Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Resources

The reports, pictures, and videos out of Japan have really been amazing. I've included some links below that may be helpful to you in your classroom. I have also embedded some news videos.

The New York Times has put together a great list of resources for teaching kids about the earthquake and tsunami ... Teaching Ideas: The Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

From one of my favorite go-to-blogs (Free Technology for Teachers) ... 3 Good Earthquake & Tsunami Lesson Resources

And from another of my favorite blogs (Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day) ... The Best Sites for Learning About the Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

My heart aches for the people of Japan who have lost so much. Personally, I am thrilled that my dear friend Michelle Glenn (we taught 3rd grade together at Bryson!) and her family are safe.

If you know of other Earthquake or Tsunami resources that you would like to share, please do.

A Parents' Guide to Facebook

If you are a parent, you will definitely want to check out ConnectSafely.org. You will find safety tips and advice, current news stories related to children and social media sites, and lots of other great resources. There is even a forum where you can post questions and get answers from other parents and Social Media "experts". 

The section that really caught my eye was A Parents' Guide to Facebook. This 34 page PDF document will help you understand what Facebook is and how to use it safely. 

Be sure to take a look at the Recommended Facebook Privacy Settings for Teens. It gives specific suggestions on profile settings, contact information, how to block or invite other users, as well as other information. Although I'm well past the teenage years myself, I'm going to be updating my Facebook settings tonight using these guidelines! 

You will also want to check out the Safety Tips and Advice - they offer topics about how to keep kids safe while playing online videogames, using cellphones, using devices with GPS Location-Sharing, as well as many others.

I hope these resources can be helpful to you at home as well as in the classroom. What other online safety sites do you like? Be sure to leave them in a comment.

Tech Tip Tuesday ... Protecting Yourself Online!

Disclaimer: The views expressed on this blog and specifically this post are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the my department or school district.

I will be honest - I have waffled back and forth about sharing today's post with you for a few reasons. First, I'm not an expert in social media. Second, I don't have the authority to make rules or policy for anyone. Thirdly, I don't want to scare people from using these great tools - I completely support teachers who want to use blogs, podcasts, professional Facebook pages, Twitter, etc. to better communicate with their students, parents, and co-teachers.

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty much a "rule follower." In my perfect world, there would be a simple, but direct list of Do's and Don'ts regarding Social Media. Unfortunately, there really is no such thing. Daniel Schwartz (from Connecticut Employment Law Blog) recently told a group of high school and middle school teachers, "No guideline can be a substitute for using good judgement and common sense." As much as some teachers and public school employees would like to believe that what they do "on their own time" doesn't affect their professional lives, it just isn't reality. 

In this oh-so-social world, one of the things we teach our students is to "be careful what you post". This is a lesson that adults need to learn too. Stop and think before you post about a rough day with your students. Stop and think before posting about a co-worker that's getting on your last nerve! Stop and think before posting complaints about parents. Remember the comments can be taken out of context and can come back to haunt you. You should also know that once it's out there, it can never be taken back. Even if you delete it off of your page, there is a cached version somewhere.


Again, I'm not an expert, but I do want to warn everyone to use good judgement and common sense about what you post or what you allow to be posted/published online.

At the beginning of this school year, our district (and countless others) published Social Media Guidelines and a very helpful Policy Changes document in an effort to help our teachers and staff as they use different Social Media tools in their public and professional lives. I reviewed them today while preparing this post. I suggest all school district employees (especially EM-S ISD peeps) take a fresh look. If you work for another district, please contact your Communications Department or Instructional Technology Department to see if they have published suggestions or guidelines regarding Social Media.

I'm not trying to scare you, but here are a couple of recent newsmakers...

Natalie Munroe (high school teacher in Pennsylvania) created and maintained a personal casual blog about her life and occasionally about her job. It was not meant to be a professional blog, in fact she only used her first name and last initial to identify herself and she only had 9 followers (two of whom were her husband and herself!) She claims that the students she did occasionally mention were not specific students, but instead they were "caricatures of students that she'd had over the years." Mrs. Munroe was suspended from her teaching position after referring to her students on her blog as  "rude, lazy, disengaged whiners," among other things. 

Another recent newsmaker is Ashley Payne, a 24 year old teacher who lost her job after an anonymous email to the school complaining about vacation pictures she had posted on her (private) Facebook page of her holding alcoholic drinks as well as a post that included inappropriate language.  Ms. Payne actually resigned after she claims she was pressured by her principal to either resign immediately or face suspension.

I am not condemning nor condoning the actions of either of these teachers. However, I do believe these stories can be a wake-up call for many of us who use Social Media tools in our private lives. The bottom line is that we just need to think about the things we post online.

 As always, comments are welcome! If you have a specific question about Social Media use, please let me know. If I don't know the answer, I will find out!

Resources for this week's post:

Teach With Video Blog

Connecticut Employment Law Blog

The Department of Marketing (for general definition and information about Social Media)
I created the Simpson's image at Addletters.com


Natalie Monroe resources:
Teacher Natalie Monroe Defends Blog Comments About Whiny Students
Natalie Monroe's Personal Blog -  Bloggate Day 1: The Scandal Begins
The Christian Science Monitor: To Teacher Blogs Help or Hurt Schools?
An Open Letter to Natalie Monroe


Ashley Payne resource:
Did the Internet Kill Privacy?  CBS Sunday Morning story and video

Tech Tip Today ... Bembo's Zoo

Wow, Tuesday totally passed me by this week without time to blog! Did anyone else look at the calendar and wonder how it the world it could already be Wednesday???

For this week's Tech Tip, I wanted to share a simple little site that would be fun for our younger students who are learning and reviewing their letters. This site "builds" adorable animals using just the letters in its name.

Check out Bembo's Zoo today!

Want to see how creative your students are? Let them explore this site and then see what they can do with the letters in their own names!

What's your favorite animal from the site?
I think mine might be P for Peacock or X for the x-ray of a Wolf - pretty creative!