8th grade school project done on kik..dd does not have access to kik.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But if a teacher assigns a group project and some of the class decides to handle communications via anonymous social networking sites that have, in other cases resulted in group bullying and suicide and murder, isn't that something the teacher and/or the school should be aware of so they can develop a policy?

Like, if a teacher were requiring kids to collect igneous rocks during their free time, and it turned out a bunch of kids were collecting them from active railroad tracks, you'd want to tell the teacher so that she could reassess the danger of the assignment she was giving or give instructions about what sources kids could use.

Maybe in this case it wasn't clear to the teacher that the kids would be using social networking to do the assignment? In that case I could understand the position that the teacher shouldn't be involved at all. Except that in this day it seems like whenever you ask tweens and teens to get together outside of class, it will probably involve social networking sites or texting.

Do most people really feel that schools shouldn't have policies on kids' use of these sites to do schoolwork? I can understand just handling a one-off situation as a parent to get through the assignment, but do you think it's wrong, in the longer term, to ask teachers and schools to think about making policies on these sites?

Schools can have all the policies they want, but it is up to kids to decide what they do on their own time. Suggesting that a teacher not do a project because it requires outside collaboration that kids could choose to use a method of communication not regulated by the school seems like a stretch. As a teacher, if parents told me of a situation like this, I can encourage students to use the school-provided tool, but I don't see them outside of my classroom and have no right to look at their personal devices. Parents, however, do.

As communicating outside our safety nets becomes increasingly easy, parents should keep a close watch on how their kids are connecting with others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 kids in a group is huge. I teach MS and would never assign such a large group. 4 is more typical. Occasionally, when I am able to directly monitor work in the classroom, I have assigned groups of 5-6. But in 16 years of teaching, I've never heard of putting 13-14 year olds in such a big group. That's a lot of "workers" for the group leader to manage. I'd speak with the teacher about that as well. She needs a better system of selecting collaborative groups than simply dividing her class into thirds.

Translation: OP's kid is a lying liar who lies.

In hindsight, I think she may have been using this to explain a potentially low grade (which did not happen; she got a 100 on the assignment).

How did she get a 100 on a group assignment when she was unable to work with her group? Did the group members just put her name on the finished product?

Sometimes that happens With group stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But if a teacher assigns a group project and some of the class decides to handle communications via anonymous social networking sites that have, in other cases resulted in group bullying and suicide and murder, isn't that something the teacher and/or the school should be aware of so they can develop a policy?

Like, if a teacher were requiring kids to collect igneous rocks during their free time, and it turned out a bunch of kids were collecting them from active railroad tracks, you'd want to tell the teacher so that she could reassess the danger of the assignment she was giving or give instructions about what sources kids could use.

Maybe in this case it wasn't clear to the teacher that the kids would be using social networking to do the assignment? In that case I could understand the position that the teacher shouldn't be involved at all. Except that in this day it seems like whenever you ask tweens and teens to get together outside of class, it will probably involve social networking sites or texting.

Do most people really feel that schools shouldn't have policies on kids' use of these sites to do schoolwork? I can understand just handling a one-off situation as a parent to get through the assignment, but do you think it's wrong, in the longer term, to ask teachers and schools to think about making policies on these sites?

Schools can have all the policies they want, but it is up to kids to decide what they do on their own time. Suggesting that a teacher not do a project because it requires outside collaboration that kids could choose to use a method of communication not regulated by the school seems like a stretch. As a teacher, if parents told me of a situation like this, I can encourage students to use the school-provided tool, but I don't see them outside of my classroom and have no right to look at their personal devices. Parents, however, do.

As communicating outside our safety nets becomes increasingly easy, parents should keep a close watch on how their kids are connecting with others.

The teacher who posted before you said she always tells students they must use their google accounts to collaborate. And that seems great because it's not anonymous and can be monitored by parents who are interested in doing so. Do you make a similar announcement to your students? If not, why not?

Of course parents are the ones who must be responsible for the follow through, and I'm not saying you shouldn't assign a project just because kids might use anonymous social networking apps, but surely the best way of avoiding their use of such is for the teachers and school to have a policy against using such apps for school collaboration and for that policy to be communicated to both students and parents. It seems like passing the buck to say all of this is on parents, when you all are the ones assigning the collaborative projects in the first place, which, if you do it with no guidelines, leaves teens and tweens to think they can do what they want absent close parental oversight (when parents may not even know you have assigned a project requiring collaboration and some teens may be sneakier than others about using media and technology).

[Anonymous]

Can you provide a suggestion for how to enforce such a policy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you provide a suggestion for how to enforce such a policy?

