It is a tradition in the early childhood classes here to send each child home at the end of the year with a portfolio that documents the fun and learning that they experienced over the course of the school year. This tradition spans back at least a decade. When it first began, teachers used […]
Just how much should we lock up our student ipads?
As we get ready to make our big ipad purchase, and as a result, start to configure them for student use, I’ve been thinking about how much access we want our students to have to the ipad. I’ve seen some covers that advertise the fact that they cover the “home” button so students can’t get […]
Is It Really OK to put Technology in an Early Childhood Classroom?
That’s the unspoken question I’m sensing from other Early Childhood educators. Is it really OK to give ipads to four and five year olds? When you’ve got the American Academy of Pediatrics making fairly strict recommendations about screen time for children under two, it makes sense to consider the question for young children as well. It’s definitely a question […]
Smart Apps For Kids with Free App Friday
I made a great discovery today! It’s a website called Smart Apps For Kids and each Friday they offer “Free App Friday” where they give away a select number of educational apps for free! Today, they’re giving away Montessori Letter Sounds HD, which I’ve been wanting to try for quite some time. I keep seeing […]
Why Blog?
So yesterday was the first day that I really started telling people about this new endeavor of mine, blogging. For someone who is somewhat private and reserved, opening myself up like this made for a rather overwhelming day. This is all a bit of a stretch for me, even if it is more of a […]
We’re gonna need headphones.
Update: We found headphones! Read about the ones that didn’t work out so well here, and the ones we loved here! So here’s the thing about working with young children: you can’t depend on them being able to read directions to complete a task, even with a fancy schmancy device like an ipad. The majority […]
Using the ipad at Centers for the First Time
Today we officially used our ipads as a part of our Learning Centers. I chose two math apps that I thought would be challenging, but not too hard. I picked Hungry Fish and Math Is Fun 4-5. I had noticed that a lot of the apps were full of ads or opportunities to upgrade. These […]
