Common core resources

For those of you who are looking for resources for LA  and Math Common Core activities this workbooks looks like it has a lot of great ideas and activities that will take very little prep to implement. Games, worksheets,learning strategies all organized in one book.

Also available for kindergarten through third grade! Fifth Grade to follow soon!!!

You can check out these resources by following this link:

Fourth Grade Common Core Workbook

Spring Break Post

WAT - We Are Teachers challenged a first grade teacher to go paperless for two weeks. This link will connect you to her Blog that tells some of the successes and problems that she ran into.

And for those of you who have heard about Mesquite Elementary in AZ, whose teachers are doing a daily reteach/enrich with their math program, here is a video link AND beneath the video are some questions that I have heard WITH answers.

Hope your Break is fun!

PLN - The Easy Way

Kathy Schrock has been publishing online since some of us had Apple IIe’s  in our classrooms  - I have been reading and using her ideas since I began teaching. Her ideas helped me implement technology into my classrooms and instruction over the years in a relatively painless way. I have just discovered that she has an amazing site for PLN’s [Personal Learning Network] - http://www.schrockguide.net/creating-your-pln.html - This site is overflowing with information to help you be an active teacher-learner, and to lead you toward implementing your own PLN.
If you don’t know where to start, try the first few videos under WHAT?  and WHY? Then go from there. The INVESTIGATIONS on the right sidebar are a good start also.
Good Luck and let me know how it goes for you and if you find something REALLY interesting!

How About These for Digital Learning Day?

Wednesday February 6^th is DIGITAL LEARNING DAY. Why not try a new way to do something digital in your class? 

TECH TIDBIT: did you know that your wireless mouse and keyboard will work in almost any place in your classroom???? So you could turn on your projector. Find an interactive site and hand the mouse to a kid. Once that kid answers a question or does something on the site, s/he passes the mouse to someone else.

STARFALL:

 In addition to the phonics portion of this site… don’t forget it has a great learn to read and a beginning reading section where the books can be read aloud.

INTO THE BOOK ~
Into the Book teaches kids different components of how to process reading ~ synthesizing, summarizing, and questioning, among others. It uses online learning modules for guided practice, then has the students practice their on their own.  Grades 2-4

Learner.org INTERACTIVES: 
This site offers a ton of interactives for classroom use and a decent search engine, choose by grade level and subject.

THE READING MATRIX
This website has a number of skills practices for grade 3 and up.  Vocabulary, comprehension, analyzing, and proofreading. There are also some audio text that has close exercises, vocabulary, and sequencing activities. 

AMERICAN FOLKLORE:
Looking for that folk tale or campfire story that you just can’t find anywhere else? Try this site.

INTERNET4CLASSROOMS:
A bajillion sites here, but easily searchable. Spend some time to find a few to keep as fillers for a few minutes of extra class time or find one to build a lesson around.

January Mish-Mash

Today I am posting a few different items:
A MATH website for grades 3-8. The site is called LearnZillion and it has tons of short lessons aligned to the Common Core in Math. Each has an instructional lesson for the students; a directed practice (very short); and a commentary for the instructor. You do need to sign up (For FREE). I am including a link to a lesson so you can get an idea of what is offered: Factor Pairs 
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Problem Solving Webinar

This is an archived webinar that was presented live, earlier this year. The webinar is an hour long. You are able to start and stop the webinar as needed. Laura provides all handouts used in the webinar and she also offers books to augment your problem solving instruction in your classroom, if your are interested. I've used her stuff and she writes excellent activities. Possible re-licensure points – check with your Administrator.
Be sure to check out her “File Cabinet” for lots of free stuff.

If you are looking for a song to use in your instruction here is a site that has 3,000 SONGS that you can use in the classroom—not links to the songs themselves but information that identifies its practical use in the classroom: literary, historical, political, and/or social reference(s) contained in the song.. http://www.learningfromlyrics.org/songs.html

ONLINE TALKING STORIES from the UK
SCIENCE STORIES
LINCOLN MEMORIAL INTERACTIVE
DOGO NEWS  teachers create their own site with curriculum, assignments, and current news items---- could be great for a daily class check-in; daily starters; or landing page for the computer lab

