Future Possibilities

Our opportunity for personal growth through STI Classes is such an amazing part of teaching here at Edgemont- something that, while at times we may “complain” about having to go, really I believe our chatter is more just a nostalgic complaining like we used to do as students ourselves.  In actuality it is so refreshing to be able to become a student for just a little while, and I think we all appreciate it.  Because really, we don’t HAVE to go.  We choose to.

As far as being a student in this Technology class goes, I am left wondering which parts of the class I will use in the future.  And this leaves me wishing that I were better at technology than I am.  While a lot of these ideas seem wonderful, and would add some new and exciting elements to my teaching, I am not sure that when I come back in September I will remember how to make a Photostory.  I think I will be fine with the document camera (although with no projector I am not sure I would use it) and I think that Inspiration is pretty self explanatory.  But when things get a little more complicated, I get frustrated with myself for not being able to do it the way I want to.  But really, it would be better to have something simple than nothing at all, right?

So my hope for next year is that I don’t give up as easily and that I try to put my new knowledge to use as much as I can.  Happy Summer!

I’m Sorry, Computer

OK so while yesterday I was having a frustrated with my computer day, today I am very happy with it again.  For one, I was wrong about our report card system, and there IS a way to mark off one score for the whole class and then simply go in and change the few that may be different. This is SUCH good information to have, especially for the final report card in Kindergarten when most kids are performing satisfactorily. Secondly, I was given a large task to do for my summer job requiring me to come up with a bunch of ideas for kids’ activities. This is one of those things that you would think would not be so hard for a teacher, however, I can plan lessons no problem, whereas we don’t play as many games in school.  Outside of school activities are much better planned by parents than teachers, I believe.  Anyway, thank you computer and internet, because I surfed through a few websites and found some great ideas.  So  yes computer, I am a fairweather friend. And today I appreciate you.

Expecting Too Much?

Over this last week I have been working on the final report cards for my Kindergarten class.  The way our report cards are configured, there are about 50 categories that we grade our students on, everything from whether they can blend sounds into words to whether they listen to others. Doing our report cards on a computer program has undoubtedly made our lives easier.  However, I am still not satisfied.  I know that may be wrong of me, but there are so many little parts of the program that, to my technologically challenged self, should not be that hard to change, but apparently are.  For example, if all of my students are able to recognize the letters of the alphabet, I think there should be a way that I can mark that box only one time for the whole class. Why should I have to scroll through the choices for every child when every child can do it? Or another option would be to have the grades from last semester automatically pop up for this semester. Why, when a high-performing shild scored all Satisfactories last time around, can’t those grades just be in already? Barring a melt-down from the child, any child who was Satisfactory by Kindergarten standards in February is certainly Satisfactory in June.

I apologize that this is mostly a ranting blog, but it is the end of the year, it is hot in this classroom, and I am tired of sitting here scrolling through the same 4 choices 1000 times!!!

Art vs. Technology

I took a class this past weekend on making books by hand.  By the time the class was finished I had made at least 6 beautiful products- a portfolio, a CD book, a notepad holder, a calendar holder, etc.  all with art paper and gluesticks.  I really was very proud of the work I had done, enough so to bring it to my grandparents’ on Father’s Day yesterday and share it with the rest of my family.  Once again though, this begs the question for me about art vs. technology: How can we find a balance between the two to teach our children about both?  As technology becomes more and more prevalent in today’s society, how can we support it while at the same time still teaching our children that sometimes doing something all by yourself without the help of machines or the Internet is extremely rewarding.  Do I just have that feeling because I was born BC (before computers)? Will kids today stop wanting to do things on their own, like the Rubik’s Cube student in Sandy’s class? I don’t know the answer to this.  But I certainly hope that just based on the pure pride one feels in completing a task all on their own will help kids today balance the two.

Technology for Little Ones

I am finding a lot of these wonderful new technological tools a little hard to imagine in use with a kindergarten class.  When your students are not able to read fluently yet, it is almost impossible for them to work independently.  Not all, but most of the tools we have learned to use in this class require a healthy amount of reading.  How can I use these with my kindergarten kids? Unfortunately I have learned through this class that while the Internet and modern technology have really helped most classrooms to grow to limitless proportions, this is not the case with little ones.  Until they can read, we seem to be stuck within the four walls of Seely Place.  And, in my opinion, they are a little young for that yet, anyway. Kindergarten is a year for my students to get used to the fact that their world has expanded beyond the doors of their own home.  I am not convinced that it needs to go further than that for them right now.

