... Show the Way

A popular quote from John C. Maxwell goes to the tune of “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way”. The reason I think this quote is especially important is because one of the things our Digital Citizenship has going for it is that we aren’t just leading the discussions, we are participating in teaching the lessons along with

all of the other teachers. Most times PLC’s are led by staff members who are administrators and do not actually teach lessons. Therefore, they never get to see the dirty work of preparing for the lesson, teaching the lesson, and reflecting on the lesson and student achievement. We are out there teaching the lessons along with our peers and that is my purpose for writing this blog post.

Tomorrow I will be teaching the first lesson to the fifth grade classrooms on digital citizenship. The first lesson is one that I think is one of the most important and lays the groundwork for how to be a productive digital citizen. This lesson focuses on media balance, and understanding what balance means to each individual. Additionally, this lesson allows me the opportunity to reflect on the PLC that we ran and helps me to prepare for what I will be presenting during the second PLC. One of the things I like most about our decision with the first PLC was that we had teachers complete flipgrids, which were shared in the last blog post. These flipgrids are available to all teachers as soon as they are posted so everyone can get a little insight into the lesson that was taught by their colleagues. I read many articles on how best to share information with colleagues and ways to collaborate more. In those articles they highlighted many strategies that we decided to implement, and the flipgrid is that communication in action. (LINK TO ARTICLE) The article also emphasizes how that communication can help teachers to improve their own teaching. In having teachers complete these flipgrids I have seen how beneficial they can be, as I have used their feedback to shape the lesson I will be teaching. (LINK TO FLIPGRIDS) I would like to see more of this collaboration happen, even outside of these PLC’s.

One of my concerns in teaching this lesson and a part of the conversation I think I would like to generate is that Common Sense Media emphasizes that balance is something that is different for everyone. Therefore, media balance is 100% reliant on what each individual believes is balanced for him or her. I struggle with this idea, because I think many students are going to say that they do have a media balance and 3 hours of playing a video game is balanced for them. I would prefer to see a lesson that adheres to certain guidelines, or a sheet they can reference that shows how much media is too much. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children who are 6 or over should have consistent limits on the amount of media they consume, however that assumes that parents are enforcing those limits. (LINK TO ARTICLE) These limits are incredibly important to the students we teach, however it is very difficult to break some of the habits they have already started forming.

Our group created quizzes to monitor the learning of the students as they progress through these lessons, and we will be able to utilize those scores to focus on specific areas that are struggles. Specifically, the question, “Media balance includes activities that involve…” has been a real difficulty for the students with 60% of students answering that question incorrectly. I plan to use that information to emphasize the point that media balance includes; different types of media, different types of digital media, and different types of non-media activities. Students have been struggling to understand that media does, in fact, include different types of non-media activities. This will also be a great talking point in our PLC about backwards mapping, or using the quiz to drive what needs to be taught and emphasized. (LINK TO QUIZZES) I am really looking forward to getting into the classroom and teaching the lesson as we move forward.