Kindergarten Help Please?!?

[Heather Janik]

We all know that this is a difficult economy and it seems that small school districts are the first to show signs of how much families are being effected. In some ways I know that my school district is still doing okay, but in other ways I see how quickly the money is disappearing. We were warned back in January that our district would be making significant cuts, mainly from teaching staff. And almost 3 weeks ago administration followed through.

Now, I will precurse with the fact that I'm fortunate because as of right now I still have a full time job. However, I will be teaching Kindergarten. I'm not saying that because it's a bad thing, but it will be a significant change. I have been teaching Middle School Computers for the last 6 years. I am going to have to retrain myself to talk slower, softer, and less-sarcastic. This leads to my reason for coming to MACUL Space.

I am looking for tips, tricks, blogs to follow, good lesson resources. I REALLY want to keep using technology with my future young ones. However, I need help knowing what to do with them... I want to learn from your experience. I met with my future principal today and I think he was laughing at the thought that I wanted to do technology with my Kindergartners. I know that it will not be an immediate thing; we'll have other areas to focus on. However, I also know that they are capable of completing tech lessons. But remember, I am looking for ANY good ideas and resources, not just technology.

If you are able, please help! (and I thank you in advance!!!)

[Andrew Birt]

Read this thread.
It also has the suggestion to do a search. You may find quite a bit...
http://maculspace.ning.com/group/sigee/forum/topics/what-to-do-with...

[Pam Shoemaker]

I recenlty wrote a blog post called Kindergarten Bloggers that you may enjoy reading.

Check out the MACUL Elementary Educators' Diigo group at http://groups.diigo.com/groups/macul-elementary-t_ea_c_hers

[James Stewart]

Hi Heather, I teach computer class to kindergarten students for 50 minutes. Here is a list of bookmarks that I have acquired that I use with students. Internet4Classrooms also has a great list for K

[Lisa Wickman]

Here are some of my favorite sites to use with K-1. Good luck!

[James Stewart]

Check out this article on kindergarten podcasters, Wow!

You should also visit the classrooms of Ms. Kellner and Mrs. Whitinger for more podcasts. Great work .... and ideas!

[Heather Janik]

Wow! Thanks for this... I went to Mrs. Whitinger and she does some amazing things (Ms. Kellner's link didn't work). I was actually thinking about doing some green screen videos with my future Kindergarteners. This showed me that the kids are capable because I think I am going to have to deal with a lot of nay-sayers.

Thanks again!

[James Stewart]

Here is the link to Ms. Kellner's class.