The days of teachers spouting simplistic short-sighted shortcuts like " No citing .com's -they are not respected academically"  (shudder) or "Wikipedia can never be used for research" or even "there is nothing of academic value on Youtube" are thankfully over! This a lesson in credible sources relating it to real life scam awareness and digital citizenship on social media

Lesson Plan:

http://msgurthie.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/CriticalEvaluating

Game -Dig Cit  Forced Choices- both  in social media and in academics
Have you ever copied and pasted - words? -images into a slideshow?  Used an entire song? (show google  search by usage rights)
Started a project at the last minute?
Used easybib or other auto citation generator?
Did you see any drama this summer? You liked it? You spoke out against it?
Favorite social media site is instagram? etc
LOL'd at a Vine this summer? (which one?)


Living Life Online magazine 
The lap giraffe -discuss scams the sugar glider - real life animal but site is not credible- purpose

the tree octopus -discuss capow 

To prevent being scammed, go "CAPOW!" to knock out" a bad website.

Unlike "Kaboom!", "CAPOW" is an acronym to remind you to check a site against other reputable sites and google  for...

C-CURRENCY- is the info on the site recent? has it been maintained? You can tell by the "look" of it, by dates it has been updated, etc, by googling the info to see if it has been adjusted etc.

A-AUTHORITY- Is this website one from an authoritative institution? Is it peer reviewed? is it well respected source? Google the exact web address--what kinds of other sites refer to this site?

P-PURPOSE- Is this site trying to inform, persuade, argue? If the site is trying to sell you something, be aware.

O-OBJECTIVITY-Is this site covering all sides of the topic fairly? If not that is fine, you can still use it, but your research is not done-be sure to go to a site that supports other points of view.

W-WRITING STYLE: Misspellings, poor grammar, slang, are all signs that a site is not academic or may be a scam or a trick by someone not educated. If it is sloppy, it may have errors in its info or thinking as well.

LET's CAPOW these together right now in class:

 
DHM0 -discuss not taking the site's word for it and the difference between a lie and a bias
RYThospital -discuss not taking shortcuts

Emoji, hashtag webpage or superhero summary

Create your own emoji or Emoji Sentence or instagram hashtag summarizing the best advice of today.
#checkyourselfbeforeyouwreckyourself

http://msgurthie.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/Your+Digital+Footprint

Online your  digital footprint is like a footprint in cement, not like water or sand!

People WILL stalk your digital footprint and what you do never goes away. 
future schools
future employers
future sports teams
parents of potential bofirends and girlfriends

avoid negative and accentuate the positive

better to not make the mess than to try to have to clean it up.-nothing is ever truly deleted (wayback machine, cache, screenshots, stolen passwords etc)

Make sure that you are following digital citizenship guidelines so you can show off your best work as part of your digital footprint without a billl or a letter from a lawyer. Google image search, royalty free music etc.
More in the Olympic section below

Some people use the term "classroom management" as code for "controlling students." I try to run my class without coercion; to control the environment not the people. Because I have refined my rules over the 20+ years I've been a teacher I DO NOT let my students make the rules. I am an expert in how I want the class to run. They do not know yet how well things can go with my method, so I don't invite them making the rules until we've lived by my rules for a while.

For teachers who are looking for a system, my advice would be to pick and choose from methods of teachers you observe. Here are mine. 

If you wish to add your own ideas please share them in the comments section because I know my method won't work for everyone.  Creating climate is highly personal and there are many ways to create a positive one for learning. Teachers should use others ideas to cobble together a method that will work for them, their students, and their climate goals.

My most effective classroom management strategy is a paper"Activity Wheel" hung where every student can see it. The activity wheel is an oval bright yellow handmade poster with the name of each main type of instructional strategies we use. In the center is a red arrow that spins around the wedges. I actually move a paper arrow around the wheel to point to the activity title as we begin it. I might also read aloud the rules again as a reminder. I may do this several times a class because I always had a lot going on. 

When I did have problems, I usually could nip it with a discussion and by showing true caring. Sometimes when things went south for the whole class, I had a lot of luck going in the next day and saying to the child, to the group, "I am still thinking about last class and I am coming in today ready to do what I can to fix what went wrong." Then I could either say "here's what I will do and what I needed to see from you" or invite a discussion " What did you see that was out of line? What can we do to fix it? What if that doesn't work."
OK today's a fresh start.
The best thing to work was showing that I really cared about them and about making sure everyone could learn and be respected. One thing that always worked is never letting a putdown slide, but that was because it was like nails on a chalkboard to me so easy for me to care about and stop right away.

Below are embedded google docs my presentation slides when I teach the concept of respect and the activity wheel to my students. You can download  to your google docs and personalize it according to the procedures you want to see. 

• Teach what respect means (it means valuing)
• Teach the platinum rule (Treat others as THEY wish to be treated, not as you wish to be treated)
• Admit when things go awry
• take time to know each other-develop relationships
• start fresh - teach that success is not a straight path
• have rubrics for procedures and social behaivors of a lesson so it is clear to students the soft skills you are looking to see and how to make those manifest.
• say what you want to see
• demo what you want to see
• practice
• talk about growth versus fixed mindset
• talk about understanding how we are all different and have different needs via the animal school story

http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgebradt/2011/12/07/lessons-from-the-animal-school-fable-in-leveraging-strengths/

Relate the animal school story to Multiple Intelligences (helps you and the students understand each other and minimize your differences while working to your strengths)  


Sample Rubric - for Class Discussions without Raising Hands
Sample First Day Setting the Climate and Explaining Procedures lesson- A Visual Scavenger Hunt: