What Teachers (and Students) Should Know About Facebook Privacy Settings

Did you know that a Google search can pull up photos you post to Facebook? Did you know that college admissions offices are now using services like Pipl to see what potential candidates are posting to social networking sites? Below are links to number of blog posts and websites that go into more detail about what both teachers and students should know when it comes to Facebook's privacy settings. Are you protecting yourself, your images, and your content? You should be.

• Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities -- THE Journal

  Web 2.0 tools have critically elevated the social networking activity and skills of individuals. Not only are young people highly active in social networks, but older individuals are also showing a huge increase in their use of these tools. The attraction of older age groups is, of course, social connection and community building among professional and casual peers and friends.

• FACEBOOK FAIL: How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings and Avoid Disaster

  The beauty of Facebook’s many features is that now you can choose what you show and to what type of people. By using friend lists and playing with your privacy settings, you can create different views for each segment of your life.

• Langwitches » Teacher Code of Conduct… Revisited

  I am wondering if there is a necessity to create a guideline or code of conduct how teachers are to present themselves in their private online network places profiles? Does the administration at school or the district have the right (duty) to bring the subject up for discussion and in the end to make rules? Is it their business or not?

• Facebook in the Classroom

  A good PDF resource for teachers on how to use Facebook with students.

• Facebook Strategies For The Classroom

  This presentation explores the potential uses of Facebook for teaching and motivating collaboration between students. Issues of privacy and intellectual property will also be covered, as well as advantages and pitfalls of social networks.

• Facebook Privacy for Teachers « Megan Golding

  I’m a Facebook user AND a teacher. Here’s how I locked down my profile so that I can have a social life and not worry that the world is watching over my shoulder.

• 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

  All Facebook users should know this.

  
  
• NetSmartz Workshop | Facebook

  A good place to start for talking with students and staff about privacy issues on social networking sites like Facebook.

Resources for Teaching The Kite Runner

I'll be teaching Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner for the first time this fall. To prepare, I've spent the last few days gathering resources and thinking about how I might frame this story when I present it to students. I teach a tenth grade World Literatures course, where students study fiction, non-fiction, and creative texts from the non-western world. As we read the various texts, we hone in on perspective - What perspective does the narrator represent/present? What perspective do we as readers from particular backgrounds and with particular experiences bring to a text? What perspective do other readers and writers offer on this text? So in thinking about how I might bring this theme into our reading of The Kite Runner, I'm considering presenting the students the basics of literary criticism to help frame the reading of the text.

I've taught students literary criticism basics in the past. We've discussed the foundations of historical, formalist, feminist/gender studies, psychoanalytical, and reader response theories as a type of lens that a reader might don to help understand the particulars of a text. By teaching literary criticism as a lens, I have found it also helps students understand some related literary tropes and devices. In the past, students have completed a WebQuest activity to help introduce the various theories.

The Kite Runner could prove fruitful for this type of study. However, I worry that using this type of frame might reduce the story to nothing more than its devices and context. I suppose this is the danger when teaching literary criticism in general. I'd love your thoughts and feedback on anything I should consider as I work on this curriculum unit.

In the meantime, I thought I would share some of the resources that I found online that might help others as they consider teaching this text.

RESOURCES UPDATED MAY 2014

• My Lesson Plan Materials
  Using many of the sources listed below, I created the linked lesson plans above that I use with my tenth grade English students.
• Discussion Materials from Bucks County
  Kite Runner was selected as one of the "One Book, One Bucks County" project. This document includes a wealth of resources listed by grade-level.
• Teaching Materials from Literary Cavalcade
  This document contains an excerpt from the novel, background information, and follow-up activities, including a narrative based on an incident in the reader's childhood.
• Historical Materials from Amnesty International
  I want to thank the Human Rights Education Program at Amnesty International USA for this comprehensive guide to The Kite Runner film. I think they have done a terrific service to the students, and I am grateful to them for bringing to light the nuances and many complexities of Afghan society and Afghan life via this guide.
• My Pinterest Collection for Teaching The Kite Runner
  In an effort to keep a current collection of resources for teaching The Kite Runner, I am using this Pinterest board to continually curate a contemporary collection of resources.
• Study Guide for the Historical Background of The Kite Runner
  As the table of contents shows, this Study Guide is organized into sections corresponding to the requirements any teacher might consider - pre-, during and post-reading activities. One of the virtues of this novel is that it unequivocally places the reader inside the narrator's experience of the Pastun culture. At the same time, this quality may create barriers for younger readers. This guide includes writing and reading activities to familiarize students with the background, history, and culture of Afghanistan.
• The Kite Runner Connects the English and History Classrooms
  "Promote Independent Thinking with The Kite Runner" is a curriculum unit that includes discussion questions and links to a WebQuests and unit plans.
• Lessons shared on Teachers Pay Teachers
  Haven't used Teachers Pay Teachers before? Check it out! Registration is free. Teachers post lesson plans for just about anything you can think of, some for free, some for minimal cost. This is a link to all the lessons on the site for The Kite Runner.
• The Kite Runner Summary at WikiSummaries
  Just found this. Apparently, WikiSummaries is similar to Sparknotes with chapter-by-chapter summaries.
• "The Kite Runner" Banned In Afghanistan - CBS News
  The Afghan government banned the film more than a month ago because of a rape scene of a young boy and the ethnic tensions that the film highlights, said Din Mohammad Rashed Mubarez, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Information and Culture. Shops selling the movie would be closed, he said.
  
