Incorporating Technology in the Classroom

Working with young children can be difficult when incorporating technology that is age appropriate. Students may be young but are very familiar with technology. My program has adopted footsteps to brilliance, students use this program during small group on iPads individually, it shows their percentage and give themselves stars for their accomplishments. Students enjoy making growth and share excitement when they have a greater understanding of the letters and sounds.  As for the educators we use technology to complete many resources however my most difficult resource is ECOT observation tools as I need to incorporate different activities that connect to the guide lines and also entering in all the data into the database is time consuming and hard to navigate at first.

The Importance of Accommodations

Footsteps to brilliance has a feature that allows for Spanish learners to translate the program easily. It also allows for me to edit the materials students are practicing on my end, I can target the letter they are practicing as well as their math skills they are practicing. To allow students to have targeted practice learning experiences. In early childhood it is essential to incorporate accommodations across across all areas of development. my students are 3-5 and they are all at different levels and grow each day when the proper tools are incorporated. Individualizing the curriculum and making connections to their prior knowledge as well as their hobbies will allow for developmental support.

Connecting Educators to Technology

Although Footsteps to brilliance is an effective practice, educators were only trained on this program for about a hour and a half. Than we were expected to incorporate this into our classroom. When I began using this program it was confusing to me and instead of having support I needed to explore this program myself. The training had passed and since we had no familiarity to the program we had no questions. I couldn't start using this program as soon as I wanted, it is to difficult. Educators are expected to do much but do not have the supports to do so. If I did not take additional time after work to figure out how to use this program, I do not feel that the expectations of educators should fall under training our selves and shouldn't be adding to our workload. I initially explored this software alone however if I reached out to peers I'm sure it would've been a greater understanding.

Encouraging following directions and Collaboration

Essentially it is a very lonely experience when becoming an educator in all aspects, we are responsible to be taking care of many children and their education. It is a heavy burden and when we take on this responsibility alone it feels very defeating. As a first year teacher my program would do monthly meetings with other first year teachers and also provide us with a mentor teacher. It wasn't until we started talking about our difficulties with routines that it began to make sense. At this age we are essentially teaching children to be good humans, we teach social, problem solving, emotional control, patience, and being leaders. Talking to other teachers has allowed me to step back and analyze your interactions with the students. I do not aim to be so strict on the curriculum anymore, my goal is to expand on teachable moments and prepare my students for upcoming interactions with their peers. When I began following their lead engagement has gone up greatly and students are making real world connections. Please reach out to coworkers for support and ideas! It has helped me have a positive experience!