Common Sense Schools
Common Sense Schools
Our goal is to recognize those schools committed to creating a culture of digital teaching and citizenship. We've made one addition to the Common Sense School criteria for the 2017–2018 school year: one more hour of professional development with a digital teaching focus.
Common Sense Schools earn an official stamp of recognition by showing commitment to creating a culture of digital citizenship and teaching. This program recognizes schools that: provide digital citizenship and digital teaching professional development to all educators; integrate digital citizenship -- on at least two grade levels -- using the Common Sense Education Digital Citizenship Curriculum, Digital Passport™, Digital Compass, and/or Digital Bytes; and engage and educate parents about media and technology issues.
Applications for the 2017-2018 school year will open the first week of October.
Questions?
Please read through our FAQ. If you have further questions, please post in the Common Sense community or email [email protected].
For your school to become a Common Sense School, the following actions must be completed:
- Create a school vision including digital citizenship and digital teaching (new this year!).
- Develop a Common Sense School Implementation Plan. You will be asked to enter the implementation details in the Common Sense School application. The implementation plan should include all criteria outlined in the following steps.
- Provide professional development to all educators on digital teaching and digital citizenship. PD may be conducted in person (by school staff) or online, using Common Sense Education resources. In-person PD may be combined to cover both topics. For a resource list, see the FAQ.
- One or more educators leads digital citizenship instruction on at least two full grade levels using Common Sense Education resources. All students at those grade levels must receive instruction. Schools have two options to meet student-instruction criteria:
- On two grade levels, teach five lessons/modules/storylines/or two Digital Bytes,
- OR on three grade levels, teach three lessons/modules/storylines/or one Digital Byte.
- Engage parents school-wide and educate them in three distinct ways. See the parent outreach question in the FAQ for more details and suggested outreach.
- Save at least three pieces of documentation from your efforts implementing: professional development, digital citizenship student instruction, and/or parent outreach to submit with the Common Sense School application.
Congratulations, Common Sense School!
Applications for the 2017-2018 school year will be open the first week of October. Once you apply, you should hear within two weeks whether or not your application has been approved. Once it's approved, you will receive a badge and an image of a banner for your school to print with your congratulatory email.
