Flickr

The students have participated in field trips, assemblies and lots of fun activities during this week of school. I decided to use Flickr as a fun way share pictures of all the fun things students were doing. Parents were shown a short video on what Flickr is and how to use it. Once that was done, they were able to log into Flickr and view pictures.Parents enjoyed using the website to see what their children were doing in school. They said the demonstration video made it easier for them to learn how to navigate through the website and Flickr is something they would use at home as well.

Because the Flickr activity went so well and I received such positive feedback from parents I have decided to definitely incorporate the web tool Flickr into my classroom as a way to keep parents updated on events happening in their child's classroom.

This has been the first week of summer school for my students. These are students who will be enrolling in pre kindergarten for the first time this fall and have never had any type of formal schooling before. The Judy Center Summer Enrichment Program offers students support and enrichment by focusing on language/literacy, math, social studies, science, technology and social skills that include hands on learning and parent involvement.

Although the summer program is only four weeks long, I plan to implement a few strategies with the students and their parents. This will give me an idea of what direction I want to head in this fall when using technology to strengthen student learning.

School is over and summer is finally here. As much as I will miss my students, I have to say that I am excited to begin my summer vacation and plan for the upcoming school year. I am looking forward to all the new school year has to offer. After taking a summer technology class, I plan to implement many of the strategies and tools learned with my pre k students.

For what ever reason it is often assumed that early child students do nothing all day but play. They are also not given enough credit for the things they are capable of doing. Although many of the tools/strategies seemed to be more beneficial for older students because they can be used independently, they can still be applied to younger students. It may require more assistance on my part but I'm sure it can be done. So as my summer kicks off, I will be reflecting on the technology class for ways to incorporate what was learned to enhance and improve student learning.