Assistive Technology

Tool: Daily Schedule with Pictures

Knowledge
Daily schedules using pictures should be a key item in any preschool classroom. Having a picture schedule can help assist all children in the learning environment, specifically, those that suffer from anxiety. Picture schedules can help ease "the worry" or the nervousness around what happens next. This type of assistive visual aid can help reduce the anxiety around transitions and help make them run more smoothly. 

Application
I started implementing a daily picture schedule into my classroom for a little boy who was having some anxiety around what happens next. I made one, similar to the one above, and I had him move a clothespin each time we were moving to another activity. This picture schedule really helped the student worry less and helped with transitions to each part of the day.

Reflection on practice
I feel that every preschool classroom should make a daily picture schedule. This type of visual aid will help all students be able to organize and see what we are doing during the day, what comes next, and when it is time to go home. My student with anxiety stopped asking about transitions within a week and stopped using the picture schedule altogether after a few months or so.

Classroom Management

App: Fun Timer for Parents
Price: Free (to start)

Knowledge
The application I decided to use for my classroom management is a kid's timer called Fun Timer for Parents. It's a free app in which you can program the timer to seconds, minutes, hours and the app will start making the beginning of an animal. When the timer is done, the animal is complete! You can also choose music to go along with it!

So, from the images above, you can see that I set the timer to 30 minutes. At the end of the 30 minutes, a picture of a tiger appeared. 

This is a free app; however, you can only choose between the tiger and lion for the animal picture. In order to get more animals and music, you have to pay $2.99. It also has ads between each time you use the timer. Again, in order to get rid of this you need to pay.

Application

I have actually been using this application at home with my 4 year old son. We have a hard time eating our dinner in 30 minutes or less. My son will do anything to prolong dinner, to try and get out of eating it. (But he knows no dinner means no special treat). Dinner was taking an hour or more! So, after our class on classroom management, I decided to try this at home first. Guess what, it worked! Children his age do not understand the concept of time yet. You can say, "You get 10 more minutes to eat dinner." But, children truly do not understand how long (or short) 10 minutes is.

This timer worked great the first time we tried it. I briefly described what the app was going to do and then I let him pick which animal to make (tiger or lion). At first, he was a little anxious and kept saying, "When will the tiger be done?" But after about 5 minutes, he just quietly ate his dinner and kept looking at the timer to see what the picture looked like. 

I would use this timer with my preschoolers, focusing on rest time. At my school, we have about an hour long rest time where the students can choose to take a nap or read quietly and rest on their mats. Many students get antsy and ask multiple times when rest time will be over or when they can get up. It gets very frustrating and tedious for the teachers to keep saying the same things over and over again. "Not yet." "10 more minutes." "When I say it is time to get up..." Again, children this age do not understand the concept of time. So, in comes the timer app! I would love to try and use it with my students for them to get a better understanding of how long rest time is and what is expected of them. Hopefully, they will get the concept of looking at the ipad and not asking us constantly when rest time is over!

Reflections in Practice

I think this app would be great for preschool teachers to use not only for rest time but for other times during the day as well. Snack time, lunch, clean up, etc. could all use the timer app to help time management and efficiency. 

I'm not a big fan of only getting 2 animals for the free app and having to pay to get more. I think it would be beneficial to have multiple animals to use so the children don't get bored!

Growth Chart

Please click here for my growth chart!

Final Presentation: Integrating Technology Into My Classroom

Parent Communication and Assessment

Application: Bloomz

Price: Free

Knowledge

The app is called Bloomz. It is a free app that allows you to have easy communication with your students parents. The app is designed to help teachers be efficient in their communication with parents. This app has SO many great features! First, it allows the teacher to select the school they are apart of and create their own classroom. It also allows you to make a portfolio for each student!

 

Each student portfolio created as the ability to add pictures, assignments for class, message parents, log a child's behavior/daily activities, etc.

This pictures below are showing that Ms. Emily created a class and the activity was self portraits. She added Nolan C.'s to his portfolio.

  

The pictures shown below a students behavior and daily activities. This app is fantastic for a daycare as it lets you log bottle times, lunch, and snack. It also will keep track of bowel movements and diaper changes. Bloomz keeps track of a child's sleeping and wake times. For preschoolers or older children, this app can log a student's art time, a injury or incident, music time, medicine given, etc. All the features can be shared with the child's parents. 

