We invite you to get started using your profile on Youth Voices!
What is a Youth Voices profile?
It can be your personal, online…
- locker (where you can put video, audio, images, GIFs, and text that are important to you)
- homeroom (where you stay connected with your Youth Voices friends)
- home base (where you come back to re-focus)
- home page (all of the work you’ve put on Youth Voices and NowComment will be organized here)
- bat cave
- fortress of solitude
- headquarters (where you can find the resources to answer all of your questions)
- room of your own
- command center
- mission control
- clean, well-lighted place (where you can explore your own thoughts and writing)
- place online like a YouTube channel/Instagram page/Facebook feed (for school, of course)
We want you to set up your Youth Voices profile. We’ll show you the basics, and a few tools, and then you’re on your own! We hope you keep track of your experiences and your learning in the updates on your profile (What’s new… ?), and that you comment and reply to your current friends’ updates — and maybe you will find some new friends here on Youth Voices!
Click to find a set of links and sub-links that you could probably incorporate into Google Classroom or other such assignment tool.
First Class or Set of Homework Assignments:
https://www.youthvoices.live/personalize-your-profile/
- https://www.youthvoices.live/personalize-your-profile/#ProfilePhoto
- https://www.youthvoices.live/personalize-your-profile/#CoverPhoto
- https://www.youthvoices.live/personalize-your-profile/#FirstUpdate
- Choose one for reflection:
Second Class or Set of Homework Assignments:
https://www.youthvoices.live/activate-your-journal
- https://www.youthvoices.live/activate-your-journal/#JournalHover
- https://www.youthvoices.live/activate-your-journal/#JournalPicture
- https://www.youthvoices.live/activate-your-journal/#CoverPhoto
- Choose one for reflection:
Third Class or Set of Homework Assignments.
https://www.youthvoices.live/connect-with-comments
- https://www.youthvoices.live/connect-with-comments/#CommentSearch
- https://www.youthvoices.live/connect-with-comments/#CommentGuides
- Post your comment on Youth Voices https://www.youthvoices.live
- Choose one of these for reflection:
These three sets of activities are also presented here, on this Kumospace floor:
Activities
Your goal for this playlist is to complete the three activities in the boxes below. As you finish each of these endeavors, your work will be collected in the timeline of your profile. At a later time, we’ll ask you to bookmark the items in your timeline that are most meaningful to you, and we’ll ask you to reflect on and assess your learning using the Habits of Mind.
[1 of 3] Personalize Your Profile
We invite you to personalize your profile by adding a profile picture and a cover photo, then by writing your first status update. And don’t stop there! Keep adding text, image, video, and GIF updates every day!
What we are inviting you to make:
When you finish this activity, you will have three new updates in your profile on Youth Voices, one for each of these:
- profile photo
- cover photo
- first update
Three Examples of Profiles
Click on the red buttons and scroll through each of the profiles to see how these authors chose an avatar and a background image to personalize their profiles. Also see their updates.
How to do this, step-by-step:
1. Go to https://www.youthvoices.live/
2. Click on Login/Register (located on the menu at the top, right next to “Home”)
3. You can log in using the username and password shared by your teacher. Or use the Google button to log in if your teacher has set this up for you.
Note: There are three things that you are making. You’ll leave this page to make each one. You will need to come back to this page to get the instructions for each of the parts.
- Profile Photo
4. Add or change your profile picture (avatar) so that it represents you. While on the Youth Voices home page, hover your cursor over your wall tab on the main menu in the orange bar at the top. (The tab shows your first name and Wall.) Click Profile Settings. then click the green, square icon to find a page that allows you to edit or upload a profile photo.
5. Use a photo of yourself, your favorite singer/artist, a cartoon character, a video game character, your favorite athlete
- Cover Photo
6. Change your cover photo (the large picture at the top of your profile). Go to Profile Settings again, and this time, click on the pink icon to find the page that allows you to edit or upload an image for your cover photo.
7. Use a large photo of someone, something or some place that is important to you. Maybe it’s an activity you enjoy or a place that you love… Click here for one place to find one, or here.
