Internet Safety lesson plan reflection – Diana North
CyberBullying 101 – The Power of Words CyberSmart Lesson Plan
I am sitting (thank goodness!) at the roller rink. My daughter is skating with her best friend. We
are at the rink because my daughter‟s friend„s sister (who is a 7th grade student at Waters Middle
School) is having a birthday party. The moms are sitting in a booth and the cyber bullying
incident came up for discussion. One of the mothers asked her daughter why everyone hates this
girl, and her daughter replied, “She is bleep and bleep”. What an awful thing to say! I am
puzzled by mom‟s question? What difference does WHY make? The “Why” is irrelevant? To
ask why is seeking justification for the (cyber) bullying. There is no justification. You don‟t use
hateful words, and you don‟t create hate Facebook (Disgracebook) pages. I logged into Facebook
and just wrote I hate in the search - over 500 sites came up. Two sites came up for I hate Justin
Bieber (he is a minor) – poor kid. Facebook shouldn‟t allow this. I am positive, terms like “I
hate” can be filtered, flagged and pages forced to close. (Or is this a violation of free speech?)
Lastly, it is one thing to tell kids “no, don‟t do that – cyber bullying is wrong, but some just say
who cares. As a community of people living in an relatively new era of technology, I hope we
don‟t just live and learn with cyber bullying. Cyberbulling suicide is a frightening issue. If you
throw a penny off the Empire State Building, could the penny kill a pedestrian below? A myth?
Yet people will throw a penny off skyscrapers – why? If it‟s true, you could kill someone.
Unfortunately words cruelly thrown at a person, especially a teenage could end a life.
Internet Safety Integration
Internet safety is part of our curriculum. In 2008, Attorney General Beau Biden came to Caravel
to talk to the Middle School about Internet Safety.
AG Biden did a pretty good job
communicating with the kids and sharing real world (scary) examples of the avoidable potential
hazards on the internet. I teach formal Internet Safety beginning with 3rd grade. I stress keeping
private, personal information off the internet with all the grades I teach. The third graders watch
Safe Side Super Chick a funny approach to teaching internet safety. I follow with an activity. I
like this DVD because it is a silly way to get an important message delivered. The DVD was
created by Julie Clark (Baby Einstein) and hosted by John Walsh. I have an open discussion
about cyber bullying with 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students. They watch BrainPOP‟s free Cyber
Bullying movie and take the online quiz and/ or complete the written activity. Again, Cyber
Bullying is part of our technology curriculum and is taught ever year. I‟ve used sections of
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Internet Safety lesson plan reflection – Diana North
CyberSmart with my middle school. We explore feelings and how easy it is to hurt someone
with just words. We discuss how emails should be written, and how for instance typing in all
caps is a form of cyber shouting. I provide and ask to share real world examples; usually mine
and I have a couple. We discuss how easy it is to sit alone and write something hurtful in an
email when you are angry – versus a face to face discussion.
The kids really enjoy the
discussion and activities. Honestly, I think a digital citizenship and social skills class should be
mandatory for all students. My son attends “social skills” once a week at his school because of
his PDD – he enjoys social skills class, and I see a difference.
When looking through this lesson plan, I found additional ideas to use next year. I like the idea
about creating a school blog or wiki about techniques for calming down or knowing when to ask
an adult for help before the problem escalates to a hurtful situation.
Meeting of Minds
I found two pieces of information from the article, Meeting of Minds, first with Identity. The teen
says, “We don‟t have to be ourselves online; we have the freedom to be who we want others to
believe we are.” I have many students and alumni Facebook friends. Most are exactly who they
are online as they are in real life, and I am relieved. Those that can‟t be themselves, are not
happy with who they are?
Second is in the Participation section about cyber bullying and a course of action. It was found
that “a full third of the teens argued for ignoring the bullying. (NO ADULTS SUGGESTED
THIS APPROACH and I am not shouting, just surprised.) Wow!! I grew up with the “ignore”
rule! Mom and dad saying “Ignore it, don‟t react. The person will get bored and eventually will
stop.” I know with the BrainPOP movie it clearly talks about “ignore the bully”, don‟t reply to
the message and tell an adult.
This article is a keeper! I own two future teenagers, and I teach future teenagers at school. It
was easy to read and filled with real world “future (parent stressful)” information.
A teen said parents need to trust us teens to make good decisions on the internet. So, building
trust in a child should start young with social skills and digital citizenship instruction!
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Internet Safety lesson plan reflection – Diana North
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References
BrainPOP | Cyberbullying. (n.d.). BrainPOP - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science,
Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology. Retrieved April
20, 2010, from
http://www.brainpop.com/technology/computersandinternet/cyberbullying/
Delaware Attorney General. (n.d.). Delaware Department of Justice - Attorney Generals Office.
Retrieved April 20, 2010, from http://attorneygeneral.delaware.gov/kids/kids_page.shtml
Meeting of Minds: Cross-Generational Dialogue on the Ethics of Digital Life. (n.d.). FOCUS on
Digital Media. Retrieved April 20, 2010, from http://focusondigitalmedia.org/
The Safe Side - Teach your kids to stay Smart, Cool and Safe. (n.d.). The Safe Side - Teach your
kids to stay Smart, Cool and Safe. Retrieved April 20, 2010, from
http://www.thesafeside.com/
APA formatting by BibMe.org.