From the Wildcat Weekly - March 7, 2024

Create a Family Media Plan - (AAP)

The best way to manage everyone's screen use in your home is by being proactive rather than reactive. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a wonderful resource on their website that allows you to create a Family Media Plan. Following a series of prompts as shown below, families can have age appropriate conversations with their children about screen use establishing an agreed-upon framework for technology and screen use. This is a wonderful start in establishing boundaries while children are still young.

You can use this link to get started.

From the Wildcat Weekly - February 22, 2024

 As students shared this week during our lesson about "real" versus "fake" websites, I wanted to follow-up with a specific suggestion related to technology use in the home. Prior to wireless technology, the recommendation was to put the family computer in a common area of the home. In this way, even though you might not be sitting with your child constantly while they were using the Internet or playing games, you were always within earshot or could randomly look to see what was on the screen. However, with tablets, laptops, and smartphones, this practice becomes more complicated but also more important. Although your K-2 student might seem to easily navigate apps, games, and websites, they are really more like underage drivers without a license. Establishing expectations now while your child is young and when they assume you are watching and seeing everything they’re doing and talking to them about it, will help to normalize your involvement when they are older and exposed to much more problematic material.

From the Wildcat Weekly - February 8, 2024

 Digital Broccoli versus Digital Candy

Although it's not realistic to rid ourselves entirely of screens, it can be helpful to give some thought to what uses of screens are "digital broccoli" or helpful and useful in our lives, and what are "digital candy" - those uses that are not so helpful. Some examples of digital broccoli include ebooks, keyboarding practice, viewing shows or movies together as a family, video calls with out of town friends or relatives, using videos to learn a new skill, or viewing virtual museums. Examples of digital candy include scrolling on social media, watching video after video on YouTube, video games or binge watching shows. It can also include letting your child be entertained with a screen while shopping, in the car or at a restaurant.

From the Wildcat Weekly - January 18, 2024

Dear Winnona Park Families,

As students shared this week during our lesson about "real" versus "fake" websites, I wanted to follow-up with a specific suggestion related to technology use in the home. Prior to wireless technology, the recommendation was to put the family computer in a common area of the home. In this way, even though you might not be sitting with your child constantly while they were using the Internet or playing games, you were always within earshot or could randomly look to see what was on the screen. However, with tablets, laptops, and smartphones, this practice becomes more complicated but also more important. Although your K-2 student might seem to easily navigate apps, games, and websites, they are really more like underage drivers without a license. Establishing expectations now while your child is young and when they assume you are watching and seeing everything they’re doing and talking to them about it, will help to normalize your involvement when they are older and exposed to much more problematic material.

From the Weekly Wildcat - January 4, 2024

Dear Winnona Park Families,

One of my primary goals as the Winnona Park librarian is to get our students to like reading more than they like screen time. Although this usually gets a laugh from the students, I am actually serious. And in these screen-obsessed times, reading books is really a challenge for many of us, not just young students. However, it’s even more critical for our students to spend time reading as they are still learning this vital skill. Historically, the part of my job related to Instructional Technology has been focused on how we use technology in our school, however, as technology has inserted itself into our lives 24/7, I have realized that technology’s impact on students outside of school has become a more important issue. For this last semester of the school year, I will be including information related to this topic each week in the eblast with the goal of educating, creating awareness and starting a conversation as a community so that families are able to better support their own children, as well as each other. In addition, the screen habits you establish now will help you become better equipped to deal with screen-related issues as your children get older.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me with questions, comments, etc.

Ilene Zeff, Media Specialist

izeff@csdecatur.net