TEAC259

Education Orginizations

I’m looking into joining some professional organizations in the next couple of years and have found two that would be beneficial to me as I start my professional career.National Organization NAEYC

NAEYC is a national organization working on behalf of young children. NAEYC members include teachers, paraeducators, center directors, trainers, college educators, families of young children, and the public at large. NAEYC host an annual conference and expo and is one of the best professional development experiences in the early childhood field. The 2012 Annual Conference & Expo will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, November 7–10, 2012. NAEYC’s local, state, and regional Affiliates host conferences throughout the year, offering many more opportunities for early childhood educators to exchange ideas and learn together. 

NAEYC publishes two periodicals, Young Children and Teaching Young Children. Cost per year for basic membership is $50.00, $40.00 for students and $85.00 for comprehensive. Cost may vary from state to state. These are the cost for Lancaster County, Ne. NAEYC provides websites with many additional research and resources for members. They provide an online store with education resources and books.

Local Organization NSEA

The mission of the Nebraska State Education Association is to advocate for all education professionals, empowering them to provide an excellent public education for every student.

NSEA offers many tools online at their website. www.nsea.org

Great Savings! The combined buying power of 2.7 million NEA members is a benefit that can save you many times the cost of your annual membership. Through NSEA and NEA, members are offered custom-tailored programs to meet the needs of education employees at an affordable cost. For toll-free information on NEA Member Benefit Programs, call 1-800-637-4636. For information on NSEA Member Benefit Programs, call 1-800-742-0047.

Cost of membership was not provided and it’s possible that members have access to many more tools and resources.

KitZu

Great Lesson Starters! These Kits would be great for a Grocery theme or Food and Nutrition theme. They are basic math skills for Preschoolers! I would use these pictures for counting, shape recognition, and color recognition. Also the candy sorting activity would be a great activity to bring into the classroom. Have children sort candy by shape, color, or size. Then they could eat the candy, all preschoolers love food activities.

http://kitzu.com/searchPreview.php?kitToken=1109915464ldome1bp

http://kitzu.com/searchPreview.php?kitToken=1110259569ji2b3npa

Being a Good Digital Citizen

Check out My Glogster

Digital Divide

The term digital divide helps to label the divide between people with access to computers and those without. As the years go on the gap between the digital divide has narrowed. Now, 72.5 percent of Americans are using the internet.

As teachers we need to be sensitive to this matter. Even with technology being a major part of our students life we must not assume that all children have access to computers or the internet, although many do. Technology is everywhere in the world and as children go through school learning the basic curriculum it is important that technology, including social networking, is a part of that. Teaching children the use of basic technology allows them to engage in 24/7 learning.

Teaching to different learning styles

For years I was taught the importance of learning styles in the classroom. Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences were often taught and encouraged in many of my early childhood classes. Until now I was not even aware of the controversy surrounding Gardner’s theory. Gardner states that we all have different learning styles and have unique strengths and weaknesses in intellectual areas. We may all have a way that we learn best whether it be verbally, visually, or hands on, but it is usually an accumulation of two or more learning styles. Even after researching the other perspective of Gardner’s Theory I still believe learning styles are helpful and important to instruction because they provide children with more than one way to learn the material.   

Presenting the curriculum to children in only one learning style is unfair to many children. Not all children learn the same way, but all children deserve the opportunity to learn. Presenting the curriculum in many ways allows all children the opportunity to learn. Teaching in many different styles is not going to be detrimental to the children in the classroom but instead expose them to new ways of acquiring information. I believe teaching in different styles only makes you a better teacher. It encourages you to be creative and find new and exciting ways to engage children in learning. Many curriculum is set up to support the verbal linguistic learning style. Lecturing to children may not be effective for all children or interesting to many. Why not provide different ways to present the material to children, it will only enhance the learning in the classroom.

http://www.springhurst.org/articles/MItheory.htm

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/index.htm

http://www.danielwillingham.com/learning-styles-faq.html

The Flipped Classroom

The flipped classroom is a reversed teaching style that moves the instruction to home and the homework to the classroom. Lecture is conducted outside of the class using different technology and the activity or homework is done during class time. This allow students to ask questions and have more one on one time with the teacher. Benefits of this style of teaching include:

1. Stronger teacher/teacher relationships
2. Gives teachers more time to spend 1:1 helping students
3. Produces the ability for students to “rewind” lessons and master topics
4. Creates a collaborative learning environment in the classroom

Possible Negatives involving the flipped classroom:

1. We have yet to bridge the digital divide…
   
2. Lecturing doesn’t = Learning…
   
   
3. Flipped homework is still homework…
   
   
4. More time for bad pedagogy…
   
   
5. Grouping by date of manufacture… 

Before incorporating the flipped classroom into your classroom you need to be knowledgeable on the proper uses, and the positive and negatives affects of this teaching style. Also be sure to assess how the flipped classroom is working for your students as you continue on through the year.

More Info on Flipped Classrooms

Tips for effective google searches

How to Google: http://mashable.com/2011/11/24/google-search-infographic/

(Source: How to Google: http)