Lesson Plan Supplemental Materials

The domain that I used as my focus is Cognition and General Knowledge, the sub domain for this is Social Studies and strand is focused on Self. The sub-domain of social studies includes basic skills and competencies that set the foundation for learning about concepts of social science. With this lesson, children will focus on exploring their bodies; each activity will allow children to identify the different parts of their bodies. We will also practice saying the names of each part as they are identified. By the end of the lesson I do not expect all children to know where each part is, my only expectation is that students continue to show an interest in what is what on their bodies.

 

This Prezi will be used as a read along resource for children during or after we have read “Belly Button Book.” With teacher assistance they will be able to click through each piece as if they were turning the pages in the book.

Our Body Parts by Hannah Norman on Scribd

Students will be able to explore the body parts power point that has been prepared for them. As a new slide comes up, children will be asked to identify where it is on their bodies.

 

 The computer painting will be available for the children to interact with after they have physically painted their picture for the day. With teacher assistance they will be able to paint the different body parts presented.

My Technology Lesson Plan

Assignment 12.13 by Hannah Norman on Scribd

Educational Technology Perspective

Working in Early Childhood Education, there are a lot of different resources provided to us in order to conduct productive development. Having students so young, we don’t necessarily rely on technology in order for the children to learn. At their stages in development hands on interactions have the most benefits rather than technology based learning. As teachers we do all have access to laptops, and desktops as well as a tablet in each classroom. These tools are mainly used for lesson planning and child observations. In some cases I may have the children watch a short video on the laptop during circle time. These videos consist of alphabet songs, counting, and songs that allow the children to do different things as they’re directed. For the most part throughout the day children will not be granted the opportunity to explore with these tools, mainly because they are not capable of operating it appropriately. With that being said, I feel teacher and student technology interactions may only take place once or twice a week for a small amount of time.

               

As of now, my classroom is mixed age, where ages can range from six weeks to three years old. Looking at my class as a whole, their all between twelve to twenty four months; we categorize this age group as infant toddlers. The issues my students may encounter when using technology in the classroom is the fact that they don’t know how to appropriately operate the tools effectively. Also in my opinion too much exposure to technology at a young age doesn’t always positively benefit the child. Working in child care for so long, I’ve seen first-hand that children learn more effectively hands on, as well as having face to face interactions with other children. I feel that if I were to teach school age children, then the over use of technology may be an issue, but for my age group it’s not something we deal with on a day to day basis.

                

The issue I’ve come to when trying to incorporate technology in the classroom, is again the fact that my children don’t know how to operate technology systems on their own, as well as trying not to venture away from hands on experiences. Since I am pretty up to date on how to use many resources it’s not an issue to have technology in the classroom. It’s more so what’s age appropriate, as well as what will be beneficial to their development. I do plan to continue to show short educational programs to them, as well as incorporating some sort of technology activity on a week to week basis. It is frustrating to see how much technology has taken over our world already, and I can only hope that children’s face to face interactions and learning experiences won’t be taken away for good. This helps with social skills, and hands on learning allows children to experience a new idea while being taught about it at the same time. Over all technology in the classroom is great, but for early learners technology doesn’t always have the same benefits. 

Classroom Layout

My classroom design is set up for infant toddlers. Teaching a group that’s more hands on than anything limits the amount of technology we choose to use inside the classroom. Technology is especially limited since my students don’t necessarily rely on technology on a daily basis. The one thing that I did choose to incorporate in my room layout is a computer. I think that we could use it in order to watch programs, or engage in interactive activities that are beneficial to their developmental levels. Having just one technological resource inside the classroom forces teachers and children to interact socially in order to teach and learn new ideas. Although technology is a great way to introduce new information, I feel that hands on learning are the best ways to teach young learners.

