I was at a faculty meeting on Friday and the topic of having creating a pre-school program in the district, free of cost to qualifying families, was brought up. This caught my attention because
1.) I need a job and
2.) I believe early childhood education is very important

I was reading up on PA’s Pre-K Counts program http://www.prekcounts.org/ and then I found an article from Associated Content at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/396213/pennsylvaina_preschool_prek_counts.html?cat=9

According to this article only 31% of the children aged 3 and 4 in the state have access to quality preschool programs, and that was an interesting statistic. I really thought more children attended preschool than that. In undergrad, we learned alot about the benefits of preschool for children and for school districts. When children attend preschool they are taught skills they need to be successful in kindergarten and special needs are identified earlier. I would love to see my district start a program, we definitely need one!

I read an article at http://www.azcentral.com/families/articles/0316kidspodcast0316.html entitled, Podcasting craze spreads to children’s programming.
This artilce discussed how more and more parents are becoming aware of how to use their kid’s iPods for educational uses. A growing number of parents are looking for podcasts for their children that are educational, age appropriate and fun, but parents don’t where to look. The article offered a few suggestions for parents: http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting  www.familyfriendlypodcast.com  and thesugarmonster.com . I just wonder, how many parents in my area (Westmoreland County, PA) are familiar with podcasts? I would love to send home a survey at my school and just see how technologically advanced my parents are. I know my school district doesn’t use podcasts at all, and now that I see what is out there, I wish we would!

Podcast. Another new word for me…well, I shouldn’t say “new” because I have heard of them before and had a slight idea of what they were. I mean, I’m 24 years old and don’t even own a iPod, yes pathetic I know. I just never had an interest in them. Anyways, back to podcasts, I never knew how many of them exsisted and how popular they are!
I used iTunes to search for podcasts for personal uses and found CNN, pilates, Grammer Girl and VH1’s best week ever – which was by far my favorite with over 300 episodes! Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to watch every episode yet, but I’m working on it!  :)  As far as podcasts for children, I think Story Nory was awesome. This has so many uses for the classroom! Sesame Street is also great for the pre-school and Kindergarten. Radio Disney was fun and so was Nickelodean!

At http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=11531 there is a list of Scholastic’s Top 10 Podcasts for Teachers and Students. Do check it out