Parent+Resources

This page contains links to resources that may be helpful to parents as they support their child's learning progress.

=5 Ways to Bring Rules Back After Summer= As school has already started it might be a little late for some of [|these ideas] but other tips are helpful at any time of year. The //school-year media plan// may be particularly helpful to some families.

=How to talk to Children About On-line Safetry= How to talk to Children About On-line Safety has some good ideas for those of us looking for some parenting tips in the digital parenting age.

=Teaching Students to Self-Regulate= Self-regulating is the idea that students need to learn to manage the distractive nature of technology in order to be successful learners. [|This article at Mind Shift] has some good ideas including breaking tasks into parts and setting chunks of time to work i.e. 15 minutes. The article is well worth a read. = = =A Parent's Guide to Facebook= [|A Parent's Guide to Facebook] is a comprehensive pdf that will be helpful to those trying to understand both the social and the technical implications of Facebook. It's newly updated and from [|connectsafely.org] which has many other helpful links for parents.

=Dealing with distraction, 5 tools to help you get things done= [|Here is a blog post] written by my former colleague here at ISB--Jeff Plaman. He outlines several tools that some students will find useful. Some teachers and their students already use some of these tools but the others may be helpful in some cases.

=1:1 Resources for Sept 2011= Open DNS is a good resource for keeping track of where people have surfed on the internet when they are using your home network. You can use it to see the sites people visit or filter out specific sites. There is a free basic version as well as a premium version for which they charge a fee. Should you wish to use a technical solution to track where your kids surf or to block sites Open DNS is worth consideration.

Apple MacBooks have Parental Controls built in to the operating system. The linked video describes the features of Parental Controls. If you wish to use this on your child's ISB MacBook, please contact the school to make an appointment so we can help you set it up.

Parent Coffee Notes March 2, 2010
Common Sense Media is a great source of information. NY Time article on Formspring [|What Every Parent Should Know About Formspring] What to Do About Formspring Facebook for Parents Site

Parent Coffee Notes Dec 3, 2009
The way our kids use the internet remains an important topic among teachers and parents. Here are the notes I took at yesterday's coffee.

Bullying
-there is bullying on buses -kids hesitant to come forward when they are bullied -counselors proceed carefully in bullying situations –counselors use a variety of ways to deal with bullying -as a parent it can be difficult to support a child that’s being bullied –“as a parent you can only do so much”

Internet and Computer Tips from Parents
-set time limits for computer use—2 hours per week -sometime one has to take things away—psp, phones etc -kids need boundaries -one parent has a "no screen changing" rule which means her kids are not allowed to change the screen when she walks by the computer. If her child changes the screen they lose computer privileges for the week. -one mom has her child cc her the emails that her child sends -there was a suggestion that the school have an internet safety week

Internet Safety: Part 3--Parent Coffee May 2009
Open conmmunication and clear expectations for children are important when teaching safe and appropriate internet use at home but for some families and in some circumstances parental control software can be helpful. The [|Monitoring Software Review] website may be helpful when deciding which software is right for you. [|The American Library Association has an article] which gives a good overview of filtering software. [|Common Sense Media] has some helpful information on [|Cyberbullying]

Notes From Our Discussions
 * Open communication is key. Monitoring software is not a substitute for good communication with our kids.
 * Location, location, location. Where you place the computer is important. Put it in a public place at home so you can get involved in your child’s computer experience.
 * Set time boundaries/expectations with kids. Some people have used an egg timer or an alarm clock.
 * All kids are different. You can’t use one method for all kids. Even siblings may need different approaches when learning how to use the web. Boys and girls may need different approaches too.

I’m still working on the question regarding the importance of deleting cached files.

Tech Your Kids are Using--Parent Coffee March 2009 [|Facebook for Parents] looks like a good site. There's not a lot there yet but it looks like a good site to watch in the future. Thanks to Stacy Shirouzu for these links to sites that reference SMS abbreviations. [|Abbreviations.com] and [|Wikipedia]. Here's another [|abbreviation] site from Tammy Fitter.

Internet Safety--Parent Coffee Dec. 2008
[|Be Web Aware] has good information targeted by age. [|GetNetWise] is another comprehensive site. The Byron Review is an independent review in the U.K. which looked at the "risks to children from exposure to potentially harmful or inappropriate material on the internet and in video games." Here's the executive summary of the report. [|PBS Frontline Growing Up On-line]

Creating a contract between you and your child(ren) was mentioned at our last Parent Coffee (12-10-08) as a way to help ensure your child makes good internet choices. The [|Parent's Safety Guide]has a sample contract that you may wish to adapt for your use.