When you know better you do better is how I describe my journey to becoming a model for crediting sources appropriately. I can remember being a first year teacher, teaching in a very low socio-economic school with very limited resources. As one of nine fourth grade teachers, and the only new teacher, I was the one who had to hunt for and find enough books and supplies for my fourth grade students. This was way back in 1994. I had a set of ten hard cover spelling books for my class of twenty-nine students. Spelling lists and activities are pretty repetitive and it was easy to make ten books work. However, when it came to novels to read, it was another story. I had to teach a short chapter book at the same time as the other teachers. This was the time of iGAP testing and common assessments. I had to teach the book and I had to take the assessment on the same day as the other teachers, but I only had six books. I tried to get extra books from other teachers, our library, and my principal. One of the teachers gave me a photocopy of the whole book and told me to use my month's worth of copies on making enough books for my class. So, I did just that. I had no idea I was breaking copyright law at the time. I was simply focused on getting the books into my students hands. As time went on, I found myself in a graduate class discussing copyright. It was eyeopening. I had a lot of guilt and remorse about some of the things I had done. Since then, with the explosion of online resources and learning tools, I have educated myself on copyright and fair use laws. I have worked hard to cite all of my sources and teach my fellow teachers and students how to do it too. Recently I was helping a fifth grade teacher with her students' research projects. I shared a Common Sense Education Digital Citizenship lesson, How to Cite a Site, using Nearpod. The students were very surprised by the implications of copyright law. They did a wonderful job with their paraphrasing and citing sources. I was very proud of them. I also get to teach graduate ed tech student about copyright and fair use in many courses that I teach. The more I know, the better I do. But now it is the more I know, the more I share about what I know.
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| Student Citations |
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| Student Citing Work |
