Assistive Technology/ Disability Assistance

Disability Assistance: Adapting the classroom for students in wheelchairs or scooters.

Knowledge: While I am working at a private preschool and have not been exposed to a 504 plan or IEP, we have had parents in wheelchairs and students that have broken legs throughout the years that we have had to make classroom adaptations to ensure their success in the classroom. This would fall under a 504 plan because we are providing a service that makes changes to the learning environment to enable students to learn alongside their peers. While it is required by the state to have a working elevator for more than one floor, and ramp access to the building, the classroom set up is not regulated.
Application: It is important that from an access stand point that regardless of the weather, the ramp access and entry to the building must be safe and available at all times. When younger children break any part of the lower leg, it is common to have a full length cast due to active bodies and resilience. There have been two scenarios that come to mind. One is a child size wheel chair and the other is a board scooter for the student to sit and scoot their way around the classroom. Both cause a need to adjust the classroom so that they are able to function and participate with peers successfully. This is why all if not most of the furniture at our school is on casters and can easily be moved, rearranged or locked in place. Many tables are also height adjustable. This makes students able to move around the room without bumping into others or becoming "stuck" in one part of the classroom. Students on scooters need assistance getting into chairs and need chairs for higher up tables used for standing. Regardless of injury or otherwise, the ability to adjust standing activities or moving furniture is an easy adjustment that can be done in the classroom where there are materials easily accessible to students to get independently.
Reflection: When students enter the classroom when we have inclement weather, we noticed that the classroom's wood floors became wet and unsafe. To adapt, we used a mat or towel that the student would roll over just as students wiped their feet upon entering. This helped keep the classroom safe from slips and falls. Some furniture needed to be removed to make room and/ or relocated to make room and mailboxes and classroom materials were rearranged for easier access for students who now were sitting a little lower. What I did realize through this limited experience was that children are resilient and when they have the opportunity to still be involved, they adapt and learn new ways of using the classroom. With doctor permission, we were also able to allow child to scoot and move on the ground in designated and monitored areas like dramatic play and library where it was challenging to maneuver a chair or scooter.

Classroom Management

App: Children's Countdown Timer

Knowledge: 
Time management can be a challenging concept for young learners. For a successfully managed classroom, keeping track of time and recognizing the importance of transitions helps make the classroom run smoothly. I notice that students who all want to be in a certain area of the classroom during free-play or at the sensory table for example, have a hard time "finding another activity" while they wait for their turn or act out when they are asked to share. I feel like I am constantly monitoring behavior caused by these transitions and it can be challenging to make sure every students gets equal exposure. Children's Countdown Timer offers a visual aide for students who are not yet capable of understanding the concept of time. I was wondering if this type of app could be explained and displayed in certain areas where time management needs to be monitored and if eventually it is an area of my classroom where I can simply observe instead of it taking up most of my instruction time? And also, how many of you full-day teachers hear "is rest time over yet?"
Application:
The free app begins with a clock that allows you to pick the amount of time you would like to set on the timer and a minimal selection of pictures to choose from. For an upgrade of $2.99 you can unlock many other picture options. I chose to stick with the free app because with about ten choices, there is not a need for a specific picture, one will keep a consistent outcome for students as they learn how to use this. The maximum amount of time that can be assigned in 59 minutes and 59 seconds per picture. The timer does tick like a clock but volume can be turned down so that it does not insight anxiety in students who are listening to a clock timer. You can choose to upload a personalized picture to your profile but it is not a necessity. Once the picture is revealed, confetti will go off and disappear.
Reflection: 
At the beginning, many students would just stare at the color as it reveals the picture and spent less time focusing on what they were doing. I did notice that once they experienced it once or twice, they then would focus on their tasks and check in. What I didn't expect is the amount of self-regulation that would come with using this app. I used this mainly during rest time (which eliminated distractions and movement) but I also used it when introducing a new dramatic play space. Because I wanted all students to have exposure to this area and a limited time frame to work in, I used this app in five minute increments with groups of four students. I would check in closer to the ending and realized that many students would clean up and sharing the space without redirection from myself! No arguments, no extra reminders that it is important to share, no reminders that it will be available for the month (all conversations typically had on a daily basis)! The only down side that I noticed was that it was not able to be used when other apps were opened like music for example. The other is that many of the young students were confused and focused on the changing colors from green to yellow to red because they are not yet aware of these colors representing a stop-light while others recognized this and were aware that the red meant that time was almost up and it was almost time to stop.

Final Presentation

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Growth Plan

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Parent Communication/Assessment

App: Remind

Knowledge:
Remind is a messaging app that is free and safe to use for communication between teacher, student product and parents. It is an opportunity for teachers to send individualized messaged based on parent communication or child's portfolio work, specific small groups, or as a whole group announcement and reminder notification. Traditionally used for older children to connect through homework assignments, Remind is not used in the preschool classroom for homework assignments but rather a way to track conversations, digital copies of student product and a general connection and link from school to home. With over 70 languages, Remind is able to translate text for bilingual families and is a fast and effective way to send messages and material in real time, linked directly to your phone.

