Where do you find the majority of your teaching resources?
I teach children in kindergarten in the Wilson School
District. As a kindergarten teacher, I
teach all subjects, including language arts, writing, math, science and social
studies. Most of the teaching resources
that I use come directly from the district curriculum which we are expected to
use but I also gather other resources from other educator’s blogs, online
resources from the curriculum itself and many times if we have a professional
development day and there is a presenter, they usually provide us with
resources to access from their website. I also use many online resources such
as You Tube for learning songs, BrainPopJr., Scholastic Let’s Find Out magazines
and a variety of online books for students to read and listen to.
Who do you look to for support and research for new ideas?
My kindergarten team is a good resource to go to for support
and to talk to about ideas and resources. I also go to the reading specialist
and the IST teacher for new ideas. The
reading specialist in my school has a great deal of research knowledge so I
often go to her for support in reading and writing. With students coming in to kindergarten at so
many different levels, she is a good support.
When I want to implement new ideas using technology, I go to the
Discovery education teacher and also the technology support coaches in the
district. The help in the classroom to
support teachers with technology.
What challenges do you face as you try to incorporate new
ideas and research with your students?
One of the biggest challenges that I face when incorporating
new ideas with students is time to plan for it and time to actually do it with
the class. There are so many
requirements that we must do with the students that I find myself struggling
with finding time to do the new ideas with students. A challenge that I face when incorporating
technology in kindergarten is the although many are technology savvy, the
device may be new to the students and the activity that we are doing so it
takes a great deal of patience on my end and the students end as well as an
extra set of hands in the classroom if possible.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteThis year I have had the unique experience to push into K for reading support for a short time. As a third grade teacher, I cannot tell you how shocked I was at how incredibly hard teaching kindergarten is. WOW, you have your hands full. I don't think people fully understand the limitations you face daily with curriculum, time, and management. I truly have a new appreciation for your job. Either way, I understand what you are saying when you stated that you struggle with finding time to incorporate new ideas and technology. I agree that many of the kids come to you knowing how to use the technology, however, it is hard when kids ability to use the technology varies. I could understand that you would need several hands to try something new. I take for granted my third graders logging onto a computer and finding my blog by themselves. I'm sure with time, and as the year moves on, you will find more fun resources to easily incorporate into your classroom. Good luck this year, and I look forward to learning with you for the next couple of weeks!
-Lisa Bohannon
Hi Lisa,
DeleteThanks for commenting. Yes, kindergarten is its own unique entity isn't it! We are always "on" and no real down time unless you want chaos. :) I have found that if I really want to try something new with the tablets and I don't have the extra support I will just go for it. I teach the kids how to be extra patient as I hop from table to table and most of the time there are kids who get it right away and they help at their table. Most of the time it works out well....occasionally I think, "why did I do that?"
Sue
Hi Susan,
ReplyDeleteI am a big fan of using videos from YouTube to support my district curriculum. I teach 2nd grade and I find that for younger students, learning through songs and music seems to be a great way for them to remember things. I have created playlist on my YouTube account for the different subject areas and save videos so I can easily find them each year.
I definitely agree that time is the biggest struggle in the classroom. I find that I struggle to just get in the basic read, writing, and math everyday, let alone try to introduce something new. While I love technology, it does take some time to practice. We are on such a tight timeframe for learning targets and testing, that I feel pressured not to vary from the schedule much. This makes introducing technology harder. Though I teach second grade and many of my students are tech save, some still need more time to learn how to use the technology. There just doesn't seem to be the time in the schedule to teach them this though.