- First Update
8. Go to your wall, and add a status update in the box at the top by answering the question: What’s new, [Your First Name]? Replace the question with your writing.
9. You can say: “Today I am feeling _________ because….” Feel free to add pictures, GIFs, quotes, emojis etc.
10. You can set your status to private by clicking “only me,” but keeping it public is probably okay to do, as well.
Watch this video for help with steps 4-6
Reflecting on the Habits of Mind
When you finish all three parts of this activity, write another status update on your wall where you reflect on how you used these four Habits of Mind to complete this work. How is your work evidence of your ability to use these Habits of Mind?
[2 of 3] Activate Your Digital Journal
We invite you to ignite, inaugurate, establish, and commit to keeping a journal on Youth Voices every day!
What we are inviting you to make:
Write the first entry of a journal that will become your go-to, every day place for reflection, exploration, speculation, risk-taking, drafting and revising.
We are asking you to start writing at least one Doc in Youth Voices every day, to keep a public and private journal. (Keep in mind that teachers can see even your private docs.)
Anybody who visits your profile will be able to click on the Docs tab and see your journal or at least the entries you make public. Each time you save a doc, an update with the title is posted on your profile’s timeline.
At a later time, we will ask you to bookmark the public journal entries that are most meaningful to you and to say why by referring to the Habits of Mind.
Three Examples of Docs (Writer’s Notebooks)
Click on the red buttons and scroll through each of the writer’s notebooks to see how these authors keep public and private journals on Youth Voices.
More Examples of Docs (Writer’s Notebooks)
| Informal writing for yourself, like in a writer’s notebook, with some drafts revised or developed collaboratively | Youth write daily journals where they freewrite, capture first impressions, create first drafts, express their thoughts, speculate about important questions, and more. They also invite peers and teachers to respond to their docs, and they revise and proofread their work here. |
How to do this, step-by-step:
- Hover over the tab on the main orange menu (at the top of most pages) that says “[Your Name]’s Wall” and click on the third option in the drop-down menu: Create or Edit a Doc (Writer’s Notebook).
But wait! Read all of the steps listed below before you leave this page. Take note of #6 and #9, below to see what you are being asked to write. - Title your Doc: My Profile Pictures.
- SAVE your work (It doesn’t save automatically.)
- A Youth Voices Doc gets dated automatically, and a message is added to your timeline when you save it.
- If you haven’t created your profile picture, please do this now. (See the first activity in this playlist.)
- Explain in 3-5 sentences why you chose this picture for your profile.
- I chose this image as my avatar because _______________, and I want people online to see me as… I also feel that/like___________________________, so I wanted my profile picture to look….
- If you haven’t added a cover image, please do this now. (See the first activity in this playlist.)
- Explain in 3-5 sentences why you chose this picture for your cover photo
- I chose this image as my cover photo because… This image is important to me because…
- Add a tag at the bottom of your document: journal.
- Decide who will have access to each of your journal entries. (Keep in mind that teachers can see even your private docs.) If you want a journal doc to be private the settings are like this:
Watch this video for help with how to create a Doc for your Digital Journal
Reflecting on the Habits of Mind
When you finish writing your first journal entry, write a status update where you reflect on how you used these five Habits of Mind to complete this work. How is your work evidence of your ability to use these Habits of Mind?
[3 of 3] Connect with Comments
We invite you to look through the Youth Voices site. There are thousands of posts! Find one that interests you. Read it carefully. Add a comment to the post you read.
What we are inviting you to make:
We are asking you to write a comment to another student on Youth Voices, using one of these guides: General Discussion, Quoting a Source in a Comment, Agree/Disagree Response.
Don’t make this a one-off! We hope you do this often, coming back to Youth Voices a couple of times a week to connect with other youth around issues that you care about by leaving them thoughtful comments and replies.
Links to your comments are added to the timeline on your profile. At a later time, we’ll ask you to bookmark the comments that are most meaningful to you and to reflect on and assess this work using the Habits of Mind.
