The 5th graders at G
len Allen Elementary and Highland Springs Elementary arranged to have a Digital Citizenship Day this week to complete the Internet Safety modules that all teachers in Henrico County have to complete this year. Each teacher was responsible for teaching one of the modules and students circulated around to each classroom.
I was excited to work with the librarian, Theresa Harris, to work with the module that covers internet safety. Theresa 
purchased 20 iPads for her library this year and she is having a ball learning how to use new apps with her students. She has mastered Chatterkid and was ready to learn something new. Therefore, we decided to complete the commercial students had to create by using the app, YakIt Kids. I modeled how to use the app with the first two classes and then she was ready to take over and teach the remaining three classes. Way to go, Mrs. Harris!
Check out some of the internet safety tips 5th graders made with YakIt:
Internet Safety from Julie on Vimeo.
Yesterday we did the same Digital Safety Day at Highland Springs Elementary. The librarian, Suzanne Stockman, and I co-taught the 5th grade module on website evaluation. Suzanne found this awesome SlideShare presentation that talks about the 5 Ws of evaluating websites.
We had fun bouncing off of one another as we engaged the students in a conversation about how to tell if a website is valid or not.
After our discussion, students got into 6 groups and navigated to THIS folder of websites we dropped into the Student Server. The websites were renamed as the group number. Each group was responsible for opening their website and used THIS website evaluation form Mrs. Stockman found from the Cyber Smart website and printed. Two of the websites in the folder are real websites while the other four are fake. They are absolutely hilarious. My two favorite were:
Tree Octopus (this one has Photoshopped images AND videos)
Buy Dehydrated Water
At the end of the activity Mrs. Stockman and I revealed which websites were real and which ones were fake. The students had a ball and left the library giggling away!