 The layout of my classroom is set up in different “areas” throughout the room. Early childhood educations focuses mainly on hands on interactions, so having access to a variety of materials is essential for positive development. Throughout the room there are many selves at a height easy for children to access materials. As well as a reading, dramatic play, math and manipulative, science and art area. I added the computer to the reading area because that’s a relaxing space for children to interact with different computer activities. For the most part throughout the day children are able to explore freely with teacher and peer interactions. Each day we have a specific activity that we focus on, but for the most part they are able to explore any area that they’d like. Having the classroom organized in a way that each area has a main focus, keeps children’s minds engaged on similar ideas rather than grouping different domains in one. From experience I know that the more organized your classroom is, the easier it is for children to grasp different ideas and develop on the right track.

QR code

http://goqr.me/

Tech Tool Review

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Pinterest in the classroom

While doing the Pinterest activity I learned two important things. The most important thing I learned was how to use it, and how you can have different boards that house your pins. Boards can have different topics, to where your pins connect. The second thing I learned was all of the different things you can find on Pinterest and how there is something for pretty much any topic you can think of, as a teacher I find this very useful. There are so many different activity ideas to look into, as well as different materials to add to your classroom to make it more convenient for learning. I plan to continue to use Pinterest to get ideas for weekly activities for my students.

The main strength of Pinterest, that I noticed, is how organized you can be with the specific pins that you find interesting. Like I mentioned before, you can create different boards which can have specific topics, pins are then sorted onto each board in which they relate to one another. During this activity I didn’t really seem to have any challenges, or questions. For some it may be somewhat challenging to grasp the different concepts of the boards and pins and how they correspond, but for the most part it is very user friendly, and I’m excited to continue using it. 

Khan/Koller Review

Looking on the Khan Academy site, I first began to look at some of the subject areas I struggled with in high school. I feel that if I were aware that this site existed I may have tried it out. While browsing it was pretty straight forward on how to get to different things and I liked how organized the site as a whole was. I would definitely encourage students to use this site, because I know there are many students out there who are like I was in school. I didn’t like asking for help, or getting extra help outside of the classroom. I feel that Khan Academy helps students like I was get that extra help they may need at a more convenient time for them. Watching a few videos I feel Khan did an exceptionally good job on taking the time to explain each topic, as well as it being easy to follow along and learn from. Lastly I think Khan is right when he talked about relying more on credentialing through online courses. In my opinion I think this style of learn is very much so more accessible for many students. I feel this way because it allows students to learn at their own pace as well as in an environment that may be more comfortable for them.

As I began to explore the courser course offerings, one that looked the most interesting to me was the courses on Virtual teaching. I think this is interesting because many schools offer online options, so being able to take courses to help educators do their job better, as well as teach those that are interested is beneficial. I feel the Coursera courses look pretty interesting for the most part; the part of the course that I looked at was pretty much the same type of assignments each week. It may not be that way for all course options, but that is one part I didn’t necessarily like. On the other hand it could very much be like that depending on the type of professor you have.  Lastly I agree that MOOCs could very much be the “wave of the future.” In my opinion, I would rather take online courses; I’ve found that my performance is better when I’m able to do things at my own pace. After graduating I plan on attending a school with an online program for my major. Columbus State is also one of many schools that accept Coursera credits for students looking to transfer. 

Exploring Standards-Based Lesson Plans

For this assignment, it was very hard for me to find a lesson plan that met majority of the developmental domains needed for my specific age group. Without using one of my own, I wanted to keep my main focus on Early Childhood Education. The lesson I did decide to use is intended for infant toddlers, who range from twelve to eighteen months. Its main focus is drawn toward snowflakes and the cold weather. Teachers gave their students a variety of activities to do in order to introduce new ideas that connect to their theme for the week. This includes many hands on activities as well as book readings and activities outside of the classroom.

Early learning curriculum includes nine different developmental domains. These nine domains are used as a building block in order to create lessons throughout the week, as well as creating observations of their student’s development. These domains are as following.

(Social Studies isn't pictured)

Several activities featured in this particular lesson meet majority of the nine domains. For example, “Looking at books of winter wonders” covers literacy, which isn’t listed, as well as language and cognitive, which is also referred to as approaches towards learning. “Hitting a beach ball” is listed as gross motor, but would be classified as physical since it requires the child to use their hands in order to hit an object. “Taking turns dropping table tennis balls into a jug” is listed under social emotional which is accurate. A add on to that specific domain is "interacting with peers," and that’s exactly what that entails. Lastly “Using white finger paint” is considered creative art, this allows the children to explore different art supplies and create whatever they’d like.

