Classroom Tips

• As a teacher, you will do a lot of careful planning for your lessons, but you should also take advantage of "teachable moments", those times when the natural curiousity of your students brings the class discussion to something that you hadn't planned on, but something that is entirely appropriate. The internet is an indispensable tool for teachable moments, but be careful!

• If you are doing an internet-based lesson in class using the overhead projector, keep a 3 x 5 card next to the projector. In the course of a class discussion, you may think of a website that would help explain a concept or support a new topic. Before you go there, place the card over the lens so that the kids don't see the projection. Once you see that the right website is up, uncover the lens.

• If you happen to mistype the address, you may be bringing up inappropriate content. It's also possible for a site that you have previously visited and know to be okay to have something in an ad or an article that you don't want your kids to see. Err on the side of caution and cover the lens.

• Every school has an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). This document tells you what you can do and what you can't do on the school's network and the school's computers. Make sure you have a copy, read it, and ask questions if you don't understand it. The school's Tech Specialist should be able to answer any questions you have. Violation of the AUP can be grounds for dismissal.

• Remember, even if you are only using your own laptop, if you access the internet at school, you are using their network and you are subject to their rules.

• If you want students to use your computer, you may want to set up a "Student" account so that you can control what parts of your information they can access. When someone said this to me, I thought that there was nothing on my computer that could be inappropriate. But then I realized that includes every song in my iTunes and every email on my computer.

• You should always supervise kids on computers with internet access and make sure they know the rules. That being said, it's easy to create another a protected account for them. Here are the steps:

• Open System Preferences.
• Click on Accounts.
• Click on the + beneath the list of account names.
• Fill in the blanks to create an account named "Student" with a simple password.
• Leave the checkbox unchecked for "Allow user to administer this computer."
• Click "Create Account"
• The Student Account now appears in the list of accounts. Select the Student Account by clicking on it once.
• Click on Parental Controls (in OS 10.4 Tiger. You can still do this in 10.2 and 10.3, but the options look different.)
• Check "Finder and System" and click "Configure".
• Click Simple Finder. Simple Finder mode will prevent kids from seeing anything that you don't want them to access - applications, documents, etc.
• Select the applications that you want students to be able to access.
• Using the rest of these control tabs, you can restrict access to web sites, allow chatting with only a limited list, prevent students from accessing inappropriate words in the dictionary, and control email access.
• If you need more help with this, search Apple help on your computer for "Parental Controls" or "Simple Finder".