What Kindergartners Should Know

I think the standards for kindergartners can have both positive and negative results. I think it is a good thing to have clear standards that need to be taught for all grades. Just because a child is in kindergarten does not mean he or she is not capable of learning things. Many of these standards were taught before anyways. Now they are just giving a title to what children have actually been learning all along. I also think the standards might be a little bit extreme.
Kindergarten is supposed to be a fun transition into school. I am afraid having such specific standards might take that away from kids. Once they pass kindergarten, most of the fun stops and they have to focus more on learning specific material. I think 172 benchmarks might be a few too many for children just beginning school. However kindergarten teachers seem to like the new standards, and veteran teacher Veronica Rieck says it helps her stay organized and remember what to teach. Should kindergarten remain a time to play or a time to learn?

Digital Camera Lesson

My lesson would be for a pre-school class to help them learn their numbers. I took pictures of things that contained the number of items from one to six. The children would have to cut the pictures out and paste them onto another sheet of paper that would have the numbers 1-6 in boxes. They would have to glue the picture down in the right square and then write out the number in word format. This lesson would work on fine motor skills through gluing and cutting, math through learning their numbers, handwriting and spelling. My screen shot will not submit for some reason but I gave a basic description of what it looks like earlier.

Teaching Philosophy

make a difference
positive influence
provide knowledge

Theories

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences says that there are at least eight different types of intelligences: linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist. Gardner believes that intelligence is not truly measured accurately because not all of these are taken into consideration. He supports individual-centered education to best meet students needs. Children cannot learn to their best ability unless all of these intelligences are put in place. Students need all of these intelligences incorporated into the classroom. This supports technology in the classroom because it could incorporate many of these intelligences. For example a computer could be used in the class and could use linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, interpersonal, and naturalist intelligences. However, not all of these intelligences could be incorporated at once. This relates to type 1 of technology because technology such as a computer could be used to teach using all of the intelligences. It relates to type 2 because programmed instruction would be better able to incorporate all of the intelligences. Finally it relates to type 3 because the student is showing what he or she learned.
Bloom’s taxonomy says that there are three domains to learning. They are cognitive, effective, and psychomotor. His theory said that students had to pass a test to show they had learned a skill before moving on to the next one. Bloom’s theory is the easiest to understand and most widely used today. It supports technology in the classroom because technology can be used to learn skills and then get assessed. However, some teachers prefer the old way of standardized learning in the classroom. This way each student learns the material in the same way and becomes assessed at the same time. It relates to technology type 1 because the computer works as a tutor to the student. It also relates to type 2 because the program instruction can make sure that a child knows the material before moving onto the next subject. It also relates to type 3 because the student can prove their skill to the computer before learning more material.
Dale’s cone of experience was designed to categorize media according to its degree of realism. It shows how much people can remember from what they learn and the learning outcomes as a result. It shows that students learn the most from physically doing something. It supports technology because people remember some of what they say. It also detracts from technology because most of what people remember comes from what they do. It relates to type 1 because the more a person practices something the more likely they will be to remember it. It relates to type 2 because programmed instruction will reestablish concepts. It also relates to type 3 because the student can then solve problems using the computer.