It’s Tuesday and time for a slice of life. Thanks to Two Writing Teachers, we all share our lives and are part of a global community.
I’ve been talking to my students about being a digital citizen and being part of a global community. With third through fifth grade, they have experienced being part of the global community through the Poetry Postcard Project.
It’s such a vast contrast to my third through fifth grade when I was a child. It was pretty cool that I had a pen pal from New Jersey, courtesy of my aunt and uncle. But communicating with others in foreign countries, it wasn’t done, easily. And today, it’s just a click her and there for collaborating, checking in, and chatting.
This is what I think when I talk to classes about being a digital citizen. How cool is that we are connected so far and wide. How when I push publish for this post the world is able to read it if they so choose.
There’s a part of me that worries about the amount of screen time, the darker aspects of being online, and how even though I talk about being good citizens, some will make poor decisions and either bully or be bullied. And evens so, I believe that the postives of being part of a global community out weighs it all.
Jone Rush MacCulloch 
Love thinking about the global community. I guess I missed signing up for a postcard this year. I’m with you that the positives do outweigh the challenges.
Jone, I love your poetry project and do intend to feature it in one of my posts. Will you and the children write digital poetry for my spring gallery? I would really like a couple with student drawing instead of a photograph. Thanks.
What a great idea. I am filing that for future reference. I had a penpal from Scotland when I was a 7th grader. Have you read “I Will Always Write back”? It is all about connecting with the global community.
Getting a real postcard or mail is wonderful. I sometimes wonder where will the tech and connectivity develop next.
Only through reading the newspaper or listening to the radio did we have some connections, Jone. It is certainly a different world now than when we grew up.
I hadn’t thought of this in forever, but I remember we had pen pals in third grade. Just writing someone in another state seemed fancy, and now it seems primitive. Good points about the global community we now live in.