Copyright Right!

Growing up, in a public school, copyrighting was something that was constantly drilled into my head. Everything could be considered copyright. And this was constantly talked about. However, until I was in high school and had to worry about research papers and plagiarism, I honestly wasn't too concerned with citing my sources. Yes, I would have the occasional teacher that would require where we got our images for a power point. But, for the most part, since everything I was using was only for educational purposes I didn't see it as a big deal to make sure I cited everything.

Other than in research papers I never saw it too important to worry about citing anything else. I mean its just a power point right? Its not like I'm doing anything with it to benefit myself, other than my grades. Whats the big deal? I believe I felt this way because none of my teachers stressed citing in their works, when showing power points or videos. They simply showed them and went about their day! I never connected how important citing was when use ANYTHING from an outside source. Not just in a paper. 

With all this in mind, I plan to make it appoint to start my students young. Obviously, Im not going to have them citing things in first grade. However, in my classroom, I plan to ensure that my students know that citing everything you use is important. As well as, letting them know where I get everything I use so that they can see this first hand. I believe seeing things done, even way before you yourself have to do it, helps to commit it to memory. That way when it comes time for them to actually start citing things and worrying about copyrighting, they'll have already seen it a million times and I hope it wont seem so scary to them!

More or less, I want to avoid what I went through as a student. I don't want my students being introduced to copyright laws in high school and panic that this is some whole new thing that if they don't learn right now they'll flunk everything for not citing properly. Or at all for that matter. I know that new things, whatever age your are at as a student, can be terrifying. Especially if you are like me and are focused on your grades, so the minute you have to worry about your grade and a whole new way to achieve that grade you have a mini panic attack. I don't want my students to have to later on fret this! Therefore, I plan to make it something common to talk about within my classroom!