Connect and Disconnect

The theme this year at my school is connect and my principal showed a great video about what learning is like today for our students.  It made me think back to when I was in elementary school.  Never did I imagine a classroom with computers and now devices- tablets, phones etc.  So much has changed in education and now we need to think to the future for our students.  It made me think about Olivia and what it will be like in school for her.  Olivia is growing up in a world that is changing every second of every day.  We get information instantly and can connect with so many people and places.  Already we let Olivia explore technology and it is so interesting to see how fast she picks up how to do things.  I suggest watching the video below if you haven't been in a school in a long time.

Now the opposite of connecting is disconnecting.  My little heart got hurt earlier in the week to see so many parents disconnected with their children at the park.  Then my heart got hurt at Gymboree.  A person there was on their phone, looking at pictures of themself to find a new Facebook profile picture during class.  The person was sitting on the big mat they have there and just looking at self portraits and deciding which one looked best...all the while their child is playing and trying to interact with said parent.  Isn't that something you can do later....like after class? A Gymboree class is 45 minutes...disconnect yourself and connect with your child.  I know we all parent differently but take a technology time out...Facebook will be there later...but your child won't be 2 forever!

Sorry to rant....