Diffusing Digital Drama: A Invitation to Chat with an Expert

As I have mentioned in prior posts, I consider Common Sense Media to be a reliable and valuable resource for educators, parents and students.  On Tuesday, May 21, 2019, Common Sense Media is going to hold a live chat with Jamie Nunez on Diffusing Digital Drama.  To sign up and join, click on this link.  After signing up, I got an email in about 15 minutes and I had to create an account.  It ws fast and easy to do.

This is a recent bio about Jamie.

Jamie is the Bay Area Regional Manager at Common Sense and has spent the last 15 years leading education initiatives by learner centered design. With both high school teaching and administration experience, Jamie has designed creative labs for educators, researched learning styles of gang members, and facilitated numerous ​​workshops on student attention gaps in digital spaces​​​​​. 

The common threads across his career are the beliefs that learning is most powerful when it’s founded on individual experience, and digital tools are most impactful when they fosters inclusion.

Jamie holds a B.A. in international relations from UC Santa Barbara, M.A in education from SF State and a Doctorate in international comparative education at Stanford.  When not working, Jamie can be found surfing in the Bay Area or making new sangria recipes to share with friends.
Since digital drama seems to invade the lives of many children, I thought it was a worthwhile resource to share.  

Consider signing up to be included in the live chat with Jamie.  He is going to discuss what to do when your child has a tantrum when his/her phone is taken away and how to spot digital issues that your kids may be facing.

If you don't have time to participate in the live chat, perhaps you want to share some digital drama topics that you think we can work on together at KRMS.  Use the comments area of this blog to share your thoughts.

Technology Regulations

There are several regulations that govern the educational use of technology in schools.  One regulation is known as CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act).  CIPA was enacted by Congress in 2000.  You can read more about it here.  Basically, CIPA requires K-12 schools who use E-rate funds to have an Internet Safety Policy in place, block obscene content and work on educating students on how to be safe and appropriate online.  This is not to be confused with COPA which was struck down by the Supreme Court as being in violation of the First Amendment Rights.  You can read more about that here.  Kearsarge does indeed have an Internet Policy, a Responsible Use Policy and a content filter.  We, also, provide ongoing training for students on appropriate use of technology.

Another regulation regarding technology is COPPA (Children's Online Privacy and Protection Act).  COPPA was enacted in 1998 to limit the collection of data gathered by website operators on children under the age of 13 without the consent of parents.  Some technology tools require students to provide their DOB (date of birth) in order to use an account.  If the student is under 13, then a parent is supposed to be included in the sign up process.  If the student is over 13, then the student can proceed.  In our District, we have worked hard to make sure that students aren't using websites that don't comply with COPPA when using technology for educational purposes.

A new regulation for schools is coming as well.  Right now it is being referred to as HB 1612.  You can read more about it here.  Our technology committee has been hard at work gathering the privacy policies of the technology software used in our District.

Over the past two weeks, I have gone to each cluster to discuss with students that going forward, we have to check the data privacy policy of each technology tool used in our District regardless of the age of the student.  We can no longer allow students, even if they are 13, to sign up for online accounts without checking deeper into the data and privacy policies of these technologies.  This means that students are no longer going to be able to "add" their own chrome extensions or create user accounts on online software accounts.  Our District has to submit a plan by June 2019.  We then have time to begin the implementation of our plan.  Students will see the effects of these changes as we proceed.

During these discussions some important questions were asked.  Some of our students are already using accounts on a personal basis that are in direct violation of COPPA because they signed up for accounts on their own that require them to be 13 and they are not that old yet.

A second concern that was raised is that some students have been using their Kearsarge email to create these accounts which is in direct violation of our Responsible Use Policy that states that students can only use their Kearsarge email to create accounts for technologies that are educational in nature and this is to be done only after being directed to do so by a teacher.

We had a great conversation about data privacy and security in view of this and it gave me an opportunity to have a reminder discussion of the Responsible Use Policy.  We have learned that coming at things from an educational stand point is key to helping students make responsible decisions as they navigate social media and online technologies.  The open discussion helped me to see that we have more work to do.

I am requesting that parents have conversations with their children about data privacy for all accounts that they use.  If the minimum age of use for the tool is 13, parents should really consider whether the child is ready to have that access and make a joint decision as a family.  Be sure to keep in mind that students should never be using their Kearsarge account to set up access to Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram, Pinterest, iTunes, and just about every other social media account as these accounts do not fall into the realm of educational technologies used in our District at the present time.

