Beach Sand: technology

Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts

Tomorrow is February 1st! Looking for some activities for the month? I have just what you need!

For me, I need activities that cover our standards and are not just "for fun". We have so much going on in 3rd grade this year that every minute has to be spent working on our Florida standards. So when I create a product, I have just that in mind. I want it to be fun for the kids and I always try to bring an element of creative and critical thinking.

For Groundhog Day, I created this Reasearch in the Round project. (I call it that because it's a round booklet. Clever right? Heehee!) My students will use their own devices or a classroom laptop or iPad to research facts about the groundhog and his special day. They can take their research to writing with one of the 3 prompts I've included. Check out the preview below. I think this project is appropriate for high second graders and 3rd and 4th graders.

If you are doing some preplanning for Valentine's Day, check out this product. Conversation Hearts Activity Cards will give your students a variety of challenging tasks to complete using a bag or box or candy hearts.

My newest products are these monthly ELA Skill Cards. I love using these cards in my classroom for a game of scoot or for practice in our word work center. I have created these with 3rd grade ELA standards in mind, but they would be useful in 2nd grade for a challenge or in 4th grade as a monthly review. If you like these be on the lookout for March cards coming soon!

I hope that you can find the "fun" in February with these products. Enjoy your week!!

Beach Sand and Lesson Plans

I'm happy to link up with Fourth Grade Flipper for

Technology is here to stay! We all know it. I decided it was time to embrace it. I tried BYOD. Yes! I allowed my students to bring and use their very own devices. I first emailed the parents to explain how I wanted to use technology in the classroom. I requested that the students bring in a tablet, iPod, or phone as long as they could access the internet. I have 3 iPads in my room and I brought in my own for any students that didn't bring a device. As it turned out, only 3 kids didn't have a device, so it worked out perfectly.

The first day we practiced using the site Poll Everything. (I had asked that the students to download the app the night before.) They were able to answer multiple choice questions or short answers that appear in speech bubbles or word clouds. I gave them basic questions for the practice like "what is your favorite movie?" and "what is your least favorite ice cream?".

They had a blast!

I plan on using this app again during my formal evaluation coming up on Friday.

We have been studying the sun and stars and the kids took an interest in space. I taught them how to find websites appropriate for kids and bookmark them on their tablets. Most did not how to do this believe it or not.

The next day we worked on these super fun Space flip flap books created by Simply Skilled in Second. I LOVE these books and so do the kiddos! Having their sites bookmarked made research go quicker and smoother.

If you have not tried BYOD give it a try. Let's embrace technology and bring it into the classroom more often. Of course, inform your parents and lay the ground rules for using their own devices at school.

Have fun!

Beach Sand and Lesson Plans

Using video clips in the classroom can really bring things to life for kids, especially history. I'm joining up with Brenda at Primary Inspired for

Last week, during our study of Martin Luther King, Jr., the topic of Ruby Bridges came up. I found a wonderful little clip about her told from Ruby herself. You can find it here on Discovery Education. You will need to create a free account if you don't already have one and search Ruby Bridges. This site has fantastic videos right at your finger tips. It is my go to site when I'm looking for something on the spot. I also like it because the videos are broken down into short clips. I don't always want to show a lengthy video. I was also able to show my class a clip of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech. Powerful stuff when you can SHOW what you are teaching. Another favorite I find there is Reading Rainbow. My students have not seen these classics with LeVar Burton and I always find them so educational. My students present book commercials and I always show the book reviews at the end of Reading Rainbow episodes as good examples.

Another site I just love is BrainPop.

Now here you do need to pay for a yearly subscription. Thankfully, my school pays for us to have it. The BEST part about it is the kids have access to it at home. I have used this site for homework. I will choose 3-4 videos that compliment a topic we are studying, usually in science or social studies. The students choose one they want to watch at home. After the video they take the quiz and email me the results. Very easy. I do make sure at the start of the year that all students have access to the internet and I do give several days to do this homework. They love it and the scores come right to my email.

Of course, classic DVDs like Schoolhouse Rock NEVER go out of style!

