Digital Citizenship inside Early Childhood Education

 

 

When I first started researching digital citizenship I found article after article about cyber bullying.  Cyber bulling, an issue normally arising in middle school.  How does this apply to the Early Childhood classroom?  It took some thinking, but in actuality it does.  As parents, educators, and community members, it is necessary to teach our children how to be polite, upstanding citizens.  Teaching this early in life, will only promote these characteristics when our children are in upper elementary grades.  Therefore, I believe the first step in Digital Citizenship is building children with strong morals.  That being said, where do I go from here?  Digital Citizenship is more than how we act on the internet, it encompasses digital literacy, media literacy, online safety and security, as well as information literacy.

 

 

For further information on how to promote and teach digital citizenship in your classroom please take a look at this article this website by clicking on the picture to the left!









What is digital citizenship?  What does it mean to Early Childhood Education?  Why is it important to promote and teach digital citizenship to your students?  What issues can arise surrounding digital citizenship in Early Childhood Education?  What resources can a teacher use inside their classroom to promote and teach digital citizenship?  Why are these resources viable and valuable to the classroom teacher?  Find the answer to all these questions by watching the short presentation I have created below! 

 

For information on the resources I used to compile this information click here!


 

Learning to Unlearn

"Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself" - John Dewy

Okay, so this blog post is suppose to be about what I have to unlearn and relearn about education, teaching, the classroom, or learning.  I can not post about this.  I do not believe that I will ever unlearn anything.  As we go through our college courses, we have many opportunities to enter classrooms, attempt lessons, and gain experience that will aide in our quests to become teachers.  While doing this we are taking numerous courses from excellent professors, we have the opportunity to ask for advice from those we observe, we may reflect back on the lessons we teach.  What works, what didn't work, and what could have been done better. 

I no longer have the pleasure of being an idealist; I am in the actual school setting.  My classroom is not equipped with computers, much less IPADS, cameras, or even current books.  We are using text books that were published in the 90's.  For me, learning to unlearn means, forget the ideals, be a realist, deal with the materials you have and be resourceful in your teaching.  In my classroom, as well as at home with my own children I have used tried and proved methods, experiments and techniques to aide in my teaching.  They have all worked very well.  Of course if I had a classroom full of computers I would use them.  If I had a camera for every student, you can bet I would put them to use as much as possible.  The one thing our class does have is a Smart Board, I have seen it be put to great use, the children love it.

Challenges along the way as far as I am concerned is being a teacher dealing with a realistic budget.  Wouldn't it be great if I had a laptop on every desk, for every student?  Wouldn't it be great if my students have current books available to them?  Wouldn't it be great if every minute of the day was spent engaging my students in subjects they were interested in?  Learning is a natural thing for students; students learn because they want to, but MAXIMUM LEARNING occurs when there is a teacher who is not only passionate about what they are doing, but also creative and engaging in how they teach.


For this assignment, the typical answer is I have to have knowledge for practice, knowledge in practice, and knowledge of practice.  I have to learn to unlearn , I have to know that "Connected learning is a process of learning, unlearning, and then relearning as we participate in networks and communities.  A fast-changing world creates a need to unlearn tactic knowledge (Brown, 2001).  Unlearning is necessary, although it is often difficult and painful because it involves grieving for what we leave behind (Nussbaum-Beach & Hall, 2012)."

Please remember, staying connected is essential to our teaching.  Of course it is a wonderful thing to have the capabilities to discuss ideas, as well as, collaborate with other professionals.  However, I believe it is more important to be realistic and take into consideration the materials that will actually be available in your classroom, and the materials that are available to your students at home.

A place where I find excellent teaching ideas, that is usually pretty resourceful may be found by clicking the picture below...

Flipped Learning...

Hi everyone! It has been a while since my last post and a lot has happened since!  I have four weeks of field left, I have enjoyed being in the field.  Every day I leave learning something new, taking away an idea whether it is to try a new approach at a lesson, or thinking of a way to adjust my classroom management.  When I first started, it was chaos.  The students didn't listen to me, to them it was play time.  Now, I have the class's attention, they complete their work, and they aim to please me.  It has been a fun, rewarding, an interesting time.


In Tech...

Here is the video...

 

We have been working these flipped lessons for what seems like an eternity now...I was pleased with mine, but I think I definitely could have made a few adjustments.  I think my level with the camera was off, I should have been a little higher, my writing could have been neater, no yellow marker, and I definitely should have redid my makeup...  It was kind of confusing, trying to take a different approach to teaching a lesson other than I normally would teach it.  I just honestly feel that flipped learning is not an approach I would take in ECE.  I would not want to learn like this, I am a hands on paper and pencil sort of person.  I am also not the neatest writer, so the more I can type and print out, the better for me. I do not think it is practical, but to each his own.  I decided to flip a lesson that I had already completed in field, Leprechaun Shop...





This Week

Something really neat that I learned in Technology today...how to use wordle!

 

What went on in my classes this week here at BC3...

 

      I know I first posted about Field Experience, and let me tell you this week has been insane!  I am in a school that is for the most part lower income, and the students in my class have been going through a lot in their young lives.  Some of it great, some not so great.  The biggest challenge I am presented with is CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT!  If you have not already had field, I encourage you to go in with a plan!  I have an excellent plan set up for when I have my own classroom, but the question is how do I adapt it for a room I am in only one day a week?  I have decided to scale down my management plan and try to implement it for the days that I am in the school, more to come on how it works later!  I love being in schools, I love planning every lesson and doing activities with these students that they might not otherwise get to experience!

     

       This week week we did a Leprechaun Shop, the students got to go on a shopping adventure to purchase things for a St. Patrick's Day party.  They loved it, learned some math and got to experience a different style of teaching.  Some other activities we have done in the past couple of weeks is creating Describing Posters, which I found on Pinterest, I would love for any of you to follow me on there.  I find so many fun, educational activities on their.  We also played Roll-a-Word, and had a Dino-Dig.  I have found that students learn best from hands on activities and while it is a lot of effort on the teacher's part it is well worth the time you put into it! 

     Other things going on in class, is conception...who knew we would need to discuss this as incoming teachers???  This movie came into discussion for class, thought I would post up the scene we were talking about!  Abbey just for you!

A twitter find...

I was attempting to explore twitter, and came across this WEBSITE

 I found it interesting, there are many different ideas found here including a lot of ideas for incorporating technology into the classroom.

In particular I liked this popscicle math game I found! 

Bare with me, I am new to all this I can't seem to get the video to post through.  Sorry, but please check out the link!

Welcome to Our Class!

Look What I Found....

                                at http://readingyear.blogspot.com/, A new Pete, the cat book!

 

I love this blog, as an educator I believe that reading is one of the greatest gifts we have the ability to give our children!  Reading has the opportunity to give people a glimse of the unknown.  Reading books has taken me on trips to places I have never been before, it lets me see what life was like for people in the past, people that are far away, and even those that are near.  Yes, I am one of those crazy people that believe we should instill a life time love of reading into every person!