Part of my job as the Instructional Technology teacher at my previous school was to teach about Internet Safety, even to Kindergarten. It's never too early to start learning how to be safe on the Internet.
When I first started out, I had no curriculum to go by, but after searching the for resources, I soon found
CyberSmart! It was a comprehensive FREE Internet safety curriculum that included parent letters, handouts, lessons and lots of links. They even offer online workshops for teachers. My county paid for one teacher per school to take the training. I was chosen for my school. I found it very informative and even fun.
I also learned about
Common Sense Media about the same time and soon began to use it to look up information about websites, movies, video games, and books for my students and kids. It gave reviews from CSM editors as well as it's users and I have continued to find it a valuable tool. I often direct parents to this site when they are wondering about whether or not a book or a movie is appropriate for their child. It is a wonderful, free website that all parents and teachers should utilize.
CyberSmart has since merged with
Common Sense Media, but the
free curriculum has not suffered with the merge. There are still FREE parent letters, handouts, lessons and links to enhance lessons. But now there are also videos to go along with each lesson.
If you have not checked out
Common Sense Media's free curriculum, I highly recommend it.