Application:
Remind is a free app downloadable by iPhone and android, however, all parents need is a cell phone or email address to sign up. With a sharable link, class number and class code, each parent signs up without giving their personal information being shown. Teachers can also change the settings so that parents can interact directly on the app with one another without giving out their personal information if they choose not to. Remind messages is not quite international however. Only phone numbers in the US and Canada are accepted for instant communication. When entering the app, teachers have the option to link from other platforms including Sign-Up Genius, Survey Monkey, Quizlet, Google Drive, One Drive and many more. There are also four quick options for communicating: Photo, Camera, File or Voice Clip. These four options allow for the teacher and parent to submit work based on learning goals and assessments for parents to see. Because this app does not have the option to delete comments in the communication thread, it gives an accurate depiction and time line of communication and student progress, which cannot be changed or deleted. Because this is going instantly to parents phones, there are two quick things that help in the quick communication process. First, parents can leave a quick emoji thumbs up, smiley face, heart frown or clapping. There is also read receipts to see that it has been opened.


Reflection:
This app was hard to explore without a real classroom. You do need real phone number or email addresses to begin exploring the functions of this app. Once I was able to log in one test student, I was able to see in real time how quick I was able to send a group announcement and begin private conversations with a test parent. One down side is that this app is similar to texting and could easily become unprofessional with quick responses. What I did like is that I could set my office hours so that parents knew when I was available for communication or not. This could be very helpful with tracking progress and communication and for whole group reminders like changing out extra clothes for warmer/colder weather, when we need help with recyclable materials or when there is a snow day.  It is also helpful to send quick videos or photographs to parents of students struggling with morning drop-off transitions since the photos and parent information is at the touch of your fingertips. Typically, we need to load all of this into our email accounts and upload pictures from seperate devices. 

Student as Global Citizen

App: Kids World Cultures

Knowledge
As children begin to experience empathy and kindness with their classroom communities, it is important to look outward into the growing world's community so that they are able to experience what it is like being a global citizen. Children learn about being global citizens by choosing to contribute to making their community a better place. This develops leadership and communication skills, along with skills that help children reflect as they share, compare and improve upon ideas in a collaborative way. The appreciation built amongst students allows them to develop an appreciation for the earth and the world we live in.
While many aspects of global citizenship begin with the local community, I wanted to take a deeper looking into a unit that is planned for the winter which is "Around the World". The children begin to travel and experience different customs, foods and animals located in those areas. What I wanted to do is change the curriculum to also incorporate other global connections including cultures, foods, attire, buildings and resemblance. This added history based approach will allow students to experience not like a surface level or similarities and differences but begin to understand that people around the world have different customs, cultures and ways of life.
We currently use the book Children Just Like Me (linked below). It shows a child of like age in their custom attire, how they write their name, and other facts about themselves that may be similar or different than those of my students.

YouTube: Children Just Like Me

Application
In an attempt to create a link from our classroom to the world around us (that also is appropriate for the young two year old children) I found the app, Kids World Cultures. This app is free to explore Europe and carries a $4.99 charge for other countries. This gives you a chance to play around on the app and its features and see if it is something that could work in your classroom. This kid friendly app has an alien as its leader with games and video recordings for each country in it's passport. There were two selections that seemed appropriate for exploring each country and cultures while the others seemed to be more geared towards gaming and busy activities. There were easy voice activated options for the children who cannot read to participate. It does need teacher supervision for preschool aged children or can be explored on a large TV at group time.

Reflection
This is not an app that independently makes students aware of global citizenship, but does broaden their knowledge that their is a bigger world around us to explore and show compassion for. It can be a great beginning app to open the door for deeper learning and conversations about cultures and communities outside of our own. There are some great apps like PenPal, or Touchable Earth that are more child friendly, however this app is a great transition between home and school. We found last time that even showing YouTube videos of different children explaining their attire and holiday traditions made a bigger impact to the curriculum and an extention to their learning! While global citizenship is not only about exposing children to other cultures and different parts of the world, it does open up their mind to people and communities other than their own.

Students as Researchers

Tool: Non-fiction and Animal Observation Research

Knowledge

As educators, it is our job to guide children through their curiosity and give them the tools in which to accurately find out new information. This process of validating knowledge in today’s society can be so easy with the voice activated “Ok Google”, “Alexa” or “Hey Siri”. What is even harder to explain is that what you are told or what you know, may not be a valid enough answer until you can provide evidence and research. This mindset in young children can be particularly challenging and it is the job of the educator to understand research as the process of students answering their own questions. Beginning with some curiosity and knowledge, an eagerness to learn more, observation and experimentation are ways that successful research can be done in an early childhood classroom.

During different science units in our classroom, students have access to fiction and non-fiction books to provide further support to whole group instruction. As students ask questions, The other teachers and I would constantly model and encourage observation and using the non-fiction books as a tool to compare and contrast. Without giving answers, we would support students in their research. While students continued to say, “just give me the answer!” they are challenged to go looking in the right places for the answers.

Application

As students become aware of non-fiction vs. fiction books and their characteristic, they are then able to seek out non-fiction books as research tools. To demonstrate an example, many students became interested in our butterfly life cycle last year. They observed and documented the different stages but many wanted to be told what type of butterfly they were going to be. Instead of just giving them the information, we worked closely to give them the research tools in order to prove and answer their own questions. Students studied the stages in real life while also going to the library to find non-fiction books which had different examples of butterfly species. As students guesses and confirmed each stage of life, they were able to provide themselves and others proof if which species of butterfly we grew in our class.

Reflection 

Giving students the tools to question and provide answers through their own independent research builds the beginning stepping stones into questioning the world around them and staying curious. They become confident in their results and are excited to share with others. It can be challenging as the teacher to fit this time for growth through research into the curriculum, but it is building a more well-rounded student full of questions with the tools to answer them! One thing I really noticed with incorporating this extensive time for self-research, is that they wanted to share their knowledge and retained so much more on the subject. Once they continue into elementary school, the use of technology in this area will expand the research process from the mindset of needing to find accurate research.