Weekend Website #130: EngageNY

Every week, I share a website that inspired my students. Here’s one that I’ve found effective in supporting the pedagogic changes to Common Core

It’s Here! K-5 Tech Curriculum Aligned with Common Core!

The educational paradigm has changed. New guidelines (most recently, the National Board of Governors Common Core Standards) expect technology to facilitate learning through collaboration, publishing, and transfer of knowledge. Educators want students to use technology to work together, share the products of their effort, and employ the skills learned in other parts of their lives.

If you purchased SL’s Fourth Edition, consider the tech changes in education since its 2011 publication:

• Windows has updated their platform—twice
• iPads are the device of choice in the classroom
• Class Smartboards are more norm than abnorm(al)
• Technology in the classroom has changed from ‘nice to have’ to ‘must have’
• 1:1 has become a realistic goal
• Student research is as often done online as in the library
• Students spend as much time in a digital neighborhood as their home town
• Textbooks are considered resources rather than bibles
• Teachers who don’t use technology are an endangered species
• Words like ‘blended learning’, ‘authentic’, ‘transfer’, ‘evidence’ are now integral to teaching
• Common Core Standards have swept like a firestorm through the education community, most timed to take effect after 2011

Here’s what you’ll find in the SL Technology Curriculum–5th Edition (see slideshow below):

Weekend Website #127: Brown Bear Typing

Every week, I share a website that inspired my students. Here’s one that I’ve found effective in… Here’s a great website to answer that question.

Weekend Website #126: BrainPop Game Up

Every week, I share a website that inspired my students. Here’s one that I’ve found effective in… Here’s a great website to answer that question.

Weekend Website #125: Starfall Math

Every week, I share a website that inspired my students. Here’s one you may have missed. Starfall is a lot more than reading…

Summer Keyboarding Class–How to Win FREE K-8 Keyboarding Curriculum

Every summer, I teach a keyboarding class to 2nd-8th graders. It’s sixty minutes a day, five days a week, for three weeks. This summer, I’m moving it online, through my Keyboard Wiki.

Ready? Don’t need any more information? Click here to join.

There will be two sessions:

• June 24th-July 12th (no class July 4th)
• July 15th-August 2nd

Class will be self-paced, self-managed, the sixty minutes arranged whenever the student can make it fit into summer schedules. Required materials include:

• The Essential Guide to Teaching K-8 Keyboarding–digital or print, as a guide to weekly activities–ebook free when you join class
• membership in the Keyboarding Wiki–also free with the class
• access to the internet and/or Skype
• a full-size keyboard (not an iPad)

7 Ways Common Core Will Change Your Classroom

The biggest pedagogic change to American education since the arrival of John Dewey is happening right now. It’s called Common Core State Standards. Its goal: to prepare the nation’s tens of thousands of students for college and/or career. If you are involved in any part of teaching, administrating, or planning, you are holding your breath, downing an aspirin, and crossing your fingers, knowing a storm is about to hit. You’ve prepared, but is it enough?

46 states adopted the Common Core in an effort to bring consistency and uniformity to the hodge podge of state standards that dot the education landscape from California to Maine and Alaska to Florida. For most states, implementation is piecemeal, a bit at a time, with the full roll out not expected until sometime in 2015.

Besides turning your curriculum upside down, there are philosophic changes you as a teacher will have to buy into to fit the mold that is Common Core:

