Kindergarten teachers engage students with blended learning in their classrooms. Burnett introduces Chatterpix Kids to extend reading and writing on iPads. Celis uses the ABC Mouse Kinder app for reading and math practice. #icoachesconnect @WISDCannan @ChatterPixIt @ABCmouse

Burnett introduces her Kinder student to ChatterPix Kids. ChatterPix Kids is perfect for elementary students as it is simple to use, can be used with any topic to add blended learning, and is safe because social sharing features are disabled. Burnett demonstrated the steps by screen mirroring the app for her students from her iPad on the whiteboard. Then students practiced by making a toy elf say "Merry Christmas". Of course, this was a rollicking good time for these little ones! Burnett's Kindergarten-teacher wheels were turning as she thought about ways to blend the app with books that "read" and other activities that support learning.
Burnett also thought of all the ways to share these students' activities with parents and campus partners.

As I observed this devoted and experienced Kindergarten teacher interact with her kids as she introduced a new innovative technology activity, I reflected upon the word "access". Access to meaningful technology is important to our Cannan students, as many of them live in a rural setting with little "access" to wifi. They may be experienced with playing with their parents' phones, but access to technology as a learning tool may be rare for some of our kids. Just as our district devotes time and money to give our kids access to books, reading, and educational resources, we have a district-mandated mission to support our students' "access" to meaningful technology in their classrooms. Our students will be moving into a technology-based economy when they are grown, and we take our responsibility very seriously to give them access to everything we can offer to help them grow and thrive.

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Another amazing Kindergarten teacher, Celis, uses ABC Mouse on her iPads to practice and reinforce reading and math. The ABCmouse company has a Kindergarten curriculum that is leveled, personalized, and grows with the students as they work. For example, this student has worked up to level 5, Deciduous Forests. ABC Mouse is designed to support widely accepted best practices with respect to the use of educational technology. The program is free for educators on iPads.

As more research publications cloud rather than clarify the issue of too much screen time vs. authentic learning in the classroom, it is important to keep up with the latest findings. According to Saro Mohammed Ph.D. of the Brookings Institute (2019), “When technology is integrated into lessons in ways that are aligned with good in-person teaching pedagogy, learning can be better than without technology.” Mohammed states technology in an educational setting that is paced to the individualized student is very promising for the education of our children. She says this is important because access to technology outside of learning environments is still very unevenly distributed across ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic lines. Students who are exposed to educational technology in the school setting ensures that no student experiences a “21st-century skills and opportunity” gap.