Blog Post #6

  I had a great time touring the Tech Sandbox last week. I learned about a lot of resources that I didn’t know were available to me. We got to see the 3D printer and pens, the coding robots, the touch screens, coding Legos, and smart bands that can sense your stress levels. It was really cool seeing all of the different forms of technology and imagining how they can be implemented in classrooms. It was also fun to just play around with the tech and explore it. I used coding robots such as Kibo in my preschool classes I taught, and the kids really loved them. I think coding robots are a great way to teach a wide variety of skills including directions, motor skills, and coding basics and having the kids be able to see their work pay off. I would love to implement them in my future classes, maybe a more challenging robot with some more advanced coding aspects for older grades. 3D printers are also really useful for students and teachers alike. It can be used to teach students great graphic design skills and can help them come up with creative solutions to problems. The issue with a lot of this tech is that it’s expensive. For now though, I will happily use all the tech I have access to in the Sandbox.

One of the CPALMS standards for 3rd graders in the computer science section is “Identify uses of technology when sending communications over the internet.” This standard wants 3rd graders to be aware of and understand different ways to communicate using the internet, such as email, text, blogs, etc. It also includes the teaching of netiquette when communicating online. This is a standard that I feel confident I could teach and implement. I use online forms of communication daily, it is my main form of communication to be honest. I also understand the rules of netiquette very well since they’ve been taught in most of my high school classes. 

One of the CPALMS resources I found was their Perspective Videos. They have a bunch of videos covering different topics and standards for teachers. They have them for all subjects and grade levels. These videos don’t necessarily explain the topic itself but instead explain how children learn this topic. One standard that they have a video for is MA.K.GR1.1. Which is to “Identify two- and three-dimensional figures regardless of their size or orientation. Figures are limited to circles, triangles, rectangles, squares, spheres, cubes, cones and cylinders.” Heather Cook is the speaker in the video, and she explains how kindergarteners don’t just need to associate a word with a shape but understand why that shape and that word go together. She also gives a few example activities that teachers can use to help children fully understand the topic. These videos are a great resource for teachers, especially those teaching younger students. Children learn in a different way than us so it’s important to put ourselves in their shoes and try to figure out how to explain the topic in a way that will make sense for them. And that’s exactly what these videos do.