Confession

So the first official challenge for kinderblog13 is now posted.

 I'd have to say it certainly intimidated me at first. However, after reading a few posts from other bloggers, I feel like I can tackle the challenge and confide in my readers.

My confession - I'm addicted to my iDevices! (I have a iPhone and an iPad, plus all full day kindergarten educators in my board have been given an iPad to use for documentation, so I actually have 2 iPads) My addiction is starting to become a bit unhealthy. It is the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do before going to sleep. It feels like I'm constantly connected to that little box. All day long I'm tapping in that passcode to look for updates, or I'm listening for that familiar ping. I will sometimes send my husband a text when we are in the same house but on different floors. It's out of control. Now that I'm home for the summer I feel my addiction is increasing. Normally when I was working I was too busy to check in on things during the school day. (Although I do use an iPad in my kindergarten class for documenting student learning and progress, I keep my work iPad relatively free of my home based distractions) But now that I'm home for the summer I'm connecting with that little box all day long.

When thinking through this post I asked myself what am I actually doing on this miniature box all day? Some of it was productive, some not so much. So I figured I'd share in detail all the silly and or productive things I check/do on that little device as a sort of full disclosure for my confession.

1.

I'm guilty of logging into facebook just to troll and creep on all those statuses all day long. MINI CONFESSION #1 I rarely post updates of my own.

2.

 This one is somewhat productive depending on how much junk mail was delivered that day to my email.

3.  

I have two twitter accounts, so this one can go either way. I created one account to connect with other educators and increase my PLN. This goal is going quite well and I'm learning lots. This is where I actually found the kinderblog challenge. My other account though is totally unproductive. I use it to follow celebrity gossip and reality tv updates. MINI CONFESSION #2 - I'm also addicted to Big Brother. I use twitter to follow people who post updates from the live feeds. Yikes there sure is some crazy stuff happening in that house this season!

4.

 All of my appointments and celebrations are programmed into my calendar with reminders so this one is totally productive. Plus, I use the clock function to set my alarm every morning, although that function is currently being unused thanks to my wonderful summer vacation.

5.  

This is another one that falls into both the productive and unproductive categories. About half of my pinterest time is spent looking and pinning educational pins. The other half totally unproductive. Although I do pin some recipes,  household and holiday things, the majority of my time is spent perusing the humor board. My goodness, some on the things on there are hilarious. The ecards, autocorrects, and other stuff often have me amused for hours. MINI CONFESSION #3 - when I'm repinning things I rarely change the text.

6.

This one is mostly productive. The majority of the blogs I follow are education based. So, I'm learning lots about teaching and blogging. I will admit though, a couple of the blogs I follow are not education based.

7. 

MINI CONFESSION #4 - I'm also addicted to all things Disney/Disney World/Disney Cruise. So I'm constantly checking the DIS boards forums, even though our next trip won't be for a long time. I'm also checking Easywdw my absolute favourite Disney blog. Josh writes awesome posts about the parks and has an amazing crowd calendar to help plan your trips. The thing I like the most though is his writing style. 

8. 

 Productive for the most part- actually using my phone for the purpose it was designed.

9. 

Surfing the world wide web - productive for the most part.

10. 

Games - totally unproductive, mostly silly games in which you build your own city/farm/hotel/airline/salon/etc. My current game addiction is Hay Day.

11.

I'd like to think that having a camera is productive. I always have a camera with me now to document and capture all those important moments in life. A camera however does lead to Instagram which is probably not that productive. 

Overall, I think my iDevices are used for a balance of both productive and unproductive things. But I'm still trying to cut back on my constant connection. The main reason of course is my little boy. My goal is to play together, create together and explore together this summer. This is my chance to be a mom.

Another reason is to distance my son from technology because MINI CONFESSION#5 he's quickly becoming his own technology monster. As I was writing this post, he was busy exploring the new DJ app I downloaded for free thanks to my twitter connections. I didn't have a clue how to work it but he had it figured out in mere minutes. He loves Minecraft and also penned his first runaway note on our iPad. He inherited my old iPhone 3GS when I upgraded this fall. So he goes around telling everybody at school that he has an iPhone. I keep telling him that there is no chip in the phone so you just have an iPod but he doesn't care.

Technology is great and although we both really enjoy it we're going to have lots of fun experiences this summer without it. Thanks for reading and I can't wait to read all those other confessions.

