What Kindergarteners Need to Know

I believe it a very good idea to have a list of what kindergarteners need to know. I do feel that standards are becoming very prominent in our schools. The way the article talks about what kindergarteners need to know is more like a guide then standards. I think it is very helpful for teachers to know what they need to implement into the curriculum and lessons. I agree with Veronica Rieck about how new teachers might forget a topic or an important benchmark and older teachers might forget something the same way new teachers can forget them. I also believe it is very good that the school has a 90 page written guide and they are training their teachers on the benchmarks. Overall, I think it is a good idea and very useful tool to have.

Images in Education Lesson

I made a collage by taking a picture of various items. I made sure I included different colors. I pasted it into a word document and wrote the question: What colors and items do you see? below the picture. I would use this for color recognition. My class would tell me all the color they see. I would then expand by asking my students if any of the items are related. I am sure I would get interesting stories on how the object are related. It would be a different and fun way to implement color recognition!

Teaching Philosophy

My Teaching Philosophy:
-want students to succeed
-learning = fun/educational
-high expectations
-teaching=rewarding
-make a difference

Gardner, Dale, and Bloom

Gardner's multiple intelligence theory is where each person learns differently using different intelligences. The intelligences include: linguistic, musical, logical-matematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist. Each person has a part of each intelligence but some are stronger than others. Bloom's taxonomy says that there are three different types of learning. The first one is cognitive which deals with a person's mind and mental skills. Next is affective learning which deals with the growth of a person's feelings and emotions. Last there is psychomotor learning which deals with a person's physical skills.
Dale's Cone of Experience is a theory based on how people learn and how much they remember. At the base of the cone is demonstrating. If a person does a presentation or model a real experience then they will remember 90% of what they do. At the top of the cone is reading. If a person reads then they remember 10% of what they read. If they remember what they do then the learning outcomes are analyze, design, create, and evaluate. If a person remembers what they read the learning outcomes are define, list, describe, and explain.

In Dale's Cone of experience the support for technology integration in the early elementary classroom is supported. It is supported because Dale talks a lot about hands on activities and how much children can learn with hands on experiences. Children will also remember more from a hands on experience rather than just reading something. Technology allows children to do a lot of hands on experiences. Children can easily benefit and remember more from technology and hands on experiences. Children cannot learn everything from technology though and still need to be able to read even though Dale only says they remember 10%. A lot of Dale's theory mentions presentations and demonstrations by people. It seems that it is not really including technology even though a child could use powerpoint for a presentation.

Bloom's taxonomy supports and detracts technology integration in the early elementary classroom. Bloom supports it because one of the types of learning is cognitive. Cognitive includes the development of intellectual skills. When children use technology, it allows them to learn more and stay up to date with the world. There are so many educational games that children can use their cognitive skills and use technology at the same time. Bloom's taxonomy detracts technology integration because the other two learning types are affective and psychomotor. It would be harder to integrate the affective type because this type is deaing with emotions. It is easier to learn emotions by working and being around other people. Psychomotor deals with physical movement and coordination. Even though, using technology can help with a child's coordination and small motor skills, it is hard to develop more of the physical skills like large motor skills and full body movement.

Gardner's mulitple intelligences supports and detracts technology integration in the early elementary classroom, too. When using technology in the classroom children can easily use all the intelligences in some way. When I look at Gardner's intelligences there is not one intelligence that says technology can easily be placed into this theory.

All three theories can relate to all three types of technology. All three theories can relate to Type I because in some way the theories could use technology and the teacher would be the integrating the technology. When a teacher includes technology then the teacher is becoming a better teacher just like technology in Type I. In Type II, the students take control from the teacher and there is an emphasis on instruction with the program. In all three theories, children are the ones that are in control of their learning. The way they learn and their experience affects their outcome, but they are still always receiving some form of instruction from the teacher. All three theories need more work with Type III because it is about using technology as a tool. Type III is all about looking at the teacher, student, and instruction as a whole. These theories do not really focus on using technology as a tool.

Websites:
http://teacherworld.com/potdale.html
http://www.tecweb.org/eddevel/edtech/blooms.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/education/ed_mi_overview.html