About Me

Hello education community,
     I am an educator in Early Childhood Education.  I have over 20 years of working with children birth through preschool.  When I first began my career, I started with only a two year degree in Child Care.  My first job was in my hometown's elementary school where I was an associate for a child with severe-profound disabilities.  After only a month and a half, I quickly learned that I was not up for that task without a lot more learning.  I found a part-time job at our local Head Start.  Two years into that position, I was told that I would need to complete my four year degree in order to stay in the lead teacher position.  I was able to do that and then switched to Early Head Start after completing my degree.  In total, I taught for those two programs a total of 8 years.  I am currently a Head Teacher at the Child Development Laboratory School at Iowa State University.  I have been with this job for the past 13 years teaching the youngest of children, birth - 3 years of age.  

     The focus for my blog is starting with educational technology through a course I am currently taking.  Educational technology and young children do not go hand in hand real well unless you are looking at upper preschool.  What you can use educational technology for is a variety of ways to connect with parents of the young children you teach and care for.  Parent involvement is such a big part to any child's success.  So it is partially up to us to create those pathways in which parents can have an active part in their child's early education.  
     The other focus for my blog will be tips and experiences from the field of early childhood.  I look forward to sharing with you and learning from others as we enhance the world of all the little ones out there.   

2.2 Conference Time

Title: If You Give a Kindergartner an IPad
Presenters:  Karen Brady, Amy Kennedy
Length of video:  41:18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPpsIw0OiGI&t=0s&list=PLIgAnl6l23ewfWL_oHYRFSBqwZ9ITfQqf&index=26

Summary and Analysis:
     These presenters shared tips and ideas as well as the kindergarten teachers first hand experience with beginning to use IPads in her classroom with her Kindergartners.  

• One of the first tips was to just jump right in and get the technology in their hands.  While it is important to take some time to get comfortable with the technology before you implement it, the message was clear that we have to get going with the technology.  It is what children and students are using in our world today and it will instantly engage them.   
• Set up expectations right away for the students.  How will the IPads be used and what are the rules surrounding that use.  Setting these expectations sets the stage to make the use of technology in the classroom look more seamless. 
• Be purposeful in your planning of how you're going to use the IPad just as you are purposeful in planning all other parts of your day.  

     When using technology, collaboration is key.  All of the following can be collaborators in the success of your implementation and use of technology; technology specialist, instructional specialist, other teachers that have tried different apps as those are more likely to be a great choice b/c you know those apps have been tested out by other professionals, parents, and students can offer feedback too. Collaboration doesn't have to be a 30 minute meeting.  It can be a quick 3-5 minute conversation, it can be an email conversation, or it can be a google doc conversation.  All of these could be quick, easy ways to share about technology that's been happening in their classroom or home.  
      Once you're ready to get started and you've spent some time getting comfortable with the technology, remember to put your hands in your pockets when teaching the students.  As adults, we are so quick to push the buttons for them.  But, it is important that the students know how to do it.  
In addition, when problems do arise and the technology isn't working, it's good to allow the students to work through problems.  This teaches problem solving and perseverance in the moment. 
     The following apps and website were suggested; First, you can simply start by just using the camera app.  Let the children take photos and videos of their work and then they can share what they were doing and the teacher is able to see their thinking and learning.  They also shared apps called Animoto, Tellagami, Totomath, Book Creator, Wet Dry Try, and www.commonsense.org.



Title: Digital Village:  Using Technology to Increase Parent Involvement 
Presenters:  Nancy Blair Black
Length of video: 41:08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFkrZeb8c8E&t=0s&list=PLIgAnl6l23ewfWL_oHYRFSBqwZ9ITfQqf&index=19

Summary and Analysis:
     What happens when we involve and communicate with parents?  It strongly impacts student achievement.  Graduation rates increase.  Student behavior is better.  It has to be a goal of every school to find ways to connect with parents for the best of every student.  Nancy says in her presentation that there are three major factors of parent involvement:

1. Parents belief about what is important, necessary, and permissible. 
2. Parents believe they can have a positive influence.
3. And parents perceptions that their children and their school want them involved.  

At the same time, it is important that there are still boundaries for safety. We can create an openness through other avenues.  To start, it's important to know family demographics and meet them where they are with technology and involvement.  This will make a difference in what types of activities you offer to you families.  One of the most common ways to connect is email.  With that being said, consistency matters.  They have to know they will hear back in a certain amount of time.  Other ideas for sharing are:

• Teacher or school website to share resources, homework, announcements, feature student work with parent permission.  
• Twitter  
• School or class blog.  Students could blog if age appropriate.  
• Audio and video chatting, conferencing.  This could be having a parent video conference where they work as part of a project learning opportunity or the parent could read to the class.
• Collaborative Google Docs.  A great way to learn from and gain ideas from many others.  It could be used as a way to sign up for projects or events.  
• Other sites to utilize and connect with parents suggested were, Voicethread.com, flockdraw.com, volunteerspot.com,  remind.com, and storybird.com.

