PLE Week 12

I looked at the following website:

• Early Connections: Technology in Early Childhood Classrooms
  

PLE Week 11

I watched the following videos:

• Bookends of War
• Inside Kapunahala
  

Kindergarten Lesson Plans

Mathematics Lesson Plan:http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddw6nn7s_2f8jbmnf9


Science Lesson Plan:http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddw6nn7s_3hzvs57hs

Language Arts Lesson Plan:http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddw6nn7s_4fptbnscm

Spiders, Bears, and Habitats

From viewing these videos I learned that children are excited and eager to use technology in the classroom. Teachers can implement several different standards into one lesson as well. For example, the students taking pictures of spiders and making their own construction spiders; the opportunities are endless. These videos also helped me to realize how start and quick young children are at catching on to any new technology that they are exposed to. And as teachers we need to help give them that exposure and let them try out their skills instead of doing everything for them.
I really liked that one of the videos had the children working in small groups. That way they were able to help each other out and learn from one another. This is also helpful if some students have experience with technology from exposure at home or else where, those students can work together with the students that may only have the exposure to technology that they are receiving in the classroom.

Technology in the Classrom Interview

I visited with Mrs. McKay at Canyon Crest Elementary School. In her kindergarten classroom there are 3 computers in the back workroom shared with the other kindergarten class and one computer in her own classroom for the children to play on. She also has her own teacher computer in the back workroom that is hooked up to a printer. Mrs. McKay uses an old tape player to use in her reading center with headphones.
In the corner of her classroom, Mrs. McKay was a TV and VCR that she uses to show the children clips about animals or episodes of Reading Rainbow. The library has a few DVD players that can be checked out upon request as well as projectors and screens.
Mrs. McKay has had to bring a few of her own items from home to enhance her classroom. She brought in a CD player that she uses to play education songs during whole group. She also brought in a digital camera that she uses several times throughout the year to take pictures of the children at work. Due to her soft voice, Mrs. McKay also uses a portable microphone that she can easily wear around her neck.
Every week for 45 minutes the librarian brings around a cart of laptops into the classroom and allows the children to play games and practice typing. There are enough for each child to have their own.
Mrs. McKay wishes that she had more than one computer in her classroom that the children could play on. The children are often competing with the other kindergarten class for computer use on the three computers in the back workroom.
When I asked Mrs. McKay her feelings about using technology in the classroom, she said that she does what she knows and is comfortable with and is often scared to try new things.
I completed the Midcourse Evaluation and the Informed Consent Form.
I was really amazed with how much Mrs. McKay had to bring from home. Also, during the interview I was a little shocked that she was so unwilling to try new things. The way I see is that these students are growing up with newer and newer technology and the teacher should be helping them learn how to use it instead of sticking to what she learned to do years before.