Franklin Schargel’s Blog

The Internet is an excellent resource for books dealing with cyber bullying and bullying.   I am listing a few below, but you can access a list from the web. Each of these books can be used as a resource to  stimulate discussions in class and at parent meetings.  They should be used in aged-appropriate environments and should be previewed before using them in classes.  Please do not consider them to be an endorsement.

“Creating Safe Schools: A Guide for School Leaders, Counselors, Teachers, Parents and Students”, Franklin Schargel, (20140

The Bully, the Bullying & the Bystander, Barbara Coloroso, (2008)

Bullyproof Your Child For Life, Dr. Joel Haber (2007)

Handbook of bullying in schools: An international perspective Jimerson, S.S., Swearer, S.M., & Espelage, D.L. (2010) (Eds.), New York, NY: Routledge.

Place for Bullying: Leadership for Schools”¦ by James E. Dillon

 

As a history teacher I was always looking for valuable resources to use in lesson plans.  With the decrease in educational spending in most countries this has placed an increasing burden on classroom educators.  A good friend, Bonnie Bracy has sent me a excellent list of these resources. I am indebted to her for pointing me in the right direction.

NOTE:  The listing here is not meant to be an endorsement.

Teaching History is an excellent resource for history teachers. It provides them with a wide variety of materials and resources to improve history education in the classroom. Teaching History, which is funded by the American Department of Education, is designed specifically for k-12 history teachers to help them access teaching materials such as lesson plan reviews, videos, and teaching guides. The content of Teaching History is organized into three main categories: Teaching Masterials: this is where you can browse through an array of lesson plans, and teaching guides to use in the teaching of history to your K-12 students. History Content: this is where you can locate quality historical resources and reliable content from across the web. Best Practices: this one introduces teachers to different strategies and approaches to engage students discussion of primary sources and encourage them to exercise historical thinking.

School History is a website that provides a wide variety of teaching materials for history teachers. These materials are arranged into different categories such as online history lessons, interactivities, interactive games, and interactive quizzes. This site also provides over 600 free downloadable worksheets and PowerPoint presentations. There is also a History Help Forum where teachers post tips an pieces of advice on everything related to the teaching of history.

History On The Net is a website that provides free resources and materials for history teachers. These resources cover a range of historical topics  such as : Ancient History, Middle Ages, American History, and General History. It also features online lessons and worksheets, games, and history references.

History Mad is a cool site that features easily accessible history materials for teachers. Teachers can browse the different topics displayed in the homepage and each topic incorporates numerous resources related to it.

 Library of Congress Library of Congress is one of the largest libraries in the world that provides a wide variety of primary source materials including millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts.

National Archives  National Archives is a repository of legal and historical documents and records as provided by the federal government of the United States. “Those valuable records are preserved and are available to you, whether you want to see if they contain clues about your family’s history, need to prove a veteran’s military service, or are researching an historical topic that interests you”.

Digital Public Library of America The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is an all-digital library that aggregates metadata “” or information describing an item “” and thumbnails for more than 7 million photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the ?united ?states.The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.

Docs Teach Docs Teach provides thousands of primary source documents that span the course of American history. to bring the past to life as classroom teaching tools from the billions preserved at the National Archives. Use the search field to find written documents, images, maps, charts, graphs, audio and video in our ever-expanding collection that spans the course of American history.

Hisorypin Historypin is a way for millions of people to come together, from across different generations, cultures and places, to share small glimpses of the past and to build up the huge story of human history. Everyone has history to share: whether its sitting in yellowed albums in the attic, collected in piles of crackly tapes, conserved in the 1000s of archives all over the world or passed down in memories and old stories.

As more and more websites are being hacked (for example, Target, Anthem Medical, Sony, etc.) the question educators should ask is are the school’s website and the website of companies which the school uses protected from hacking?

