I'm back!!!

My apologies for my long absence...I'll blame it on hockey season, or laziness, or balancing my real life with my online life.  Anyway, I'm back to highlight some important resources I've just added to the site.

Anti-Bullying Resources - As Pink Shirt Day approaches (Wednesday, February 27th, 2013), I've added lots of Anti-bullying resources & videos.  You can find them under the link Resources by Theme (Bullying),  or by clicking here.

I think this issue is so important.  As educators & parents, we must recognize that our children are growing up in a much different world than the one that we were raised in.  When we went home each night we were separated from our friends.   The Internet didn't exist as it does today.  Texting was a foreign concept.  Social Media was not developed.  We had space, we had time to breath, and for those who were bullied, time to rest.  

Now the bullies can enter our homes.  That much needed reprieve  from our social lives is more difficult, not impossible, but difficult.  

We as parents & educators must be aware.  We cannot bury our heads in the sand & hope for the best.  We need to protect our children, teach them how to safely navigate the Internet, how not to compromise themselves and advocate for themselves and their peers.  We need to educate ourselves on the latest technologies.  We need to understand how bullying has evolved.  We must learn to recognize the symptoms of mental health disorders and eliminate the stigma that surrounds them.

By not educating ourselves and 
our students/children, 
we become bystanders of the worst kind.

I've included a couple videos that support this idea:

The first is from Common Sense Media.  If you haven't used this website as a resource for Media Literacy/Digital Literacy, you really need to check it out.

The second is a reminder of how our behaviour impacts our children.

The third is a wake up call.  Do you know what your children or students are doing on the Internet?