1. Depth not width—Dig into ideas. Make them clearer, more robust. Teachers will cover fewer topics in a year, but with greater detail. Trust that the breadth of learning will come from that deeper understanding. The accepted pedagogy that similar topics be introduced every year, each with more detail, is no longer. Now, students will cover new topics at each grade level–fewer but fuller.
2. Nonfiction, not fiction—Literacy and reading is likely to be comprehensive narratives rather than inference from stories. Why? Post-high school reading in both college and career is more often expository than fiction as high school grads study for college courses or receive specific training on a job. Students need to know how to perform the critical reading necessary to pick through the staggering amount of print and digital information required to thrive at the game called life.
3. Evidence is required–It will be paramount that students logically and dispassionately prove their claims with organic conversations and authentic, well-understood evidence. Statements must have supporting facts that stand up under cerebral scrutiny. A claim of acceptability because it is ‘their interpretation’ will not be sufficient in a CCSS classroom.
4. Speaking and listening--Anyone who thrives in the adult world knows the importance of these two skills. Now, they will be taught in the K-12 curriculum. The youngest learners will have guidelines for how to carry on a conversation–come to a discussion prepared, listen respectfully to others, take turns speaking, build on each other’s conversations, ask clarifying questions. As they advance grade levels, so too will the requirements.
5. Technology is part of most/all standards--Not overtly, but teachers will find a fundamental understanding of how technology scaffolds learning to be essential in delivering Standards correctly. Many times, standards expect knowledge be ‘collaborated on, published and shared’. This is done through technology–pdfs, printing, publishing to blogs and wikis, sharing via Tagxedos and Animotos. Students and teachers will use the internet, online tools, software, tech devices as vehicles for achieving educational goals. No longer will they be ‘fun’ tools employed in the computer lab. Now, they will be integral to the curriculum. This means teachers will have to be comfortable with iPads, online widgets, Google Docs, and all those geeky tools that they admired from afar, when colleagues used them, promising they would try them ‘one day’. That day has arrived.
6. Life skills are emphasized across subject areas.  It’s not good enough students can write in literacy classes. CCSS expects them to communicate just as effectively in every subject. And, where critical thinking has always been fundamental to math and science, that now expands to all classes. Students must understand cause and effect, transfer knowledge from one subject area to another throughout their educational day. That means, math teachers must pay attention to writing and literature teachers to cognitive processes.
7. An increase in rigor–Accountability will be expected of students and teachers. Too often, passing a test was all the assessment that was expected. CCSS will look for more–transfer of knowledge (see 6 above), evidence of learning, student as risk-taker, authenticity of lessons, vertical planning, learning with increasingly less scaffolding and prompting, and differentiated instruction so all learners get it.

Weekend Website 123: Google Gravity

Inquiring minds don’t always need a purpose. Fun is often inspiration enough. Check out this clever rendition of Google Search:

Read Across America Day

Many people in the United States, particularly students, parents and teachers, join forces on Read Across America Day, annually held on March 2. This nationwide observance coincides with the birthday of Dr Seuss.

Here are some great reading websites for students K-5:

• Aesop Fables—no ads
• Aesop’s Fables
• Audio stories
• Childhood Stories
• Classic Fairy Tales
• Comic Creator
• Edutainment games and stories
• Fables—Aesop—nicely done
• Fables–beautiful
• Fairy Tales and Fables
• Get Writing—write your own story
• Interactive storybook collection
• Listen/read–Free non-fic audio books
• Magic Keys–stories for youngers

Weekend Website #121: Class Badges

Every week, I share a website that inspired, excited, and/or informed my classes. Here’s one on a popular trend in education–awarding badges:

How to Teach 3rd Graders About Digital Citizenship

Big Idea

It is important to be a good digital citizen

Time Required

8 lessons, 45 minutes per lesson

Essential Questions

• What should you do if you meet a cyberbully?
• How is ‘netiquette’ the same/different than etiquette?
• Why is it wrong to ‘plagiarize’ intellectual property?
• Why is an avatar a good idea?
• Is the internet a safe neighborhood?

Assessment Strategies

• Observation—students use the skills learned
• Completion of projects
• Transfer—evidence of student learning in classes/life
• Emailed quiz
• Track topics covered with graphic organizer at the end of 6-8^th Grade unit
  • Receipt of certificate in Welcome to the Web unit
  • Option: certificate in Common Sense’s Digital Passport  covering:
    • Multi-tasking with cell phones is a bad idea
    • Online messaging?
    • Cyberbullying
    • Effective searches
    • Digital laws with personal creative pieces.
• Option: Play Carnegie Cadets covering the internet, email, cyber threats, cybercrimes, chat rooms, instant messaging, netiquette, cyberbullying, online data, searching the internet, copyrights/plagiarism, cell phones, and online reputation.

More Information:

Weekend Website #119: 5 Great Website to Teach Letters

Helping munchkins learn their letters is one of the most frustrating–and rewarding–tasks in Kindergarten. Te ability to decode words leads to the vastness of the universe available through reading. If you’ve every met someone who can’t read, you know first hand the pain and embarrassment that dogs them every day in a world where literacy is expected not exceptional.

