Early Connections: Technology in Early Childhood Classrooms

I chose to view the Early Connections: Technology in Early Childhood Classrooms website. It was very informative and provided useful insights for the aspiring teacher.

My Three Lesson Plans

This week I composed three lesson plans for kindergarten science, math, and language arts. Here they be!

SCIENCE LESSON: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgh4t8rt_26w4gkfgb

MATH LESSON: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgh4t8rt_3dxsc27cw

LANGUAGE ARTS: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgh4t8rt_46689qpfn

Also, I watched the two videos of "Bookends of War" and "Inside Kapunahala." Yay!!

Technology Videos

This week are working on our lesson plans. We watched three videos, which were great! Those videos were full of wonderful ways to incorporate technology into classroom activities. The first video, “I Love Spiders” was my favorite. I loved everything the teacher included in her lesson plans; her inclusion of the spider cams and the collaborative website made learning fun for the children, which is the most important thing a teacher can do. I think the collaborative website with a classroom in Missouri led to extensions in other curriculum, which is also important in teaching a unit. In the “Brown Bear” video, the teacher recognized the students’ interests and applied it to their current area of study, which is very important in good teaching. She saw that the children loved reading “Brown Bear,” so she created a lesson where the children could make their own story using the pattern in “Brown Bear.” All children got computer time to create illustrations and then all illustrations were compiled into a slideshow story. Very fun and unique!! The last video about habitats included viewing images online and from software. The teacher took the time to explain copy right laws to the children; when working with technology, it is very important to explain the copy right laws so that the children are aware of what they can and cannot do.

Interview with ECE instructor

This week we were supposed to interview an early childhood educator about the technology they use in the classroom. I interviewed Mrs. Werner a kindergarten teacher from Wasatch Elementary school. Mrs. Werner's classroom had lots of great technological resources! Here's what I learned:

Technology in Mrs. Werner's classroom include: four class computers, a TV, a CD player, wireless internet access, computer projector, DVD and VCR player, and a smart board. If Mrs. Werner wanted needed to use a digital camera or a video camera, she could check either of those out from the school. The school also provided two mobile labs with 30 computers in each that could be brought into the classroom when scheduled.

Mrs. Werner is amazed at how far the school has come in terms of technology. She said she is lucky to have such wonderful resources, now if only she could learn to master them all! Mrs. Werner wishes she had a bigger TV in her classroom. She doesn't like to use the tiny one in the corner for classroom instruction.

Mrs. Werner uses technology to get ideas and prepare materials for the classroom. Mrs. Werner uses her smart board on a daily basis. You can create your own learning games for the children or you can download games or get ideas from prometheanplanet.com. For each objective she teaches, she tries to think of how to incorporate the smart board. Mrs. Werner also keeps her eyes out for good instructional videos, and will show those in the classroom. Whenever the children are doing project work or take a field trip, Mrs. Werner takes pictures with her digital camera, loads them on a computer, and using i-photo creates a slide show for all to enjoy and that she can post on their class website later.

I asked Mrs. Werner how she selected software for the classroom computers. She said that the district provides the standard software on their computer. Any extra software desired needs to be purchased, and can then be used in the classroom. She has not selected any software for the classroom on her own; however, if she were to select software she would try to pick software that goes along with the curriculum. She mentioned earlier about how one of the programs they had on the class computers focused on learning to read, but was really for the middle-of-the-road kids. Software that included levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced) would be helpful, because it could reach all of the students.

Obviously, your technology resources are dependent upon your school, but any use of technology in the classroom is better than no technology in the classroom! I hope to be as lucky as Mrs. Werner, and be at school that provides my class with multiple resources. I liked how Mrs. Werner used the technology for specific purposes that relate to curriculum. Her goal is always to enhance learning, and she formed the technology to meet her needs, not the other way around. When I have a classroom of my own, I hope to do the same.

I COMPLETED PARTS TWO AND THREE OF THE ASSIGNMENT!!!