PEHA KUCHA Daly (Using Technology To Support Children Through Improved Family Communication)

I believe that learning happens when students have choice.

I believe that play is essential in early childhood classrooms.

I believe in student collaboration.

I believe that active engagement is essential to learning. 

                                        I believe that  relationships and genuine connection create the ideal space for                                           children to take risks in learning.

I believe that learning is most successful when families are engaged and connected.

 

I got my degree in psychology and early childhood certification in 1994. I knew that I wanted to be a stay at home mom before I established myself in the classroom and my daughter Alyssa was born shortly after I finished college . When Alyssa entered kindergarten, I became a classroom volunteer, a role I would enjoy until my twins Christopher and Connor entered school. I loved being a part of their early childhood classrooms and engaging with their classmates while seeing what they were doing in school. As a parent, that connection was important to me.  

In the 20 years since Alyssa entered kindergarten, school has changed dramatically. Academic expectations for our youngest children have risen to a point where all children are expected to leave kindergarten reading.  

I hold firm to the belief that children learn best through play and hands on collaborative experiences as we learned listening to and reading Wesch. Play is a non negotiable in my kindergarten classroom. In recent years, we have seen an increase in fine motor issues and lack of stamina in our youngest learners. I believe that some of that can be traced to increasing screen time 

When I entered what I thought would be a heavily technology focused course, I struggled with this. As Prensky suggests,  children are digital natives. They come to us with some knowledge and technology skills for better or for worse.  I know that technology has a place in learning but like Turkle, I believe technology is changing who we are. 

As I listened to Sinek's golden circle I reflected on my why. Why did I choose teaching? I know that my why is the connections created with children and families. I feel like in kindergarten, that connection and relationship building is especially important because it is the introduction to school. Though lots of children now come having been to preschool, kindergarten is the beginning of their formal education.

In the past, I have created a family newsletter which I send home monthly. It gives parents a chance to see the variety of skills and learning activities  that will happen over the course of the month.

 I have also used Class Dojo to "bring parents into my classroom. They are able to see through pictures and stories what kinds of activities their children are engaged in on a daily basis. This has been especially helpful given that I use many manipulatives and hands on learning experiences. Children do not bring home lots of paperwork. Parents have expressed excitement about seeing their kids "in action."

However, this spring with the COVID -19 pandemic, school changed radically. March 13th marked the end of in person learning and like it or not we were thrust into a whole new world of digital learning. I began to use Seesaw to assign work to my students and provide feedback. I was grateful to be able to Zoom, to maintain that face to face connection , albeit through my computer screen. I missed seeing my kids in person and I knew it was hard for them to lose their connection to us as teachers and to their peers.

Parents had to take on an increased role especially in kindergarten because a 5 year old needs some guidance in their learning and can not be entirely self directed and independent. 

The kinds of communication I had used in the past were just not enough. How then could I use technology to make changes in my teaching based on my why? I decided to focus on strengthening my communication  with parents based on the belief that learning is most successful when families are engaged and connected.

 During distance learning, I worked with the district kindergarten teachers to clarify learning targets. We created a document that was worded in "student friendly " language. About a month before report cards were scheduled to come out, I shared this document with families. I received several notes of thanks from parents and one parent responded "Thank you. Clear targets for everyone to aspire to, best email I've seen yet!"

As I reflected on my why ,creating connections because I believe  children learn best when families are connected and engaged, I realized I wanted to use technology to help to improve communication with families. Children may be digital natives, but parents are not. I wanted to create a simple place for parents to find resources to help their children with learning. I also wanted to build on that clarity we had provided to parents with simplified learning targets for each trimester. 

My plan is to use Padlet to provide those resources in one easy to navigate place. I have begun to take the report cards from each trimester and broken them down into parent and student friendly language. I think it will help parents to explicitly know where their children are and where they may be struggling. 

I will also be using this Padlet for resources related to our reading, math and phonics so that parents can more readily understand and guide their children's learning as we anticipate another year of virtual learning in some capacity.

By making learning targets clear and available to my parents they will be better able to support their learners and understand the goals of the play based activities assigned digitally.

While I have created the sample Padlet, as suggested after my presentation I intend to post weekly in order to keep parents engaged and coming back for new resources.

I believe this Padlet will be useful as we anticipate further virtual learning this year but even if we are in school, I know that the best learning happens when families are connected and engaged.  

This project positions me somewhere between techno -traditionalist and techno-constructivist. I still struggle with the idea of a 5 year old on technology but I would like to explore ways to foster learning and collaboration in that way.  I have expanded my own use of technology to collaborate with parents more effectively which I think is a move in the right direction.

link to self assessment 

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