CCS Recognized for Digital Citizenship

Charlotte Central School has received an award of distinction from Common Sense Education for their work around digital citizenship with students. This is an award that Williston earned a few years ago. All of our schools are striving to receive this recognition, but most importantly, all of our faculty and staff are committed to addressing this topic in many ways and in many realms every day with our students. We are focused on developing digital citizens who contribute positively to the community. Digital citizenship may be defined as the continuously developing norms of appropriate, responsible, and empowered technology use. In other words, how to be safe, kind, and responsible online. 

If you are not yet familiar with the many resources offered via Common Sense Media's website, we strongly encourage you to visit the site. You will find reviews of books, movies, websites, games, and more. There are posts and forums about many topics that we all face today with our children, such as screen time, setting limits, Fortnite(!), and the impact of media.  https://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Congratulations to CCS!

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Official Press Release: 

Digital media and technology are evolving at a dizzying pace, both unlocking extraordinary opportunities and posing real risks for young people. Students are using the immense power of the Internet and mobile technology to explore, connect, create, and learn in ways never before imagined, both in and out of the classroom. But issues that emerge from this 24/7 connected culture such as cyberbullying, privacy lapses, and uncertainty about which information to trust online, are surfacing both in schools and at home.

Charlotte Central School sees these as teachable moments. We believe that digital citizenship skills have become essential for students in the 21st century, especially in schools like ours that are using technology to transform learning. That’s why we are committed to teaching our students how to think critically, behave safely, and participate responsibly. CCS has just been approved as a Common School, an honor that recognizes our efforts in teaching digital citizenship to young people and engaging the entire school community in this important discussion. The recognition acknowledges our school's commitment to helping students think critically and use technology responsibly to learn, create, and participate.

This honor is provided by Common Sense Education, part of a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology.

We are one of the more than 50,000 schools across the country that use Common Sense Education’s groundbreaking education resources. As a result, our students are better equipped to navigate the digital world and use devices for learning.

To learn more about Common Sense Education, visit www.commonsense.org/education.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Sumner and Jen Roth - CCS CoPrincipals

The Power of Voice: From Parent Concern to Practice

The Champlain Valley School District has a story to tell, one that describes how speaking up can bring about change. The spark was lit by one parent sharing her voice and asking questions. 

In the fall of 2017, a parent of a CVU student came to a School Board meeting. That parent had recently filled out forms online for her child to participate in school activities and for the health office. After submitting the forms, the parent wondered what just happened to their personal family information. Who had access to it and what will they do with it? She raised these concerns to the School Board. She then went on to share her concerns at Vermont’s Agency of Education. They were good questions and she had a valid point. What did we know about what that website was going to do with personal family data? 

A group within the district began examining not only that website, but all of the websites and online tools that are in use. What were their Terms of Service? What did they say in the Privacy Policy? That’s the small print that most people don’t read. In fact, many of us check the box to say we agree to the Terms of Service without actually reading it. The district took a close look at all of them for the various tools in use in the district. 

From there, the Director of Network Services, Mike Kanfer, met with all of the district’s Digital Learning Leaders. A Request for Technology process was put in place for all adults in the district to use. When educators wanted to use a new digital tool or resource, they submitted an online form. The team met weekly to review requests and then review privacy policies and terms of service on behalf of the educators making the requests. It was time-consuming at first, as not only was the team looking at new requests, but also reviewing online tools that were currently in use. There are many digital tools in use in the district’s schools and classrooms and the list changed every day. It also took time and energy to help educators know about this process and to actually follow it. 

At the same time this was happening, a few other events were taking place. The big security breaches with Facebook, major retailers, and other sites became public. Everyone grew concerned about their private information. And rightly so. The focus on keeping private information private was not an abstract idea anymore. 

During the summer of 2018, Vermont’s Agency of Education joined a consortium focused on student data privacy. This grew out of work initiated by the Cambridge, Massachusetts Public Schools and has since spread to 20 other states in addition to Vermont. The Student Data Privacy Consortium has developed and shared a consistent privacy agreement with online sites and vendors. Now, instead of our state and school district following their terms of service, they agree to ours.