  

 

Bloomz has its own built in calendar so the teacher can add reminders, important school events, and due dates for class assignments.

 

The teacher can store photos, albums and documents to make it easier for parents to access them. For older grades, being able to share photos and documents could be a great tool for ASSESSMENT. Sharing a child's work will show the parents where the child is struggling and what they need help with.

 

Application

I would love to try this app in my preschool classroom. Parent-teacher communication is very important to a students performance in school. Having a good relationship with your child's teacher can benefit all parties involved: parent, child, and teacher. Sometimes, it can be hard to find time to sit down with each individual parent. It is also hard to talk at drop off and pick up due to multiple parents being around. 

I know for my school, drop offs and pick ups are extremely chaotic. We also only have parent/teacher conferences twice a year. And, thought we encourage parents to email us if they have questions/concerns, it can be tricky to find time to meet.

Bloomz would help alleviate many of our struggles we face with parent-teacher communication at my school. The part, I think, we could benefit mostly from is creating a student portfolio for our students and sharing photos and documents will the parents that shows their child's progression in the classroom. I also love the behavior/daily activities logging system.

Reflection on Practice

I think this app would help alleviate lots of stress teachers face when trying to coordinate parent/teacher communication. However, I also think logging EVERY SINGLE THING a child does takes a lot of time and effort. Most teachers do not have extra time to sit down at a computer or iPad and log every child's daily activities. For me, I would choose the most important things to share - photos and documents. I think that unless you are a home daycare and have 5 children or less, having a classroom of 20 students isn't realistic to log their behavior and daily activities. I do, however, really like the idea that you can use this app to document a child's work and send it to the parents. All in all, I think that Bloomz is a great app and more teachers should try it!

Student as a Global Citizen

What is a Global Citizen?

A global citizen is someone who is aware of and understands the wider world - and their place in it. They take an active role in their community, and work with others to make our planet more equal, fair and sustainable. 

(https://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/who-we-are/what-is-global-citizenship)

Knowledge
To bring in global awareness and citizenship into my classroom, I am going to have my students participate in an activity called, Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley is a book about a boy named Stanley who accidentally get squished flat and realizes he can fit inside an envelope and travel the world. This book is a great segway into the whole world and showing students that places are vastly different than where they live. This activity will be great EXPOSURE for my young students to see the world beyond their own town/city.





Application
After reading the story, I would like to have my students make a list of places they have visited or different places their relatives might live.

We would make our own Flat Person to send out to relatives/friends.





Lastly, I will send a letter home to their parents asking for their help in this project.


Here is an example of a letter:

After about a month, the postcards, photographs, letters will start to trickle in! It is extremely exciting to see the different places in this world and how vastly different our houses, environments, food, clothing look! We make sure to read each child's personal postcard at group time and share it with the rest of the class. Then, we hang up the post cards on a big map on our wall and use a string to connect where we are to where the post card came from.

We also encourage families to come in and talk about the different places. Maybe cook some authentic food, show us clothing/houses/landscapes etc. That way we can discuss similarities and differences between where we live and where our Flat People went! 

Reflection on Practice

Flat Stanley is a fantastic way to introduce traveling and diversity to young children. Students will closely observe where they live and where the Flat People went and be able to see lots of similarities and differences among them. This aspect is a great attribute to being a global citizen...knowing that similarities and differences exist in the world and being empathic and compassionate towards those differences. Children will be able to see that the way they live may not be the best or right way, but they way they are used to. Seeing how other people live and eat will open their eyes to a unique, amazing, diverse world!

Student as a Researcher

How can preschool-aged students do their own research?

Knowledge
Being a teacher in a preschool classroom, it is usually up to you to do the research for specific topics you want to teach or have the students learn about. But, when your young students (whose minds are like sponges) think of out-of-the-box questions, what do you do? Typically I would say that I'll look up the answer later. Then you have students shout out, "ask google," or, "ask siri." And, although these can be helpful, the students aren't really getting anything out of it. How can our young preschool students do their own research?


BOOKS!!!!!!!


