Week 4

Within my immediate school there is very limited access to technology, the three classrooms have two computers, neither of which has internet connection. I use my own iPad in my class, which I either project on to my personal television or use individually or in small groups. From my understanding the rolling out of technology has begun within the district and there are a variety of levels of teacher utilization. In previous courses I have studied how best to teach decoding skills both in reading and in understanding unfamiliar words. In most cases readers decode words by using context cues and previous understanding of root words to decode unfamiliar vocabulary within text. I have approached my literacy instruction using these knowledge, therefore decreasing time spent on “sounding out” new words, and increasing the ability to use context clues (within in the text or images) to help students decode. I am new to my district so I am not sure in what areas my current district as struggled. However in my experience districts struggle when implementing new policies in lack of resources. Specifically; time and money. Also when a district has a new policy and lacks “teacher by-in” then they can often find a large disconnect between the administration and staff in regards to the effectiveness of the program, if staff does not want to implement a new policy, they can easily sabotage the policy, be it intentional or not. I read a few very interesting articles regarding effective preschool models. One was from NIEER titled “Preschool; Policy Matters” and another article from the same site titled “Increasing the Effectiveness of Preschool Programs.” Both articles discussed the importance of high standards in regards to teacher qualifications, curriculum, use of grade level assessments and consistent policies, proceeders and protocols across the preschool program.