Reflecting

As this fall semester comes to a close, I realize how much I have learned. Rewinding to just eight weeks ago, I remember looking at the text book, Blogs, Wikis, Pod casts, and other powerful web tools for the classroom, and thinking that I knew nothing about how to use those tools and had no idea what value they could bring to my kindergarten classroom. I began the class with great reservations and sincere doubts that I would be able to meet the course requirements. The class has been challenging but also tremendously more rewarding than I anticipated. I can say with certainty that I may never have tried pod casting or creating a blog or wikispace had I not taken this course. I am sincerely grateful for having the opportunity to move beyond my comfort zone to learn that surprisingly I could set up a blog and create a pod cast. The most fun in this course was the wikis assignment. The networking and team work that evolved out of the panic of locating and posting information was phenomenal. We completed the assignment with the help of the more savvy members and breathed a sigh of relief when we were actually finished. This experience enlightened me about the value of collaborative learning. My personal blog is no longer an assignment or a chore. I am proud of the work displayed and plan to continue using it to create a diary of my accomplishments. Perhaps another student or teacher will access my blog and find comfort in knowing that others have struggled with what they are facing. In order to further expand my knowledge of technology I re-affirmed my goal to earn a masters degree in Integrating Technology in the Classroom by spring of 2011. The course work required will take precious time away from my two wonderful children and my husband; however, the investment in my professional development keeps me employable and will provide security for them in the future.

In addition to improving my own technology skills, the exposure to new technology tools and self learning approaches throughout this course has tremendously expanded my vision of an effective learning environment. With this new vision, I have established the following two goals to help integrate technology in my classroom. Thornburg and Davidson (2008) prompted my first goal through their discussion about bringing fun into the classroom. During their discussion, they spoke about school principals being out of touch with the classroom and new learning approaches and the lack of technology related changes as a result of this disconnect. Involving my principal is going to be key to progressing with changes in the classroom therefore my first step will be to ask my principal to participate in a media making work shop. I will locate a work shop that is at an accessible location and that focuses on creative media ideas for elementary school students. I will attend with her. By exposing my principal to the benefits of technology based learning, I hope to gain her support for similar technology training for teachers. In conjunction with encouraging and motivating the principal and teachers to do new things in the classroom that are technology driven, I plan to set up a classroom blog. The blog will include tags to homework assignments, school events and classroom information as well as access to homework aids for the children and parents. Development of the class blog will provide a technological link between school and home which I can expand on with other media like pod casts and videos. As a class we can view our blog and look at other class room blogs, hopefully, some of which will be created by my peers.


Thornburg, D., Davidson, H. (2008). Bringing fun into teaching with technology. (Laureate Education, Inc., DVD). Retrieved from Walden on-line on December 15, 2009.

Digital Native vs. Digital Immigrant

I found it very interesting to chat with my kindergarten students to discover their interactions with today's technology. Below is the link to listen to the podcast I created when interviewing 3 of my students. Please listen to it in its entirety to hear the amazing demographic information about my students.

Enjoy
www.podcastmachine.com/podcasts/2971

Partnership for the 21st Century

The Partnership for 21st Century skills has established themselves as an organization with a mission to serve as a catalyst to position 21st century skills at the center of K-12 education. Their web site is calling for the support of educators, businesses, communities and government leaders to transition learning in schools in order to address the gap between the knowledge and skills most of our students are learning and the skills they will need in tomorrow’s work place.
I reviewed the site information about the National Action Agenda which outlines eight principles that policy makers and stakeholders believe will help build this 21st century education system. It was encouraging to see that these principles included the need to provide educators with consistent access to tools and support systems both in their pre-service education and in-service professional development. The methods of learning and tools to achieving knowledge in this century are definitely changing and educators are playing catch up mainly because the systems around us do not provide the support these principles defined.
The Partnership for the 21st Century organization has also wisely acknowledged that success of their mission is greatly dependent on the support of government leaders. Their policy recommendations to the Obama administration, which are also available on the Partnership’s website, will require substantial funding increases for training and resources. I agree there is an urgent need to put an infrastructure in place that enables us to help students improve skills that support the needs of the 21st century work place but with so many costly changes pending under Obama’s new administration, is this investment possible? Too much move for simultaneous changes often results in sacrificing one thing for another. Therefore, will the educational evolution be lost due to other administration priorities such as health care reform? As educators we have a social obligation to make education the number one priority. So, let’s sharpen our own 21st century skills and start making daily changes toward helping our students do the same.

Kelly McCarty

Using a Blog in the Kindergarten Classroom

To incorporate a blog in my kindergarten classroom I would extend a science unit about space. As the students explore the planets I would have "Astronaut Alex" share information and pose questions for the students to explore. This interaction would help to motivate and encourage student learning about space. During a lesson I would assist the class in generating comments and questions by typing them into a blog. In reality I would secretly pretend to be "Astronaut Alex" and respond to the class while generating excitement about the planets. Student learning would be seen through the use of the blogs because their comments and questions would exhibit their understanding. This experience would be a good tool because it would encourage the kindergarten students to connect to the global world.

Food In the Classroom

I am a Kindergarten teacher and I have used food as a way to engage the students during various lessons. This year my school system has decided against the use of any food in the classroom. This means no food for graphing, or any other lesson as well as no celebrations for birthdays. I am really disappointed and wish there was some flexibility.

I know the main reason for this decision is due to the number of food allergies that exist these days.

Any comments?