They Start Younger & Younger, So Dip a Toe In & Give It A Try

I was participating in worship Sunday morning & saw three generations of women searching for a seat, so scooted down the pew to make room for this little family. There was an attractive, on the young side grandmother with her very young daughter & in tow was Bella, a bright eyed, very alert 9 month old. I will be honest, I like babies, but sitting in church trying to focus on a message of grace is difficult, when seated next to an active baby. The church has a lovely up-to-date Children's Building at it's disposal, which I think people should take advantage of. However, this is not the insight I wish to provide. After the music, a bottle (that ended with a very loud toot) I will admit I giggled, lots of passing back & forth, little Bella could not get settled.

 So her Grandma pulled out her I-Phone and opened up an app. It had a big red barn & with a simple touch the barn door opened to reveal a farm animal. If the sound were up, it would have read the animal's name aloud & made it's sound. The moment little Bella spotted the big red barn her finger was pointing & bending toward the touch screen. She knew exactly what had to be done to make the animals appear & disappear behind the barn doors. It was an amazing sight to see this 9 month old react to the screen.

My point being technology is intuitive to her she will never know a world without a touchscreen & hand-held devices. She will manipulate technology with ease. She will not be wired to learn using paper & pencil. She will be wired for I-Pads or some such device that has yet to be invented. So we need to get in the groove so we can teach kids who's brains are wired totally differently than the way ours are.

We need to devote ourselves to automating our instruction & learning to help our kids infomate their learning. I have some new resources to assist all of us this daunting process. I have purchased several CDs that have activities for the promethean lab. They are leveled for PreK - 2. There are Math, Social Studies Science & Phonemic Awareness & Phonics  CDs. For older grades I have proofreading & writing activities and a book for grades 2-5 called 50 Graphic Organizers for the Interactive Whiteboard. You can project the organizer on the board & type the info. into the organizer. It has some great organizers that can be used across the curriculum.

This next resource has unlimited possibilities! It it is a Wikki where educators can contribute any kind of resource to educate kids. You can find lesson plans,  entire units, images, videos, links to websites, animation, interactive activities & games. I have barely scratched the surface of this site.  You can get  Khan Academy Videos on this site without having to override or downloading to You-Tube. Everything that I have found so far has been awesome. I am placing a link to this site on the Library web page for you. This site is worth the time!!! You might start out by looking for an interactive math activity for the next time that you go to the lab. Dip a toe in the water & jump in!

http://www.curriki.org