Anything to make this process fun is a good thing. Here’s a great list of websites that do just that. Students can see the letters, trace them on the screen with their fingers, play games with them, and suddenly find A to Z as comfortable as their favorite teddy bear.

• Find the letter–easy, medium, hard
• Find the letter
• Bembo’s Zoo
• Starfall Letters
• Click the Square

Free Lesson Plans–Visit My TeachersPayTeachers Store

Looking for something to spice up your classroom? Here are a variety of projects you can download for free. Just visit my TeacherPayTeachers store, click download, and they’re yours. If you enjoy them, please add a few stars to the recommendation list:

A Colonization Brochure in Publisher

A Publisher trifold on American colonies (or any
other topic you’re covering in your classroom). Includes step-by-step directions, standards addressed, time required, prior knowledge expected, vocabulary used, higher-order thinking skills addressed, samples, reproducibles, grading rubrics, and more.

His Words in Our Words

Students interpret the words of Dr Martin Luther King in their own words in a visual organizer. Great project that gets students thinking about impact of words on history. Common Core aligned

Weekend Website #118: Scale of the Universe

Wondering what’s out there, past our Earthly bounds? Here’s a great website to answer that question.

Tech Tip #38: My Desktop Icons Are All Different

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q:  My desktop icons (those little pictures that allow you to open a program) are all different. What happened?

A:  I get this question a lot. Push the start button and check who the log in is. That’s the name at the top of the right-hand side of the start menu. It should have your log-in name. Any other, log out and log in as yourself and the world will tilt back to normal.

This happens a lot in my lab because I have separate log-ins for different grades. Students being students often forget to log out. I teach even the youngers how to check for this problem and solve it.

Truth be known, lots of adults have this problem, also. They’re used to sitting down at a computer they share only with themselves. When tech comes and does something on it–say, fixes a problem–and they don’t log out, my teachers are also lost

Great Websites Updated!

Once a year, we update the massive list of great kid’s websites we keep on Ask a Tech Teacher. We collect all of the new websites used by our association of teachers, place them in their proper grade and category, and then share them with Ask a Tech Teacher readers and those who use the K-6 technology curriculum (soon-to-be K-8).

Please check out the changes, updates, and the more than 2000 websites on this growing list. Go to this link, find your grade, and see what’s there for you.

• Kindergarten: 154 websites
• 1st Grade: 159 websites
• 2nd Grade: 428 websites
• 3rd Grade: 461 websites
• 4th Grade: 504 websites
• 5th Grade: 462 websites
• 6th Grade: 285 websites

We added many new subcategories. These list all websites across grade. You decide which works for which age group:

• Digital Citizenship: 113 websites
• GIFs: couple hundred
• Holiday websites: 24 websites
• Keyboarding: 35 websites
• Human Body: 67 websites
• Math: 68 websites
• Mouse: 12 websites
• Music: 15 websites
• Research: 32 websites
• Science: 179 websites
• Stories: 44 websites
• Virtual Tours: 16 websites
• Word Study: 60 websites

Weekend Website #120: Spelling Teacher App

Every week, I share a website or app that inspired my students. I have a great one this week that teaches spelling as you’ve always wanted it taught.

10 Top Click-throughs from Ask a Tech Teacher

I include lots of links for my readers to places that will help them integrate technology into their education. They cover websites on lesson plans, math, keyboarding, classroom management, cloud computer, digital books, teacher resources, free tech resources, and more. On any given day, I generate on average 810 of these ‘click throughs’. Which links my readers select tells me a lot about the type of information they’re looking for.

