Teenagers Sexting - What Is Your School Doing About It?

Earlier this week a story broke of high school teenagers from Portland, Oregon taking video of other students engaged in sexual activities, then sending them to peers via Internet resources.  These incidents happened both on and off high school property.

One parent of a high school student feels it isn't just a Grant High School problem, but that the problem exists nationally.

As the police stated, not knowing that sharing a sexual photo or video of a friend who is under the age of 18 is no excuse, and will be considered distribution of child pornography which will have significant impact on the life of anyone.

This discovered behavior prompted immediate action by the school principal to encourage all parents to have conversations with their children regarding the seriousness of their behavior.

When I read that the principal sent home a letter to all parents with resources, I thought about all the other principals of high schools throughout the region, state, and nation.  What are they doing?  Are they encouraging parents to talk to their children about these issues?  Are these discussions happening in schools between teachers and students?  What should be the responsibility of the schools in teaching digital citizenship? 

Common Sense Media is a great resource to find talking points and lessons regarding this issue and many more.  In particular there is an entire lesson they host called "Overexposed: Sexting and Relationships".

Here are resources from Netsmartz addressing the issue, Tips to Prevent Teens Sexting for Parents, Tips to Prevent Sexting for Teens, and a video "Your Photo Fate".

I encourage all teachers to talk to students regarding digital safety, and if you happen to use this topic to get you started, excellent.  If this activity happened in Portland, Oregon, can it be happening in your school?


Sources:

• Police Investigate reports of sec acts filmed at Grant High School - FOX 12 November 17, 2014
• Portland police investigating Grant High students' filming of sexual activity - Oregon Live November 17, 2014
• Grant High School students' filming of sexual activity reflects nationwide issue - Oregon Live November 19, 2014

CC Quest and Open Ed

We are always looking for ways to help prepare students and assist teachers not only for the shifts of the Common Core but also the increase of depth of knowledge levels and tech skills needed for the Smarter Balanced Assessment.  Using technology as a tool in the classroom has so many benefits, but in the case of the new assessments students will be taking this spring, the skills associated with how to use technology correctly could pose a problem for many of our students who do not have regular access within their regular curriculum.  From tech skills to questioning styles, rethinking how you traditionally assess your students will benefit them in more ways than one!

An easy way to do common core aligned quick checks for specific standards is using apps or sites such as Common Core Quest from Open Ed (app for iPad and Android).  CC Quest could be used in isolation or along with the main Open Ed website.  Open Ed is a classroom resource library of lessons, activities, videos, etc all aligned to the CCSS.   The app can be used as a stand alone.  Students would need to log in with their school google account, they can choose their grade level and either Math or ELA.  From there, each standard has a quick 3 to 5 problem quiz that assess their mastery of the standard.  If they do not do well, the app will suggest sites or videos to visit to continue practicing that skill.  This would be a great way for students to check mastery, as well as many questions have multiple parts, similar to the Smarter Balanced Assessment.

As a teacher, you can log in and create an account at Open Ed.  From there you are able to enter in students and establish usernames and passwords for them, especially for young students or students in districts were email use is not allowed.  Adding students into a class in the website will also allow for the teacher to monitor which standards students have taken and how they have done.  More features on the website include lessons and resources aligned to the standards that teachers can assign to the class.  Most resources are open source (free access) though there are also lesson and activities from some paid subscription sites.

It's worth the time to explore!

Classflow - an Engaging Presentation Tool

Imagine presenting to your students a typical PowerPoint or Prezi.  You have a great presentation planned with images illustrating key ideas instead of a screen filled with text.  However, this presentation is still in the form students watch while teachers present. 




What if you can push individual slides of a presentation to student devices, so those sitting in the back row who forgot their glasses aren't squinting to see the slide?  Those that are losing attention because they are looking over a half dozen other students, can now maintain focus because the material is 6-12 inches in front of them.

And what if students could respond back by adding content to an existing slide, in which the instructor obtains x number of alternative results from students and can select which slide or slides to display in front of the class.

Classflow is a free online tool allowing teachers to have engaging presentations with their students.



Some of you are asking, but "Nearpod" does that already.  Correct, this is very similar to Nearpod.  One difference is Classflow also integrates with an existing Interactive Whiteboard, the Active Inspire or Promethean environment.

First step is to create your free online teacher account at Classflow.

If you are an Active Inspire user, give your students the class code and have them join your Classflow session.  Students can join using the Classflow Student app or connecting through classflow.com/student. 

Start by pushing out flipchart pages to student devices with a click of a button inside the software.

When you want the two way engagement piece you'll need to toggle over to the Classflow website.  Send students a slide in "Ad-hoc mode", which keeps your students in the same class as they are when you're using Classflow inside Inspire.

With the Classflow Student app, students can use pens, shapes, text, and even add images from the camera or their photo album.

As a teacher, you also have the traditional student response opportunities like multiple choice, text, numeric, and true false for questioning the class.

Another nice student response feature is the Word Seed.  Great for brainstorming ideas with your students as they enter in their text response, and words are placed in a circle around the slide as they send in their results.


Once you begin using Classflow, look into more advanced features like integrating Active Expression or assessment activities, or individualizing content by providing students with web links and videos during a lesson.

If you do choose to use the web based Classflow presentation platform, you can upload existing Promethean Flipchart or SmartBoard Notebook presentations.

Classflow is a program that may take some time learning, so be sure to check out the Classflow Youtube Channel.