TpT

I know many of you are Pinners... you have a Pinterest account and invest time in adding to your array of classroom ideas (and other areas). Another resource for teachers is a place called TeachersPayTeachers. This is an online marketplace for teachers to sell their ideas, units, and activities to other teachers. There are a bajillion ideas on TpT and what I like about it is that if I need an idea quickly I can search there and it can spark some ideas. Other times I want a unit, all ready to go and I can find something already made up, it usually costs very little, and it is done very well.
When we went to Core Academy last summer they were pushing the concept of "I Can" statements.. putting the standards and objectives into kid-speak and posting them; then using them at each lesson. I started to make cards that I could post in my classroom. As I started this project I realized how many there were. Then I found some cards that teachers had already done, on TpT. They are great! They are colorful and creative. They are in language that the kids can understand and they were fairly cheap. As we were/are trying to implement 2 new curricula, my time is precious. I really didn't want to spend that much time doing the cards. This was a great time-saver for me.
At various times there are sales at TpT, and many teachers offer free items so you can try out their stuff. They do this, of course, to get you to buy other activities. 
Go check it out. You may find some amazing activities!

OMG... it is snowing again!

Off to a great start for the New Year. We are all tired of the COLD and SNOW, but we need the precipitation, or it is going to be a wicked fire season. So while I am cooped up in my house (y'all know I will not venture forth in the snow, no matter how minor it is, unless absolutely required), I have been looking for some Professional Development for everyone. Some of us need to renew this year and some of us just need a jump start.
Here's the first of my "finds" ~ 

TeachersFirst ok2 ask – Free, online, live sessions for teachers. Pre-registration is required, but FREE! In Grand County you must also clear this with your administrator to get Professional Development credit.

January 24 _ ENERGIZING MATH: description:Discover TeachersFirst 3.0 to energize math in the K-8 classroom. Participants will view and explore resources for lesson planning, student use, and collaboration through Twitter and blogs. A question/answer period will be available to help with individual questions.

http://teachersfirst.wikispaces.com/file/view/OK2Ask72+description.pdf/387819124/OK2Ask72%20description.pdf
February 7 – GOOGLES GOODIES - Description:

Explore some of the many Google goodies and tricks. Learn more about various sites

owned by Google. Explore Super Searching, Google Video Chat, Google Translate,

Google Maps, Google Templates, YouTube in the classroom, Gmail subaccounts, and

more! A question/answer period will be available. REGISTRATION AND INFO: http://teachersfirst.wikispaces.com/file/view/OK2Ask73+description.pdf/387822192/OK2Ask73%20description.pdf
There are other sessions also. I have done these. They are not difficult to manage and they are pretty good, although each is different. I really like the FREE aspect also.

Happy New Year!

Top Ten on My iPad

Did you get an ipad for Christmas? Or maybe you have access to use one at school? One of my resolutions is to use mine more in the classroom this year. I have been using it quite a bit for productivity and management, but now I want to use it more for instructional purposes.

FREEBIES: The UCET (Utah Coalition for Educational Technology) Board sends out a newsletter that lists several free apps each month. Go to ucet.org and click on the “Newsletter” link in the top ribbon to sign up. Some of these apps are only free for a limited time, so it is a good idea to look through the newsletter when it comes out and download what you want immediately.

My blogger friend, Richard Byrne has a relatively new blog called iPad Apps for School, http://ipadapps4school.com/.  Richard provides suggestions and reviews on a mountain of apps for education. This is a great place to start if you are looking for apps. Not all of these are free.

So what do I have on my iPad? Way too much stuff! But I am going to try to list my top 10 for school.
1. Teacher’s Assistant Pro. I use this a lot for documentation of student behavior and achievement. I use the pay version. There is a free version to try it out.
2.  Cloud On… Mobile Workspace. Allows me to work on files from Microsoft Word Suite (Documents, Excel, Powerpoints,  PDF), any time.
3. & 4.Educreations and Show Me…. I have both of these (they were free from UCET). They are whiteboard presentation apps. You can write or draw your presentation. You can also upload pictures. Both allow you to narrate the presentation. Both are equally easy to use.
5. The Hat… many of you use the Hat on your desktop…. Draws names; puts kids into groups
6. Pick Me – random student name picker. This one lets you spin a wheel to choose students to call on and will let you indicate if their answer was correct.
7.  Remote Mouse… lets me run my classroom computer from anywhere in the room
8. Haiku Deck… a little Power Point kinda thing…. Nice for short, impromptu presentations.
9. iBooks… a bookshelf for storing downloads
10. Time Timer… four separate timers with 10 sound effects

Share your discoveries here in the comments!