and it gives me a purpose in teaching them how to do things in Google Slides.
For the student activity today, I created digital LEGO pieces and students had to drag them into the workspace to "build" with them. I tasked them with designing a shark with the LEGO pieces, inserting a callout bubble, and then providing a piece of advice for being a good digital citizen in the callout bubble (they accessed this through Google Classroom so each student had a template to work from). There were so many new things that they had to do in this activity and everyone stepped up to the task! In 3rd grade we built our sharks out of physical LEGO pieces and then brainstormed pieces of advice and wrote them on the board because we were getting a little short on time. It worked out perfectly as a physical or digital activity!
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This week we started back in person with students, so I thought I would start with something I feel is important for all students - Digital Citizenship! I feel that this is more important than ever as we are spending a large part of our day on the computer (even if we are in-person) and it is super important for students to recognize inappropriate online behavior and how to work towards addressing it.
As important as this topic is, I completely understand that it is not the most exciting topic for students. You can picture it now, in fact, almost HEAR it, "I know, I know," "This is so boring!" and the list could go on and on. Soooo, I knew I had to "fun it up" a bit in order for it to really hit home and leave an impact. I took a suggestion from the student evaluation from Camp Legend this summer chose a theme of sharks. I figured it would be a perfect topic to weave digital citizenship in, a variety of STEAM activities, and even some Science. STEAM Activity
As Specials at my school started the same day as in-person learning, I didn't want to jump full into full-blown content first thing in the morning. I figured it was not in the best interest of anyone! ;) So instead, I chose to lead into our Shark Digital Citizenship unit with a STEAM activity that I knew would spark their interest as well as give me an opportunity to get to know students a bit better.
I created a choice board based on the book, Smart About Sharks. There were so many great facts and images in this book, that I knew it would be a perfect anchor text for our Choice Board. I was gifted this book by an amazing person in my PLN from my Shark Week Digital Citizenship Amazon Wish List and am so grateful that it made this learning activity come to life! Students were given the Choice Board and could choose any item as their starting point. I had brief descriptions and visuals on the front and more details on the back if anyone wanted more information. The students seemed to enjoy the activity and actually worked through the items pretty quickly. It is amazing the difference in their work when they are not in groups and constantly talking and sharing while they are building. It was one of the things I was hoping to observe as far as their natural collaboration and communication and what would happen when they were not in groups and the natural sharing and conversation was not one of the main parts of their learning. I learned many things today!
As we have several classes that are full remote for the year, I have also been working to not only have the materials our in-person students will need, but also those that can be used by our virtual students. I created a digital version of the print choice board and provided students with some digital LEGO pieces to build and design. I hope that my virtual students have just as much fun as the in-person students with being able to create and learn about sharks!
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