This blog is a site through the University, and is a model preschool laboratory on campus. The purpose of this laboratory is to provide developmental programs to children of University students and faculty. Education students from the University are allowed to observe and interact with these children for their practicum experience.
Small Talk
This blog details the importance of becoming an early childhood professional. The blog is intended for teachers who work with children from birth to age eight in a variety of subject areas and provides an appropriate environment to share and discuss ideas.
Early Years Blog
This blog talks about science and young children, and is a place for teachers to interact with other teachers. Also, links to science activities, classroom management, and teaching strategies are provided.
Scholastic
This is a great site for future teachers to check out. The site offers teacher resources in the form of lesson plans, activities, and behavior management tools. Students can access the site to work on activities or worksheets which they can also print out.
Discovering Early Childhood
This site focuses on the importance of teaching children. The site offers quotes and poems to inspire teachers to make a difference in children’s lives and learning. Also, the site offers links to other teacher resources.
Teacher Lingo
A great site to blog on if you are a teacher. It offers a variety of categories for teachers to join in order to discuss classroom lessons or problems that teachers need help solving.
http://www.teacherlingo.com/
Integrating Technology in the Classroom
This blog details the ways to safely use a blog in the classroom and the pros and cons of a blog in a classroom setting. The site featured the World Wide Web as a good technology tool for use with students.
http://www.wtvi.com/teks/04_05_articles/educational_blogging.html
First Few Days
This blog is about a student who traveled abroad to Ireland to work in a Montessori Preschool. She details what life has been like in the first few days in Ireland focusing on cultural differences in teaching, what her students are like, and economic comparisons.
http://ahadsall.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/first-few-days/
EDUCAUSE
This non classmate blog features a monthly publication that deals with issues in technogy and education. This month’s articles talk about students using virtual classrooms and weblogs as a new experience in a school in Institut St- Joseph in Quebec City.
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/EducationalBlogging/40493?time=1228312517
Preparing Students for the 21st Century
This technology website discusses the necessity of social studies and preparing our students for the future. The site talked about the importance of issues that are happening in our world today and the effects they will have on future generations.
http://webbib.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/social-studies-for-early-childhood-and-elementary-school-children-preparing-for-the-21st-century-1988-june-national-council-for-the-social-studies-retrieved-september-28-2008/
Teaching Young Children
This technology website uses a digital camera as a tool for teaching in a preschool classroom. This was a great technology source, because it allowed the teacher to take a picture of the child and display the picture in their cubby.
http://tyc.naeyc.org/articles/digital/default.asp
St. George’s Independent School
This technology website focuses on education and science in young children. St. George’s school teaches children from pre-K through first grade using hands on classroom experiences. These young children participate in group work and the beginning of public speaking.
http://www.sgis.org/page.cfm?p=161
NETC Early Connections
This technology website focuses on early childhood education and technology. It emphasizes many ways to help young children learn about technology and the effects on social development towards learning, language, and cognitive skills that technology can have.
http://netc.org/earlyconnections/preschool/technology.html
A Difference
This blog was interesting to read and check out to obtain resources and ideas for teaching. The author of the blog had a digital version of Bloom’s Taxonomy and a learning pyramid I found interesting.
http://adifference.blogspot.com/
PBS
This interactive website is great for younger kids and older kids to access in order to look up their favorite show times. Also, children can play games, videos, and music. When the children click on their favorite character on the page, it takes them to another site where they can watch the program associated with that character.
http://pbskids.org
Literactive
This is a great interactive website to assist beginning readers. This site is geared towards preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students. Phonic activities guide the user beginning with nursery rhymes and moving to more advanced reading to help with reading skills.
http://www.literactive.com/Home/index.asp
Crayola
This site offers teachers and educators over 1,000 lesson plans, coloring pages, and crafts to help with their classroom activities. It also offers games and other fun projects geared towards free time.
www.crayola.com
CBebbies
This interactive site lets children and adults listen to music and songs. There is a “make and do” section that lets the user choose a craft to make. Then you can listen to corresponding music while working on your craft.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/
Ben’s Guide to U.S. Government for Kids
This website is great for children from K-12 to visit and learn about the U.S. Government. Each letter you click on tells something about the laws or rules of the United States.
http://bensguide.gpo.gov/k-2/alphabet/b.html
Yellowstone Online
An interactive website great for children of all ages, this site enables children to learn about animals. Once on the website children can click on a particular letter and see the animal as well as read about that animal.
http://www.nps.gov/archive/yell/kidstuff/Alphabet/index.htm
Virtual Alphabet
This interactive website offers a kindergarten classroom the opportunity to visit a site that relates to each letter of the alphabet. Each letter has at least one website that you can visit to play games and learn songs about that particular letter.
http://web.archive.org/web/20001017192311/http://www2.minot.k12.nd.us/classrooms/madden/virtual_alphabet.html
K to the 8th Power
While incorporating technology into lesson plans this website provides a variety of sources. Reading was one way to let students learn about suffixes and prefixes using power point to make word diagrams.
http://www.kto8.com/lessons_demo.php
Document Cameras in Early Childhood
This technology website details several uses for an ELMO (document camera) device. Frequently underutilized with young children, an ELMO can still be a tool for everything from the question of the day to displaying classroom rules.
http://www.pre-kpages.com/elmo.html
Technology in Early Childhood
This website shows how technology is used in an early childhood classroom. The benefits of computers in classrooms is evident in social developmemt, language development, and cognitive knowledge. This is a great site to check out if you are learning about Early Childhood Education.
www.netc.org/earlyconnections/preschool/technology.html
Teacher Interview
For my teacher interview, I set up a meeting time with one of my fellow teachers at an Educational Center here in Topeka. She is in the content area and level of children I would like to work with in the future and admire her teaching and discipline styles.
My first question was about her background and experience with children? She has worked with two-year-old children for twelve years and has been working with children for seventeen years. She has her CDA (Child Development Associate Certification) and has taken courses on conscious discipline as well as Washburn University courses.
My second question asked what types of technology do you have available? She responded that she does not use technology a lot in her classroom but when she does it involves TV/DVD player to show movies or educational shows.
The third question asked what technologies do you integrate into your lessons? Her response was that the children watch “Boz” once a week. It is a thirty-minute program that ties into our Religion program.
My fourth question asked what children learn using technology? Her response was socialization, taking turns on the computer, how to treat their friends, and values from the programs they watch.
The fifth question is your philosophy on educational technology? For the two-year-olds, I like the thirty-minute program and enjoyed the computer that was in the room. The desk got broken and the computer quit working and has not been replaced yet.
For the sixth question I asked how does your administrator view technology in the classroom? My director is fine with using the TV for educational purposes, limited to thirty minutes a week.
The final question I asked was what technology tool would you want most in your classroom? She responded that she would like to have her computer back in her classroom to help educate the children on the use of a computer through multimedia presentations, and the technology of tomorrow.
