DCPS Students Continue Learning Through Virtual Summer Camp
William Jackson, M.Ed. My Quest to Teach
Having the opportunity to speak to youth, teens and young
adults is a wonderful experience especially when speaking
to them about different areas of technology addressing
Sexting and Cyber-bullying.
It was a great pleasure teaching virtually to students of
Duval County Public Schools “Cyber-bullying and Sexting
Can Destroy Your Future,” as one of the sessions for the
Virtual Summer Camp.
Baptist Health supports Communities in Schools’ virtual
summer camp with wonderful sessions covering Depression,
COVID-19 Trauma/Social and Emotional Impact and other
areas. Baptist Health is always interested in the health of
community youth, teens and young adults.
Community in Schools Virtual Summer Camp was a wonderful
opportunity as a teacher and advocate of STREAM to speak
to students from Duval County Public Schools middle and high
schools about their digital content, being accountable with their
social media postings and how cyber-bullying and sexting can
destroy their future even before it can begins.
As a teacher of 32 years being able to judge how you’re doing
comes when youth let you know. Love the comments that are
received, Dykisha stated, “Preach!” as I shared that they
(students) are their Brands. They must guard their Brands
against self-destruction and mis-interpretation.
Their actions, behaviors words have influence in their lives.
Technology has opened opportunities to be influential in both
positive and negative ways. Especially during the pandemic
where youth, teens and young adults are isolated in their
homes and lacking physical contact with friends, social media
is the go to source of connection on digital platforms.
Students even in middle school need to know that their digital
devices can be their best friend (BFF) or their worst enemy by
the content they post on platforms like Twitter, Instagram,
TikTok, Tumblr and other sites. Parents need to understand
they will be held accountable for what their children do if they
are paying for the cell phones and their children are minors.
During the presentation students where asked what they learned
and students like Cortney stated: “I learned that my branding
is important and jobs will look at the things that I post. I also
learned that there are other ways to deal with cyber-bullying
then just ignoring.”
Asking students how they would deal with cyber-bullying and
getting advice from them is key to involving them in the decision
making process where they learn from, and teach each other.
There were other presenters addressing higher education,
business etiquette, time and personal management.
Members of the Pan-Hellenic (Greek) organizations participated
sharing the community works that Greek orgs provide and
the importance of sisterhood and brotherhood. The
combination of age levels, grade levels and exposure to
professionals of careers is important even in virtual
learning because comments like this from Ashlee:
“I learned that no matter what even if you delete (content)
your service provider still has that information or proof If
there is an issue that can be investigated about
cyber-bullying or sexting.
MaryAnn (adult online chaperone) provided great feedback
to several students: “Cortney & Ashlee, those are both
really good take-aways!” Stating that the CIS Jax program is
preparing them for beyond high school and providing career
skills to be successful in life. More virtual learning will be
held in the future making virtual learning the new normal in
the era of the pandemic.
Communities In Schools Jax – https://cisjax.org/