#Kinderblog13

One of the main things that attracted me to blogging was the incredible sharing of knowledge and ideas. This summer I have been trying to expand my knowledge and networking even further by using twitter for educational purposes (before I was simply following silly stuff like Big Brother updates - which I still do on a separate twitter account - my what a season this one will be) Anyways, while surfing around on twitter I stumbled across #kinderchat and their #kinderblog13 challenge. The challenge is just beginning, but you can join in at anytime. You can find the details here. You can also follow me on twitter by clicking here. I added some beautiful social media buttons to the top of my blog yesterday but I don't believe you can see them on mobile devices.

The first task of the challenge is to sum up myself in 250 words or less. Yikes, well here goes nothing.

I teach full day kindergarten in Eastern Ontario where I teach a mixture of Junior and Senior students. Ontario rolled out a brand new kinder program three years ago where a Designated Early Childhood Educator and a teacher form a partnership and together we deliver a play-based program with an incredible emphasis on child led inquiry. As educators we have been encouraged to really look in depth at our practices and rethink/replace things that aren't working or aren't developmentally appropriate. This past year we discontinued calendar time, ditched my big bulky classroom teacher desk and increased the amount of time given to student directed play. We are encouraged to get rid of our theme based units, ditch our worksheets/prescribed crafts and let kids lead their own learning. Overall, I feel that its an exciting time to be a Kindergarten teacher here in Ontario. I love the new program and as each year passes (this will be my third year teaching the new program) I become better at "letting go" of the control. There are still areas that I need to improve upon - like how to better document student learning and progress. I also hope to gather some more ways to further integrate technology into our program. I believe that I'm working with my students in a way that is the best way for them and I'm having a blast learning and discovering with them. 

Goin' on a Blog Hunt

Good afternoon bloggers! I think that it's time to head out on a blog hunt! 

I'm linking up with Laura at Corkboard Connections for her blog hunt. What a cute idea to discover some new blogs to love and read. So go and ahead and click on that super cute bear to discover some new blogs. I keep singing Goin' on a Bear Hunt as I compose this post. My kindergarten students absolutely adore the following rendition of the classic song on You Tube by The Learning Station. So much fun!

Of course now that Google Reader is gone, how will you keep up with all of these fantastic new blogs? Well I think that you should give Blog Lovin' a try. Its super user friendly and even has an app. I love that I can scroll through new posts on my iPhone or iPad so easily. I think that I'm even more addicted to blogging with this smart new app. If you would like to follow me on Blog Lovin' click the pic below.

A special thank you to Melissa at Common Core and So Much More for the awesome button! Now go ahead and make some new blog discoveries on the Blog Hunt - go and click that bear at the top of this post!

Happy Canada Day!

I hope all of my Canadian followers have had a great day proudly celebrating our nation. We were hoping to hit up the local fireworks but I don't think Cameron can stay awake that late for the second night in a row (he had a sleepover at his Aunt and Uncle's house while Mr. G and I attended a wedding out of town last night.) We might just sit out on our back deck later and catch some of the higher fireworks from there.
In honour of Canada Day I'm linking up to a Canadian Teacher linky party over at Teaching is a Gift. Lots of Canadian bloggers have already linked up organized by province so I'm going to join them.

My next job will be to add each of the blogs to my ever growing list on Blog Lovin'. Anyways enjoy the day bloggers! I'm off to watch a special Canadian themed episode of Phineas and Ferb with my boy.

Currently

I'm linking up a day early to Currently with Oh' Boy 4th Grade

I know that I'm a bit late to join the summer vacation party compared to the majority of bloggers out there, but I am so happy to have finally arrived. By the way we do not have air conditioning in our schools and the past week of teaching was not pretty. The temperature with the humidex was around 38 degrees. We were practically melting. Anyways, I have big plans for the summer including some home improvement projects - installing new baseboards and a kitchen backsplash. I needed a new battery for my watch and the nice lady who was helping me commented on how scratched up my current watch is, so I guess I need a new one along with a pedicure for my sorry looking feet. The world of blogging can be overwhelming, there is just so much information out there. You could spend a lifetime just reading blogs, without even taking the time to post your own stuff. Don't forget to relax and enjoy the well deserved time off from work. Recharge your batteries and reconnect with those you love.  Well I'm off to make some cake pops with my son and enjoy a relaxing summer day out by the pool afterwards.