The following appeared in the NY Times,

“When Tony Porterfield’s two sons came home from elementary school with an assignment to use a reading assessment site called Raz-Kids.com, he was curious, as a parent, to see how it worked. As a software engineer, he was also curious about the site’s data security practices. And he was dismayed to discover that the site not only was unencrypted, but also stored passwords in plain text “” security weaknesses that could potentially have allowed unauthorized users to gain access to details like students’ names, voice recordings or skill levels. He alerted the site to his concerns. More than a year later, the vulnerabilities remain. “A lot of education sites have glaring security problems,” said Mr. Porterfield, the principal engineer at a software start-up in Los Altos, Calif. “A big part of the problem is that there’s not even any consensus of what “˜good security’ means for an educational website or app.” Mr. Porterfield, has gone on to examine nearly 20 digital education products, used collectively by millions of teachers and students, and found other potential security problems. He alerted makers of those products, too “” among them school-districtwide social networks, classroom assessment programs and learning apps. Some, including Pearson, a leading educational publisher, and ClassDolo, a popular classroom management app for teachers, addressed the issues he brought to their attention. Others did not. While none of the security weaknesses appear to have been exploited by hackers, some technologists say they are symptomatic of widespread lapses in student data protection across the education technology sector. They warn that insecure learning sites, apps and messaging services could potentially expose students, many of them under 13, to hacking, identify theft, cyberbullying by their peers, or even unwanted contact from strangers. At fault, these experts say, is a common practice among start-ups of concentrating primarily on increasing their market share. “For many younger companies, the focus has been more on building the product out and less on guaranteeing a level of comprehensive privacy and security protection commensurate with the sensitive information associated with education,” said Jonathan Mayer, a lawyer and computer science graduate student at Stanford University. “It seems to be a recurring theme.” The New York Times asked Mr. Mayer to review the vulnerabilities in education tech software discovered by Mr. Porterfield and described in this article. To help schools evaluate companies’ security practices, the Consortium for School Networking, a national association of school district chief technology officers, published a list of security questions last year for schools to ask before they sign purchase agreements with technology vendors. “It is a huge challenge because there hasn’t been the time and attention and investment placed in security that school districts need,” said Keith R. Krueger, the group’s chief executive. His group has received financing from Dell, Google, Pearson, Microsoft and other companies involved in the education sector. Security lapses are not limited to education software devised for prekindergarten through 12th-grade students, an annual market estimated at about $8 billion. Protection of student data is gaining attention as schools across the country are increasingly introducing learning sites and apps that may collect information about a student’s every keystroke. The idea is to personalize lessons by amassing and analyzing reams of data about each student’s actions, tailoring academic material to individual learning levels and preferences. But some privacy law scholars, educators and technologists contend that federal protections for student data have not kept pace with the scope and sophistication of classroom data-mining. Although a federal privacy law places some limits on how schools, and the vendors to which they outsource school functions, handle students’ official educational records, these experts say the protections do not extend to many of the free learning sites and apps that teachers download and use independently in their classrooms. In an effort to bolster confidence in their products, more than 100 learning companies recently signed on to a voluntary industry pledge on student privacy. The signers agree, among other commitments, to “maintain a comprehensive security program that is reasonably designed to protect the security, privacy, confidentiality and integrity of student personal information against risks “” such as unauthorized access or use.” Although President Obama endorsed the industry pledge in it does not require ed tech vendors to comply with specific basic security measures “” like encrypting students’ names, screen names or other personal details. Nor does it prohibit companies from using weak security, like storing users’ passwords in plain text, practices that could easily permit hackers to hijack teacher or student accounts, potentially linking students’ names to private details about their academic performance. These kinds of security weaknesses are commonplace on consumer sites. But the law has long treated educational information as a category worthy of special protections, like credit or medical records. Considering the recent data breaches at even large, well-financed companies, some privacy advocates want federal regulators to mandate that the education technology industry beef up student data protection. “Bottom line, both the Federal Trade Commission and the Education Department could and should ramp up their student privacy enforcement,” said Khaliah Barnes, director of the student privacy project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit group. “Students have little recourse against current abuses.” Some learning companies were quite responsive to Mr. Porterfield’s concerns. The Pearson product in which he found vulnerabilities last fall is an online student learning and assessment system, Pearson Realize. The weaknesses could have allowed unauthorized users to gain access to details about class rosters like student names. The company’s security experts corrected the issues in two days. Pearson was the only company to ask Mr. Porterfield to run his own tests afterward to make sure the fixes had worked. “We should welcome the reporting of even a suspicion,” said Rod Wallace, Pearson’s chief information security officer. “We need to encourage the people who report them, engage them and let them know we are fixing them.” Last fall, Mr. Porterfield also contacted ClassDojo, a free classroom management program for teachers that, according to its developer, is used by at least one teacher in roughly one-third of American schools. The software engineer alerted company executives to security weaknesses that could potentially have allowed unauthorized users to gain access to students’ names, behavior records and behavior scores. Since then, ClassDojo has encrypted its mobile apps and instituted other security measures. Liam Don, the co-founder of ClassDojo, said its software was regularly subject to audits by security experts. “We hope to see regular audits become standard practice across our industry,” Mr. Don said.

My publisher is offering 20% off of my book, “Crating Safe Schools: A Guide for School Leaders, Counselors, Classroom Teachers, Parents and Students”.  Here is the announcement:

Now until March 4th using discount code WRK89 at checkout and receive 20% off your order. Remember, all web orders over $35 receive FREE SHIPPING in the US and Canada.

Offer valid only with web orders at routledge.com,

The Internet is an excellent resource for websites dealing with cyber bullying and bullying.   I am listing a few below, but you can access a list from the web. Each of these websites can be used to serve as a resource in class and at parent meetings.  They should be used in aged-appropriate environments and should be previewed before using them in classes  They should not be seen as an endorsement.

www.pta.org/bully.asp

www.bullying.org

www.cyberbullying.org

www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov

www.ParentsConnect.com

www.parentsagainstbullying.com

www.bullyproofkids.com

www.netsmartz.org

 

Signs a Child is Being Bullied

Look for changes in the child. However, be aware that not all children who are bullied exhibit warning signs.

