Television & Media

The teachers at Running River School think it is rarely necessary to view a television program or video. However, they reserve the right to show a video to their class on topics that could greatly enhance an area of study and benefit the children as a group. For example, when we rewrote The Wizard of Oz we watched the movie to study the story and to pick certain scenes we projected onto the stage as part of our show. We did this after telling the story, talking about its deeper meaning, and beginning to rehearse scenes in our own way. Watching it after we had gotten ourselves immersed in our own version gave the students new insights into seeing the story in ways they might not have before.

We think that children especially need social contact and play to stimulate all their senses, as well as their emotional, physical and intellectual aspects. There are so many great ways to spend time than television watching or being on the computer, and when it is limited, children always find what those ways are!

The teachers have a collection of information regarding the effect of television watching and too much computer time on children’s growing brains, on their social skills and their overall development. If you are interested in any of the available materials on this topic, please ask, or check the website for additional materials or recommended reading on this subject.

Overall, we think that television watching in small doses can create a good, balanced relationship to watching t.v., especially if the family shares the time watching quality shows or movies.

Computers

There will be computers in the classrooms. For the younger grades, K-3, these computers are for the teacher’s use. However, we have had lots of fun together finding visual information on the computer. We have used the computer for you tube videos of outer space and plant and animal life, as well as to find great songs about topics such as photosynthesis. Looking for information that a child is passionate about, and sharing it with the class (or using it for a report) is a great way to guide children in computer technology.

In the older grades classroom, the computers will be used for writing some creative writing stories final drafts and for research reports or in other ways that contribute significantly to the curriculum. We used the internet to research different chickens and choose what eggs we wanted to hatch. We also found recipes for cooking acorn squash for our “Acorn Squash Challenge.” We also teach the upper grades how to conduct internet research, make charts and graphs, and design various kinds of reports. They also created slide shows for their end of year presentations.