Blog on Respectful and ethical minds

The first thing that stuck out to me was a quote that said "new teachers grow one day at a time." This is my second year in my position and I do feel that I grow everyday.  I know this year I have done more with my students and I have grown so much as a teacher. The video also said that community can support during projects.  We use community members during all of our studies when we have volunteers come in to share with my children.  The projects or studies that I use in my class are about the same length as  the flat classroom because they last about 10 weeks, and that is about how long my students spend on a study.  Last year we collaborated with the other Pre k classroom to share what we learn during our studies.  My class shared a video of things we built and discovered during our building study. One of the other classes shared a fashion show with us.  We have not got into sharing with other teachers outside of our program, which is an idea that I would like to include in one of my studies.  I know that in our beginning of the year study, we talk about pinatas and it would be great to connect with someone who makes and uses piñata.  My students thought that piñatas were to have candy, but we learned from a Mexican parent last year that they put toys in them.  It would be nice for a Pre k student to tell my students about how they use piñatas at a celebration.  We are trying to use collaboration with our families through a website called teaching strategies GOLD.  We ask parents to add to our lesson plans, send in supplies, look at conference forms, and be involved in their child's education.  Right now, we have one parent who is helping and loves it.  She told us that it makes it nice to be able to communicate with the teacher without having to go into the classroom.  Our program is starting to see that we need to start using technology in our programs.  They are starting with our parents so that we can start letting our students connect with others through the Internet.  As I was watching this video, it made me think about my sister who teaches in North Carolina and I think I might try to set something up with her where her students help to teach my students.  I think that my students would enjoy seeing people from another state since most of them have never left our small town.  I really enjoyed watching this video and it made me think about new ways technology can be used in our classroom and it made me think about what the future holds for teachers in terms of technology in the classroom.