Sure. If it comes to the teacher's attention that a collaborative school assignment was completed with the use of anonymous social media or other unsafe social media repeatedly used by child predators including kik, (others), that assignment will be revoked and given a score of zero.

I mean, it's kind of hard to enforce schools' policies against plagiarism, too. If a kid plagiarizes his grandfather's book report that's been in a cabinet for 50 years, he likely won't get caught. There's no way to know. But schools don't say that because there are times we won't know when kids are breaking the school policy, we just won't have a school policy on plagiarism. Schools have a policy, they make sure that kids know what the rules, why breaking the rules is wrong, and what the consequences for breaking the rules would be, and schools do their best to enforce the policy.

What's would be so awful about having a similar policy against using anonymous social media on school projects? Why are you against it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher. At my school, we specify that students must use their google accounts to collaborate.

It's a given that kids use their Google accounts to do group projects. Between my two girls there have been approximately 20 or so group projects over the years (5th grade- high school) and each time they've worked on Google accounts. No exceptions and I've never even heard of kids using other apps to collaborate and deliver a final project to school. They may want to use an app to "chat" about a project but the work is delivered on the Google app. I think OP's daughter wanted the KIK app and was finding creative ways to get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you provide a suggestion for how to enforce such a policy?

Sure. If it comes to the teacher's attention that a collaborative school assignment was completed with the use of anonymous social media or other unsafe social media repeatedly used by child predators including kik, (others), that assignment will be revoked and given a score of zero.

I mean, it's kind of hard to enforce schools' policies against plagiarism, too. If a kid plagiarizes his grandfather's book report that's been in a cabinet for 50 years, he likely won't get caught. There's no way to know. But schools don't say that because there are times we won't know when kids are breaking the school policy, we just won't have a school policy on plagiarism. Schools have a policy, they make sure that kids know what the rules, why breaking the rules is wrong, and what the consequences for breaking the rules would be, and schools do their best to enforce the policy.

What's would be so awful about having a similar policy against using anonymous social media on school projects? Why are you against it?

I love where your heart is with this, but with grading policies trending as they are, this would never happen. Your example regarding plagiarism supports this. As Garza moves towards a district-wide grading and reporting policy, there will not be academic "punishments" for behaviors. That's a whole new topic, though. In the meantime, teachers emphasizing the use of safe collaboration outside of school and parents monitoring phone/online communication seems to be a needed partnership.

[Anonymous]

Hi, my High School Freshman uses both Google Docs and a messaging app (Instagram) to do school projects. The messaging app is just to make contact saying things like, I just uploaded something to Google, or hey, did you review the report yet. The apps do come in handy because kids are not constantly on their computers but always on their phones. I don't have a problem with using apps, as long as they are safe and acceptable (like Instagram). Kids don't really use the regular texting app that comes with the phone that much anymore. They don't have all the numbers in their phones, unless they are close friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you provide a suggestion for how to enforce such a policy?

I'm the teacher who requires students to use their Google Accounts. It's easy to "force" them to use it. I require that each group add me. Proof of collaboration is one of the criteria on my rubrics. Whenever they make changes, I can see them because there is a log on the right side of the screen. Kids are not going to do the work twice just so they can hang out on Kik.

[Anonymous]

It amazes me how many out of school group projects are forced upon these kids. It is always lopsided who does/doesn't do the work. Teachers can claim they know but they really don't.

[Anonymous]

Did the others in the group say she participated and therefore she got a good grade for doing the project?

If so and you bring this up to the teacher now after the fact, be prepared for her grade to drop (as well as the others in the group). You should have said something to the teacher (at least in email) when she first told you the project was being done in Kik. Or as someone above said, put Kik on her phone and let her use it for the project and the delete it.

[Anonymous]

Story on the news tonight: Deonte Carraway in Prince George's county worked as at Judge Sylvania Woods Elementary School and shot over 40 child porn videos during the school day on school grounds after using the kik app to contact students.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/School-Volunteer-Accused-Child-Pornography-368084291.html

Schools should have a policy against student use of apps like kik for school work.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, post should have said "alleged" re Carraway for sure. Still . . .

[Anonymous]

No way was this a school sanctioned project. Tell your DD you plan to talk with the school and see how her story changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Story on the news tonight: Deonte Carraway in Prince George's county worked as at Judge Sylvania Woods Elementary School and shot over 40 child porn videos during the school day on school grounds after using the kik app to contact students.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/School-Volunteer-Accused-Child-Pornography-368084291.html

Schools should have a policy against student use of apps like kik for school work.

This guy was only caught because someone say photos on their child's phone using kik. If the kid hadn't had kik, would they have even seen the photos? Just wondering.

Not sure kik is the problem here, but the man working unsupervised with kids was a HUGE problem.