Hello! My name is Janine Thomas, and I teach at Randall Elementary School. For the past two years, we’ve been using a special program called the Common Sense Media digital citizenship curriculum. This program helps us have great conversations in class about how to be smart and safe online. What’s really cool is that these conversations often continue at home with parents.
Sometimes, I give students a parent tip sheet as homework. This sheet helps them talk to their parents about what we’re learning in class. The next day, we discuss what everyone talked about at home. My own daughter often brings home important flyers and says, “Mommy, you need to read this!” This helps us talk about who she talks to online and what she shares with others.
The curriculum encourages parents to learn the same things as their kids. This way, everyone can talk about online safety using the same words and ideas. One fun activity we do is a media smarts quiz. Students take the quiz in class and then give it to their parents to try at home. When we return to class, we compare answers and see what everyone learned.
My daughter once told me they were learning about creating strong passwords at school. She even asked about my passwords and suggested I make them stronger! This shows how important it is for parents to know about online safety too.
Our school district provides resources for parents on our website. I also get emails from Common Sense Media with the latest news, which I share with parents. This helps families talk openly about internet issues, especially since our school serves a diverse community.
Many parents work all day, so they need to know how to keep their kids safe online. We have to be careful about how kids interact with each other on the internet. To help, we host a parent night about internet safety and digital citizenship. This gives parents a chance to learn what we’re teaching in class and how to protect their families online.
At the start of the school year, I held a workshop for parents. It was easy to organize because I had all the materials ready. At the end of the night, I gave parents materials to take home, which helped them start more conversations with their kids.
It’s really important to talk to your parents about online safety because kids spend a lot of time on the internet. Parents might not always know what their kids are doing online. As teachers, we want to support students because technology is a big part of their lives. While technology can sometimes take away from family time, programs like Common Sense Media help families talk and learn together.
Design a colorful poster that highlights key points about being smart and safe online. Use drawings, slogans, and tips you’ve learned in class. Share your poster with your family and explain each part to them.
Take the media smarts quiz home and challenge your family members to complete it. Discuss the answers together and see who gets the most correct. Talk about any surprising facts you learned from the quiz.
Work with your family to create strong passwords for your online accounts. Use a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols. Share tips on how to remember them without writing them down. Discuss why strong passwords are important.
With a family member, act out different scenarios about online interactions. For example, what would you do if someone you don’t know asks for personal information? Practice safe responses and discuss why they are important.
Organize a mini workshop at home where you teach your family about digital citizenship. Use materials from school to guide your session. Encourage everyone to share their thoughts and experiences about being online.
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My name is Janine Thomas, and I teach fifth and sixth grade at Randall Elementary in the Milpitas Unified School District. We’ve been using the Common Sense Media digital citizenship curriculum for two years now. I feel like it promotes great discussions in the classroom, and these discussions often carry over to home as well. I think that’s a really big part of the curriculum, and it’s important for the kids to be able to talk to their parents about what’s going on at school.
Sometimes, for homework, I send the kids home with a parent tip sheet. They have discussions with their parents, and I ask the kids to show me that the discussion took place. This way, we can come back the next day and discuss it. My daughter often brings home flyers and immediately hands them to me, saying, “Mommy, this is something you need to read.” It has allowed me to have conversations with my child about who he talks to, the types of questions they ask him, and the answers he gives.
The curriculum involves parents in the same understanding and concepts that the kids discuss with their teachers. This creates an opportunity to talk to parents and use the same language that we use with the kids. One of the things we do to build parent involvement with our Common Sense curriculum is the media smarts quiz, which is part of one of the lessons. The students take that quiz and then go home to give their parents the same quiz. When we come back to class, we review the answers and compare the students’ responses with their parents’.
When my daughter came home from school, she mentioned that they were learning how to set up passwords and how to create secure ones. She asked me questions about my existing passwords and suggested that I might not be protected enough and should consider changing them.
As a district, we believe it’s important to provide resources to parents. We have links on our websites that parents can access for Common Sense materials. I receive emails from Common Sense Media that keep me informed about what’s happening in the world, and I pass that information on to parents. This has allowed parents and students to communicate openly about issues related to the internet, especially at Randall, where we serve a socioeconomically diverse population.
It’s beneficial for parents to receive this education, especially when many families have two working parents who may not be home all day. They need to know certain things in advance to set boundaries and parameters for their children while they are online. We also have to be cautious about how kids interact with each other online.
To further build parent involvement with our Common Sense curriculum, we host a parent night focused on internet safety and digital citizenship. This is a way to engage parents after work and provide them with a quick overview of what we are covering in the classroom. The program offers a way for parents who may not be familiar with these topics to understand what is out there and how to protect themselves and their children.
I think we are in the early stages of parents trying to get a handle on these issues. They know it exists, but they may not be sure what questions to ask. We’ve received a lot of feedback from parents who said they were unaware of certain topics, and it has been an eye-opener for them.
I also ran a parent workshop at the beginning of the school year, which was a straightforward event because I had everything I needed to present in an easy lesson format. At the end of the night, I provided materials for parents to take home, which would help spark further conversations with their kids.
It’s important to talk to your parents about these topics because kids are online all the time, and parents may not know what they are doing. As educators, we need to support our students, recognizing that this is a significant part of their world today. Technology is often seen as taking away family time, but Common Sense Media helps bridge that gap by facilitating conversations that both parents and children want to engage in and learn more about.
Digital Citizenship – Digital citizenship refers to the responsible use of technology and the internet by individuals, especially students, to engage in society, politics, and government. – Example sentence: In our social studies class, we learned about digital citizenship and how to use the internet responsibly.
Online Safety – Online safety involves practices and precautions taken to protect personal information and privacy while using the internet. – Example sentence: Our teacher gave us tips on online safety to ensure we know how to protect our personal information.
Parents – Parents are the caregivers and guardians who are responsible for raising and guiding children in their development and education. – Example sentence: Parents often help their children understand the importance of online safety and digital citizenship.
Students – Students are individuals who are enrolled in educational institutions to learn and gain knowledge in various subjects. – Example sentence: Students in our class discussed how to be good digital citizens during our social studies lesson.
Internet – The internet is a global network that connects millions of computers, allowing people to access and share information worldwide. – Example sentence: The internet is a valuable resource for students to research information for their social studies projects.
Resources – Resources are materials or tools that provide information or support to help achieve a goal or complete a task. – Example sentence: Our teacher provided us with online resources to help us learn more about health and wellness.
Passwords – Passwords are secret codes used to protect personal accounts and information on the internet. – Example sentence: We learned how to create strong passwords to keep our online accounts safe.
Community – A community is a group of people living in the same area or having shared interests and goals. – Example sentence: Our community organized a health fair to promote wellness and healthy living.
Conversations – Conversations are exchanges of thoughts, ideas, or information between people through speaking or writing. – Example sentence: We had conversations in class about how technology affects our daily lives and health.
Technology – Technology refers to the use of scientific knowledge and tools to solve problems and improve lives. – Example sentence: Technology has changed the way students learn and access information in social studies.
