Media and Lit Summer 2021

 In order for me to make this podcast a reality for my classroom I need to: 1. explain my idea to Dr. Bagley (principal) and get her ok to do it. 2. Create a permission slip for parents to sign. 3. Explain the podcast to parents at Meet the Teacher Event. Date is still to be determined as I need to work with other PV Pre- K staff to determine a date together.  4. Listen to a variety of podcasts to get a feel for the variety available and feel for how they are made. What podcasts draw listeners in and why? 5. Attend the workshops Podcasting in Seven Easy Steps provided by the Warwick Public Library. I have already signed up for the series. July 7 Step 1- What is a Podcast & Why Make One? ( DONE) July 14 Step 2- How to Build Your Podcast & Give Listener's What They Want July 21 Step 3- How to Write Scripts That Tell Stories July 28 Step 4- How to Use Your Voice & Create a Persona  Aug 4 Step 5- Tips for Hosting, Co-hosting, and Interviewing Guests Aug 11 Step 6-...

 We are all learning. Every day we learn new things, whether in a classroom, from a book, or in a real world environment. I believe that education is a lifelong process. Human beings are constantly taking in information and figuring out how to process it so that it fits in our world. Sometimes our learning adventure has a more internal drive causing it. Other times it comes from an outside source. many times learning is a family expectation. It is a value that is taught in the home.  Marc Prensky  says we need to re-imagine education. The world is changing at such a fast pace. Students need to be prepared for this pace. They can and will do things in new and better ways than previous generations. Students today are using technology to learn, to share, and to explore their world. Students today are using technology to become people that are willing and able to improve the world. Prensky believes that the youth today are digital natives. They want their information to be pr...

During the course of the last two weeks this class has really helped me focus on my why. Prior to this class I knew I enjoyed teaching. I valued children and their learning process. I would even say I wanted to make a difference in the world. During this class I learned to take time and really think about the why involved in my teaching. My why is relationships, specifically the ones between me and my students, the parents of my students,a dnt eh within the families I service themselves. I decided to focus on family engagement for my final project.  During our class we had a brief introduction into how to make a podcast. Prior to listening to the required podcasts for this class, I had never even listened to one. Once I had time to experience some of them it occurred to me that a podcast might be a way to involve more parents into the classroom. I have a lot of work to do to figure out exactly how I will make this happen, but I am willing to put in the work.  I hope you enjoy ...

  I know there are a lot of Disney households in the United States. There are families that visit Disneyland or Disney World every year. It is one of their family traditions. I did not live in a Disney household growing up. In fact, I didn't take my first trip to Disney World In Orlando, Florida until I was married. I will be honest and admit I enjoyed it. I liked the rides. I enjoyed the happy go lucky atmosphere and cleanliness that permeated the park (serious question here, how do they keep the parks so clean all the time when so many people are there every day?). I especially enjoyed the good food at the restaurants, anything you want you can find. As much as I enjoyed my trip, I have never returned. It isn't anything personal I have against Disney. I don't have any big moral beliefs that tell me Disney is bad. I don't think Disney is putting more bad into the world than good. I just believe that I don't need to return repeatedly throughout my life. I do, howeve...

  Choosing a chapter from the book Rethinking Popular Culture and Media was challenging. As I took some time to look through the titles of the chapters many of them seemed to pertain to either my classroom or my home, or both. Eventually I made my decision. I chose the chapter titled Six Going on Sixteen written by Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin. The reason for this choice was because during this past school year, and if I am honest, the last few school years, the children in my classroom, and more specifically the girls, have been acting, dressing and playing in ways that made me question their actual age.  The children in my classroom are 4 and 5 years old. They are young. Many times they did not know how to hold a crayon, but they knew how to twerk. They did not have the social skills to share materials or wait for a turn, but they could cut each other down with mean glances and even meaner words. They did not know how to zipper their own coats, yet they but they could walk al...

 I began using  Padlet in March 2020 when my school moved to distance learning due to Covid-19. I found it to be an online tool that was easy for me to learn to use as a teacher, and easy for parents and children to use as learners. I liked the easy accessibility to linking, moving and adding materials.  Padlet allowed me to give students access to activities that followed our in person routine. My intention was to give students a small sense of normalcy during a very stressful time. I placed the activities in Padlet in the order that they would have occurred in the classroom. I tried to stick to our in person schedule as much as possible so that the students may begin to feel some control over their learning. They would know what would happen next. The flexibility of Padlet allowed them to complete the activities in any order though, as well as to repeat activities that they enjoyed.  With Padlet it is easy to include activities from other sites such as  Boom ...

I believe learning happens when connections are made.  It has always been important to me as a teacher to include parents in their children's learning. As an early childhood educator I understand that the early years of a child's life are crucial to helping children develop the lifelong learning skills they will need not just in school, but into their adulthood. When students are engaged and connected in the classroom as a preschooler they have the opportunity to connect those feelings and memories to what takes place as they work their way through their K-12 education. I also believe that parents are a child's first, and most important teacher. As such they should be part of their child's education within the school setting. When children see their parents and teacher engaging together it gives them the message that school is a secure place to be. This belief has led me to complete this change project around parent involvement.   Over the course of my career this has o...

  In his Ted Talk  A School in the Cloud , Sugata Mitra explains the ability of children learning better when big questions are asked, support and encouragement are given, and the adult then stay out of the way. Would this work? Would children really be able to engage in the world of learning if they are given the resources needed, this being technology and to be provided with the big questions, and then left to determine what they need to know on their own? I think that there are many teachers that attempt this type of learning on their own. They may call it something different, such as student centered, and it may take place within the confines of the school determined curriculum, but I think on a small level it does take place. In my classroom when new topics are introduced we always start with asking the students what they know. We write down on large sheets of paper all the things the students say about the topic. Next we ask them what they want to know. Again the informa...

As people rely more and more on technology to entertain us, provide for us and think for us, we are allowing it to do the one thing many people claim technology is actually useful for, which is connect us. Technology provides us with the quick ability to share information with a friend. We text them information regarding a movie we plan to see together. Set a time and place to meet, then sit through a 2 hour movie where no one is talking and we call that spending time together. We shop via the internet instead of actually walking into a store, touching objects and interacting with other customers and sales representatives. We order our food from a restaurant through an app, and have the food delivered. We pay on line and experience very little human interaction. We call all of this progress. But is it? Are we really moving forward when we are leaving so many people behind?  Sherry Turkle  in her Ted Talk Connected, but Alone tells us that the technology we are relying so heavi...