KimberlyCrow


 * My name is Kim Crow. I am a preschool intervention specialist with Cloverleaf Local Schools. This is my 5th year at the Leaf. Before that, I worked for the Stark Co. MRDD at Eastgate school. My original intention in college was to teach 1st grade until my student teaching at Eastgate. I loved working with special needs students and to my excitement a teaching position was open when I graduated. This is now my 8th year working with special needs students and I have loved (almost) every minute of it!!**


 * I have two children of my own, Alexis, 5 and Merrin, 2 1/2. I love my girls very much and love to spend time reading with them, pretend playing, and taking them shopping! I love how they play together and Merrin always wants to do what Lexi does (and vice versa!). My husband and I have been married for a little over 5 1/2 years and together for 10 years. We enjoy family nights together when we let the girls decide what we are going to do and which vehicle to take--they love taking one of our two Jeeps out in the summer time!**

Skype Address: kimberly_crow
 * Email**:kcrow at cls.k12.oh.us

My favorite personal/professional use of technology
I love to Facebook!! My husband says I am addicted, but it has been fun reconnecting with old friends and staying in touch with the new ones that I have. It is nice to have an avenue to vent if my family is driving me crazy, or to pose questions when I am not quite sure what to do about something. I also love looking at everyone's pictures and the support that I have from all my "mom friends". I also love to take pictures with my digital camera of the girls and edit them online. I often order products for family members with the girls' pictures on them. I love being able to "fix" pictures when they don't turn out quite right and crop them to focus in the important part of the picture.

The most frustrating aspect of using "technology"
The most frustrating thing is that it is SOOOO time consuming. Speaking mostly about editing my pictures, having to open the picture, edit it, and then wait for the computer to save it takes so long, especially when there are 50-100 pictures in one album. There are also those times when the internet connection is slow or more than one thing is trying to run and it dramatically increases the wait time. The reliance on everything to run "fast and perfect" is not there even though technology continually improves.


 * Vision Statement:**
 * We would like to integrate technology across multiple areas of the curriculum. Our hope it to find programs for kids to use for fun as well as use technology as a learning tool. To provide all students with access at all times throughout their preschool experience. Also, for us, as teachers to use technology for organization, classroom management, and classroom environment. To use technology as an informational highway to connect with parents, for example post a video of what we are doing in class for parents to watch.**

Current technology in my classroom: Just this last week, I finally have a desktop computer in my classroom for the kids to use. We have been practicing taking turns and moving the mouse to click buttons on starfall.com. We have worked on the letters of the week, allowing everyone a chance to practice moving the mouse. The kids just love the animated things on the computer. Before that, I took several digital pictures to make books in the classroom.

Reflection Questions:
1. I have used the camara for taking pictures in the classroom. I used individual pictures for a book, as well as for schedules around the classroom. I used the camara to capture children playing and the way they were interacting with each other during free choice time. I also used the flip camara to record play sessions that had children engaging in play activities that they had never done before. It is a good documenting tool that I can refer back to when it comes time for progress reports. I also used the camara to document activities that are not everyday, like playing outside in the snow or holiday parties. I would eventually like to print and/or forward the pictures to parents so that they get a glimpse of some of the fun that their child has at school. The objective for all of these practices was for me to get an opportunity to use my new tools in the classroom. I also used it as a way to "practice" incorporating this new technology into my daily schedule. Having limited technology up until this point, I used the camaras during free play activities so that I was able to move around the classroom and see things in a variety of ways. I need practice and tips on how to incorporate the camara and flip video during teaching activities.

2. I have explored shutterfly, pbskids, and starfall so far. I have glanced at a few others, but have not explored them in depth. I incorporated the starfall website into a choice activity for my kiddos. They love getting a turn to choose a letter and click through the screens. When one person is on the computer, there is a group that always forms around who ever is getting a turn. They help each other, giggle constantly, and compliment each other on a job well done when someone successfully completes a game. It is wonderful to see how helpful the kids can be to some of their peers who do not have as much experience with technology. We also completed the snowman book on starfall as a class, and then the kids could pair up and take turns making choices for the book. They had a great time and get along extremely well during computer time. I have to admit that I thought it would be a constant battle. We also have sticks in a cup for who gets a turn next. Every child gets a turn within the week's time, and all of them have been okay with this strategy. I uploaded pictures to shutterfly and navigated through them so far. I had extreme difficulty with my computer not letting me download the pictures from my camara for a long time, so I have not been able to do anything else at this point because I just loaded the pictures Wednesday afternoon. I did download the "In the Bed" book from Patti's wiki. I successfully completed it on the computer and printed it for one class. The kids love seeing themselves in the book, and are getting really good at reading each others' names. I was trying to think ahead and make a "blank" book with spaces that I could change out the classes from year to year, but I hit a glitch and am not quite finished with that one. I also made my own book from a Valentine's song I found in the Mailbox issue. I used Boardmaker pictures (for all books), laminated them and used velcro for a Valentine's rhyming book. With this being my first book I "made" myself....I ran into some difficulties and it took me two weeks and three versions, but I have the finished product and am very proud of myself.

=Valentine's Book = =Boardmaker pictures for book =
 * Must have Boardmaker to open this file**


 * Action Plan Reflection**
 * 1. I have made many technological improvements in my own life and in my classroom. I have enjoyed making interactive books (yes, my Valentine's book is still out because the children love it so much!). We have explored many websites in class for the children and have allowed more access for the kids on the computer. We have also gotten a adaptive keyboard and mouse to help the children be more successful on the computer. The kids love to type on the keyboard in powerpoint. They find many words around the room to type onto the text box. I have used the flip video to record lessons, especially when I can't get around to everyone and the flip video can capture their learning so that I can reflect later. There are several pictures of a dental unit that we did where the kids are interacting with the school nurse and some puppets.**


 * 2. I have been challenging myself to include more technology in my lessons. For example, recently I used Google maps to explore our community. We looked at where the roads are, lakes in the area, our school and the surrounding town. We also found a couple of the students' houses on the map. We looked at weather on a variety of website to look at moving maps, find where in the country it was raining, look at the different colors for rain and snow, etc.**
 * The kids loved to click through the websites and click on the maps to make them move.**


 * 3. I need to allow the children more opportunities to explore other websites. We have stuck mostly with starfall and pbs kids. They really enjoy these activities, but some of the more experienced kids have the knowledge and capabilities to do more. Also, I need to relinquish some control with the camara. I have made more connections with parents via email and am in the process of setting up the preschool website for the final project. This is a way that we can connect with not only the parents, but also the community about the successes we have in our program and what we actually do in our preschool classrooms.**


 * 4. Next year, I would like to start out more with the computer in the classroom. now that we have this technology, I would like to incorporate more small group instruction around the computer. Providing the kids with multiple opportunities to utilize these tools, instead of only using the computer as a "free time" choice. I would like to make more interactive books for the different holidays/seasons of the year since the children respond to these so well. I would also like to make more visual schedules with the kids' pictures instead of boardmaker.**

FINAL PROJECT** For my final project I wanted to create a website for our preschool so that quality information is available to the community about our program. I made this website in a powerpoint after talking to our web designer. He said that this format would work better than a weebly site to have everything transfer over when the new website is up and running.

Handout for the final project -