• Teacher Handouts for The Kite Runner
  A final assessment for reading The Kite Runner. Use the links on the left side of the page to also access the teacher's materials for teaching this book.
• My Prezi to Introduce The Kite Runner
  This is the Prezi that I put together to introduce the historical background of The Kite Runner.  Here is the video version of my introduction.

UPDATED: Here are some more background resources and even more curriculum planning materials.

Today's Interesting Links

• movingforward - Education Blogs by Discipline
  This is a place to list subject-specific, P-12-oriented blogs that are worth sharing with others. Only list really good ones, please!
• TakingITGlobal - Organizations - Research Journalism Initiative
  The Research Journalism Initiative (RJI) helps American high school students relate personally to international conflict issues by bringing perspectives from regions of conflict directly into their classrooms. RJI is dedicated to developing new tools for students learning about global conflict...
• By Sarah Fine -- Why I Left Teaching Behind - washingtonpost.com
  Four years later, the question I encounter is equally thorny: Why leave teaching? It's not just a question about how I'll pay my rent. Reformers have big plans to transform failing urban schools, and their work hinges on finding a way to keep strong teachers in the classroom. By throwing in the towel, I have become one more teacher abandoning her students.
• Flickr: Creative Commons- Free Pictures
  This group is for sharing images to use in your work with a creative commons license
• Flickriver: Most interesting photos from Creative Commons- Free Pictures pool
• Looking for a Unique Gift for an Administrator? Give ‘em a PLN! | Nebraska Change Agent
  How exactly do you give a PLN to someone? Several suggestions have been made today, but the one you pick depends on your relationship with your administrator. Instead of signing up for a Twitter account for them I am going to offer to help them set up one up. I will have a profile picture of them ready to go and I will have some suggestions for their biography. I will also show them how to manage and share the information that they find valuable so they can become an asset to their PLN.
• The LoTi Connection
  This year marks the 15th anniversary of the LoTi Framework. Since its inception in 1994, the LoTi Framework has been used as a statewide technology use survey, a district school improvement model, and a classroom walkthrough tool impacting thousands of schools nationally. Today, the LoTi project has grown beyond classroom technology use and has become synonymous with innovative teaching practices.
• FRONTLINE: digital nation: blog/news: A chat with Obama's new Secretary of Education | PBS
  I knew that Duncan was a big believer in standardized assessments, but those didn't come up in our conversation. He came off as solidly on the side of those who think that schools need to move with kids instead of against them, and that means using the toys kids love--games and cellphones--to teach them, inside and outside the classroom walls.

Today's Interesting Links

• Teacher Training Videos created by Russell Stannard
  Click on this simple intro to find out how to use the videos. These videos were created for teachers to help them to incorporate technology into their teaching. Just click and a video will open and take you through how to use that technology. To start now, just click on any of the links on the left. My own background is in teaching English, so if you scroll down you will see a special section of ELT videos which are grouped separately.
• Information Literacy: Building Blocks of Research: Overview
  What is Information Literacy? Information Literacy is a transformational process in which the learner needs to find, understand, evaluate, and use information in various forms to create for personal, social or global purposes. Information Literacy shares a fundamental set of core thinking- and problem-solving meta-skills with other disciplines. Authentic cross-disciplinary problems which include observation and inference, analysis of symbols and models, comparison of perspectives, and assessment of the rhetorical context, engage students in developing mastery information literacy over time.
• Technology and Education - Box of Tricks
  Latest update July 16th 2009 These are some of the best free internet resources for education. This page is constantly updated; every time I come across a new piece of software or an exciting website, I list it here. You might also want to take a look at my Diigo or Delicious accounts for more links. This list is not exhaustive in any way. In fact, if you think there is a tool or application for use in education that should be added to this list, please don't hesitate to get in touch and suggest it!
• Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities -- THE Journal
  Web 2.0 tools have critically elevated the social networking activity and skills of individuals. Not only are young people highly active in social networks, but older individuals are also showing a huge increase in their use of these tools. The attraction of older age groups is, of course, social connection and community building among professional and casual peers and friends.