Here’s a list of the top ten sites visitors selected from my blog:

1. itunes.apple.com–last year the top click-through was a website. This year, teachers are looking for apps for iPads.
2. libraryspot.com–there’s a big uptick in using the internet for research this year over last year
3. Structuredlearning.net–lots of teachers are finding books/ebooks here for integrating tech into the classroom
4. abcya.com–a popular site with classroom edutainment
5. My internet start page for my classes--this is the page my K-5 students bring up when they open the internet. It includes the links they’ll use that day, as well as links they need for classroom inquiry, and lots more
6. factmonster.com–more research for class projects
7. kids.nationalgeographic.com–still more research. I’m seeing a trend
8. bigbrownbear.co.uk/keyboard/–One of my favorite sites to teach K/1 how to type
9. smaatechk-3.wikispaces.com–this collection of sites lets you follow along as an experienced tech teacher teaches each lesson
10. brainpop.com–great collection of videos and games on almost every topic

What do I conclude from this? Where last year, the top sites revolved around keyboarding, this year it’s research. Second, you want information on managing the classroom–that’s the wikis and the internet start pages. I hear you. Check back this new year and see what I come up with.

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-6 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, a columnist for Examiner.com, Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a monthly contributor to TeachHUB. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

10 Most Popular Tech Tips in 2012

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday in 2012, I shared one of those with you. Here are the

Top Ten tech tips from 2012. Between these ten, they had 48,001 visitors during the year. They better be good or a lot of people were disappointed!

1. Tech Tip #18: Ten Best MS Word Tips–How Did You Survive Without Them
2. Tech Tip #18: 10 Best MS Word Tips
3. Ten Best Keyboarding Hints You’ll Ever See
4. Twenty-one Techie Problems Every Student Can Fix
5. Tech Tip #2: The PrintScreen Key
6. Tech Tip #19: How to Activate a Link in Word
7. Tech Tip #12: Wrap Text Around an Image
8. Tech Tip #2: The PrintScreen Key
9. Tech Tip #57: How to Create a Chart Really Fast
10. Tech Tip #1: the Insert Key

Lesson Plans for Martin Luther King Day

I have two new lesson plans, both aligned with Common Core, that I’m giving away to help you plan Martin Luther King Day.

4th grade

Students interpret the words of Dr Martin Luther King in their own words in a visual organizer. Great project that gets students thinking about the impact of words on history. Common Core aligned. 7-page booklet includes a sample, step-by-step projects, a rubric for assessment, and additional resources to enrich teaching.

5th grade

Students research events leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King’s impact on American history and share them with an Event Chain organized visually, including pictures and thought bubbles. Aligned with Common Core. 7-page booklet includes a sample, step-by-step projects, a rubric for assessment, and additional resources to enrich teaching.

They use a new (FREE) online tool I’ve recently discovered called Nanoogo.

Top Ten Websites of 2012

Every week, I post a website that my classes found useful, instructive, helpful in integrating technology into classroom lesson plans. Some, you agreed with me about; others not so much. Here, I’ll share with you which sites readers thought were the most helpful in their efforts to weave tech into the classroom experience. Between these ten, they had over 120,000 visitors during the year. See if you agree:

1. Great Kids Websites–this is a list of hundreds, organized by grade and topic. It’s no surprise it came in at #1
2. 20 Great Research Websites for Kids–I suggest you post these sites where students can easily access them. I have them on the internet start page that’s the first site students see when they open the internet. This was #5 last year and inched its way up to #2 this year.
3. 18 Online Keyboard Sites for Kids–Overall, keyboarding websites are the most popular posts I have. In my school, it’s the #1 request from the classroom teachers–that students type faster. There were four more subsets of this theme in the top ten, but those sites are included here, so I skipped them for the purposes of this post.
4. 62 Kindergarten Websites That Tie into Classroom Lessons–a collection of my favorite tech ed kindergarten sites
5. Four Online Sites to Teach Mouse Skills–this is geared for youngers. They’re fun and are skills every student must master
6. 31 Human Body Websites for 2nd-5th Grade –Great list although I’ve added to it this year. Stand by for an update in 2013
7. 41 Websites for Teachers to Integrate Tech into Your Classroom–a collection of the top websites I’ve found to integrate tech into the elementary classroom
8. 23 Websites to Support Math Automaticity in K-5–these are math websites that focus on speed and accuracy
9. 10 Great Virtual Field Trips–there are some great virtual field trips on this list. Link to it from this list I keep updated
10. 62 First Grade Websites That Tie into Classroom Lessons–like the kindergarten list, these are my favorites from first grade

10 Hits and 10 Misses for 2012

Since I started this blog forty-two months ago, I’ve had over 1 million visitors (most of them, this past year) to the 835 articles I’ve written on

integrating technology into the classroom. They may be about how to use wikis or blogs in the classroom or what I’ve learned from my students as we got through another tech week. I have regular features like Tech Tip Tuesdays, Dear Otto, and Weekend Websites. I post a lot of lesson plans that have worked for me and share my thoughts on other ideas that affect teachers trying to tech-ify their classrooms. It’s a fast changing world. I’m just trying to hang on and share the ride.It always surprises what my readers find to be the most provocative and least interesting. The latter is as likely to be a post I put heart and soul into, sure I was sharing Very Important Information, as the former. Talk about humility.