I will end with the comment that despite these social media tools not being used in the realm of our educational technology plan, it's clear to us that students are using these accounts.  We will continue to work on educating students on how to manage their privacy, secure their data, and be responsible users of online technologies.  We certainly welcome your help. 

Do you think that social media tools should be used in our curriculum and/or do you think we should be doing more direct instruction on how to be responsible users of social media?  Do you have ideas on how this would be best delivered?  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.

Let's Talk About Executive Function

I’m guessing many of you have heard about the importance of Executive Function in children, and really in all of us.  But if you aren’t familiar with this term, or are, but aren’t sure exactly what it is, let’s break it down.

According to The Oxford Handbook of Developmental Psychology, Vol.1: Body and Mind, “executive function is a set of skills that allow people to control their behavior and direct it toward longer-term goals, rather than doing what is automatic or easiest to accomplish.” When you apply that to elementary and middle school age children, you can see why it can be so elusive and frustrating!  Behavior regulation is incredibly challenging for young children, but perhaps not as challenging as setting long-term goals, which involves the abstract process of thinking about the future.  So, how can we help our children develop these skills?  It’s helpful to look at the three components of executive function:

• Working Memory: the capacity to hold and work with multiple pieces of information simultaneously. For example, if someone asks me to put on my coat, hat, and mittens I can keep in mind what I have already done and what I need to do next.
• Cognitive Flexibility: the capacity to easily switch between different ways of thinking, such as changing behavior to fit different situations or seeing something from a different perspective. For example, I follow different rules when I am on the playground versus in the library.
• Self Control: the capacity to interrupt an automatic response, control the body, or resist distractions in order to do what is advantageous in the long run. For example, when asked to clean up, I can put my toys away instead of picking up and playing with each one.

These three components are what allow us to focus on tasks, regulate the flow of information, create mental priorities, plan, set and achieve goals in a timely manner, and control impulses.  These skills play an important role in our daily lives, as in remembering to raise a hand instead of blurting out an answer, calming yourself down when upset instead of yelling and throwing things, continuing to work on a challenging math problem instead of giving up when frustrated, or waiting until after dinner to eat dessert.  They also play a big part in relationships, because they allow us to see things from another’s point of view and control emotions and actions.

How can we help our kids develop these skills?  

Modeling, talking, and reflecting in real time.  What I mean by that is, it’s hard to teach those skills in isolation - they need to be applied to real life situations.  Help your child to pause, step back, look at the big picture, and plan ahead before acting. When your child has a problem to solve, talk to him or her about the options available and the consequences of different choices. When your child interacts with others, talk about emotions that other people may be feeling and how other people’s point of view may be different than your child’s. Talking about what is going on inside their head can help a child reflect and make conscious decisions, rather than run on auto-pilot.

To help children regulate behavior, offer choices within clear, reasonable limits.  Executive function skills will grow when children have the responsibility to monitor their progress and recognize and correct their mistakes. Don’t be uninvolved, but let children make as many of their own choices as possible within appropriate boundaries. For example, rather than telling your child it’s time to do her homework (no choice) or asking your child if she’s planning on doing her homework (unlimited choice), you might ask her what her homework plan is, and does she need any help.

Another, often overlooked method of helping your child develop these skills, is through physical activity.  Getting the heart rate up increases blood flow to the brain, which is important for brain development, including the parts of the brain used for executive function. Being active also reduces stress, which is another way to help executive functions grow. Many types of exercise are also good practice for executive function skills such as body awareness and control, remembering rules, and controlling emotions. Running, swimming, soccer, dance, yoga, martial arts, or other physical activity that your child enjoys can help their executive function.

Here are some more ideas...

General strategies

• Take step-by-step approaches to work; rely on visual organizational aids.
• Use tools like time organizers, computers or watches with alarms.
• Prepare visual schedules and review them several times a day.
• Plan and structure transition times and shifts in activities.

Managing time

• Create checklists and "to do" lists, estimating how long tasks will take.
• Break long assignments into chunks and assign time frames for completing each chunk.
• Use visual calendars to keep track of long term assignments, due dates, chores, and activities.
• Be sure to write the due date on top of each assignment.

Managing space and materials

• Organize work space.
• Minimize clutter.
• Consider having separate work areas with complete sets of supplies for different activities.
• Schedule a weekly time to clean and organize the work space.

Managing work

• Make a checklist for getting through assignments. For example, a student's checklist could include such items as: get out pencil and paper; put name on paper; put due date on paper; read directions; etc.

Executive Function skills are crucial for learning and development, as well as for helping to make healthy choices, and have healthy and fulfilling relationships.  These skills are developing throughout the teen years, so our children will benefit from our modeling these skills throughout their school years.  It’s not too late to start!