Yes! The answer is that simple. Preschoolers can use non-fiction books to do research...on their own! Non-fiction books, ones that use photography for pictures, are a great way for children ages 3-5 to investigate, observe, understand, hypothesize, and conclude! Students can use non-fiction books to obtain accurate information on topics they wish to learn more about.






Application

Children non-fiction books are a fantastic way for a preschooler to do research. This part will focus on the book, Awesome Autumn by Bruce Goldstone. This book features photographs of different leaves found in nature. It describes how trees are different and different leaves grow on different trees.













For a classroom project, I would take the students into the school yard on a nature walk. I would have them collect LEAVES! After the collection is done, we would head back into our classroom and use the non-fiction book(s) to classify the leaves and research what trees they came from.

You could do this with a number of different topics: hatching butterflies, growing plants, learning about bugs in the school yard. Student researchers are a great foundation for building a student's vocabulary, curiosity, literacy, exploration, and creativity.


Reflection on Practice
Having your students be the researcher in your classroom can be difficult because it takes a longer time than you just googling the answer. The teacher must be patient with the students in order for them to fully immerse themselves in being a researcher. It is also very rewarding for the students to research a question or topic and share their findings with their peers. I observed that the students were very vested in their research. It motivated them to do a good job. They were proud of their hard work and what they uncovered. We even had some debates in class as to why one student thought one way, and one thought another! Having your students be researchers early on will set them up to be researchers in technology in the future!

Students as Scribes

How can we use student scribes in a preschool classroom?

This chapter in our textbook, Who Owns the Learning, was extremely interesting for me to read. It discussed students as scribes in the classroom. Mainly, the chapter talked about students sharing their notes. Scribing for one another can be beneficial to both the teacher and the students. Maybe a classmate took notes that you missed. Maybe note taking showed the teacher where some students were confused.


But, how can student scribes be used in my preschool classroom? Ages ranging from 2.9 years - 5. Hmm....


DRAWING!


I thought that my youngsters could scribe by drawing a self-portrait of themselves at the beginning of the year (September). And then one at the end of the year (June). This type of scribing would show the student's progress as well as key developmental aspects that need to be met, (draw a person).



Knowledge
I would like to have my students draw self portraits at the beginning and end of each year to show their progression. I am going to be using the classDOJO app on my classroom iPad. This app is great for communication with teachers, students, and parents. It is also FREE! 

You can create classes:

Each student can have their own portfolio:

You can add pictures to a student's portfolio:

 

After you create a portfolio for each child, their parents can see their progress in all areas:

Application
I would like to use classDOJO in my preschool classroom to document the student drawings (scribes) throughout the school year. I think this app will be a very efficient way to see the progress of all students, as well as have easy communication with their parents. 

Preschool drawings that change over time is an important aspect in their development. Using classDOJO allows me to keep all their work in one place, stay organized, and share with other teachers, classmates, and parents.





Reflection on Practice

Of course the biggest problem with relying on an app for communication and documentation is the app not working properly. That is why it is always a good idea to have hard copies of all the student's work. This way, you can always share their progression and development with their parents. 

Article Reactions

Below is a summary of various types of educational models. Would you send your child to any one of these different educational approaches?

Democratic School
This school model involves having mixed age groups participate together and the students are completely in charge of their own learning. The students are make the rules and the punishments. They learn what they are interested in. 

This is a very interesting model. I do feel is has some good qualities, but lacks structure and balance. I fear that the students having ALL the freedom could negatively impact them in the long run. I personally would not send my child to this type of school because of the lack of a structural environment. I do, however, like that the students get choices...I would just like them not to make all the decisions in their education. There are basic life skills and basic knowledge, I feel, this model would not provide. 


Pedagogy of the Oppressed
This approach focuses on students being a creator of their own knowledge rather than an empty tank that needs to be filled. This approach looks at what the child already knows and goes from there. Education should be a practice of freedom.

(I would be lying if I said this approach didn't confuse me. It's very tricky to understand. I'm still not 100% sure what and how it teaches children.)


Flipped Classroom
This educational model is exactly how it sounds. Instead of the student learning all of the course material in class, they are introduced to the learning material before class. The hope is to use class time as a discussion to deepen the meaning of what they already learned beforehand. 