Exemplars and Thirty Recent Examples
Sam, Your post was really saddening. It causes immense pain to just look at this picture because of the story…
Claas, I was very interested by your post because you show how can someone can become a leader. Not everyone…
Dear Blanca : I am interested in your post, “Do we need the SAT/ACT,” because as the class of 2023…
Dear Ema, I am pleased by your post, “Debates over gun control laws in the United States,” because it provided…
Greeting of the day I have came across your site youthvoices.live Could you please let me know how much it…
Dear Li, I am very intrigued by your post, “Blind Photographers” because I was unaware of the concept of how…
Dear Isabella, In your post, “what Does Too Much Screen Time Do To Children’s Brains”, I am intrigued by it…
Dear Dulce, I am impressed by your post, “Death Penalty at the Door,” because it is and issue that can…
Dear Antonia, I am impressed by your post, “Addicted to Our Phones,” because it is an issue that keeps on…
If you have decided to write a dissertation proposal, you will be faced with one important question – how can…
Dear Karen: I am intrigued by your post, “Can We Save Monarch Butterflies?,” because I did not know monarch butterflies…
Most of the people like listening to music during study time. You can read every single detail of this information…
Dear Darius, I was really drawn by your post, “Never give up no matter what,” because I feel like these…
Dear Rafael, I am impressed by your post, “Become Who You Are” because you have put in so much…
Dear Jesus We all make difficult sometimes terrible choices but those choices impact those who have no voice winen, the…
Dear Dulce, I am supportive of your post, “Death Penalty at the door” because I agree with many of the…
Thank you very much for the post, I got a lot of new information that will help me a lot…
Dear Dulce, I’m exasperated by your post,”Death Penalty at the door” because it is such an interesting topic, whether to…
Dear Brian, I am situated in this situation by your post,”Inventions That Changed the World” because it is cool to…
Dear Jimmy, I am unequivocally befuddled to the core with your post, “Is AI art, art?” because it does give…
Dear Geraldine, I am surprised by your post “Women’s right to vote” because women should have the right to vote.…
Dear Caroline: I am astonished by your post, “Climate Change & Gas prices”, because it opened my eyes to see…
Dear Juan: I am impressed by your post, “Music as Your Therapy,” because it gives reasoning for why music is…
Dear Jonathan, I am impressed with your post, “Death Penalty,” because you express your own opinion and you were…
Dear Melina, I am pleasant about your post “School Social Media Free Speech Case” because schools should only have rights…
Dear Emmanuel, I am interested by your post “Canelo Explodes at Lionel Messi After Mexico vs. Argentina Game” because it…
Dear Maria: I am intrigued by your post, “COVID Vaccine for Younger Children,” because I would consider 5-11 years old…
Dear Arual, I am very interested with your post, “To protect Black women and save America from itself, elect Black…
Dear Brain, I am interested in your post, “The Long Road Ahead” because I like the way that you put…
How to do this, step-by-step:
Search on Youth Voices to find a post that matters to you and your community, then use a guide to help you say what you want to say to the author. Use the magnifying glass in the upper-right corner of the orange top, main menu to search for a post that makes you want to write back to the author.
There are guides for writing a comment linked below.
Think about what you want to say and what effect you want to have on the writer/producer, then choose one of these guides to help you write your comment. You can follow the guide exactly, or you can change it up!
- If you have a personal connection to the post: General Discussion Response
- If you want to share information about the topic: Quoting a Source in a Comment
- If you agree or disagree with the post: Agree/Disagree Response
Watch this video for help with how to find a post to read and what to write in your comment
Reflecting on the Habits of Mind
When you finish writing your comment using one of the guides, write a status update where you reflect on how you used these four Habits of Mind to complete this work. How is your work evidence of your ability to use these Habits of Mind?
Bookmark and Reflect on the Habits of Mind You Used While Completing All the Activities in this Playlist.
Go to your the the activity stream on your Youth Voices wall and bookmark one or two of the Habits of Mind reflections that you wrote at the end of each activity. Once bookmarked, add a comment to each earlier update post saying why this was a meaningful experience for you.
Karyn, I was intrigued by your post because I have never truly met a child who is so eager to…