The Island Trees School District has partnered with i-SAFE America, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to protecting the online experiences of youth, to bring students Internet safety education.

The lessons have been integrated into the library curriculum. The librarians, Andrea Davis, Shelley Frumberg, Lisa Marshall and Susan Mendelson, district coordinator attended a professional development training program to become

i-SAFE certified which qualifies them to teach the scripted lessons.

The mission of i-SAFE is to educate and empower youth to safely and responsibly take control of their Internet experiences. The program provides students with the awareness and knowledge they need in order to recognize and avoid dangerous, destructive, or unlawful behavior and to respond appropriately. The integrated teaching and learning activities are age-appropriate and vary from grade to grade. The lessons foster active participation between students and the instructors. Cyber community citizenship, cyber security, personal safety, intellectual property, cyber bullying and predator identification are the topics covered. Each lesson is designed to build upon, enhance, and reinforce the information presented at the different grade levels. This provides the students with continuity and age-appropriate exposure to Internet concepts.

The Internet environment in today's information age is constantly evolving. Because children face a variety of scenarios and have to make decisions never before imagined, the Island Trees School District recognizes it is essential to teach students to use the Internet confidently and responsibly. i-SAFE will certainly help with this endeavor.