YOU are your child’s best teacher.

Question posted in recent forum I frequent: I heard that up until about 20 years ago, you could buy from the Broerderbond in South Africa a child development pack for the first 6 years of you’re child’s life so that they can read, write a bit, etc… by the time they go to school (as well as exposing other parts of the brain to development). Does anyone know if there is anything good around like that today? I suppose there may be more than one company competing with that sort of thing. Does anyone know who the market leader is?

My response: Do you really think sitting your child in front of a computer is the best way to go? I teach kindergarten and my experience has been that children gravitate to reading and writing when they are developmentally ready. This happens between 4-7 years of age. My own children love to read. (They are older teens.) I attribute this in part to my good friend Pam who insisted I start reading to my kids from the day they were born. I took her advice and my children began to associate reading and listening with the pleasure of bonding with their parents and caregivers. I read to my children until they were 12 and they no longer had time. We all missed the togetherness. Visits to the library and bookstore were frequent. Gifts of books were common and interest in books praised. And yes, they also read independently! The read aloud experience is invaluable. If there had been http://www.starfall.com when my children were small I would have exposed them to it, but never require them to do it. My kindergarten students enjoy the program and the students who entered as readers tell me they learned to read from http://www.starfall.com which is a free phonics based reading program. I also know from meeting their parents that education is an intrinsic family value and they have exposed their children to countless classics in children’s literature. I can guarantee for FREE that if you take the time to read to your child and elicit their responses to reading by asking them to predict, identify common words and engage them in the illustrations they will love to read and learn to read more easily and more naturally from intrinsic motivation. You are your child’s best teacher. Model enthusiasm for reading and the power of the written word. Don’t completely outsource this very important role in the early years. By the way, I am very high tech in the classroom and do lots of great things with my students using technology to extend literacy skills so I am not opposed to a little software extension or intervention.

Short Post

Several weeks ago during center time I discovered my kindergarten students had access to Youtube.  They were searching for Disney movies, cartoons and apparently a recently posted video of someone’s brother. At first I was simply shocked that our school firewall didn’t catch this since it keeps me from even accessing BubbleShare or any other file sharing site. I informed the students calmly that Youtube is not permitted in school and that they should only use it at home when they are sitting with their parents who can help guide them to make good choices. I got a lot of “why, my parents let me use it at home?” I haven’t taken a poll just yet but I have a hunch that they may not be exaggerating the extent of the freedom they have online in the home.

So I ask you.  How do you feel about free exploration of the internet by children of all ages?  Would you encourage your child to search for funny movies on Youtube?  I need a little perspective and I’m afraid that since my own children are in their late teens, I can’t fully understand the point of you of the young parent. Maybe some of you can help me in this regard.

My Daughter’s High School Bans iPODS

Some how I was hoping that technology would spring to the forefront in due time but alas just the opposite is happening. What can I say? Our Principal is top notch and the school well respected graduating students with exceptional GPA’s and SAT’s. I decided to write to the principal and supply him with some resources to help him reconsider the ban. Here is an excerpt from the email I sent him this evening:

I am aware of the 2020 on iPOD use for ‘cheating’ but have you considered the flip side? Here is an article which makes a case for encouraging students to use iPODS during testing. Frankly in the information age, technology is an extension of our brains. We can’t possible retain all of the information but must learn to resource it instead. A students who can figure out how to record, organize, edit and then find what they need on an iPOD has valued 21st century skills. I don’t condone cheating but this is higher order thinking, problem solving at work. Isn’t it? These are my words, the article says it better.
http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/05/04/ipodban/index.php

I am a proponent of technology in the classroom and would like to see students engaged in vodcasting and podcasting as part of their curriculum. Easy for me to say, I teach kindergarten. Instead of closing doors to things that inspire consider ways to use these new tools to benefit teachers and learners.

Do you have an iPOD or other mp3 player? If not I strongly suggest you take the time to use one as a professional development tool. I’d be happy to suggest some beneficial podcasts. I think you’ll begin to see the flip side of the coin. You could be embracing the future instead of trying to prevent it.

PS Check out how a Michigan HS is using iPODS ,
http://www.wsbt.com/news/9196637.html
Or look at this rural GA school
http://ipod.gcsu.edu/zzzzMedia/Press_Articles/eSchoolNewsOnline.pdf
. If you are still skeptical I would be happy to provide additional resources.

What do you think? Does anyone out there have any more examples of how mp3 players can make a positive difference in educating HS students? Just in case he asks me for a few more examples, I’d like to be prepared. Thanks for your help!

tags:
edtech, High School, Principals, ripplingpond, iPODs

Looking for PTA Wikis

I am currently on the lookout for PTA wikis. For those of you unfamiliar with PTA, it stands for Parent Teacher Association. They are a well organized, nationally recognized group of volunteers supplying time and talent to making school a better place for students to learn and for teachers to teach. The PTA at my elementary school is outstanding. Many of these women have well honed business skills that they apply to the planning and implementation programs at the school. Case in point is the science lab they will staff this Fall.

So why am I seeking PTA wikis? It is because with all the coordinating and collaborating they do, maintaining a wiki makes more sense than having a static web-page. Readers, you and I know this to be true, but how do we convince the high powered PTA volunteers? I think we convince them by providing examples of PTA’s who have already taken the plunge. If you are aware of any parent organizations successfully using wikis to collaborate please let me know by posting a link as a comment.

I googled, PTA using wiki, and found:

• http://gunstonpta.pbwiki.com/
• http://www.wikithat.com/wiki_that/2006/09/what_does_using.html
• http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604379
• http://www.toastpta.org/main/PTAWIKI/tabid/140/Default.aspx

I haven’t (used) stumbled upon any yet, but I plan to. I would love some help collecting a list of examples.

tags:
edtech, education, kathy shields, ripplingpond, PTA,educast,wiki