Pre-K TEKS Summary

The Prekindergarten TEKS lay the groundwork on which subsequent performance standards for students in future grades are coined. The Pre-K TEKS address many domains such as social and emotional development, language and communication, emergent literacy(reading), emergent literacy(writing), mathematics, science, social studies, fine arts, physical development, and technology applications. These TEKS dictate what student should learn in prekindergarten education programs in order to get them fully prepared for entry into school.

The TEKS for kindergartners specifies "End of Prekindergarten Year Outcomes", that is what children should be capable of doing upon successfully mastering a skill. These outcomes gauge how well has child has adapted to a certain domain. The TEKS in prekindergarten and the subsequent grades are scaffolding . They build up from the ground up with one setting the stage for the next. Paragraph X.A.4 of the pre-k TEKS states "Child uses software applications to create and express ideas." By the time a child reaches high school, paragraph 126.22(1a) states that "The student is expected to demonstrate knowledge and appropriate use of operating system, software applications, and communication and network components." These two examples indicate that student expectations in technological knowledge has a spiraling effect. The basics are learned in lower grades to set up for increasing skills in higher grades.

Although there are growing criticisms of using technology in classrooms, it is vital that we teach our students the importance of using it, embracing it and truly appreciating the benefits it can bring. Many critics pose that using technology might cause children to lose their ability to relate to others, inability to find appropriate information but I say that empowering our students with information will cause high order thinking skills, as long it is used in properly guided and interactive ways that would stimulate learning.