Technology and Young Children

I found  article by Scholastic.   I feel that is is a relavent article to my classroom. It is an interview with Dr. Bruce Perry.
ECT: Do you see the use of specific things like computers as part of an early childhood curriculum as being powerful enough to change brain development the same way you've just described television?
Dr. Perry: "Absolutely. I think the difference between computers and television is that television tends to be quite passive. You sit and you are watching and things are happening in front of you but you don't do anything. Children are natural "manipulators" of the world — they learn through controlling the movement and interactions between objects in their world — dolls, blocks, toy cars, their own bodies. With television, they watch and do not control anything. Computers allow interaction. Children can control the pace and activity and make things happen on computers. They can also repeat an activity again and again if they choose."
I feel that by exploring articles like this one I am engaging in professional growth which is the fifth technology standard for teachers.

Model Educators Blogs

I perused some of the upper class teacher blogs.  I was really intrigued by Justin Tart's Life of An Educator.  If you didn't read it, check out his last two posts.  They make you think about moving forward and being in the now as a person and as an educator.  It made me want to read the book "Mindset" by Carol Dweck's.
The other blog that caught my attention and was helpful for me was the one called Tales from K-2 Classroom.  I thought it was great that she used Angry Birds and The Lorax to hook students into doing math activities.  I found a lot of useful blogs linked to this page.  These blogs had many ideas that I could incorporate into my classroom and share with some of my colleagues at school.

Wiki's, Diigos and Blogs

As I am search, exploring and reading, I am completely on information overload!!!!  I feel like this is great information to have and use if one has the time to do it.  I really like using my Wiki as an information center for my parents.  I am playing with the idea of using it as a class portfolio.  I take daily pictures of my students and activities already.  If I up-load the pictures and add some descriptions, wah - lah! we have a classroom portfolio.

Chapter 3

While reading and exploring Chapter 3 Effective Instructional Models, I became very interested in web quests and the free resources I could access and use.  I am saddened though because much of what we have been assigned to explore and do is very difficult for Preschool/Kindergarten.  I did have difficulty opening some of the dinosaur videos on the BBC link.  I did however enjoy the dinosaur web quest.  It reminded me of a social studies computer game we use to play called Where in the World is Carmen San Diego.  I feel as though this would really intrigue my son as he gets older.

Frustrated

Okay, so I tried to add a label to my two old homework posts.  Thinking I was doing the right thing by pressing save and I deleted both posts!!!  So as much I find this stuff fun and intriguing, it can also be frustrating and maddening!!!  Now I will rewrite my previous post, but they will not be the originals because I for once did not write them on paper first!

My Animoto video

The NETS

With technology ever changing it's important to keep constant attention on it's evolving state.  Through the National Education Technology Standards teachers and students learn collaboratively to analyze and explore the global world of learning.  For the first time in history we are able to learn through cyber classrooms in places on the other side of the world.  In order to do so we need collective standards to understand culture and socially acceptable ways to connect.  We must first learn to evaluate the information out there for it's authenticity.  Using these standards we can effectively integrate this technology into our curriculum for our students.  Therefore, students learn creative  and innovative high order thinking skills through project based learning.  Working to solve problems and prepare for the ever changing workforce of the future.

My Storybird with help from a friend! :-)

Bubbles In The Air by magnoliarose on Storybird

My First Storybird

Tonight I made my first Storybird with my daughter Mya.  It was fun and I feel like it would be fun to try with my preschoolers.  I am going to try and link it to this post.  Let's see if it works.Bubbles In the Air

New Literacies post

New Literacies to me is basically anything that encompasses the Internet.  This entails a tremendous amount of of information to learn, navigate, decipher and evaluate.  In order to do all of this one must take the time to explore, and conquer the fears and worries that come with the unknown.  As children, we learned old literacies with the same trepidation.  Now our students must have the same fears in a dual capacity.  Fortunately for them learning using a computer is fun and exciting.  For adults it's like "teaching  old dogs new tricks"  the anxieties and fears are still there.  The students become in the teachers and the teachers the students.  We learn collaborative this new adventure and in learning.  Teachers need to learn and integrate these new literacies into their classrooms.  This will put our students at an advantage from the beginning.

test shot

Learning how to do this.  Just checking to see if I am doing it right

Totally over stimulated

I am totally over stimulated by this new blog thing!  My fingers are having difficulty typing and named my blog a bog!!!Hopefully I will become a pro at this in the next seven weeks.  I thought I was more internet savvy until I walked into this classroom.