What's Going on in Your Classroom?

Have you ever been in the middle of a lesson and thought, "Wow, my kids are doing some amazing things! I wish people could see the awesome learning happening now!" but don't have a way to get it out there? I don't know about you but I find myself thinking that daily! My kiddos amaze me everyday with their learning! Since I have turned the control over to them (read more about that here), some great things are happening in the lab! But other than just talking about it over lunch and discussing it on my blog, I didn't really have a way for others to SEE the awesomeness that my kids are getting into....until now!
I have used Padlet (formerly known as Wallwisher) for a few years now. We used to it collaborate and share ideas as a class. However, it wasn't until I went to a workshop with Kevin Honeycutt, who is an AMAZING and INSPIRING educator, that I thought about using it as a doorway into my classroom! Padlet lets you change the layout of the posts to a stream, a lot like Twitter. This works great as a timeline! I have started taking pictures of the inquiring, learning, and collaborating that happens throughout the day in the lab. I then, upload the images to Padlet and type a little blurb describing what's happening with each grade level that day. I may post as many as 3 or 4 pictures that day, just depending on the lessons. I have embedded the Padlet wall into my class website and onto our blog so that the students, parents, and other teachers can get a first hand look at what's going on in our room! Check out our Padlet wall below! How could you get the word out about how awesome your students are?

Created with Padlet

Prezenting Prezi!

Ok, so don't get me wrong...PowerPoint is very cool. With all the animations and transitions and hyperlinks...yea. But have you ever wanted more? Last year I attended an awesome 2 day conference called NCTIES (North Carolina Technology In Education Society). It was my second time and wowza! I loved it! Being around people who speak my language...AWESOME! **Squirrel** So, back to the point...At that conference I learned about an wonderful online, free tool called Prezi. It is so much fun! With Prezi, you can create multimedias, similar to PowerPoint, but sooo much better! They zoom and twist, incorporate videos, photos and links! Instead of having slides, you have one space, kinda like a table top, where you can place everything and see it's relation to everything else. By incorporating frames and paths (which are what make it twist and turn and zoom) your Prezi moves on it's own. My students love it! They say it's like making their own movie! It can be a little tricky until you get the hang of it, so I haven't used it with any of my students younger than 2nd grade. But this year, I plan to do a simple Prezi with my first graders, who, last year in Kindergarten, created complete PowerPoints with transitions, photos, and sound. I think they're ready!
Now, there are 3 different licenses, 1 free and 2 that'll cost ya, but if you sign up with a valid school email, then you get the mid-grade for free. My kids don't have school emails, grrr, so I just let them  use my email address to sign in and just made a generic password. It's good because I can login and see all of their Prezi's on my profile and track their progress. What's really cool is your Prezi's can be downloaded to your computer and viewed offline at anytime! The creators of Prezi are always coming up with really cool advancements to the tool so there are always more neat things that you can do with them!

For Review...

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program and am super excited about it! If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.I am definitely going to start my 6 week trial and share it with some of my students from all grade levels and see how it goes! They have a wonderful website that looks fun and inviting for parents, teachers, and students! Make sure to check back to see how my students and I like K-5 learning!

Oh How I've Missed You

Hellllloooo to all my fellow bloggers! It feels like forever since we have spoken! I've been getting a little slack with my posts and need to get back into blogging mode!
Well while I've been away, I have fallen in love with Live Binders! If you are anything like me, meaning you are constantly searching for new sites, blogs, ideas, etc then this is the site for you!!! When I do a search for a new resource, I find so many and become overwhelmed and end up forgetting some of those amazing tools! Enter Live Binders (cue angels singing...ahhhhhhh)!
Live Binders is exactly what they are called. You can easily organize websites into binders by type, adding as many tabs as you like. It becomes especially easy when you add the LiveBinder button to your Bookmark Bar. Now, anytime I visit a website I can simply click on my LiveBinder button and add it to the correct Binder. I have a binder for all types of sites including, Troubleshooting, SmartBoard, Lesson Ideas, Great Blogs, Math Sites, Reading Sites, etc.
Live Binders is my newest favorite organizational tool! Best part of all is that they are free and you can share them with anyone! That's right...start a Live Binder for your grade level or school! The possibilities are endless! Click below to check it out!!!

Monkeying Around with Math

So I found another great website while browsing one of my favorite blogs, Free Technology for Teachers, and had to re-post! Math Chimp is a great site where you can choose your grade level, 1st-5th, and what common core standards you want your students to focus on, and it provides you with a number of online math games customized to your needs! I think this is a great way to get your kids excited about math, while making sure they are working on the correct skills! Click below to get monkeying around with math!

http://www.mathchimp.com/

Going Ga Ga for Google Docs

So my new favorite toy...I know I say that about everything...but it is!...is Google Docs! What a great tool to use with the kids! Google Docs is a free online version of a word processor, spreadsheet, multimedia presentation, and database all in one website! They look similar to the Microsoft Office software, only you don't have to pay out the wazoo to own it. All you have to do is sign up for a free gmail account. What I really like is that they are all web based. Therefore, they are easy to get to from any computer, as long as you have Internet access. Students without Microsoft Office can still create on the computer!

One of the best perks of Google Docs is the form tool. The form can be used to create surveys, which can be emailed out. The results are automatically sent to a spreadsheet so that the answers can be reviewed. I have used the form for many different things. I had my 4th graders come up with 4 new flavors of ice cream for an imaginary ice cream company. They then created the survey and emailed it out to the teachers. When they came back to me the next week, all of their results were in the spreadsheet for them to then analyze! It took a boring paper and pencil lesson and jazzed it up! I have also used them as a technology issues form for my teachers. Whenever they have a problem, they fill out the form and it emails me. Very simple!

As you can tell, Google Docs has so much to offer! Why $200 for software anymore when something better is right at your fingertips!?


Click here to get started!!!

Are you in the DEN?

One of my new favorite resources is the Discovery Education Network! Many of my teachers love it for it's countless amount of great streaming videos covering everything from Magic School Bus episodes to following deep sea divers into unknown territory. But there is much more to the DEN than many people know! As a member of the Discovery Education Network, you can create assignments and even assign them to students. When the students complete them, you are notified from Discovery! I have used the assignment builder to create video quizzes, writing prompts, and much much more! There is a place for you to upload your resources, as well as view resources from other teachers! The DEN is definitely a great network for teachers to work with one another to create globally competitive students! Best part of all, the DEN is FREE! Click below to view the DEN and all they have to offer for your classroom!