Online Learning

I'm almost finished with my 4th week of this summer's PB Works Summer Camp for Teachers where I've been able to connect with other educators who are interested in finding ways to use collaborative technologies in their classrooms. Not only has it been great to revise and refine my wiki, but it has been incredibly helpful to learn and connect with other teachers interested in opening up their classrooms using wikis. And the number of teachers participating in this year's online camp is astonishing - over 1,000 elementary, secondary, and higher-education teachers! I've connected with teachers not just through the PB Works page but also through the PB Works Educator Forum and through Twitter using the #pbwcamp hashtag.

In addition to the PB Works course, I also just started a five week summer course with TiGed. The course is part of the Pennsylvania Classrooms for the Future (CFF) Summer Virtual Camps and is open to all CFF coaches and teachers. This will be a bit of a different experience for me. Unlike the PB Works online summer camp, I know next to nothing about TiGed. I've had my PB wiki for over a year so this year's camp was a bit of a review. TiGed is all new to me. But having used multiple different avenues to connect my students who those elsewhere in the world (Facebook, wikis, web pages, Nings, PTPi), I'm looking forward to finding one service that might help me to streamline some of those connections and collaborations. My goal is to find more ways to engage my English students in producing written works and products for authentic audiences. I see wikis and TiGed as ways to encourage those authentic opportunities.

As part of the first class, our TiGed instructor shared Scott McLeod and Karl Fisch's updated "Did You Know." So now, I'm sharing it with you!

Today's Interesting Links

• What Else? / Wiki Etiquette For Students
  Wiki Etiquette for Students 1. Be safe: If you are a student you must use your code name. Follow and remember our netiquette (this page). Reveal no personally identifying information. 2. Be kind: Be overly friendly and positive; you must refrain from any profane, sarcastic, or unkind responses. 3. Be respectful: Since our writing work is schoolwork, school rules and expectations apply when making any references on or to this site. 4. Be productive: Make sure you communicate clearly and intelligently (no text message wording please) on a relevant topic. Remember your purpose and audience. 5. If the above criteria are met, your posts may be published; if the above criteria are not met, your posts may not be published.
• eduportal-resources-wikietiquette
  Best Practices: Workspace Etiquette for Students What workspace advice do you have? Add your thoughts here. Keep safe. Never post your personal information or information about someone else. DO NOT put things like ages, addresses, phone numbers, names of towns, on the Internet. Remember that information on the internet, especially embarrassing information, may still be around after you've deleted it. So don't ever put up anything personal or inappropriate! Check out http://www.ikeepsafe.org/iksc_kids/ for more information.
• Screen Capture Tools: 40+ Free Tools and Techniques | Tools
  Screen capture, or print screen is perhaps the most efficient way to share whatever appears on your desktop. They help tech users like us to share and communicate better with friends and peers. Major operating systems today comes with basic screen capture and print screen function, but if these can't fulfill what you need from a screen capture then you are probably looking for a screen capturing tool. Screen capturing tools do what the basic tool don't. What these tools could do varies, including the ability to include sketches and text, instantly upload image online, audio capturing, dimension-specific capturing and more. Make your screen capture and sharing experience more interesting, here's a showcase of 40+ Free Screen Capturing Tools and Related Techniques. Full list after jump.
• YouTube - Detailed Tutorial on Glogster EDU

Today's Interesting Links

Links for Nings and More!

• Remote Access: Ning Leaders
  One thing that has been interesting to watch in the first few days of our classroom work with ning is the emergence of a few online leaders.
• Remote Access: Starting (and Ending) with Ning
  Reflections on using a Ning with students.
• WNY Education Associates » Summer Projects: Getting Started With Ning
  A number of teachers that I know plan to spend at least a part of this summer getting themselves acquainted with Ning in an effort to extend their own learning opportunities or those of their students. I belong to several networks myself, and although my participation in them tends to wax and wane depending on my schedule, there are several that top my personal favorites list, including the English Companion Ning and Working Together to Make a Difference.
• Skype an Author Into Your Library or Classroom - Skype An Author Network
  Wouldn't it be great to invite authors into your classroom or library to video chat with students before, during, and/or after you've read their books? We are growing a list of authors who want to make that connection with you. See the alphabetical list in the scrolling author box on the left. Read on to find out just how easy it is!
• Common Core
  I for one have heard quite enough about the 21st century skills that are sweeping the nation. Now, for the first time, children will be taught to think critically (never heard a word about that in the 20th century, did you?), to work in groups (I remember getting a grade on that very skill when I was in third grade a century ago), to solve problems (a brand new idea in education), and so on.Let me suggest that it is time to be done with this unnecessary conflict about 21st century skills. Let us agree that we need all those forenamed skills, plus lots others, in addition to a deep understanding of history, literature, the arts, geography, civics, the sciences, and foreign languages.