Blogging Paranoia

I have heard from a few teachers today about the situation at Ardsley Middle School this week with the student who was blogging about hurting or killing other students in his school.  They closed the school down as a precautionary measure to his blog.  This situation made me stop and think for a minute.  Now I don’t have a temper, and am not one who is prone to making idle threats at all.  However, I know there are many people in the world who, when angry, will say things like “I’m gonna kill that guy” when CLEARLY that is not their true intention.  I am speaking from very little information about this specific situation, but it still makes me wonder what the difference is between a teenage kid being depressed, overreacting to things and writing “I wish I could kill everyone in my math class” vs. saying that to his or her friends?  Does a statement like that get more “credibility” because the kid took the time to write it down in his blog?  And what if it had not been spotted?  Or, for that matter, how many more blog posts like that are out there and NOT caught?  It’s a stressful predicament for teachers and administrators to be in.

“Cheating” with the Internet?

After reading Sandy’s original post, as well as a few others’ responses, I am not sure where I stand on this issue.  Much like Jen does, I often consult the computer when asked a question by my students that I am not sure of the answer to.  My hope in doing this is that my students will understand that it is OK not to know all of the answers and that there is a way to find out what you need to know if you just look for it. I want them to feel OK with this uncertainty and not feel the need to make up an answer if they don’t know.  However, this becomes an interesting situation when a student does something like looking up the solution to a game or problem.  We want them to help themselves and become sufficient in using the internet as a credible source, but do we want them to fully stop thinking for themselves? Clearly the answer to this is no.  But how do you explain to a child the difference between using the internet to help you do your work vs. using the internet to do your work for you?  Perhaps by 5th grade they are better able to understand this distinction, but I am not sure if even they are ready for that yet.  So how do we encourage them to explore technology without letting it take over for them?  I am not quite sure.  This may just be a situation that we need to let kids work through themselves, with as much guidance and perspective as we can give them. And hopefully, when they are old enough, they will understand the difference themselves.

Computers in Kindergarten?

Over the past two years that I have been teaching in Edgemont, once in awhile the other kindergarten teachers and I will have a discussion about the long ago made decision not to have computers in the kindergarten classrooms.  We each have only one computer in our rooms, meant for teacher use only (attendance, report cards, writing letters to go home, etc.)  The children are not using a computer in school until 1st grade.  I still have not decided how I feel about this decision.  Part of me (the part that wrote my last blog) thinks that it is great that my students don’t need to add that to their repertoire and instead can concentrate more on just being kids and learning to get along with their fellow classmates in a school setting.  But then part of me reads blogs like “Looking for the Mouse”  (http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/2008/04/looking-for-the-mouse.html) and wonders if we should be getting our kids involved with worthwhile technological activites from the very beginning.  I mean, clearly they are interacting with technology at home on a daily basis.  Just yesterday I was working with my students on the letter-sound /y/ and two of the examples I was given were YouTube and Yahoo.com.  What a different world we live in from my time in kindergarten a little more than 20 years ago.  So after reading what Shirkyon had to say, I am a little more inspired to look at technology in a more positive light.  And maybe even to appreciate it a little more for what it can be, if we make it so.

Technology: Is it moving us forwards or backwards?

Today in class we began a discussion about the positives and pitfalls of today’s world that is chock-full of technological advances.  In so many ways, technology has made our lives so much better over the years- the Internet, medical advances, research, etc.  There is certainly no argument that these are all amazing new additions to our lives that have improved the lives of so many.  But at the same time, is the onslaught of all of this technology producing children who are in a rush all the time? Rushing to finish their work in the easiest way possible, rushing through their lunch, rushing through the school year, rushing to grow up, rushing to mature.  Is this hurried, harried attitude towards life simply a product of technology or is it a product of society in general?  I recently met with parents for parent-teacher conferences and needed to inform 18 out of 20 parents that their children did not know how to tie shoes.  This did not really surprise them, as most of them commented that their children didn’t own any shoes that tied.  This was initially surprising to me, but on further contemplation, does make sense in today’s world.  Who needs to spend time tying shoes when they can buy shoes with velcro?  And why waste time teaching your kids to tie shoes when you could be teaching them something else?  This attitude seems to spill over into so many aspects of our every day life- and I place a lot of the blame on calculators, computers, Blackberries and the like.  They have sped up the pace of life to a speed that I am not sure I agree with anymore.  Who takes the time any longer to lay on their backs and look up at the clouds?

Why would anyone read this?

It is the first day of our New Technologies Seminar and we have already learned how to set up and start our own blogs.  It is quite exciting to take ownership of a site on the web that other people have access to and to design and arrange it the way that I would like to.  I mean seriously, who doesn’t want to have a place to share their thoughts and ideas (i.e. hear themselves talk) with the whole world?  In my experience, most people in the world are pretty darn full of their own opinions, and share them as often as possible.  However what I am wondering is who would actually want /care to read about what I have to say? Why would my experiences as I learn about “new technology” be interesting to a single other person in world (including my own mother who loves listening to EVERYTHING I have to say)?  I guess part of the fun of blogging is finding out the answer to that question.

P.S.- We started our class with an amazing video called Shift Happens. Check it out.