This set has all of the songs and the kids have a lot of fun with them, especially because it's new to them. I love using the American history songs for social studies.

Remember to check out this Educents bundle on sale for a few more days! This bundle includes 20 resources to use when teaching history and geography. These resources are perfect for your social studies units and just about any patriotic holidays! Get yours now before this offer is ends!

Check out my blog post here to see more about the products I have in this bundle.

Beach Sand and Lesson Plans

Happy October! It's Currently time with Farley over at Oh Boy in 4th Grade!

While I'm working tonight I'm LISTENING to the show 19 Kids and Counting...no matter how many times I watch this show I can not believe the size of this family! It would be like having my whole class living with me. YIKES! I do give them a lot of credit for raising such kind children.

I LOVE OCTOBER! Though we have no leaves changing or cooler weather (yet) I just love the whole feel of fall!

In a few weeks, I will be heading off to New York City with my daughter, sister, niece, and cousin! I CAN NOT WAIT! My 11 year old has been dying to go and this is her year. We have our sight seeing tickets already purchased and we are especially excited about seeing the Disney play Newsies! I can not stop THINKING about this trip.

I attended a reading conference this past weekend up in Orlando. In the exhibit hall, there was a Crayola booth. Now maybe I'm WAY behind the times, but I have never seen their dry erase crayons and colored pencils. I thought these were pretty cool and I'm WANTING to buy some for my classroom.

I NEED to get working on some new TpT products that I've had on my mind for a while. It just seems that life has taken over lately and I haven't been able to fit in the extra work time at home. I'll get there though!

Here is a little TREAT...do you use Edmodo? I am lovin' it this year. I decided to use this site in place of a website I used in the past. Edmodo is a wonderful educational site that allows you to collaborate and share with families, students, and other teachers. The site has the look of Facebook, so it really appeals to my students and it is super easy to use. You can post homework, load a document, or send reminders. Best of all...it's FREE! Give it a try!

Please stop by and visit my bloggy buddy Alison from Australia! She is having an amazing giveaway!

Hope this October finds you well and happy! Thanks for stopping by.

Beach Sand and Lesson Plans

Hello friends,
I feel like I have been away forever! As you may have read in my previous post, I was in Orlando at FETC! The trip was wonderful, educational and relaxing! Animal Kingdom is so beautiful and we were lucky to have a room with a view of the savannah. I missed my family, but having some "me" time was needed!

At FETC...me at the "F", Denise from Sunny Days at the "E", and my other BFF, Melinea, at the "T".

Here are just FIVE technology tidbits from the conference.

#1: One piece of equipement that just ROCKS is a Promethean Activtable! Up to 6 kids can play around this interactive table. The graphics are clear and crisp and students would be completely engaged. There are tons of cool games and it has internet access! My media specialist was there and I know she's thinking about this! YEAH!

#2: Thinglink. You can take a photo and add text, music, sound, etc. Students can upload a photo of a famous event or historical figure and use research to enhance it. What a creative alternative to a research paper! I have not tested it out yet! From I see it looks very user friendly.

#3: Remind 101 is a way to text your parents and/or students and keep your number (and theirs) private. I love this idea! I use email to communicate most of the time, but I like this for quick reminders.

#4: Tagxedo is fun. It is similar to Wordle. The kids can make word clouds from speeches, articles, books, poems, or just about any other information you can think of. I made this Lincoln Tagxedo in about 5 minutes. I just copied and pasted the Gettysburg Address into the website and selected the shape, color, and font. I think my 3rd graders will love this!

#5: I attended a session about using Pinterest as a classroom tool. Interesting concept, right? The teacher suggested creating boards around specific topics of study or research. You (and the kids if you choose) could pin websites, images, anything about the topic, and everyone in the class would have access. It sounds like a cool idea, but you would need to be careful since there are no filters on Pinterest. I think it would be great for older kids. She also shared this website, Repinly. It offers all kinds of statisical information about Pinterest. Pretty cool!

I hope to post more techie ideas, especially as I test them out in my classroom. What technology do you use in your classroom? I would love to hear about any websites or online tools that you find user friendly for the kids.

