Reflecting on Tweets: NAEYC Convention 2011

What an amazing way for educators to connect! I have never been interested in having a Twitter account, but looking at this feed made me want to have one. (and to go to the NAEYC convention!)

Some favorite quotes from NAEYC convention tweets (#naeycac):

~"Tech learning/teaching needs to model real-life just like reading/writing should be what real readers and writers do in the world." - bluskyz
I addressed this topic in my previous post. It is something I look forward to learning more about in my own classroom. Using technology meaningfully and productively means connecting it to children's real lives.

~"Childhood has gotten too neat and tidy. Embrace the dirt and celebrate the mess!" - OoeyGooeyLady
Definitely! Allowing children to explore their environments means getting messy sometimes. You have to let go of a little bit of control to see what the children come up with. I think we can all learn a lot from children in this area.

~"If you don't want them to play with it, why do you have it in your classroom?" - HomeCanBeHeaven
Great point! In a child-centered curriculum, the classroom should be entirely accessible to the children. Children should feel ownership of their classroom and the materials in it. This will allow them to feel comfortable enough to be risk-takers.

~"Cute", "we've always done it" & "the parents like it" are not reasons for what we do in our classroom." - bluskyz
It is important for us to believe in what we do. Back up your ideas with reasons. You know your children best and you know when something is right for your classroom.

~"Imagine one child paired with another child...across an ocean...through a book. http://dld.bz/avEcj" - RescuedReaders
I love this idea - Rescued Readers looks like a great program. I would also love to be able to have a video connection between my classroom and a classroom in another part of the world. The children could do partner reads with children from other countries, or the video connection could be available for children during free play.

~"We need to resist the urge to keep is simple because they are little kids. They want big problems to solve." -bluskyz
We need to allow children to explore real-life topics and issues in their world. This helps them develop critical thinking skills and teaches them so much about how the world works. When we show children that we are genuinely interested in their thoughts, they learn that they are valued as individuals, and they will be excited about learning.