Internet safety and Security

Now that the use of technology has become such a large component in society, it would not be uncommon to find one or two computers in the classroom now for students to use. Some computers might not have access to the internet, however more and more students these days are very capable of surfing the web with little or no help from parents or teachers. So our roles as teachers and parents are to try and keep our students safe from going onto inappropriate websites that are not suitable for their age and the classroom. In most cases, the schools’ online network usually has administrative blocks on many sites that are not appropriate to be viewed in the classroom, which works well to keep explicit pages from popping up in search engines, or when students attempt to type something in the search bar.

Popular security software that is common to Windows computers is Novell’s Netware. Netware acts as a program that allows you (or the administrator), to be able to control what files and settings a student is able to access and change on a shared computer. This is very important to maintaining an appropriately rated controlled internet environment in the classroom. Although do keep in mind that just because there is a security software running on the computer, the software alone should not be relied on as the classroom’s only set of eyes to prevent internet misuse in the class. The teacher should ALWAYS supervise what the students are doing in the classroom when on the web.

Web Site for teachers

A great website for teachers of all ages that are filled with useful information about child development and learning styles, concept age appropriate activities and much more is education.com. This site is quite resourceful in the sense that it helps you guide your lessons with fun and interesting activities that teachers can introduce to the classroom. The website also has a feedback area that allows other teacher’s input on any project or activity that is listed on the site. When reading the feedback I find it to be quite useful because it kind of gives you a hindsight as to how you would like to prepare the classroom set-up in case of any potential mishaps that can occur.

The website caters from pre-school to K-12 grades that include activities in all subjects according to national education learning standards. Many of these activities are quite beneficial in helping students understand certain concepts compared to activities that just serve as pointless busy work. Another feature that I find useful about this website is their related teaching articles that they write or find in relation to improving the classroom for the teacher, student, and parent. These articles involve cognitive and social-emotional domains that many teachers and parents have to deal with on an every day manner with every age group of students. This site is also very easy to use for those who might not be as computer savvy as others; the website’s navigation page is quite simple and is split up in three formats. The page allows you to browse information based on topic, age, and grade level. There are also special features added where you can look for articles that they have published and more such as their E-learning page, Magazine Archive, worksheets, blogs, groups etc. This site has just about everything for everyone who is in the field of education and would like to implement interesting activities or projects to do with their students.

COPA software: Child Outcome family Partnership assesment

The software that I would like to talk about that has become very useful for me as a head start teacher is the COPA, otherwise known as the Child Outcome, Planning and Administration software. It is an online tool that allows you to keep track of each child's attendance, assessments taken, physical and mental health information that many children need when entering a head start, pre-k or community based program. This software is an essential tool that helps teachers, education coordinators, and even social workers keep track of the child's physical and mental well being. It also helps when it comes to creating schedules for students. A good feature of this software is its Ms Outlook compatibilities that allows for you to receive emails about follow-up visits if needed.

The great thing about this software is that if you would like to sample how the software works, they offer a free demo for prospective clients. Also COPA is software that complies with federal and state mandates that require for head start or community based centers to use software of this caliber. COPA is incredibly useful for data collection, assessment, monitoring and reporting on child and family outcomes. This online software uses performance standards to collect and process data on individual Child, Class, Site, Agency and even Grantee levels. The results are analyzed to improve program quality and performance. Due to COPA’s easy format, getting used to this software is very easy, so those teachers who might not be as up to date on technology as they’d like, can easily learn how to use COPA on a daily basis. The software is customizable which allows for increase privacy amongst other agencies, or teachers for that matter. It allows you to designate who can edit, submit and view data about a child in an enrolled program.