There are pros and cons to this type of classroom model. I feel that students would be afraid to teach themselves the material and possibly miss something. Maybe it would be a bit confusing since you have no background knowledge of the topic. However, I do like the idea of the classroom focusing on peer discussions, hands-on learning, and less on lecturing from the teacher.


Montessori 
This school model is an education approach based entirely around the child. Montessori classrooms are mixed age groups where the child is allowed to choose their own activities. Montessori uses an informal way of teaching where the they hope to develop the natural interests of each child. A child at this type of school learns through their own choices and at their own pace. A teacher in a Montessori setting is looked at as a facilitator and observer of the child.

I like this approach because it seems that the child would be very interested and engaged in what they are learning about, because they are the chooser of it. They have the freedom to learn what they want, when they want, and how fast or slow they want to learn it. I also see the mixed age groups as a positive. I feel this is a great way for younger students to learn from older ones. I also like the aspect of hands-on learning and the focus on independence. However, Montessori schools can get very expensive and I feel that not ALL children would be successful. Sometimes given too many choices is intimidating. The flexible curriculum and students choosing their learning paths are a cause for concern for me because I think maybe some children would fall behind in certain subject areas. 

Waldorf
This education approach is thought that children learn best being engaged in an environment that they can learn in. Waldorf focuses on academics, arts, and practical skills to help each child grow individually. A preschool Waldorf classroom should resemble a home, using simple, natural materials and appear to be simplistic. Waldorf has a big focus on a child's creativity and imagination. 

In a Waldorf school, the same teacher is usually with her students for several years. I really like this concept because it seems that the teacher would really be able to get to know her students on a deeper level then a year of just lecturing, taking a test, and passing/failing them. I also like how students are treated as individuals and that the learning process is not forced or taught too fast. I also love that the do not use standardize testing.

As many of the other models discussed above, a negative aspect of Waldorf is that there is no set curriculum and core subjects may not be taught in a normal way. Waldorf also does not allow technology until grade 5 and, to me, this does a disservice to the students since we are in an era that technology is everywhere and used for everything. 

Glen Urquhart
This educational approach focuses on authentic learning of each child. Their academic outlook includes place-based learning, a thematic curriculum, and social-emotional learning. Children are looked at as independent thinkers whose ideas should be nurtured and valued. 

This school, located in Beverly, Massachusetts is expensive, which is a drawback. However, they focus on core human values such as respect, kindness, acceptance, and empathy. 


As stated above, all the educational models discussed have both positives and negatives. As a mom and preschool teacher, I would love to take a little bit from each one and make a whole new educational model! One that promotes independence, acceptance, respect, and kindness. One that fosters a child's ideas and creative process, but also uses a teacher as a role-model and educator. Tuition would also play a large role in my decision to send my child to one of these types of schools. Most of them are out of my price range! I would most likely stick with traditional, public schooling, unless my child was having a very hard time. 

I think technology could play a large role in teaching students different educational approaches through student tutorials, virtual field trips, etc. Maybe teachers could teach each other about the different educational models and learn from one another.

Student as Tutorial Designer

Is there a way for preschoolers to use technology to be tutorial designers?

I pondered this question for a while. I work at a mixed age group preschool and we are constantly seeing the older students teaching the younger students. They act as role models. So, I thought to myself, is there a way for technology to be brought into this atmosphere?

We use a classroom iPad for just about everything. We research questions, use YouTube to show the students different things we are learning about, but we mostly use it for documentation of the students. We take pictures ALL DAY LONG. We take pictures of everything...a confident creation, activity time, outside play, etc. But, the teachers are the only ones to actually use the iPad, since are students are so young. How could we use this device for technology and so students could teach their peers?

VIDEOS!!!!!!!!!

For my weekly app practical, I would like to use the video app on our iPad. This is an easy app because everyone usually has access to one. They are built into every iPad and smart phone (which means free yay!). What if the teachers took videos of the students modeling things in our classroom that the students are responsible for? 

My preschool is loves to focus on self-help skills. It is a big part in any preschoolers development. The act of being independent, being able to care for his/her own needs, etc. What if we could take these skills and have the older students make a video showing the students how to properly do them?