What steps would need to be taken in your classroom or school in order to implement such a strategy or idea?  Where I work, we have weekly meetings as well as staff development days that we are always looking for topics to be presented on.  Many times, we have our topics in mind, but we don't have the presenter.  So, we end up either researching it ourselves or just putting on the "to be done later" page.  I simply need to share this idea with my administrator to get it implemented as I really think she would be on board with trying it.  

A PLN would be helpful as it would connect you to a variety of conferences that any member of the teaching team are either interested in or going to and can share worthwhile links to conferences they felt are worthwhile for others to see.  I could see using these during staff development days when a live presenter isn't available for topics of interest.  

ISTE Standards

Explain and provide examples for ways in which schools can best address the following seven International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards through programs and activities.

      1. Empowered Learner - An empowered learner is one who has a classroom with a variety of technology choices and can choose which one fits his needs best. The student is comfortable in using these tools independently. In the process of working with a variety of devices and tools, students are empowered to create some of his own learning goals. I was reading about Mindset Works developed by SchoolKit, "an app designed to strengthen academic and social and emotional success. Through animations, assessments, and classroom activities, students learn a growth mindset—the understanding that ability develops with effort." (Office of Educational Technology, 2018). This would be an example of a technology tool that would allow students to take an active role in their learning and goal setting.

      2. Digital Citizen - As teachers and parents, it is our role to help students understand that just like a lot of other things in our world, if technology and the internet are not used safely, there is much danger in it. Examples such as riding a bike without a helmet, playing with fire, jumping off a platform that is too high are all examples of things students could relate to being dangerous if not respected. Technology and the internet are the same. It can be a great resource and tool, but it can also be a dangerous avenue to find real trouble. An example I can think of for this is when you see on facebook, teachers that have posted a photo and then wants to see how far that photo can go as far as likes and sharing around the world. This helps students see the potential of what they share or seek out from the internet can get into the wrong hands and can be dangerous.

      3. Knowledge Constructor - As a knowledge constructor, students must be able to utilize technology tools that make learning meaningful for themselves and others. An example of a tool used here could be using a story map app. Students would be able to use the tool to build knowledge and make connections to books and stories they have read or perhaps they are making up stories to solve classroom, school, community, or world problems.

      4. Innovative Designer - Speaking of real world problems, for this standard, I came across an online book while searching that gave an example of "Bringing Real-World Problems to Classrooms". (Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning, 2000, p. 208). It talks about an architect team that was working to build a new play space for the community. The challenge to the students was to use design technology to build and create their ideal play space. This fits in perfectly to standard number 4 of students using a variety of technologies to solve problems using imaginative solutions. This would work perfectly in teams of students also enhancing their cooperative skills.
   
 5. Computational Thinker - "The Pack, funded through a STEM+C grant from the National Science Foundation and the JPB Foundation, is an open world app being produced by NYSCI. This app aims to engage middle school-aged children in utilizing computational thinking skills and immerses the player in a fantastical world in which their choices and decisions may have long-ranging environmental impacts." (Thompson, 2018). This is a perfect example of helping students develop computational thinking skills. And when you continue to look into the program, there is a number to contact to find out more information if one was interested in applying it to their school.

     6. Creative Communicator - As a teacher, a great way to assess a students understanding of materials is through presentations. Allowing students to use technology to create a presentation meets standard 6. Using technology for student presentations gives them the tools to create original works while building their skills in the use of technology. Not to mention this is a skill that students will need long past their school days. They may have jobs that they have to present at or maybe they are very involved in their community and need to present in that capacity. When googling effective presentation tools for students, a few that came up were; Nearpod, Shadow Puppet Edu, and Sprial.

      7. Global Collaborator - What better way to learn about our world than through real life connections with other students and schools. Skype is an easy way to build a relationship with another classroom of students in the same grade or same subject.  Another way to connect with the other students throughout the world is through PenPal Schools. Both of these technologies encourage students to "use digital tools to broaden their perspectives" and learning globally.

 References:

 Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press. Retrieved Oct. 21, 2018, from https://www.nap.edu/read/9853/chapter/13

Common Sense. (2018). Retrieved Oct. 21, 2018, from https://www.commonsense.org

 Office of Educational Technology. (2018, Oct. 21). Assessment. Retrieved Oct. 21, 2018, from https://tech.ed.gov/netp/assessment

Thompson, Wren. (2018, April 20). Using an app to engage kids in computational thinking. Retrieved Oct. 21, 2018, from https://nysci.org/using-an-app-to-engage-kids-in-computational-thinking