Technology = Engaging Students = Happy Students

Last weekend I had the opportunity, with fellow UNITE (Urban Needs in Teacher Education) members, to test out Leapfrog's with kindergartners for the first time at a school in Chicago.

Before the classes arrived, we were helping set up; plugging every cord into the correct spot, attaching headphones to each leapfrog, and inserting the books into the pads. Setting up was going pretty smoothly until we inserting the books into the pads and tried to test them out! For some reason, the books and the cartridges were not matching up correctly. The Leapfrog would play but it would be reading a completely different book. The clock was ticking and we only had about ten minutes to think of a back-up plan. I started to think, "This is what we call a technological inconvience." Luckily, we found back-up books that worked!

I was a little apprehensive on how well the kindergarteners would handle the Leapfrogs. The first class that came in was automatically excited about the neat headphones they would get to wear (they were big and colorful). They were also very eager to learn how to use the Leapfrog. After showing the students once or twice how to use the Leapfrog, they were all tapping the pages with the pens and turning the pages! One boy looked up at me and said, "This is cool!" Except he could not hear how loud he was because of his headphones, so it sounded more like, "THIS IS SO COOL!!!!!" Other than that, the children were completely silent! At one point, the teacher walked in and said, "I should get my video camera! They're so quiet!"

Overall, it was a huge success and I'm glad that I was able to be a part of the experience and I hope they continue to use the Leapfrogs.

After every UNITE experience, we have a "reflect and collect" where we draw a picture or write about something new we learned or thought was great. For my reflection, I drew a picture of a Leapfrog and wrote, "Technology= Engaging Students= Happy Students."

“It is necessary to give children the possibility of developing according to the laws of their nature, so that they can become strong, and, having become strong, can do even more than we dared hope for them.”-Maria Montessori

Tam & Tao in Numberland is an app on the iPad called the "sandbox App" where children can trace a set of numbers, from 0-9, with their finger.
Before I even continued reading this article, I began to think, "Hm...this sounds a lot like something Maria Montessori would want as an app for the iPad!"
As a matter of fact, the article states that based on documentation materials, the app was actually modeling the sandbox teaching method of Montessori.  Such an interesting thought to think about how Montessori would feel about an iPad sandbox App, is it not?

Maria Montessori once said, "I studied my children, and they taught me how to teach them." If Montessori was still alive in the 21st century, I believe that she would be an advocate for integration of technology in the classroom based on that statement right there. If our children are growing up in a technological generation, then why wouldn't they learn best through technology?

I interpret the quote in my title into a "21st century way of thinking."  It is necessary as teachers that we give children the possibility to develop according to the culture they are so accustomed to. They need hands-on, they need interactive materials, they need mutiple means of engagement and partcipation, and they need technology. If you take away these aspects, then the equation leaves you with boredom. Boredom is my biggest fear in becoming a teacher because if students become bored, then they lose interest in learning. If they lose interest in learning, then this 'hope' we have for them to reach their full potential may never meet its ultimate high...