Using our Resources Efficiently

In my experience in the classroom over the years,  MS Word has been a staple for students and teachers alike. It allows for endless creative outlets to produce almost any kind of document imaginable. I've used it to write essays, create flyers, and make title pages for binders- but I know that the possibilities for it are endless. For teachers, MS Word is what makes their world go round. They tend to utilize it to create tests, worksheets, newsletters, posters, and more! Since so much of teaching  centers around providing documents, MS Word truly allows teachers to do it in the most efficient way. I don't know how teachers ever managed to make their tests and worksheets without it!

But when we use these tools to create content, we have to be careful that we're not stealing something that doesn't belong to us. Copyright is something that I see becoming more and more of an issue today whether it's with music in Youtube videos or designs on t-shirts. At my high school, every club had a t-shirt. I remember signing up to receive a t-shirt representing the junior class, and we weren't allowed to purchase it because the design was too similar to the logo of a brand called Patagonia. When producing logos and titles in schools, it's extremely important to do similar adaptations and avoid copying. I would really emphasize to my students that, just like plagiarism in an essay, it is wrong to steal the works of others. I would point them to different resources that search for authenticity in content and makes sure that they are not stealing the works of others. To help my students avoid this issue as a whole, I would try to train them in Word and other resources, so that they can get creative and make their own original content using word art or shapes.

Aside from informing my students about issues surrounding copyright, I would work to educate them on the importance of academic honesty, privacy, and cyber bullying. All are morally fueled concepts. Since I wish to not only teach, but shape, my students, I would continuously influence my students to treat others with kindness and have integrity in all they do. I would have them use Turnitin for academic submissions, I would remind them to keep their passwords secret for privacy, and I would have a confidentiality policy in my classroom-encouraging them to come to me if they ever were struggling emotionally, like with cyberbullying for example.