Colorado Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Just had kindergarten information night
and man do I feel old. Prometheum, green screens, iPads and much, much more. I think I got a piece of chalk and a wooden board. Maybe a paper clip. Pretty sure not much more.

DD -- 5YO
DS -- 3YO
Re: Just had kindergarten information night
No more baby siggie pics. Boo.
Wow. That's really cool.
I've seen a lot of difference even from when DS1 started kindergarten (2003) to now.
I'm all for tech stuff (and LG loves my iPhone) but IMO nothing will substitute a good teacher who can get them excited, ask probing questions, and connect with the kids.
PHOTOS REMOVED
I feel young sometimes too, and I'm 33.
I also old fashioned as new technology doesn't excite me, especially in the classroom. I know they need to use it, but at such a young age, I think hands on learning is so much better. I sometimes hate how technology seems to rule our lives, and I'd like to hold off as long as possible for that to happen to my kiddos. Just my two cents.
I feel young sometimes too, and I'm 33.
I also old fashioned as new technology doesn't excite me, especially in the classroom. I know they need to use it, but at such a young age, I think hands on learning is so much better. I sometimes hate how technology seems to rule our lives, and I'd like to hold off as long as possible for that to happen to my kiddos. Just my two cents.
Yeah, I'm 40 and feel about average age there. It's interesting that they are talking about preparing them for jobs that don't even exist today and realizing that they may be on to something there.
DD -- 5YO
DS -- 3YO
I agree. I don't think our school uses too much technology stuff. They use some, but most of the learning is still good old pencil and paper and hands on stuff. They have some iPads, but I don't think the k kids use them much if at all and definitely not every day for the older kids.
DS's K classroom has a SmartBoard - it's like a huge ipad the size of a chalkboard. the kids love it - it's very interactive - they use it every day. they also use itouches in the class and have a handful of computers in the room as well.
I love the technology as it's what they will need to know as we move forward.
Katie Talks About...
Good question. I would assume it's not literal, just like the major courts are now "paperless" in the sense that everything is filed and stored electronically, but they still have to have some tangible paper in the court files, but just a fraction of what it used to be.
Yeah, the one thing that REALLY bothers me is that some schools have ditched teaching cursive altogether. DD's new school has not but they did say it is not emphasized as most of the world seems to be typing. Sure, I pointed out, but I want her to be able to read the original Declaration of Independence.
DD -- 5YO
DS -- 3YO
I think it's great that kids are learning to live with and use technology so young. We are inundated by technology and to be able to look at it as a tool and not a toy/solution allows them to develop new activities and career sectors. Remember when we had to memorize a lot - not so necessary in this day and age, instead kids now have to understand where to find good sources of information, who to trust to supply information, and how to digest that information quickly so they can understand even bigger concepts - especially in science and math, which continue to evolve.
That being said, our K classes use computers a little, but are mostly paper/pens. But our 5 year old is a pro at the i-pad and loves using my laptop, so I guess he's getting that at home.
As for feeling old...me too (not b/c of my age). We were the first family in our school to get a home computer...Commodore 64 - before the school even had Apples in the computer lab. I remember turning in a pinted report in 1st grade and my teacher laughed b/c he didn't even have access to a word-processor to type assignments.
Are you united with the CCOKCs?
My co-teacher and I were just talking about this today. The research that cursive connects synapses in the brain is pretty amazing. We don't do much with cursive at my school, but she and I are going to do cursive in 5th for a review and to help the kids who learned it wrong or didn't have it at the other schools before coming to us. I'm all about tech, but there is a time and a place for everything and it all needs to be used thoughtfully and intentionally.