My Friday Freebie was also my Show and Tell freebie on Tuesday....I cheated! SORRY! If you did not download my February Brain Booster you can find the link at TBA or in my previous post! There are also lots of other freebies here!

Sunday is, of course, SUPERBOWL! I don't really care about football, but I will peek in to see the commercials and the halftime show. I am participating in the TpT Super Sale. I am offering 20% both Sunday and Monday! (TpT is offering an extra 8% on Sunday only!) My cart is filling up, mostly clip art right now! Glad my hubby will be distracted with the game! LOL!

Check out the list here of other TpT Sellers who will host sales on Sunday!

Hope you had a great, productive week! Happy Groundhog Day!!

Beach Sand and Lesson Plans

It's that time of year....New Year's Resolutions! I don't like them! I'm not so good at them! (Is that a bad thing to confess?) I am a procrastinator which makes it difficult to stay on task with promises made to myself. I manage to get things done though. I am extremely organized which I think helps with my off task behavior. I'm a good multi-tasker, too. I just can't seem to stick to things like diets and exercise or anything else that requires too much routine and structure! With that disclaimer, I will not make any organizational or fitness resolutions....I won't stick to the fitness ones, so I'm not even going to say I will. Why pretend right?? Since I'm pretty organized already I don't think I need to resolve to make any changes there! I did think about some Professional resolutions and Technology resolutions that I would like to accomplish this year! I linked up with some great ladies here at these blogs to share!

First of all...Professional Growth. I have to say that I'm pretty proud of myself when it comes to professional development. Over the last 23 years, I have tried to stay current on educational research and best practices. I'm not one to repeat the same lessons year after year. (That would actually bore me to tears!) I like to keep things fresh and exciting. I find it sad when I see colleagues copying the same old worksheets, reading the same old books to the kids, and teaching with the same old methods and expecting the same results. Teaching is a profession that is ever changing and growing and staying current is vital to being a good teacher! If you are not already a member of professional organizations, you should join! NCTE and IRA are wonderful groups to follow. Their conferences are outstanding. If you ever get a chance to attend please do so! I also belong to the Florida Reading Association which holds a conference each year in Orlando.

Now my main focus for the upcoming year is on Common Core. CCSS is just starting in my county and I would like to become an "expert" on it. K-2 teachers are trained and implementing it this year and it's expected that grade 3-5 teachers be fully implemented by 2014. I'm not one to wait until something like this is here before I start learning about it. This past summer I was lucky enough to train with a teacher who is an expert in CCSS. She gave me a sneak peek into what I should expect and she's become my "go to" gal! As part of my own professional development, I want to read and "study" two books that were recommended to me. One is Pathway to Common Core by Lucy Calkins (one of my teaching heros!) and Text Complexity by Douglas Fisher.

I have also started to become familiar with the Standards in 3rd grade and I'm using those to guide my teaching this year. I think I'm off to a good start when it comes to CCSS and I want to continue on this path, so that I am prepared for the "big day"! No surprises for me!

Technology is another part of this linky and another goal that I have for the upcoming year. At the end of January, my BFF and I are heading to Orlando to attend the Florida Educational Technology Conference. I attended this one a few years back. I'm sure there have been tons of advances in using technology in the classroom since and I hope to walk away with lots of new ideas. Currently in my classroom, I have and use a Promethean board and a document camera. I have access to a laptop cart and the computer lab. One of my tech goals this year is to write a grant to get iPads in my classroom. (If you know of grant opportunities for this please let me know!) Though I LOVE technology, I have to confess that I have not utilized it with the kiddos as much as I know I should. Project based learning is a wonderful way to use technology and I plan on getting back into it when I return from winter break.

I know that these two goals are attainable for me! I love this profession and I want to be the best I can be at it! What are you goals for 2013? There are some wonderful Linkys going on to share your Resolutions! Link up with Amanda at One Extra Degree to share your professional plans and Kathleen at Growing Kinders to showcase your techno goals! You can also head on over to see Amanda at Teaching Maddness and Diane at Teaching with Moxie to link up and share! If we all encourage each other then maybe this year more resolutions can be reached!

❤Happy New Year!!❤