Posted in Character Counts Series, Projects, Roanoke County Schools, Video

Trustworthy Fourth Graders

Posted on by Tina Coffey

TrustworthyStudents in Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Downey’s class have been studying what it means to be trustworthy.  They’ve blogged about it, and created videos (using Videolicious) to describe their understanding of trustworthiness.

Here is one of my favorites!

The Meanings of Trusthworthy

Check out all the videos and blog posts by visiting their class blog, and leave a comment or two!

 

 

 

Posted in Google Earth, Ideas, Instructions, Lessons, Projects, Roanoke County Schools

Mission 005 — Latitude and Longitude

Posted on by Tina Coffey

Mission 005

Need a fun, cross curricular way to introduce Latitude and Longitude to your students?  Here’s a Math/Social Studies Lesson using spies, secret codes, and google earth.  What can be better than that?

It addresses Math SOL 4.15, 5.14 and Global Studies SOL GS.1.

First, make sure students understand how to use Google Earth to find specific points on Earth using latitude and longitude.  You will want to make sure that the status bar in google earth is showing (View>Status Bar) so that you can clearly see the latitude and location of your point on the globe. You will also want to cut off all layers except those that show countries.

If you are using the Google Earth App on an iPad (or iPod), make sure to change a few settings.
Check out How to Change Settings in Google Earth by Tina Coffey on Snapguide.http://images.snapguide.com/static/js/embed/script.min.js

Students also need some background in finding patterns in a series of numbers.  It may also help if they’ve done a bit of code breaking before (although it’s not necessary).  Then, present groups of students with their secret envelope and access to Google Earth, and sit back to see what they can figure out!

Here’s are the documents to create your own Mission packets:
Mission 005 – Latitude and Longitude

I’m working on a follow up STEM activity that has students designing their own codes.  I’ll add it when I’m done.

 

Posted in Character Counts Series, Ideas, Internet Safety, Roanoke County Schools

Character Counts with Technology Too! (Trustworthiness)

Posted on by Tina Coffey

trustWhat does it mean to be a trustworthy digital citizen?

Here are some questions for your students to consider:
1. What does it mean to be trustworthy with technology devices at school?  
  • Computers?
  •  iPads or iPods?
  • Printers?
  • Laptops?
2. What does it mean to be trustworthy online, at school and at home?
  • When doing research online? (copyright)
  • When gaming, especially gaming with chats?
  • When uploading photos or videos to websites? (consider what types of pictures you are uploading?  Have the people in the picture given permission for you to upload it?  Is it something you want the whole school to see?  Your grandmother to see?)
  • With passwords or personal information?
3. What does it mean to be trustworthy with a phone, iPad or iPod Touch or any other device that allows you to send text messages and pictures?
  • With what you text…
  • With who you text…
If you need any more discussion starters or information on a specific topic, let me know.  It really will work best if you integrate this within other topics so it’s more of a conversation than an “internet safety” lesson…use those teachable moments. Blogging and using devices like iPads or laptops will hopefully help those moments arise more organically.  🙂