If I were to use this plan in my own classroom, I would first make sure I put different activities for each day, giving more opportunity to cover all domains throughout the week. I feel that my students would enjoy the activities listed, as well as the other activities that could be added. The one activity that could potentially be challenging for my group would be “taking turns dropping table tennis balls into a jug.” In the world of infant toddlers there is no such thing as “taking turns.” Although we may do our best to instill that type of play, it does get challenging at times. Another activity that stuck out was “playing with and molding white dough.” From experience I know that my students would love this. It's also a great fine motor activity, that in most cases, can keep children occupied, and engaged. 

http://www.angelsacademies.com/toddlers.html

Assistive Technology for students with Autism

The disability I chose was Autism. I selected this because I have personally interacted, on many occasions, with children who were diagnosed with autism. The Center for Parent Information and Resources describes Autism as a developmental disorder that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication as well as social interaction. The article also states that children diagnosed with autism often engage in repetitive activities, stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change, and changes in their daily routine (Center for Parent Information and Resources). When working in an environment full of diverse children I have noticed that children with autism all consistently show an inability to communicate effectively or even communicate at all. I feel that this alone is the biggest challenge when it comes to trying to educate a child with autism. 

As the development of technology has grown immensely, so has the ability to maintain effective teaching for children who may be labeled as “unable to be taught” or “unable to learn.” The evolution of the IPad has become one of the most influential pieces of technology being used to help children communicate when communication can’t physically take place. Different apps were created in order to give people with autism more freedom of speech. The apps also allowed them to feel at ease when trying to voice their thoughts, feelings, and needs. School systems as well are beginning to make IPads accessible for those students who aren’t able to learn in a “normal” setting.

As I watched the YouTube video entitled “Apps for Autism” I was able to get more of a visual on what the apps were like, and how user friendly they are. In this short video there was a young man who used one specific app called “Proloquo2Go,”(https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/proloquo2go-symbol-based-aac/id308368164?mt=8). This app provides its user with an endless amount of images as a solution for ineffective communication.  “Autism Express,” (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/autism-emotion/id550027186?mt=8) is also another app used to help children express their emotions. Another app that I found called “Look in My Eyes,” (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/look-in-my-eyes-train-engineer/id588178399?mt=8) is used to help practice eye contact. Lastly, the one thing that really stood out to me as I watched this video was when the three teachers sat and talked about why these apps are effective. One teacher said that autistic children would rather interact with this type of technology rather than a human. Following, it was stated that this may be because of how consistent the device is, as well as the user being fully in control (apps for autism, https://youtu.be/F_8b7PgnNQQ).

I feel that for the future, the use of the IPad will continue to emerge to help positively teach and provide easy access for those who can’t communicate, or be taught in a typical classroom setting. It was mentioned in the Apps for Autism clip, that there is more going on in the brain of autistic children than many may realize. As these apps are beginning to become more popular, many teachers and parents are able to see positive progression as these children interact with this device. School systems as well are trying out some of these techniques in order to find ways to effectively communicate and learn while children are at school. As well as cater to each child’s specific needs when it comes to positive brain development.   

References

https://youtu.be/F_8b7PgnNQQ

http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/categories/

  

Ohio Distance Learning Schools

Looking at the five distance learning options, all the choices had good qualities in my opinion; but the school that stood out the most to me would be the Virtual Community School of Ohio. I especially liked this program because it focuses on many things that parents worry about when looking into online schooling. For younger and elementary students, the program is very interactive, giving parents and children the opportunity to work closely together. The middle and high school program gives students flexibility as well as early graduation opportunities. All students are provided with a desktop computer or laptop, and a scanner/printer, as well as being provided with technical training and support throughout their educational experiences. The Virtual Community School of Ohio also uses a variety of learning activities for various learning styles. I also like that there is a special needs program for students with mental illnesses. As well as assigned staff who work closely with these students to insure their learning experience beneficial. Lastly, I found it very helpful that the family and student handbook is linked to their site, so all the information you may need to know is available to you first hand.

