Internet Watching

This was a great activity. One thing that I thought was really interesting was in a video I watched from the NetSmartz kids website where a girl had been missing for three weeks before she was found with the man she had met online. After they were caught and he was put in prison, she felt an emptiness, despite the fact that his intentions were not good. She still wanted to have that relationship now that it had been taken away. This reminded me that when these types of situations occur, it is usually because there is a deeper issue, not just "I was bored so I started chatting with someone." Teenagers especially feel that they need these relationships as they are learning more about themselves and going through hard times learning to grow up. But even as an elementary school teacher, I think it's important to be aware of these issues and make sure my kids know about them, too, so that when they are tempted to abuse the internet, then they can remember what they have been taught.
I definitely think these videos were great resources for my classroom. I loved how many kid-friendly videos there were out there. Many of the videos were also told from the youth's point of view and not an adult, which I think is a lot more meaningful to kids. I also thought the animation from BYU was a great idea and of course I'm always going to support my school. But really, making a cartoon to teach a serious concept is a good way to get to kids especially in elementary school classrooms.