Frances and Her Password Journey by Leigh Schulte

Do you feel that you have a strong password? I can tell you who thought she did, Frances the Gnome until one day someone stole her hat because her password was not strong enough. To get her hat back, Frances must answer clues to learn about password safety. With her friend Sam, Frances begins her journey through clues left for her. Each clue asks a question about what makes a safe password, Frances and Sam work together to figure out the correct answer. When they figure out the correct answer they are rewarded with the location of where the next clue can be found. As they learn the importance of password safety, you will too, and you can figure out whether your passwords are safe enough.

These days, children are using the computer at an earlier age, and creating strong passwords is part of the responsibility of safe computer usage. To teach children about computer safety you need it to be interesting and exciting. Students only want to be lectured so much during the day, by incorporating your lesson with a book I have learned that students will remember the information more likely. For many years I have been teaching my students about computer safety and have found very few books which I would use in my class. This is why my book was born, to engage students to learn. 

Frances and Her Password Journey is written for students in grades 2nd – 4th. The idea of the book is to be used as part of a lesson. While it is being read I imagine teachers stopping and asking the class what they feel the correct answer is, engaging the students more and having them think about how they see passwords could be made stronger. By engaging the students it will help them to become more interested in what they are learning about and will make them think more about what the decisions they make while using the computer. 

Every year there is a week or a day where schools celebrate Internet Safety. This book could be used as part of that week to help explain the importance of password safety to the students. As teachers we are always looking for new ways to explain a subject matter to our student’s. My goal with my book is to one day have it as part of a curriculum for computers. If not to at least have computer teachers using it to help their students learn the importance of password safety. If not in the computer classes than in school libraries so the teachers have access to the book.

Over the last 21 years I have been a computer teacher for many age groups. I started out in a special education school for students who were preschool to 21 years of age. After that I went on to teach 6th, 7th, & 8th grade students. This is where I began teaching about computer safety, not only passwords but with social media as well. Now in my current job I am teaching Kindergarteners through 3rd grade about computers. The most important thing I feel the students should be taught is how to be safe on the computer, that is why I spend many weeks on this topic. As a teacher who has the students on the computer in my class, I need to make sure they understand the importance of computer safety before we begin using them. Throughout the year I am always stressing the importance of internet safety, my belief is that I am here to show them the correct way to respond to situations which may arise when they are on the internet.

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