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                                          Lessons
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Common Sense
It is important for me to continue to stress the importance of digital citizenship throughout the school year, and to prepare my 4th graders now for the world that can be reached at their fingertips. Not only is it important for students to learn how to surf the web safely, they also need to realize how their digital footprint follows them. As the year progressed, I integrated more of these "Common Sense" lessons and reinforced everyday the importance of a being a respectful, safe, and responsible, digital citizen!

Everyday students at our school are assigned a task that requires access to a computer. Students do sign a technology agreement at the beginning of the year, but is that teaching digital citizenship? I feel we need to spend more time in the classroom addressing the importance of safely using the internet. When I first started teaching, my students and I visited the computer lab once a week. Then, gradually over the next two decades I saw technology become part of the everyday classroom. And now I am at a site that has 1:1 devices, that are used EVERY SINGLE DAY! Not only do I feel students need to be closely monitored, I feel as though the lessons like those found on "Common Sense Media", as well as other lessons, should be implemented regularly. 

The following lessons can be used in the 3-5 classroom to help guide students in the cyber world. As educators, it is our responsibility, to teach "common sense" when using technology.
1. Talking Safely Online-students learn the importance of only communicating with friends and never revealing private information without asking a parent or trusted adult for permission. 
2. Super Digital Citizen- students learn how to be responsible and respectful offline/online and how to be good digital citizens. Students will create digital superheroes who show how to solve digital dilemmas in a responsible way.
3. What's Cyberbullying-students learn and discuss the positive and negatives of communicating online. They will learn the definition of cyberbullying and compare and contrast it to in-person bullying. Students will then read a story and discuss how the target might feel. ​

Google & Google Classroom
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Students in my classroom use Google and Google Classroom to submit and share classroom assignments. To make it more personal, I would start with a technology "checkpoint" to see how often students use technology outside of the classroom. 

I also had the chance to teach 4th Grade ELA Benchmark.  Here are just a few  examples of  the assignments I used with Google Classroom.
​Unit 6 Text Dependent Questions
Flipped Classroom Lesson on the Oregon Trail
Route 66

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