Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Digital Citizenship Pledge

For the New Year, integrate multiple digital citizenship lessons throughout the remainder of the year.  Go to the Common Sense Media and have students take the Digital Citizenship Pledge.  Here is video from a Maine teacher taking the pledge with his students.


This was a basic video used to film the students reciting the pledge and signing the poster.  How else can we record students taking the pledge and how can we continuously remind students about these important tips for interacting online?  Does it have to be presented with a video?  Can we use other web-based media?  Can we make the pledge more student-centered?  However the message is conveyed, make sure students understand and uphold the major tenets associated with Digital Citizenship.

Resources

Download the Common Sense Media materials and use the poster in your class.  Also, refer to the various resources listed in within my Digital Citizenship page.

ToonThat-Storytelling App


ToonThat- This is app has the potential to offer examples of grammatical features, literary elements, or writing tips.  Using a comic strip provides students with a visual storyline that works in tandem with the instructional concept.  It's a quick and easy way to provide students with examples that illustrate a certain writing concept.  I recommend using it to assist instruction, but students could also use this app to create short stories or demonstrate what they have learned.  With up to sixteen panels, ToonThat is a nice free app to use within the classroom. 

Here are two examples of ToonThat comic strips that I created.