Since then, the Champlain Valley School District has collected signed agreements from more than 30 vendors and plans to add to that list in the coming months. A list of those vendors may be viewed here but know that it will continue to grow. Mike Kanfer and Bonnie Birdsall, Director of Digital Learning & Communication for CVSD, met with faculty in all of our buildings to ensure that everyone knows about the Request for Technology process and the Student Data Privacy Consortium. As of the start of the 2019-2020 school year, CVSD will begin the shift to work only with vendors who have signed the Vermont privacy agreement.

One example of this work in action is with a company called Informed K12. This company will support the district’s efforts to make more efficient the process families use for sharing annual student information, health information, and permissions with their schools. In the past, most of the district’s schools mailed home a packet of papers for families to fill out and return to the schools. Ensuring that everyone completed and returned those forms in a timely manner was challenging. That also meant hours of manual data entry for the administrative assistants. This year, the district will work with Informed K12 to streamline the process. In August, families will receive an email with links to fill out the various forms online. The Shelburne Community School has been doing this for a few years and is helping the other district schools get on board. Informed K12 was one of the first companies to sign a privacy agreement with the district.

This is great progress toward keeping student, family, and educator data safe and secure. Transitioning to this new process and obtaining signed agreements will take time, but the district is confident that this is a move in the right direction. The Champlain Valley School District thanks the parent who spoke at a School Board meeting for getting it started.

We invite all community members to attend CVSD School Board meetings and share your voice. They take place on the 3rd Tuesday of the month, excluding December and January. (budget meetings) 

All meetings are held at CVU at 6:00 pm. Check the district’s website and specifically, the School Board’s page for more detailed information.


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"Microphone" flickr photo by Bruno Belcastro https://flickr.com/photos/argen/7094368529 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

CVU: The Carbon Cutting Leader for Bus Ridership

Did you know that CVU was just given an award called The Carbon Cutting Leader for Bus Ridership? Representative Curt McCormack, Chair of the Vermont House Transportation Committee, and others announced the winning schools at a special celebration in the Statehouse on June 5, 2019.

We reached out to Katie Antos-Ketchum, CVU English teacher in the Fairbanks core, to learn more. She shared this guest blog post highlighting CVU's EnACT club as well as one student's work. 

The CVU Environmental Action Club (EnACT) participated in this year's Way to Go! Challenge. Our "bus" action was a bus ridership survey that was led by 9th grade student Sabina Brochu, who was curious to find out what barriers exist for students to ride the bus. Sabina took on this action as a part of her 9th grade Human Impact Project action which focused on the connection between fossil fuels, transportation, and climate change. 

The Human Impact Project had several components. Back in the winter, students were asked to choose an issue that they care about in the world, research the roots of the problem and its impact, and deliver a speech to educate an audience about their topic. In the spring semester, students shifted their focus to their own potential for making positive change and worked on developing solutions individually, locally, and globally that will help move a negative impact in a positive direction.

Sabina worked with me, the EnACT adviser, to develop her survey so that we could think about how to remove actual or perceived barriers students face in order to promote bus ridership. She presented her findings to the EnACT club this spring.

Of the 229 students who took the survey, 66% agreed that they ride the bus regularly, mostly or sometimes. Here's some interesting information about the students who consider themselves riders. First, 44.7% of our riders reported their travel times were 30 minutes or longer in duration. When asked what keeps them from riding some days, responses that are worth investigating from a systems level include the bus ride takes too long ( 31%), that the bus comes too early ( 23%), and that they aren't sure when the bus will arrive (18%). Social and cultural obstacles included sports or other commitments (49%) and social / personal reasons (25%).

The 34% who reported riding rarely or never also gave us feedback about what keeps them off the bus. For them, 39% reported the routes were too long, 37% said the bus came too early, 20% reported they weren't sure when the bus would arrive at their stop, 30% reported they had sports or other commitments, and 26% reported social/personal reasons kept them off the bus.

EnACT members have examined the data and will continue to problem solve around this topic in the coming year.

Sabina attended the awards ceremony in Montpelier at the end of the school year.

EnACT's mission statement: 

The Environmental Action Club believes that climate change poses significant risks for the future. We strive to cultivate an environmental ethos and action in our various communities. We envision a society whose practices are based on an ethic of conservation and sustainable improvement in the environmental well-being of the community.