Media Literacy

Media Literacy is a key skill in this time of inordinate digital information.  In the book, Fact vs. Fiction:  Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Age of Fake News, the authors spend a bit of time talking about the term fake news.  When you hear the term "fake news" what do you think?  Is this term overused?

Actually, fake news can be broken down into several specific areas:

• propaganda
• disinformation
• conspiracy theory
• clickbait

The authors want students (and adults) to know the nuances of the difference types of fake news instead of overusing the generic term.  The authors use the following as definitions.

Propaganda:  "Ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause" (Lagarde, p. 38).

Disinformation:  "False information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth" (Lagarde, p. 38).

Conspiracy Theory:  "A theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators" (Lagarde, p. 38).

Clickbait:  "Something (such as a headline) designed to make readers want to click on a hyperlink especially when the link leads to content of dubious value or interest" (Lagarde, p. 38).

Here is a link to some additional types of fake news.

One really important point that the authors make in the book is how much news that young people get from social media on their phones.

They stress how difficult it is for people to know on a phone some of the basic things that are taught when working to validate information as credible.  It's pretty interesting.

Check out this link to see how you do spotting fake news from phone content.  This form is shared the authors.  If you want to know the answers, contact me and I will let you know.  Or you could read their book.  The book is totally worth reading.  I do not receive any compensation if you do purchase the book.

Something else that I found compelling in the book:  Fact vs. Fiction, was the information the authors shared on confirmation bias.  With social media, you can unfollow people who have opinions or ideas that are different than yours.  Social media companies also use algorithms to share information with you based on your prior search habits or likes.  So, if you like coffee, you will get adds for coffee and you will get information about the positive benefits of coffee.  This is called Confirmation Bias.  It's something your brain does and companies are using this brain science to their advantage.


Check out this video from PBS:

He does use a few swears in his video so I don't use this video with kids.

Don't Fret.  All is not lost.  There are tons of resources about how to spot and combat fake news.  Also, the district librarians and technology integrators are hard at work helping to teach students and teachers how to help students learn how to improve their media literacy and information literacy skills.

Works Cited

LaGarde, Jennifer, and Darren Hudgins. Fact vs. Fiction:
Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Age of Fake News. International Society for
Technology in Education, 2018.

Media Balance & Well-Being

As part of each Blizzard Bag Day assignment at KRMS, we have a tech check lesson.  We select something related to technology and have the students watch a video or read some information and then answer a short quiz.  It's a way to review or expose students to technology tips and tricks that we don't always have time to do during a school day.

For Blizzard Bag Day 3, our students will learn about Media Balance & Well-Being using some new curriculum from Common Sense Media.  Common Sense Media is considered an expert resource for parents, students and educators on topics related to technology.

Common Sense Media cautions against using the word addicted to technology and prefers the term balance.

Technology offers many great tools.  Technology isn't the problem per se.  The problem lies with the human on the other end of the technology.  So just like our technology policy that we refer to as a responsible use policy because we want to accentuate the positive and teach students to be responsible, Common Sense Media takes a similar approach with choosing to use the positive word of balance with media use.

On Blizzard Bag Day 3, students will look at some materials on Media Balance and jot down some notes on a worksheet about their own personal media habits.  Then students will identify one way that they can work towards Media Balance.  It's a small first step in seeking to find balance in media use.

Common Sense Media offers some Family Resources on this topic that I want to share with you here.

• Help Kids Balance Their Media Lives

• Media Balance Family Activity

• Family Engagement Resources

Kids definitely watch what the adults in their lives are doing so if you are using your phone during dinner, while driving, while waiting in line at the grocery store or you binge watch Netflix, then you might have a harder time having a conversation about their Media Balance until you look at your own Media Balance.

Maybe on the next Blizzard Bag Day, if you are able to be home with your child, you can go outside and build a snowman together.

It would be epic if the response from the students was that the one thing they could do to work on Media Balance was to play in the snow with a trusted adult.

Winter Activities

Winter Activities

One of my favorite experiences so far at KRMS has been Winter Activities. Research overwhelmingly touts the benefits of physical activity and engaging with the outdoors, especially for kids. We are so fortunate that the tradition of Winter Activities is one that has lasted through the years and is supported by the schools, community, and the school board. 

During Winter Activities, students at KRMS have the opportunity to select from a variety of activities, indoors and out, such as skiing, snowboarding, ice fishing, snowshoeing, ice skating, outdoor “hodgepodge,” indoor “hodgepodge,” cooking, board games, yoga, and “winter zen.”