Skills:
1. Hand-washing
2. Snack time 
3. Hanging up coat and backpack
4. Recycling paper

My thought is that at the beginning of every year, these student-made, self-help videos could be shown to the rest of the class. I feel that it would make a huge impact on the newer, younger students. It would help them learn the rules and expectation much faster then the boring way of the teachers just going over everything. 

Here is an example of what a video could look like:
(Due to privacy I could not share a video from any of my students)

I would change one thing. I would have the student dictate what the proper rules are for hand-washing. I think the other students would listen better if this happened. 

Students learning from students is a great way for everyone to learn!

Tech for Teacher Admin.

Problem: How can I make my life more organized?


Knowledge
One of the hardest things about being a teacher, for me, is staying organized. School activities, parent conferences, special guests, assessments, etc. are hard to keep track of...now add being a mom of 2 into the equation: doctor appointments, sports, school, birthday parties, etc. I was finding it hard to balance all “the things”. That’s when my co-workers and I came across Google Calendar. It is a free app you can download on your phone, computer, iPad, etc., you just need to create a google account.


Google Calendar is a great app for basically everything:
-appointments
-events
-alerts
-reminders

-organization


My research has found that Google Calendar is very user friendly. One feature is that you can sync/share different calendars with different people. For example, I have my work calendar on my app (which I share with my co-workers), and I also have my family calendar (which I share with my husband). This allows me to see everything I have going on in one place. You can also color code each calendar so they are separate from each other.








I use green for my school calendar and blue for my family. This makes seeing the different calendars much easier. It is also great that my husband and I can just look at our shared calendar to see upcoming events/appts. This way we do not double book anything.

I also found that with Google Calendar you can set up alerts for appts/events, but you can also have an email sent to you every morning with an overview of your day’s tasks/appts/events. If you forget to look at your calendar, it is a nice feature to have an email sent directly to you so that you do not miss anything.









Application
My co-workers and I have implemented using Google Calendar into our classroom. We use it for event reminders, parent conferences, if someone took the day off, etc. But, for our classroom, the most important thing we use Google Calendar for is that when we have a special guest coming (science, yoga, art), we put into our shared calendar how many spaces are available for students to add. For example, if we have yoga class our calendar will read: Yoga - 5 spaces available. Then, if parents want to add that special event, all teachers have access to add in a child. This helps so that we are never out of ratio.


You can see in the image below that for Art with Ms. Amy we have 3 spaces available. For lego club, we have 0. This allows all teachers access to add and subtract students if need be and helps us know how many children we have at all times.






Reflection on Practice
Of course when using apps for organization the problem of “it’s not working” will arise. Maybe your phone didn’t charge last night or your computer is dead. Google Calendar allows you to access it from anywhere as long as you have Internet access. You simply just log into your google account and you can use the calendar. (If you used iCalendar for Apple you would not have this feature).

My Model Classroom

Model Classroom



School Name: Fox Hill School

Location: Danvers, MA

Hours of Operation: 8am - 4pm

Number of students: 20

Age Range: multi-age classroom, 2.9 yrs - 5 yrs

Curriculum: children’s literature

Demographic: mostly Caucasian children, no ELL students, some full-time working parents, some stay-at-home parents, no disabilities, minimal food allergies



My classroom is a one-room school house located in Danvers, MA. The Fox Hill School has always been a school since it was established in 1879. It is a private preschool that holds a capacity of 20 children and ages range from 2.9 to 5 years. Our curriculum is a rotating 3 year unit, based on children’s literature. We choose a children’s book and base our activities off of that book. Activities hit in all state required areas: math, art, science, fine motor, writing/literacy, gross motor, etc.

We start our day with free choice time in which the students are in charge of picking where they want to play. That lasts for about an hour and then it is time for the first group. During this group we go over attendance, calendar/weather, and read a story. Next comes snack time. The children are responsible for washing their hands, finding their snack seat, and counting out the right amount of food for snack time. Second group is next where we direct our attention to our focus book during that time and explain activities (centers) that go along with the story. After activities are all completed, we go outside for recess. After recess, students have lunch and rest time, followed by afternoon explorers. This part of the day usually consists of free choice time or sometimes, a visitor: top secret science, art with Ms. Amy, or lego club. Afternoon explorers is followed by second snack and we end the day with outside recess.