I love involving parents into our learnings and projects that I would like to have in the classroom. Many of my parents are willing to provide materials to help their children learn. It was amazing to see how the parents were willing to help the children create the track with the robots. They were eager to help their children with their fascination. This allows parents to come together and get to know each other better. It also helps the preschool reach out for resources that are obtainable.
How often do we have group projects in preschools? I know that I hardly get to have children involved in group activities....it was interesting reading about how the girls came together and made the sculpture. You also see how gender is different and how focused they are. Providing group work for children is difficult, especially if they are the younger ages. I've seen where the older children were able to work together and make something. With younger children, we would need to constantly watch over and redirect them.
These skills that are presented in this reading shows skills that will definitely be needed for future purposes. Children who later on enter the work field will need to work with others to come up with ideas and just to work along side them. They will need to use technology, and find resources. Why are we not enforcing that now?
Aloha Monica,
ReplyDeleteGreat point about technology! In today's world, we are surrounded by technology. Children see parents and teachers using technology. If children were able to use computers at school, I wonder what other areas would spark their interst. They might be interested in how a computer works or what's inside a computer or even how the computer looks on the inside. Technology is an area where we should welcome the children's interest.
Hello Monica,
ReplyDeleteIn the preschool where I used to work at, we did not have computers/printers for children to use. Only the teachers have access to the office computer and printer. I think that it would be costly if each preschool classroom had computers for children to use. Also, for young children, isn't it important to limit screen time? How would you integrate the use of technology with children in your classroom?
On the topic about groups, I agree that young children might have some difficulty working together as a group. It's good to work with small groups. Children are developing skills for independence and interdependence. What kind of balance do you see for children's individual work and group work?
-- Geena
Monica,
ReplyDeleteTechnology for young children can be helpful in some ways if we are working with the children, but personally i find there are very few programs that children in early childhood can use effectively for education. Children are not advised to be exposed to screen time before the age of two although it is so difficult these days to try minimize children exposure since we use technology for everything. How can we screen technology use in order to create learning opportunities, things such as smart boards are a good use for classrooms but are iPads good or bad? what are you thoughts?
Hi Monica,
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point about technology usage in the classroom. Some of my colleagues in NYC use or have used Smartboards in their classrooms. There are a lot of people in our field who are nervous about technology usage in the classroom, especially because children are so exposed to it outside of school. Yet, how thoughtful are those experiences? What if school was the place to work on thoughtful technology usage as opposed to "thoughtless" usage? How can we build relationships using technology? These children will be the ones creating new software and programs for us to use in the future - what is our responsibility for helping them gain the necessary skills to get there?
What did you think of the use of assessment when it came to the children's understanding about ring around the rosey or the red light, green light game? How did giving the children access to their own work and giving them the opportunity to talk about their work with peers help broaden their perspectives? On page 209, the text talks about giving children the opportunity to reflect and self-assess their work over time; in other words, for children to see how their own work has evolved. Is this something you do yourself? How could you use this process on your own work as a teacher or as a student? What might you learn about yourself? How could you then apply these same ideas in your classroom? Thanks!