If you're working toward Common Sense recognition and you are incorporating distance learning in your plan, please visit the FAQ in the Help Center for suggestions for completion and further clarification.
Who is a Common Sense Educator?
Common Sense Educators are committed to helping kids and schools thrive in the digital age. Anyone who is an educator -- whether a classroom teacher, administrator, tech coach, librarian, homeschool teacher, preservice teacher, parent coordinator, or community partner-- can become a Common Sense Educator.
Why become a Common Sense Educator?
- Earn a badge that publicly affirms your commitment to helping students think critically and use technology responsibly to learn, create, and participate.
- Build your confidence teaching digital citizenship and integrating technology into your classroom, school, or district.
How do I earn recognition as a Common Sense Educator?
The Common Sense Recognition Program provides a personalized roadmap for your professional growth! You can become a Common Sense Educator in three steps: LEARN, DO, REFLECT.
Criteria and resources for the three steps are outlined below. Completing these prerequisites should take approximately four to six hours, while the actual application will take an additional five minutes.
Applications are rolling and accepted between September 2020 and June 30, 2021.
LEARN, DO, REFLECT
- Attend a professional development session by Common Sense staff, a Common Sense Ambassador, or a school project lead (in-person or virtually). This counts as two LEARN activities
- Attend a Common Sense webinar. You may choose to view two Common Sense webinars; doing so counts as two LEARN activities.
- Attend a Distance Learning with Common Sense session. TWO Distance Learning sessions count as ONE LEARN activity.
- Complete the online Digital Citizenship Curriculum Training.
- Complete the Student Data Privacy mini-course.
DO
Help students build lifelong skills, and guide families through the ups and downs of the digital world.
Student Instruction (choose ONE of the following):
- Classroom educator: Teach a digital citizenship lesson using Common Sense Education resources, options include:
- K–12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum
- K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum on Nearpod
- Digital Passport™
- Digital Compass
- Family Engagement Resources
- Non-classroom educator (administrator, counselor, principal, etc.): Create, oversee, and/or develop the site-wide implementation of Common Sense Education resources.
Family engagement (choose ONE of the following):
- Share resources from Wide Open School, a free collection of the best online learning experiences and activities for kids curated by our editors to help families adapt to online learning.
- Share the Common Sense Education Family Media Agreement.
- Share one or more Family Tip(s) that align with lessons taught in your classrooms.
- Share articles and parenting advice from Common Sense Media.
- Host an in-person event for parents, caregivers, and family members (with ready-made slides!).
- Invite families to participate in the Common Sense Tech Balance text program (for Elementary only).
We hope to learn more from you about your experience earning recognition as a Common Sense Educator. In the application, you will be asked to provide some details on how you feel the process of becoming a Common Sense Educator impacted you and your professional growth.
Questions?
Please read through our FAQ in the Help Center. If you have further questions, please post in the Common Sense Education Community or email [email protected] and enter Recognition in the subject line.
If you applied but haven’t heard from us, you can check your status here.
