Parenting with Netbooks

I am sure that things have changed in the homes of Evansville's middle school students in the past few weeks.  Some of those changes are probably wonderful, whereas some may cause tension in the family.  I have a 9 year-old son who loves his technology.  If my husband and I would let him, he would play his DS, while watching TV, all day long, I know he would be thrilled.  There is just something a little different about the way our kids are "wired" these days.  (Don't you remember your parents saying something like that about us?)

Every generation is different.  There is a really good book out by Dr. Larry D. Rosen, Rewired. He specifically addresses many of the differences with what is now being referred to as the Net-Geners or the iGeners.  He talks about reasons that tweens and teens hate school, how many of them step into time warps when they enter their school buildings.  With the introduction of netbooks this year, I hope that we are making strides towards lessening the gap between the technology students love to use outside our building to that which is used inside it.  

As a parent, I know that we often struggle with the best way to parent our children.  This article, http://mashable.com/2011/09/14/parenting-tech-children/, provides 5 tips for parenting in the digital age.  The site isn't very pretty.  You must scroll down the page a bit to get to the article, but is definitely worth the read.  It made me stop to think about what I am telling my son and what I am modeling to him.  I will try to post more parenting tips as I find them.  Have a great week!

Angel

Students are getting to know Angel more each day.  Students and parents have asked for resources on how to do things in Angel.  I am posting a link for some resources at the top of this blog.  I am also going to post some resources in the Thompkins Students group in Angel.  If you have questions about Angel, don't hesitate to ask me.

Many teachers post assignments on Angel.  If you do not have internet at home, students should download the assignment to a flash drive before leaving school.  If students are struggling with how to do this, they should see me.

Netbooks Go Home

Wow!  The past couple weeks have been busy!  The teachers, students, and I have been working hard to make sure that we are becoming good digital citizens.  Today, we finished up the last of the testing for students.  With the passing of the assessments, students were able to take their netbooks home.  They were all so excited!  Some hints:

• Students should power down at school and power back up at home.  
• Please encourage students to wait until they get home to take their netbook out of the bag.  We are hearing that some students are getting netbooks out on the bus.  This is not practicing good digital citizenship.
• Remember that we are all learning right now.  There will be lots of lessons for all of us along the way.  

Over Labor Day weekend, be sure that the netbook is kept in a safe location.  Cars can get extremely hot and be tough on the netbooks.  Find a secure spot in your home for the netbook.  

Enjoy practicing good digtal citizenship!!!