EMerce*d in Learning

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching. This is one of my favorite books EVER.  Seriously!  If you haven't heard of it yet please, please, please check it out! Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I frequently read books on child behavior, especially difficult behaviors.  I've noticed that the better I managed my classroom the more the children are able to learn, so I focus on behavior first.  The authors do an amazing job looking at various factors that influences a child's behavior and what we as adults can do to help mitigate those factors. The authors break the book up into manageable pieces that reference the different aspects that influence behavior and how to work around with them such as the social context, physical space, and the inclusive setting. By far my favorite part of the book is the inclusion of the functional assessment behavior chart.  This is also known as the ABC chart....

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching. I currently teach Kindergarten and have taught in a preschool setting as well.  One thing that is constantly being debated by fellow educators and parents is the timetable for appropriate reading instruction. I think we can all agree that there has been a push on curriculum downward.  If you haven't seen it step into any classroom and compare it to what you were learning at that age.  Have you seen 5th grade math  lately?  I mean really! In the article Reading at five: Why? on the SEEN magazine website, Joan Almon suggests that children are being required to learn reading much to young.  She implies that we, being the United States, are pushing an unrealistic curriculum due to our fear that children will not be reading fluently by third grade, a proven indicator for success.  My own philosophy is that each child is different and each child needs to ...

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching. Let's talk music.  Do you use music in your classroom? In many early childhood classrooms it is something that is used in many areas.  Transitions and learning new material are two of the major ways music is incorporated in the classrooms I have seen. In the article The Importance of Music in Early Childhood Dr. Lili Levinowitz pulls in a wide array of research that suggests music in the early childhood arena should be viewed through many various facets.  The first she suggests is in terms of multiple intelligence theory.  I love using Howard Gardner's perspective on the multiple intelligences when crafting lesson to ensure balance.  Dr. Levinowitz references Thomas Armstrong's work that indicates that intelligence develops through participation in the activity beginning in early childhood. The paper goes on to state that all children are born with the capaci...

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching.   I recently read a book by Frances Carlson on gross motor activity.  I was lucky enough to have sat in a class she taught at the NAEYC convention in CA.  If you haven't heard about NAEYC yet, just stick around.  That will be one of our future Wednesday Words!     So Carlson is an amazing speaker!  She made you remember the gross motor activities of your youth in ways that made you want to jump right back on that tire swing (and why is it that we don't play on those as adults anymore?!? I so need one!).  Her goal in connecting us back to our childhoods was simple.  She wanted us to realize how important those rough and tumble activities were for us.   Now think about your center or your own home.  How often do we let children jump from things or run into things or just roll around?  If you live and work in place...

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching.   I wanted to share this article since I had seen it floating around on social media.   I'll give you a minute to read it.   Seriously, you go read it and I'll wait right here. Ok good now that you've read it I want to know what you think.   ADHD can be a controversial topic in general, but the assertion that there is a subset of preschoolers (or in this case 2 and 3 year olds) that not only have ADHD but are suffering enough to need medication is alarming. I'm going to start off by saying that this article does not give all the facts.   It does not give exact figures and is estimating the rate of medicating children in other areas based on one state.   Without having hard and fast numbers it is hard to know how accurate the reporting is.   It is also difficult to determine from the article why these children were prescribed the medication. ...

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching. So I have to give a shout out to one of my parents (I lovingly refer to the parents of my students as my parents) for sharing this one with me.   She is an OT and did an ah-mazing training at my school for handwriting.   I was blown away by the how much of handwriting has nothing at all to do with handwriting.   As a Kindergarten teacher I wanted to know more and have attended classes put on by OT, PT, and teachers at various conferences to learn more. Here is the article she shared: What's Wrong with W-Sitting?   It is a really short one so I recommend heading over there for a quick read. Basically i t is on the hazards of W-sitting.   Have you heard of a W-sit?   I hadn't until my parent shared it.   This is a sitting position where the child has their legs splayed out to the sides of them, slightly behind them.   Don't even think abou...

Fill it up Friday Each Friday we will look at an article to fill up on the whys of teaching. Today we are going to look at an article that touches on a subject that impacts all of us- screen time.   I am shocked by the amount of time the average child in my school is sitting in front of a screen.   They not only watch television at home but now there are shows and games on phones, televisions mounted in the car, tablets, and computers that are accessible nearly 24/7. In the NAEYC publication, Beyond the Remote-Controlled Childhood , Dianne Levin addresses some topics that we encounter daily with our children.   One of my favorite terms that she puts forth is "age compression."    This is a term that labels something that many of us have been watching for years. Levin states, "age compression is a term used by media professionals and marketers to describe how children at ever-younger ages are doing what older children used to do (pg 33)."   WO...