Digital Eagle Way

In our school, the students at the Elementary Campus pledge to follow the Eagle Way and be an example to others and to themselves. The Eagle Way is: Be Responsible, Be Respectful, Be Caring, Be Honest, and Be a Thinker. This applies to all aspects of the student's life. 

Having a strong technology program at school, I was curious to know what an Eagle would look like in terms of technology. After talking it through with a few colleagues, they suggested I should ask the kids. Great idea! So I prepared a Google Form and sent it to the Technology teachers so they could apply the survey during Tech Class. Wow! I received hundreds of answers from PK - 5th grade! Awesome! I read through all the replies and narrowed their suggestions down to 5 main ideas for each of the Eagle Way attributes.

Now we can see how a Digital Eagle Way can be an example to others. To provide a visual, I created a word cloud with all the words in their replies.

Be responsible:

• Go to web sites that you know are appropriate for you.
• Use your time wisely, finish your work on time, and don't get distracted.
• Follow instructions and do the job that was assigned to you.
• Be safe when using the Internet and don't share personal information or your password.
• Be careful of your actions while using the computer and with all equipment.

Be respectful:

• Don't cyber bully! Don't post embarrassing videos or photos online.
• Be nice to others, don't say bad words, don't insult people online.
• Pay attention to the teacher and don't disrupt the class.
• Help classmates when they're stuck and don't make fun of them.
• Take care of computers and iPads by handling them properly.

Be caring:

• Help classmates with their work and show them how to use new stuff.
• If someone doesn't have friends, follow or make him your friend.
• Be polite when talking with others.
• Stand up for a bullied friend and tell an adult.
• Treat school computers the way you want your computer to be treated, don't hit the computer when it doesn't work.

Be honest:

• Always say the truth, don't lie about your age if you're not 13 or older.
• Don't copy information on a project, use your own words.
• Don't cheat and go to other web sites while you're supposed to be in another.
• Don't hack into another person's account and do not post lies or rumors on the Internet.
• If your parent or teacher doesn't let you use a web site, then don't use it.

Be a thinker:

• Think twice before you post something, before you click a link, and before you act.
• Pay attention when the teacher fixes something so you can do it yourself later.
• When you can't do something and you only tried it once don't go to the teacher and say I can't do it, keep trying.
• Make good decisions, think about your future.
• Learn how to identify good and bad websites.

The word clouds were done with wordle.net, a wonderful tool that will help you visualize concepts and repeating words, just by copy-pasting text. The more times the word appears in the text, the larger it will show in the cloud.

Cheers!