Blogs on Upper Elementary (3-5)

Just a few posts ago I provided a list of some of my favorite education books. One of them was Applying Standards-Based Constructivism: A Two-Step Guide for Motivating Elementary Students. In this post I want to revisit the book to explain how this two-step approach works well when integrating technology into the classroom.

In conversations with educators in the lower grades, I often find that there is a sense of frustration or even fear in bringing technology into the classroom. These emotions have nothing to do with a fear or frustration with technology itself. In fact, many of these educators WANT to bring technology into their classroom but are boggled by how to train or prepare 6-9 year olds to create multi-step and engaging projects.

I won't pretend to be an expert, but after 3 ½ years teaching in a lab with Kindergarten through 6th grade students I have some tips.

"With what are you struggling?" I ask.

"I think I need some more direction on the little decisions like what do you do when a student complains about a stomach ache right before a lesson," replies student teacher.

I had a student ask me for a month straight, almost every day, if it was okay to write a story about Transformers. At the beginning of each writing workshop, he would stroll up to me and ask the same question.

"Yes, you can write a story with Transformers in it." I thought I sounded sincere.

"Are you sure?" he would ask.