A few side notes about my year:

• The busiest month was September. In 2011, it was November.
• The deadest month was June. In 2011, it was February.

Without further distraction, here they are–the Top Ten Hits and Misses of 2012:

Top Ten Hits

Weekend Website #111: California Missions

By Mdhennessey at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

Here’s a list of 40 websites that will inspire your fourth graders about California missions:

1. CA Missions–each
2. CA History-Missions
3. CA mission history
4. CA Mission Internet Trail
5. CA Mission Life
6. CA Mission Pictures
7. CA Mission Pictures—all Missions
8. CA Mission websites–list of
9. CA Mission websites–list of
10. CA missions
11. CA Missions
12. CA Missions 1780 to present
13. CA Missions Foundation
14. CA Missions Online–each
15. CA Missions today
16. CA Missions–Christianity
17. CA Missions–each
18. CA Missions—each mission
19. CA Missions–general
20. CA Missions–general II
21. CA Missions–general III
22. CA Missions–info on each II
23. CA Missions–info on each III
24. CA Missions–list of sites
25. CA Missions–more
26. CA Missions–more
27. CA Missions–Santa Barbara
28. Daily Life at Missions
29. Father Serra
30. Father Serra II
31. Father Serra III
32. Father Serra–more
33. Father Serra—still more
34. Google Earth Mission Tour
35. Mission Quotes
36. Mission Timeline
37. Mission Websites for Kids
38. Santa Barbara Mission
39. The Spanish Missions
40. Tour CA Missions with Google Earth

Tech Tip #36: The Internet Toolbar Disappeared

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q:  My internet toolbar disappeared. All I see at the top of the screen is, more of the page I’m on. No tools. What do I do?

A:  Push F11. You can hide the internet toolbar or unhide with F11. It’s that simple.

To sign up for Tech Tips delivered to your email, click here.

To get the complete list 9f 98 Tech Tips, click here.

To ask a question, click here.

5 Great Websites to Teach Letters

Every year, I add to my list of websites that teach kindergarten letters. I find out which ones students are working on in class, then demonstrate using each of the following websites how students can practice on the computer.

Which do you think is their favorite?

• Find the letter--three different levels so you can personalize this to student needs–easy, medium, hard
• Find the letter–how many letters can students find in 30 seconds?
• Bembo’s Zoo--letters that morph themselves into the animal name. Entrancing!
  
• Starfall Letters–lots of practice with the most age-appropriate games  you can find on the internet
  
• Click the Square--click on squares to create letters. Each click plays music. This is mesmerizing. Have them write the letters, their name, whatever they want

To sign up for Weekend Websites delivered to your email, click Weekend Websites here and leave your email.

For 760 Websites organized by grade and subject, click here

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-6 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, creator of two technology training books for middle school and six ebooks on technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeacherHUB, Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to TeachHUB and Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

Tech Tip #35: My Program Closed Down

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: I was working on my program (writing in Word or making a slideshow in PowerPoint) and it disappeared. Did I lose all my work?

A:  Before you arrive at that decision, try these two steps:

• Check the taskbar. Is your program sitting down there, blinking at you? If it is, click on it to maximize it. Now, all should be OK.
• If the program is closed, re-open the same program. If it’s Word, PowerPoint, Publisher or Excel, a panel shows up on the left prompting you to select one of the auto-saved documents. Pick yours. The program automatically saves every two to ten minutes. You’ve lost some, but not much of your work

Tech Tip #34: My Program Froze

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: I’m writing a very (very) important paper and all of a sudden, the screen is frozen. I can’t save it, or anything else. What do I do?