Some signs that may point to a bullying problem are:

• Unexplainable injuries
• Lost or destroyed clothing, books, electronics, or jewelry
• Frequent headaches or stomach aches, feeling sick or faking illness
• Changes in eating habits, like suddenly skipping meals or binge eating. Kids may come home from school hungry because they did not eat lunch.
• Difficulty sleeping or frequent nightmares
• Declining grades, loss of interest in schoolwork, or not wanting to go to school
• Sudden loss of friends or avoidance of social situations
• Feelings of helplessness or decreased self esteem
• Self-destructive behaviors such as running away from home, harming themselves, or talking about suicide

If you know someone in serious distress or danger, don’t ignore the problem. Get help right away.

From www.stopBullying.gov

A 12-year-old middle school student came up with a new mobile app that turns the power button on any Android phone into a virtual panic button.

When the phone is locked and someone hits the power button six times, it sends a pre-written text message to several numbers programmed into the app. If a child is abducted, they can send a message to those who have been programmed into the phone alerting them to the abduction. With a 99-cent upgrade, the message receiver will get a GPS map showing the sender’s exact location. Presently “The Save Me Pro “app is only available on android.

The Internet is an excellent resource for videos dealing with cyber bullying and bullying.  I show a variety of them in my workshop on the topic of bullying.  I am listing a few below, but you can access a list from the web. Each of these videos can be used to start and stimulate discussions in class and at parent meetings.  They should be used in aged-appropriate environments and should be previewed before using them in classes.

 None of these websites cited should be considered an endorsement.

 Risky Youth Behavior 1’35″

In this video, we see that kids are placing themselves at risk more and more in today’s society; engaging in conversations with strangers online, visiting X-rated sites, creating and distributing “sext” images (youth-produced child pornography), and posting personal information online.

Internet Safety 101:  For Parents:  (4 minutes, 17 seconds)

Despite the Internet’s many wonderful benefits, a perfect storm has emerged for the online victimization of children. Kids have free and easy access to pornography, and sexual predators have easy and anonymous access to kids. Law enforcement limitations and challenges abound, and naïve kids are engaging in risky online behavior. Parents, educators and other caring adults must serve as the first line of defense to protect kids online, but they are often uninformed or ill-equipped to deal with these and other evolving threats. Are you prepared to protect your kids so they can enjoy the wonders of the Internet while being spared from the dangers?

Cyber Bullying Prevention Tips (Novus Security) (6 minutes, 20seconds) What is cyber bullying? Cyber bullying is a dangerous problem impacting children and teens at an alarming rate. This video educates parents about how to identify and stop bullying among teens and children. Learn how parents and children can help prevent cyberbullying!

Jigsaw: for 8 -10 year olds (8 minutes, 33 seconds)

This English helps children to understand what constitutes personal information. The assembly enables children to understand that they need to be just as protective of their personal information online, as they are in the real world. It also directs where to go and what to do if children are worried about any of the issues covered.

CEOP KS1 Film : ‘Lee & Kim’ Cartoon Suitable 5 yrs — 7 yrs  (8 minutes and 35 seconds)

Cartoon ‘Lee & Kim’ if you have small children from 4 — 7 years then you should let them view this short 10 minute cartoon, which is designed to keep them safe whilst online and more importantly, this cartoon teaches them in their early years.

The 8 minute animation introduces Lee & Kim, a brother and sister navigating the online world with the help of their trusted superhero friend SID! This cartoon is produced by the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre (CEOP) as part of their ThinkuKnow Programme, which is being rolled out throughout Primary Schools in the UK.

The Ordeal of Amanada Todd and Hot Teens Reacted to It (5 minutes and 5 Seconds) 4 hours before her death.

The Story of Amanda Todd
This powerful tragic tale of 15-year-old Amanda Todd, who ended her own life in 2012 just one month after posting a video that was a desperate cry for rescue from what must have seemed like an unrelenting fall into darkness. In order to put it all in perspective, first view Amanda’s chilling and heart-wrenching video, and then take a look at the video below it. Produced by the Fine Brothers, it’s a display of how a group of teens reacted to seeing Amanda’s video and hearing her story. The range of emotions exhibited by these young kids is diverse and often impulsive, but it clearly demonstrates how many teens feel about the poisonous epidemic of cyberbullying.

Source: YouTube

Suicide girl’s mother reveals more harrowing details of cyber bullying campaign that drove her daughter to her death
As well as the online harassment and schoolyard taunts, the 15-year-old was stalked and blackmailed by a suspected pedophile
Teen Reaction (14 minutes, 42 seconds)

Alicia’s Story Alicia Kozakiewicz was 13 years old when she ran away from home.  Unknown to her mother, Alicia was seeking the man she had been communicating with on line.  What happened to Alicia after she met this stranger escalated into a a shocking story of imprisonment and domination.  It is a strong reminder of the crucial roles schools must learn to play in educating our students on the need for safety and self-guidance.  Source:  Enough is Enough on YouTube