This week marks the end of our Digital Citizenship conversations for all Pleasant Valley students in grades 3-6. Over 1,300 students engaged in a week long conversation about being alert, balanced, inclusive, informed and engaged, since we started school in August. As I’ve mentioned previously, these POWER words have been a springboard to connect the competencies we want all of our students to embrace in their daily life.   Not just during the week of direct instruction about DigCit, but also for the rest of their lives.  I also want to say ‘thank you’ to the teachers who willingly embark on this journey with me.  They build on these concepts throughout the year and partner with me, and others, to give students authentic opportunities to showcase these beliefs.

For example, in one of our buildings, the students who want to podcast meet every Tuesday a.m.  to hone their ideas, scripts, delivery and interviews.  In many classrooms across the district, students are sharing their ideas and voice with individual student blogs.  The write, rewrite, and revise  process is embraced because students believe their voice in a real world setting matters, and needs to be professional.  A different group of podcasters is now interviewing authors, before writing their script as a way to enhance their message with the use of author quotes. In yet another classroom, students create ebooks that can be shared with a global audience.  The concept empowers students and takes their message beyond school walls.  After branding their marketing group with a name and logo, one sixth-grade group creates public service announcements and commercials for upcoming school events. Another group of second grade students created an ebook to educate others about the United Nation’s sustainable goal of clean water because they saw a need for resources that would be applicable for younger students to read and understand.  Several classrooms have joined with others across the world to engage in a  global collaboration project to help improve education.   Why…because they believe they can make a difference.

So, thank you, teachers and students for doing real work that will leave a digital footprint of positivity, empowerment and hope.  You DO make the world a better place.