A: Programs do freeze for no reason sometimes, but not often (I’m assuming you take care of your computer–defrag, don’t download with abandon, update it occasionally). Before you declare a dog-ate-my-homework sort of catastrophe, try this:

• Check your desktop for an open dialogue box and close it. You might have to answer its question first.
• Push escape four times. You might have inadvertently got yourself into something you don’t even know you’re in. Escape often lives up to its name.
• Click your program on the taskbar. You might have gotten out of it by accident.

Weekend Website 40: NORAD Santa

It’s the time of year when inquiring young minds want to know–Where’s Santa? Here’s a great website to answer that question.

Track Santa on Xmas Eve

Tech Tip #33: My Desktop Icons are Messed Up

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: I have several kids/students who share the same computer. Kids being kids loving moving the icons around on the desktop. Sometimes they create the first letter of their name in icons. It’s cute, but makes it difficult for the next student to find the shortcut they need. What’s the best way to handle this?

A:  I’ve tried everything. Refusing to allow them to play doesn’t work and asking them to undo their play at the end of their time doesn’t either. The best solution is to teach all students how to organize their desktop:

• Right click on the desktop
• Select ‘arrange icons’
• If you’re in Win &, pick ‘sort by’ and ‘type

This can be part of their start-up maintenance when they sit down to begin their class. They’ve learned a new skill. They feel empowered to solve their own problems. Life is good.

Tech Tip #31: What’s Today’s Date

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: I can never remember today’s date. And, I can’t remember where to find it on my computer. Help!

A: There are lots of ways:

• Hover over the clock and it tells you the date
• Shift+Alt+D in Word
• Ctrl+; in Excel
• Start typing the date in a Word doc and Word finishes it for you

How to Teach Digital Citizenship in 4th Grade

How can I teach my students about digital citizenship

Understanding how to use the internet has become a cornerstone issue for students. No longer do they complete their research on projects solely in the library. Now, there is a vast landscape of resources available on the internet.

But with wealth comes responsibility. As soon as children begin to visit the online world, they need the knowledge to do that safely, securely, responsibly. There are several great programs available to guide students through this process (Common Sense’s Digital Passport, Carnegie CyberAcademy, Netsmart Kids). I’ve collected them as resources and developed a path to follow that includes the best of everything.

Here’s Fourth Grade:

Yes, I’m Resilient, but I Wish Computers Were More Dependable

I read a post by Bill Ferriter on Education Week Teacher (which I read in ISTE’s Learning and Leading with Technology) where he says in his article, “Our never-ending reliance on digital resilience” that yes, he’s resilient, but he’s tired of it. He thinks that because tech teachers are so quick to adapt to problems (computers don’t work so we pair up students–that sort of thing), that we’ve enabled the chronic problem.

It made me think about the many times I’ve had to adapt because things didn’t work–despite the efforts of my excellent tech people:

• a website doesn’t work so I try it in a different browser
• a website doesn’t load correctly so I go in with my admin log-in and download fixes to get the computer running, but in class, that’s an eternity
• class computers won’t print despite that my lab printer is loaded to their list. I’ve learned to load the IP address of my printer as a more reliable connection, but why don’t they print? And a bigger question: Why periodically–with regularity–do the printers I’ve loaded disappear from the computer?

Weekend Website #114: 55 Digital Citizenship Links

Understanding how to use the internet has become a cornerstone issue for students. No longer do they complete their research on projects solely in the library. Now, there is a vast landscape of resources available on the internet.

But with wealth comes responsibility. As soon as children begin to visit the online world, they need the knowledge to do that safely, securely, responsibly. I’ve collected resources here so you can make your choices.

Here’s a list of 55 Digital citizenship links. They cover K-6. I’ve given the list a permanent address here.

How to Teach Digital Citizenship in 3rd Grade

How can I teach my students about digital citizenship

Understanding how to use the internet has become a cornerstone issue for students. No longer do they complete their research on projects solely in the library. Now, there is a vast landscape of resources available on the internet.

But with wealth comes responsibility. As soon as children begin to visit the online world, they need the knowledge to do that safely, securely, responsibly. There are several great programs available to guide students through this process (Common Sense’s Digital Passport, Carnegie CyberAcademy, Netsmart Kids). I’ve collected them as resources and developed a path to follow that includes the best of everything.

