Little Learners and Technology

Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and found a moment to spend with your family outside of school. This year, I am extremely thankful for my amazing school district, teammates, and my students. Last year, I lost my spark in teaching and found each day to struggle with being thankful for my job. This year has provided me a year of changes and I am able to truly see how lucky, grateful and blessed that I am able to be a teacher to my students. It truly is amazing how a mindset and change can impact your views on life.

Today, I want to bring technology into our minds. Technology is every changing and is a big role in our kiddos lives now a days. Most of our students have had some sort of technology in their lives since birth. As a kindergarten teacher, I can see how technology has affected my students both positively and negatively. I also want to bring in how technology pays an impact on teachers and our jobs.

There are so many positives to having technology in the hands of our little learners. There are amazing, educational activities that student can use to help develop and master concepts. My students have the opportunity to use Osmo within the classroom to help develop letter and sound recognition. This is a great activity to have students on because they are learning, applying skills and still have the opportunity to play. Using technology as a tool to communicate with families and having students digital portfolio on apps to show what they are learning within the classroom. Technology allows for teachers to teach lessons and have students apply that knowledge to activities using technology.

Unfortunately, there are some negatives to technology and the impact it has on the students. Our students have technology in their hands from a young age. Many of our students begin to struggle with communication because they are not used to face-to-face interactions. Students are beginning to struggle with conversations because they do not know to start them on their own or how carry on a conversation because they never had to. There are also activities and apps that are supposed to be student and kid friendly, but our students are not apply skills they are learning to the activities or they are getting into activities they are not supposed to be one. This is where as a teacher, technology is more of a struggle because I am having to identify my student who have a hard time following directions and make sure that students are doing the appropriate activities. As teachers, we have to take in consideration the amount of screen time students have at home and how much they will be getting at school. It is important to remember this going into our activities and lessons.

Technology is a great tool, yet can cause a lot of issues and concerns when it comes to the teachers. Starting off college, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. Never did I realize the hidden rules and stigmas that follow behind every move we make. Teachers have to be mindful of their social media accounts, who they are friends with and what they post. Our lives are being watched and monitored because others have an idea that teachers should act and behave in a certain way. We have a difficult task in making sure our reputation as a teacher is being held up to the expectations of our employer and ourselves. Knowing this, teachers either choose not to have social media or they are mindful that they are on lock down. Technology can be tricky, and teachers have to be mindful of that in their professional and personal lives.

Technology is a blessing, but can also cause many headaches. We have to be mindful and meaningful in what we post and how we teach our kiddos to use technology.

As we move into December (Let the count down to winter break begin), and begin our testing, please do not forget that one moment is not going to define your profession. You are meant to be a teacher. You are patient. You are kind. You got this.