I have spent the last three weeks at Mt. Sunapee with our skiers and snowboarders. Each Tuesday, we load four busses with 165 excited students and head for the mountain. I am so impressed with the level of comfort and talent of many of our students and proud of the students who are trying a new sport for the first time. 



Some of my best moments on the mountain and some of the biggest smiles I’ve witnessed have been watching students, primarily from our Gateway program, in the New England Healing Sports Association (NHESA) program. NHESA is a non-profit program staffed by volunteers that provides adaptive ski and snowboard lessons to people of all ages with disabilities. The instructors utilize specialized equipment to provide a safe, and structured environment for our students to engage with the activities. You can learn more about the amazing work NHESA does at their website: http://nehsa.org/.

I would love to learn more about the history of Winter Activities and the Kearsarge Regional School District. If you know the story of how it all got started, please send me an email: acostanzo@kearsarge.org.

Self-Control with Technology

At a recent staff meeting, we had a mini-lesson on Mindfulness from veteran teacher Ms. Heidi Clarke.  Ms. Clarke uses mindfulness techniques on a daily basis with her 6th graders and has noted a reduction in the number of discipline issues and an increase in the amount of time on task.

A few days after the meeting, Heidi shared a video with us called Why Aren't We Teaching You Mindfulness.  The video is 14 minutes long.  It is totally worth your time.

Please view it and then come back and finish reading this post.

In the video, AnneMarie Rossi mentions that the most important factor in future success is self-control.  She talks about the fact that the ability to focus on one thing at a time is a skill and it takes practice.  Being able to focus doesn't happen automagically.  

Another really interesting thing Ms. Rossi said was:

"Mindfulness is the space between our emotions 

and our reactions 

so that we can think first."

From a technology perspective, this made me think of email flames.  You know what I mean, it's those snarky, sarcastic emails we fire off because we are angry.  Mindfulness would be waiting 24 hours before responding to an email.  Often times, it's a misunderstanding that is now worse because of the angry response.  The 24 hour waiting period would give us that time we need to think.

Here are some strategies:

1.  Craft your email but choose to leave it as a draft.  This allows you to vent and get it out of your system.  Then wait 24 hours, read it again and see if it really needs to be sent.

2.  Wait 24 hours and then speak to the person face to face the next day.  If you can't face the person to say what you want to say, then it probably shouldn't be said.  

3.  Filter!  Not everything you think in your head has to actually be said out loud.

4.  Set up an undo send on your email.  In Gmail, you can undo the send for up to 30 seconds.  This isn't much time to think but it's the best Gmail offers at the present time.

Something else I thought of were some chrome extension that you can put on your computer to assist you in staying focused on the task at hand.  Richard Byrne wrote this excellent post on staying focused.  He recommends StayFocused and ReCall Study Time as options.  Both of these chrome extensions allow the user to set up some restrictions on browsing social media or other websites for a specific amount of time with the idea that the person would focus on completing a task while the websites chosen by the user are blocked.  What I like about this is that the user is the one who chooses to set up the blocking.  This is an important step in learning self-control.

Apple came out with something called Screen Time in iOS 12.  This allows parents to set up screen time limits for themselves and their children on iPods, iPhones and iPads.  Link here to learn how to set this up on your iPhone.  Sometimes children need help with self-control by having the restrictions set by parents.

Technology isn't the issue.  The issue is our inability to control our use of technology.  It's important to recognize that self-control around technology use is going to take lots of practice.  As a parent, you have to be the leader.  This means you have to be a role model and control your own use of technology.  It also means that you have to help set boundaries or family rules and then enforce these rules.  This is not going to make you very popular, but parenting isn't a popularity contest.  

When I was growing up, my mom had a rule that was called:  "9 to 9 and never on Sunday."  This rule was related to the use of the telephone.  Full disclosure, this was back when the phones were 

rotary phones and were not cordless.

If the phone rang after 9 PM, I would be in a panic in my bedroom hoping the call was not for me.  My mom would not give me the easy way out.  If the call was for me, I would have to take the phone and tell the person on the other end that I was not allowed to talk on the phone after 9 PM.  This resulted in some awkward moments the next day in school.  I was in high school for goodness sake.  I was frustrated back in the day, but I have come to cherish that memory of learning self-control.  My mom did not waver in her conviction that families should have quiet time in the evenings and quality time together on Sundays.

This rule stuck with me for over 40 years and when my own phone rings after 9 PM, it makes me sad that people haven't learned to respect this quiet time that everyone should have.  Since I have caller ID, I simply don't answer.