Here’s Third Grade:

Overview/Big Ideas

Why is it important to be a good digital citizen? How can students do this?

Essential Questions

• What is a ‘digital citizen’?
• What are my rights and responsibilities as Digital Citizens?
• How is being a citizen of the internet the same/different than my home town?
• What are the implications of digital citizenship in today’s world?

Weekend Website #113: Digital Passport

Every week, I share a website that inspired my students. Here’s one that I’ve found effective in covering the myriad branches of the question, How can I be a good digital citizen?

How to Teach Digital Citizenship in 2nd Grade

How can I teach my students about digital citizenship

Understanding how to use the internet has become a cornerstone issue for students. No longer do they complete their research on projects solely in the library. Now, there is a vast landscape of resources available on the internet.

But with wealth comes responsibility. As soon as children begin to visit the online world, they need the knowledge to do that safely, securely, responsibly. There are several great programs available to guide students through this process (Common Sense’s Digital Passport, Carnegie CyberAcademy, Netsmart Kids). I’ve collected them as resources and developed a path to follow that includes the best of everything.

Here’s Second Grade:

Dear Otto: I need more guidance than the curriculum offers. What do I do?

Do you have a tech question?

Dear Otto is an occasional column where I answer questions I get from readers about teaching tech. If you have a question, please complete the form below and I’ll answer it here. For your privacy, I use only first names.

Here’s a great question I got from Dawn

I am a homeschool mother who is not computer literate.  I am concerned that my children are going to be behind in technology. I bought 2nd Grade Technology hoping to start my 5th and 8th grader in a computer technology curriculum however,  because I need a step by step curriculum, this book does not seem to meet my needs.  What can you recommend to get us off to a good start?

I understand. The best approach is to join the teaching wiki for the grade level you are interested in:

• Kindergarten
• 1st Grade
• Second Grade
• Third Grade
• Fourth Grade
• Fifth Grade

Weekend Website #112: Nanoogo

Are your students visual learners rather than linguistic? If you answered yes, you’ll want to visit this site.

How to Teach Digital Citizenship in Kindergarten

How can I teach my students about digital citizenship

Understanding how to use the internet has become a cornerstone issue for students. No longer do they complete their research on projects solely in the library. Now, there is a vasy landscape of resources available on the internet.

But with wealth comes responsibility. As soon as children begin to visit the online world, they need the knowledge to do that safely, securely, responsibly. There are several great programs available to guide students through this process (Common Sense’s Digital Passport, Carnegie CyberAcademy, Netsmart Kids). I’ve collected them as resources and developed a path to follow that includes the best of everything.

Here’s Kindergarten:

Dear Otto: How Do I Prepare for an Unknown Tech Future?

Do you have a tech question?

Dear Otto is an occasional column where I answer questions I get from readers about teaching tech. If you have a question, please complete the form below and I’ll answer it here. For your privacy, I use only first names.

Here’s a great question I got from Sandy:

For the pass 10 years I have taught computer for 3K and 4K Early Education. Also each year that I have taught they have added a grade level to my schedule. So at this point I now teach 3K, 4K, and Kindergarten through 4th grade. I would like to take some continuing education courses in this field to better educate my students. I have already taken the Microsoft Office 2007 Master Certification Course and I intend on taking the Microsoft 2010 course as well (even though I passed the course using the Office 2010 software, I would just like to have the more updated certificate). I am also looking into taking a “Computer Support Technician” Certificate Program. My question to you is…do you have any suggestions on courses that I could take to educate myself more in this field to keep up with the fast technology pace, especially with our young kids today educating themselves through all of today’s tech devices? Currently I concentrate on Keyboarding Skills, Computer Parts and Terminology, Research, Online Safety, proficiency in MS Word, Excel, and Power Point. What do you suggest?

I think the best approach is to develop your PLN, connect with tech professionals who you trust, and shares thoughts, ideas, lesson plans. Attend any conference (like ISTE or local ones) that you can to see what’s happening. Try everything that inspires you. Blog with your students. Get them on wikis. Have them create Storybirds and Animotos and iMindmaps. Some will work. Some you’ll learn from. Browse your e- colleagues and see what they’re doing.