Are you there Alexa? It’s me, Rachael

 

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Sometimes, I want to be Ron Swanson.

You’ve just had a conversation with your spouse about having pizza for dinner and you open an app to an add for Lou Malnatis. So who is listening and how do they know exactly what you need? This week I dug a little deeper into what our privacy rights are and exactly what these companies are doing with the information they collect from us. 

When I take a moment to think about all of my information that could be getting collected I find myself with an uneasy feeling, but I must admit I fall under what is called the privacy paradox. According to Zomordi’s article, we justify that this data collection isn’t really hurting us and what’s the worst that can happen.  This is what companies are counting on as we continue to accept terms of service and clicking adds. 

Do You Know How Much Private Information You Give Away Every Day?

We as adults getting our data collected is one thing, but what about our students or our own children? I lived most of my childhood (until high school) without any social media or online presence, but kids today have access to these sites at younger and younger ages. Wired wrote, they [children and adolescents] have gone through the largest beta test of all time, and it’s not one that did not consider the fact that children make mistakes. We are trying to teach our students how to learn from their mistakes at the same time that an online program could be saving information that could affect a future college application or even a job. I certainly don’t want to held be accountable for what I said or did in tween/ teen years.  

What can we do??

There is no one answer about how to protect ours and our students’ information online. Many tips can be found in this article from Geeks for Geeks. Some tips include browsing anonymously, using encrypted messaging apps, and using secure passwords.  Many of the tips given can be done with little more effort than our typical browsing uses. 

 

When it comes to the kids in our life including our students, communication is key. We need to have these open and honest conversations about how their data is used and how they can protect themselves. This activity could be a start. 

Awareness seems like the most important step regardless of age. Do some research. Find out how your data is collected and decide what you want to block.

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Social Media Meets PLNs

 Support from PLNs

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According to Torrey Trust, there are four ways PLNs can support educators.  These categories are social, affective, cognitive, and identity.  After watching our Thinglink, I believe I use my PLN most in the cognitive sense.  I use my PLN to find new resources and tools to help support my students in the classroom.  Even though I have participated in Edchats and online professional development, that is not what I do regularly.  I use sites like Teachers Pay Teachers and Pinterest to find ideas about how to supplement district provided materials.  I have to admit I do not engage on these sites or share ideas myself, so I am not getting the social aspect from these sites that I do at in person professional developments.

 

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Pinterest Deep Dive

I have had Pinterest for years and often go there for ideas both for teaching and in my personal life. When I was in my “island years” of being the only third grade teacher at a small Catholic school I joked with veteran teachers about not knowing how they taught before Pinterest. My current classroom board is like an archeological dig through my teaching history. You can see the grade levels I have taught and supported and how my pins changed over my transition from Catholic to public school. This year's pins could be summed up as SOS I’m teaching sixth grade now what!?

That being said, I liked the idea of creating educational boards specific to certain topics. Now that I am more familiar with my current grade level and have learned I will again be teaching sixth grade again next year, I can organize different topics to help support my team better next year. 

Pinterest boards

One of our big focuses this school year has been engaging our sixth graders in productive independent work during guided reading. Our students are spending 150 minutes a week working independently. It is important for us to find a way to use this time to think critically as well as hopefully inspire excitement to read.

I decided to create a board I could use to collaborate with my PLC which includes three sixth grade homeroom teachers, EL teachers, our building literacy coach, and our district literacy coach.  I thought this would also be a great resource to share with the other intermediate grades in my school or even to other schools if our district literacy coach was willing to share the link.  The board is linked below for you to check out.

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Teaching sixth grade, I quickly learned how important it is to build a strong classroom community not just the first week of school, but throughout the year.  I thought it would be beneficial to organize community building and team building activities together in one convenient location.  

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EDU 790 Intro

 Profile Pic

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This is my profile picture for my professional Twitter account.  Our district requires our accounts to have our images as the profile picture.  This picture was taken at a back to school night when I taught third grade in a small Catholic school in 2015-2016.  If it was up to me, my picture would most likely be my Husky Kai, as it is for my g-mail account.  My current students do love when I am giving feedback on their slides, and my dog is bouncing on their slides.

My “Social Life”

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Growing up as a millennial my social media experience began with my AOL Instant Messenger and Myspace.  Chatting with my friends and posting my favorite song lyrics was the norm throughout middle school and high school.  As a junior and senior in high school Facebook became the thing to do.  Later Instagram and Pinterest were added as a part of my social media rotation.

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I continued using Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest until the fall of 2020.  In fall of 2020, I discontinued use of Facebook and Instagram.  Mid Pandemic and pregnant with my first child, I decided it was time to take a break from social media to help with my anxiety.  I was social media free (except for Pinterest and good reads) until taking EDU 776 when starting up my professional Twitter.  I have kept my account since then, but must admit I am not the most active.  I try to post to share with families and colleagues, but have to make a conscious effort to do so.