           

The program I wouldn’t choose for my child would be The Virtual Schoolhouse. When I first began to explore their site, I didn’t see much that stood out from any other ordinary online program. I feel that when looking into online schooling the things that stand out the most to me is how much parents are involved in their child’s learning, especially for younger grade levels. Also making sure that the needs are met for all different types of learners, as well as providing the resources needed to insure positive growth throughout each program.  Although I wouldn’t necessarily pick this program for my child, I do feel that its mission is good, and that’s to allow children to succeed by providing multiple educational options for different learning styles.

My prezi

My presentations main focus was, why early learning is essential. It is intended for anyone who has children or is planning on having children. Not many people are aware that the first five years of a child’s life are the most influential. I get the opportunity to see this everyday first hand. I’ve worked with many different ages leading up to kindergarten, and each experience plays a role in positive brain development. I also provided a little background on myself and what I do. I am a mixed aged lead teacher, having a mixed age classroom; I get to interact with different ages all at once. Although majority of my students are one, their ages can range from six weeks to three years old. I’ve had a couple of my students since they were three months, and they are both going on two.  To see how much they’ve learned being so young and how well they interact with other children shows how beneficial early learning can be.

My experience with Prezi went very well. I didn’t have any difficulties with putting my presentation together. I especially like how you can make it flow any way that you’d like, and that it’s very easy to use. Even without written instructions, I think that most people would be able to maneuver through the process; this makes it easy to explore everything you can do with Prezi. This was my first time using this as a way to present information, and I feel that it will be something I use in the future, as well as tell others about. 

Three Great Teacher Blogs

http://www.earlychildhoodteacher.org/blog/

Early Childhood Teacher stood out to me because I am an early childhood educator. This blog is ran by a teacher intended for other teachers. There are many posts giving educators a variety of teaching strategies, ways to prepare to learn, as well as behavior help for children's early years, I feel that this helps a lot because teachers all over are dealing with similar things inside the classroom, and seeing strategies that others use help a lot with finding what works for you and your group of learners.

http://www.thecurriculumcorner.com/blog

The curriculum corner is a blog run by two teachers. Its main purpose is to provide other educators with lesson plan activities that meets core curriculum. This is great because many teachers struggle with being creative when it comes to their planning. This provides them with instructional tips to help guide their way. As well as introducing new and exciting things.

http://organizedclassroom.com/classroom-management/

The organized classroom is another blog that caught my attention. Working in a place with so many different teachers, teaching styles, and classroom management, you see first hand that not everyone is the same. In my case i'm very organized, clean, and likes everything in order. But not all educators have these qualities. This blog is run by a teacher intended for other teachers to help get organized. There are many great posts on storage ideas, how to get organized as well as staying organized, and tips on how to be in control of child behavior along with promoting good behavior inside the classroom. This is great for someone who may struggle in this area.

Welcome to my Blog!

My name is Hannah Norman, I am currently in the process of completing my final semester at Columbus State, and will have my Associate of Arts degree. I work as the lead teacher in one of two mixed age classrooms at Heavenly Kids Center for learning. Which is an early learning center ranging from ages 6 weeks to 12 years old. Aside from working full time, I like to spend my free time relaxing with my boyfriend, or spending time with my friends, and family. I also enjoy shopping (a lot), eating, and listening to music. 

Being 21 I don't have any children yet, but the love I have for them makes me excited to have a couple of my own. My classroom ages range from 6 weeks to 3 years, although majority of my children are between one and two, working with such a wide range of ages in one classroom has taught me so much. Seeing the different ways each individual child develops differently, as well as similarly is such an experience. Over all I want to have my Bachelors of Arts degree in Psychology, although I could work in a handful of fields obtaining a psych degree, working so closely with children now, makes me anxious to see what the future has in store for me. Until then, I plan to continue to nurture, teach, and grow children to reach their highest potential.