June 19th Course Response

I am very much still in the beginning stage of learning with many of these curation tools.  I do feel lucky to be in a profession in which I will continually practice and be exposed to the latest trends in technology.  As a parent I feel this will become more and more important as my children get older.  As a Kindergarten teacher, it is a fun challenge to think about how to best expose my students to current uses of technology and use technology to bring information to my students. 

I have been using Pinterest frequently for collecting ideas for my classroom as well as for my personal life.  I find this tool to be very user friendly and inviting.  As a Kindergarten teacher, I like the visuals on Pinterest.  Today I was able to get my boards better organized which will help me to access my pins more effectively.  Amy, Katie and I are working on building math centers board on Pinterest to support our project.

I am looking forward to "Tweeting" next year!  We decided we would include quick daily tweets about key events of the day in our blogs.  Today we were able to get this up and running and ready for September.  I like the idea offered by Todd Abbott to tweet a list of five events from the day, but to use only a couple of words to describe each event.  The idea here is for the list to be less "informational" and more "conversation starters" for families.

I would like to use Feedly as a tool for keeping myself more informed about current events in general.

Project Idea

Who:  Myself, Amy Finnen, Katie Dutremble


We are working on refreshing and further differentiating our math block by developing and organizing a collection of online games and independent math centers.  Our plan is to be able to have 4 groups during our math block.  The groups will be set up as follows:

1. Teacher directed
2. Everyday Math Game
3. Independent Math activity** 
4. Online games**

**During this course, we will be working specifically on developing and organizing resources these two groups.
As part of this process, we will be organizing our math games into groups that students can choose from.  We want them to be independent and have academic choice while being sure that they are making choices that are at the correct level for their individual needs. 

Tools:
Diigo for storing/curating/sharing resources.
Feedly, Twitter, Pinterest for gathering ideas.
Yarmouth Educational Resources for pulling specific games that are appropriate for Kindergarten.

EdCafe Takeaway

Human nature is inherently diverse, curious, and creative.  We have to rise above the current system of conformity and standardization.

As a Kindergarten teacher, I see these inherent human principles in raw form and find myself challenged daily by finding the balance between allowing and providing the framework for these principles to flourish and teaching my students the "etiquette" of morning meetings (for example). 

Response to Rita Pierson/Teens Talk Video Clips

Rita Pierson/Key Points:

• The value of human connections/relationships.
• Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like-BUILD RELATIONSHIPS!!
• Don’t be afraid to reveal the learner in YOU.  Make mistakes, apologize openly, seek ways to understand.  
• Raising self esteem and academic achievement at the same time is a huge and difficult job.  We are educators!  It is what we do!   
• Help students to feel that they ARE somebody and they will be a more powerful somebody when they leave.
• Focus on the positive.  It is always there!
• We won’t like them all.  They can never, ever know it.  Every child deserves a champion.
• Teaching and learning should bring joy.

Questions:

• Responsive Classroom is a great foundation for community building in our school.  It helps us establish closer relationships with students from the beginning of the year.  I wonder, however, if we could look into ways to free up teachers for one-on-one time with students?  This can be so powerful when it comes to problem solving and building relationships.  

• Human connections vs. social networking and technology?  How do we find the balance? 

Teens Talk/Key Points:

• Incentives to learn just for a good grade, good numbers, to get into a good college.
• Schools are quantifying students.  Students measured by harsh numbers.
• This girl feels that schools are killing creativity.
• Support from guidance counselors only about which classes to take to get into which schools.
• This girl was engaged by her micro/macro economics class:
• Teacher pulls from many resources and TALKS to students about all that he finds out.  
• Not just information that st. will be tested on.  This makes the topic REAL.  
• Best education is one that helps you learn to think and speak for yourself.

Questions:

• How do we fit more of the fun, creative, spontaneous learning into our days?  Even in Kindergarten, we have to be very purposeful in carving out time for such activities.
• I am looking forward to learning more about how to make better use of my resources in planning for more well-rounded, inspirational instruction.