Wetpaint

I decided to attempt a site designed for both the kindergarten team at my school and for the parents. I used the free site; Wetpaint, and after the initial orientation, found it to be fairly easy to work with. It is certainly nice looking, with different template options for backgrounds and individual page layouts. One major thing about Wetpaint is that it is meant to be a shared site, with spaces on every page to post new threads and collaborate. I'm undecided if this will be a good thing or a negative. If this develops into an actual kindergarten web site where each teacher posts information about their own class, the ability to have multiple editors will be a major bonus. If I continue to be the only contributor, I would probably benefit more from a google site.

I did have a good experience with Wetpaint, and the fact that it is free is just another added bonus. My site is nearly done for now, but I have lots of ideas of how it could be improved upon and things that could be added in the future.
Check it out at http://lakewoodkindergarten.wetpaint.com

Ethical Direction

In an article titled Developing Ethical Direction, he author projects his belief that students need to be taught how to use their 'internal compass' when dealing with technology and appropriate ways to use technology. In my opinion, this is common sense. Many people, even teachers, probably take for granted just how much character development goes on in pre-school and kindergarten. As a teacher, if you have students that wash their hands after using the bathroom, put supplies away when they're done using them, and can walk in a straight line, you need to thank a kindergarten teacher. In addition to what the state requires, such as reading and writing, I am also faced with teaching what society requires. The first few days of school for a kindergarten teacher has often been described as herding cats, but in those first few days I prefer to think if the students as miniature drunks. Chances are, if I don't explain every single detail of how I need the students to line up, they won't know how to do it.

Why should we think that students will magically know and understand right from wrong when dealing with such complex ideas as why it might not be alright to download free music from the Internet, when these same students have to be taught that it's not OK to hit someone because they said they don't want to play with you at recess. Everyday life has many shades of gray, and the rules of the digital world are no different. Students are spending insane amounts of time on the computer these days, and parents are taking less of an active role in their children's lives. We can't assume that students just know what is right and wrong. Even thought it seems that the list of demands placed on teachers is ever growing, I think that inevitably, ethics of technology has just been added to that list.