Play Is Important Work Too...

 I added a lot of extra information in my discussion post on Black Board, so to summarize on here: 

The lack of play used as a learning tool in primary grades is a huge injustice to all students. Until third grade, students are still considered "early childhood" in terms of child development. Play should be seen as a legitimate tool for learning and due to academic pushdown, it is not uncommon to see kindergarten classrooms without dramatic play setups or time devoted to playing. It is such a sad reality and a huge mistake when it comes to considering what children should be doing throughout their days as 5,6,7,8, and 9 year-olds. 

I added to my postcard that in terms of this course, I would want to find a way to allow educators to be creative with this idea of play. Does that mean using technology? Does that mean integration? Right now I am not sure, but I was weary to add all of that because of this idea of decision paralysis that was mentioned in the Switch text. Ideally in terms of this course, yes, technology would be at the forefront, but when I think critically about the school day and students' needs, I am also considering time without technology and a time that serves just for hands-on play. 

To keep the message direct, I wrote about a starting point being 10-15 minutes each day. To me, this is a reasonable chunk of time. Starting there gives the chance for time expansion, and should not 'steal' too much time from academic work.