I would like to do something similar to one of my classmates and reminisce about the past few months. This semester has been a busy one, but if we just think about this spring - when we get to teach all day our wonderful kids, it is inspiring. The 9 other people in my education classes have been wonderful companions and I, like Tiffany, hope we stay in touch for a long time. We are all quite different from each other, yet we all want the same thing - to be teachers. I realize today, after eating lunch with my cooperating teacher and the other first grade teachers at my school, that I am almost one of them. I feel almost like I am accepted in their group. One step closer to my dream.
I had this longer narrative planned, but at this time, this will suffice.
I was looking for some childrens books to read for my language arts class, and I came across some books about sexuality. I was shocked! I had no idea that they made childrens books that deal with sexuality. Some of the titles of the books were: King and King, Molly's Family, My Two Uncles, and so forth. What with all the stipulations on schools, with religion or whatever, I don't think there is anyway one would be allowed to read these books in their class. But suppose you do have a student (or students) with 2 mommies or 2 daddies!? I mean, the other students will find out i'm sure. Do you just ignore this like you might religious questions? I have heard some schools that have issues with christmas books or so forth, even with other religion books read as well, how would they respond to sexuality books?
I was reading this blog earlier at work, and it was talking about how their district is teaching sexuality and diseases in kindergarten! I can't believe that. Those kids can't even read when they get there! True, these days, middle school maybe too late to have those presentations, but kindergarten. I think that is too young and just ludicris. I'd like to know others thoughts on this topic!
In mid November, I taught my technology Implementation lesson on Jamestown. Which, by the way, I spent a lot of time working on, so y'all should check it out! That was an experience! My school does not have a computer lab, so I did my webquest with 7 kids sharing 3 computers. Because I wanted all the kids to experience the webquest (and the other two projects I had), I did not pick a select few to do the assignment with. However, realistically trying to do the webquest with 3 computers touching side-by-side and 7 kids, almost sitting in each others lap, was not a good idea. To add to that dilemma, my kids weren't very computer literate because unlike many neighboring schools, they don't have computer as a resource, and they don't start work with computers that much in kindergarten.
This was about a month ago, but since then, my school had gotten a lot more technologically advanced. While they still don't have a computer lab or smart boards, they do have two laptop carts with about 30 computers and every classroom the teacher has a laptop that connects to the screen that comes down. They also now have video cameras, which they didn't have before, and some other things. The other day, I got to watch my class being introduced to the laptop. The technology person talked about the rules and such, and the students task for that 35 minute lesson was to turn the computer on and off twice, which some of them had trouble with. For some, i'm sure this was the first time they ever touched a laptop. Seeing them that day made me think about my technology observations at other schools.
Because many of the schools in the neighboring county have computer labs, the students can interact with computers on a weekly basis starting in kindergarten. When I observed some k, 1st and 2nd grade classes, they were drawing and doing things on the programs, that I had no idea how to do. I just think it is amazing how much technology does matter. These kids are way more advanced tehcnologically than my kids; while that doesn't mean they are more intelligent, they do have 1 up on them. Since much of the present (and future) is technology based, essentially, they are ahead.
