For my practicum project this semester, I met with my principal to see if there was anything meaningful that I could create to help our school. We have recently adopted a new behavior matrix for our school system. There are posters lining the hallways with models and expectations for students. We have also created videos for teachers to play with their students to teach expected behaviors. What was missing is a central digital hub where educators could access copies of the behavior matrix along with digital resources to support instruction to students. We were also missing a behavior matrix for digital citizenship. For my project, I decided to take this on.
I created a google site to house all the resources for our behavior matrix and created a behavior matrix for digital citizenship expectations. I chose google sites for a few different reasons. One reason being our district is a google suite district, so more educators are familiar with how to use google sites. It is also something that I can easily share with other collaborators so that administration can take over running the website after it is setup. On the website, I included the behavior matrix with links to the pre-created model videos for students. I created a separate page and behavior matrix for digital citizenship.
When I created the digital citizenship matrix, I used ISTE student standards as my base. The matrix will need to be reviewed by our behavior team before they are officially adopted by our school site, but I am confident they will match with the expectations we already have in place. Within the digital citizenship page, I created a separate page for each grade level with the digital citizenship Nearpod lessons directly linked so that educators will have ease of access when instructing their students. I used Canva to create digital buttons to link directly to outside resources. Last, I included a resource page where I found digital citizenship games that educators can share with their students from common sense media.
Our district defaults google sites to require a district account to access the site, so I cannot link directly to the website on this blogpost. Instead, below I share some pictures of the website and an example of a grade level digital citizenship page.
It was rewarding to create something that my school can use to help educators and students grow in digital citizenship. The feedback that I got from my principal was that it is easy to read, and use. It is something that they should continue being able to update and use, even if I leave my position to become a technology coach. If I were to continue working on this website, my next steps would be to add more interactive links with activities and videos for students to work with digital citizenship more fully.
