Monarch Butterfly

 This activity is a great one to get the entire school involved in. if your school either private or public will buy into a project based activity that the can follow the students throughout their elementary grades the students can use skills that they learned from preschool to fifth grade and apply these same skills to other aspects of their education. Student would have the opportunity to use the skills and knowlege they developed across different subjects areas.

This works because the children can do-hands-on experiences to do the research, information exchange from all over the world and collaboration between the students.  The teacher helps facilitate this to the students by providing the material and technology.  I liked that they had the opportunity to have the milkweed plants were the monarch butterfly leave their eggs. At my preschool, we would bring a plant inside the classroom where the students were able to see the caterpillar grow. We created a calendar to keep track of the caterpillar growth. We then saw the caterpillar start make its chrysalis, and finally, we were able to watch the monarch hatch from the chrysalis. Once the monarch was ready we took it out to the garden where we had more milkweed plants and let it fly.  It was a wonderful experience that the children were exposed too.  This activity can be done with any elementary age group.  After watching the video, I can see how I can expand this activity with other grades. I really enjoyed seeing the butterfly cards they received from Mexico.  I have recently seen a 9 minute video that is on YouTube: Visit El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in Mexico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDqZdgtN28I  , I would use something like this to tie it into the curriculum.

I really enjoyed watching the video of the Hula to high Tech. I was amazed how well the children engaged with each other no matter what grade they were. I agree with the teacher that all the students should have the same opportunity to have access to technology not just the smart students. Its great how the students area learning life skills and techniques that can help them be success in different types of jobs. Most important how they are helping their community by doing the research of the river near their school.

ASCD: Brain-based Teaching in the digital age

When I was reading the article ASCD: Brain-based Teaching in the digital age I had to stop and copy the stages of brain development. I printed it out to put in my folder to keep as a reminder when I become a teacher.
As a pre-school teacher I was constantly being pressured by my parents and administrators to not just include technology but to push my students academically to work harder. Now that I the stages of brain development I can better plan my classes and curriculum using best practices in the digital age while maintaining or being cognizant or mindful that these are children wit brains that are still developing. I plan on having a challenging curriculum with a childs development just as important as their academic achievements. 

I read the ASCD: Brain-based Teaching in the digital age.  The reading was full of useful information.  I was most interested in the learning development stages for children.  I had mixed feelings about the removing stress from students section.  While I understand that children need to feel safe in the classroom I also believe that we should be exposing students to stress so that they are prepared to face adulthood and life.  Stress is constant for most adults and if they have not been exposed to stress when young then it is even more overwhelming due to their lack of experience.  Teaching is all about preparing students for their adult life and stress management in my opinion is one of the most important things to teach because employers don't care about your stress level, the work still needs to be done. 

Technology can play a major role in brain development of students if it is implemented in an effective way. As teachers, we must incorporate technology in meaningful ways that will tap into students interest, background knowledge, and past experiences. Technology also has to give students the freedom to figure out how to best solve a problem and if that method does not work, use problem solving techniques to arrive at a solution. When students are deeply engaged in a project or lesson, they are more likely to learn and remember the content. and technology plays an important role in this because it is hands on!

Hula to High Tech:

Hula to High Tech:

I enjoyed watching the video and was rather impressed with the magician teacher. He stated in the video that the students were having a crisis and panicking of the video not being qued up at the right point. The teacher pointed out the part of the learning process is to problem solve and so he let the students learn their way through the panic to solve the problem they were having. The other thing the teacher talked about was having all the students handle the the equipment and emphasized that if only the "smart"get to do the work they are the only ones learning and the other students would have a chance to learn the same stuff. 

I understand that it would be difficult to have all schools provide robotics as part of the school curriculum due to funding, but I believe if the teachers and schools want to do robotics they can accomplish it. They can get parents support, asking companies for donations, and fundraising. I believe schools should invest in robotics because you are teaching children how to problem solve, Investigate, design, and experiment which are categories for engineering, math, art, and science. Teachers will be helping student be prepared with life skills for the real world to obtaining a great job. The students who had the opportunities to be part of these robotics programs had a greater graduation rate. Students were motivated to created something they like which kept them motivated to complete high school and want to continue to college.  Therefore, I believe students should be giving the opportunities in school to experience robotics.

Hula to High Tech: Hawaiian Students Re-create History.

I enjoyed watching Hula to High Tech:  Hawaiian Students Re-create History.  I really was impressed with the reaction of the teacher when the students were having a full on panic trying to fix an error prior to airing their morning school show.  He sat back and did nothing which forced the students to figure out the problem themselves.  He allowed the students to work as a group without assistance in a high stress environment giving the students experience working under stress.  I also thought that the use of technology in these classes are very well done.  From the children looking at technology for the first time to the children's ancestry assignment.

After watching the video about Wake Forest Elementary School. I was amazed how all the teachers embraced technology and found ways to incorporate it into the curriculum. I have some experience with trying to incorporate iPads into my Pre-k classroom. I didn't have a problem with parents or the students but my fellow teachers acted like I was breaking some unwritten rule. I herd the kids were to young, they don't kneed iPads, and my all time favorite the kids get enough screen time at home. Im glade to see technology advancing students access to information and resources.

I liked this video.  I found it impressive that the class was with so much technology and support available for the student.  However, I have yet to be in a classroom with that level of technology and support (pretty sure about 99.99% of most school will not have access to NASA scientists and to the volume of teaching support in the classroom).  I would love to see that in every classroom as it is an amazing way to teach students and have them be active participants in the learning process.

After watching the video about Forest Lake Elementary School, I was amazed at the technology was incorporated into all classrooms on a daily basis. Most teachers that I've seen, incorporate technology for short periods of time per day or even per week, but this school incorporated technology in such meaningful ways and in all aspects of learning. One of the reasons the success rate is so high in Forest Lake Elementary is that the teachers all come together to discuss how to improve the learning for each student. It was evident that the teachers truly cared about their students and were dedicated to using technology to provide each student with the individual support they need. This differentiation of instruction is also another reason why the students are successful in school. They aren't limited to doing work or projects in only one way but instead are allowed the freedom to choose how to learn and demonstrate their knowledge. This video depicted how important technology is as a tool for education!

I would overcome my by learning and getting comfortable using it first. Getting familiar with the programs, apps, and then creating and implementing a task or activities myself. This way I can see what worked and see were my students would have trouble. By doing all of these steps I can then modify it so the children won’t struggle.  Then when I introduce the new technology I will walk them step-by-step. Have them do simple task to make sure they understood the procedure.