VOLUNTEER RESOURCES

Through Savvy Cyber Kid’s HERO Volunteer Program, you can help children from Pre-K through 2nd grade learn how to remain safe and be empowered to make appropriate decisions in the online world.

How to be a successful Volunteer:

Are you friends with a teacher or administrator at a local school? Great, reach out to them and offer to be a volunteer mystery reader in their pre-K or Kindergarten classroom (sample email wording below).

Don’t know a teacher or administrator? Use our elementary school finder to locate schools closest to you where you work or live. Most schools provide contact information for their teachers and administrators on their websites (usually listed under Quick Links, Staff or similar). Search for Pre-K and Kindergarten staff if available as an option. Elementary school finder: https://savvycyberkids.netlify.app/.

Send an email to the Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers using the following draft wording (feel free to edit and make it your own!):

Introduction Letter to Send to Schools

Sample email template you can use:

Hi (school contact name here),

My name is (your name here) and I am excited to share that I am a volunteer for Savvy Cyber Kids cyber safety educational initiative for Pre-K and Kindergarten students.

Kids are put in front of screens at home at the youngest ages and we teach them in a fun way about personal internet safety, bully response, and technology balance.

How do we teach seemingly complex topics to young children? We read (and then donate to your classroom!) a book specifically designed for young learners called The Savvy Cyber Kids at Home: Three Book Collection (details here: https://amzn.to/4fJwQ2V)

Are there a few days and times you have designated for mystery readers that would work for me to read to your students and lead them through a fun interactive activity?

I look forward to hearing from you and reading to your students!

Thanks,
(Your name)
(Your email)

Learn more about Savvy Cyber Kids: https://savvycyberkids.org/

Notes on scheduling:

Make sure you book dates that are at least 3 weeks in the future so we have time to mail you the book to bring with you (and leave at the school).
Teachers are busy! If you don’t hear back in a week, send a follow-up message.

Once you have secured the school, date, and time to volunteer, complete the shipping form (we have partnered with Thryft Ship) so we can ship you your book. Please complete this form 2 weeks prior to your visit to allow for mail delays. Fill out one form for each school where you will volunteer.

Download the lesson plans and activity sheets for each book in the series. If this is your first visit at a school, use book one (The Family Gets a Computer) resources with students. If you go back to volunteer in the same classroom you can use the other books in the series.

The Savvy Cyber Kids at Home: The Family Gets a Computer Lesson Kit

Book 1 Lesson Plan and four Activity Sheets: Create Your Own Savvy Cyber Kid and Name, Coloring CyberPrincess, Coloring CyberThunder, and Word Search.

The Savvy Cyber Kids at Home: The Defeat of The Cyber Bully Lesson Kit

Book 2 Lesson Plan and three Activity Sheets: Create Two Trusted Adults, Crypogram, and Crossword Puzzle.

The Savvy Cyber Kids at Home: Adventures Beyond the Screen Lesson Kit

Book 3 Lesson Plan.

Please post pictures of your volunteering activities so we can share your amazing work and tag us:

Thank you for your partnership in helping to educate a generation.

Today’s youth are growing up in a world that encourages a deep involvement with technology, influencing their everyday, even moment to moment, activities. Yet these same children are oftentimes unsupervised and unprepared to play safely on the digital playground—where they can very easily make bad and potentially dangerous decisions.

The Challenges of Parenting in the Digital Age

There was a time when the childhood lessons of ‘don’t talk to strangers,’ and the ‘golden rule’ was enough to keep kids safe. These lessons could be applied to more mature circumstances as the child aged and because kids learned them young, they were better equipped to make safe decisions when they got older. But times have changed. Technology happened.

By middle school, most kids have a cell phone and a window into a world of trouble. Born into a world surrounded in every possible way by technology, pre-teens and teens are inevitably drawn to their phones. The places they can go, the people they can meet—and yes, the dangers they can get into, all from the safety of their homes and schools are limitless.

That’s a lot of responsibility and sometimes it’s not that easy to make the right choice or understand potential consequences behind a screen, with abundant seemingly grey area to navigate. As parents and teachers, we are doing pre-teens a disservice to not prepare them for the complexities of life—particularly the complexities of making smart decisions online.

You Can Help

Savvy Cyber Kids’ CyberHERO Volunteer Programs bring volunteers like you into schools to help young children learn about personal internet safety, bully response, technology balance, digital reputation and privacy. You will help the children learn how to remain safe and be empowered to make appropriate decisions when using the technology they love. As a Savvy Cyber Kids HERO Volunteer, you can help us reach more schools and teach children about how to stay safe online.

How to be a successful Savvy Cyber Kids Volunteer:

Are you friends with a teacher or administrator at a local school? Great, reach out to them and offer to be a volunteer presenter focusing on cyber safety and cyber ethics in their classroom (sample email wording below).

Don’t know a teacher or administrator? Use our elementary school finder to locate schools closest to you where you work or live. Most schools provide contact information for their teachers and administrators on their websites (usually listed under Quick Links, Staff or similar). Search for 2nd through and 5th grade staff if available as an option. Elementary school finder: https://savvycyberkids.netlify.app/.

Send an email to the 2nd through and 5th grade teachers using the following draft wording (feel free to edit and make it your own!):

By engaging the commitment of parents, teachers and the community, we can raise awareness and impart a sense of cyber ethics into the minds of children. We appreciate you being a Savvy Cyber Kids Volunteer HERO at your local school!

Free Resources for HERO Volunteers:

Introduction Letter to Send to Schools

Sample email template you can use:

Hi [school contact name here],

My name is [your name here] and I am excited to let you know that I have partnered with the 501(c)3 non-profit Savvy Cyber Kids to lead a virtual cybersecurity and cyber ethics session for students in your school. The session will be for students in [the grades you prefer to work with that are listed as events below here] grades. Are there a few days and times that would work for me to lead this session?

You can learn more about Savvy Cyber Kids and the work they do for students, educators and parents here: https://savvycyberkids.org

I look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks,

[Your name and contact info]