E-books and E-readers in the K-5 Classroom

Ideas and resources for using e-books in the elementary classroom. Strategies to help your students be effective close readers whether they are using Kindles, Nooks, iPads or traditional books. Check out this link for a pinterest page full of resources.




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Invigorate your classroom - strategies to energize

Every day presents a new opportunity, and that's why we're giving you five totally easy, totally doable tricks to invigorate learning (and to refresh your outlook) in your classroom today. Because an energized classroom drives results. And excited learners can accomplish big things. And because it's a long time until winter break ... not that we're counting down or anything. Here are our ideas:

1. Show them some classic snapshots.
   Project a series of classic photographs onto your whiteboard. (For example, these on American labor history and these on the former Soviet Union.) Ask your students to look and imagine what it would have felt like to be in that photo.
2. Redecorate.
   We know those Pinterest-worthy bulletin boards you made for back-to-school were just about perfect ... for back-to-school. But now that the school year is up and going, why not give your classroom walls a refresh? If you need some inspiration, check out these free printable posters from WeAreTeachers.
3. Get hands-on.
   This is an obvious one, but it's also an easy one to forget when the glitter glue hits the fan. Sometimes a simple hands-on experiment or activity is all it takes to bring some excitement back into your classroom. (Need hands-on ideas? Try these easy and funFoldables.)
4. Let them watch cartoons.
   What kid doesn't love Saturday morning cartoons? Expand on that by finding fun, short, entertaining cartoons (like these on essential reading skills) that enrich the teaching that you're doing.
5. Celebrate!
   Not every day can be Halloween or Valentine's Day (thank goodness!), but celebrating the "little" holidays with big learning can really make a lesson memorable. So check out McGraw-Hill Education's Get Inspired Board on Pinterest and get fun ideas to celebrate things like National STEM Day, Honey Bee Day and more with your students.
6. 
   

This blog series is sponsored by McGraw-Hill Education. Visitblog.mheonline.com for educational ideas, information, and free resources to inspire learning every day!



SOURCE - http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2014/09/25/5-simple-tricks-to-invigorate-learning-in-your-classroom-today

DIY inspirational classroom posters

I need to do this.... they look so awesome and I feel like as uncreative/artistic as I have become over the years (I used to be really quite the artist.... you don't use it, you lose it I guess) I could probably do this...

http://www.loveteachblog.com/ writes:

THIS IS SO EASY, Y'ALL. I can't stress that enough. All you need to do is:

1) Pick a quote you want to use. 

2) Sketch out the quote on a piece of watercolor paper in pencil.

3) Paint over it in watercolor.

4) Erase the pencil.

This one's a little hard to read, but it says, "And above all, watch with glittering eyes the world around you." Roald Dahl wins again.  For this one, I wrote the quote first in white crayon (which is a little scary because you can't see it at ALL), then just painted over with watercolor.

What Stuck with you this Week?

I love post-it notes and use them a lot for various lessons, workshops, activities... I love this board... what a great idea!

Bright Idea: Bathroom Sign Out

Use the dry erase to write their name on the plate when they leave the room. You can also do this on the chalk board or white board if you are in as a TTOC for a day, or use coloured masking tape to section off part of the board for this purpose.

I have also had specific items, such as a stuffed animal or toy that they put on their desk when they leave the room.

The key here is that you as the teacher, need to know where all students are at all times and if there was an emergency you want to easily identify who is out of the classroom and where.



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Bucket Covers for art centres

You could use these for a number of centres: art, math, literacy, table groups, endless possibilities..


Love this idea of using buckets for an art, math or literacy center... http://owl.li/uUdyE

Door Decor: There's a 'minion' reasons to read

Love this door decoration.

Check out more on this pinterest board

Flower Clock to help learn how to tell time

Love this classroom clock! What a great way to help teach time!

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/504614333219421483/

5 Apps for connecting with Parents

I previously shared '5 apps that really engage parents' but with school underway, I wanted to re-share these ideas for teacher's in classrooms that have to start thinking about Meet the Teacher night and parent teacher interviews also.

1. Skype: Skype for computer, smart phones and tablets lets parents join in classroom events like story time and special presentations without having to be physically present. Even military parents overseas and grandparents who live far away are taking advantage of the Skype platform to read to students and participate in celebrations. Creative teachers ask students to find the parent’s/grandparent’s location on a map and ask a few questions to learn about the local geography, landmarks and culture. Skype can also be helpful as a way for working parents to attend parent-teacher conferences.
2. Twitter: Whether it is class homework updates, project deadlines, school news or dinnertime conversation starters, teachers are taking advantage of Twitter’s free tool and keeping parents up to date and involved in classroom happenings. In a day-in-age where most parents have cell phones, Fast Follow by Twitter becomes a simple and reliable alert system. To use it, all you need to do is setup a Twitter account and ask parents (and older students) to text Twitter’s shortcode of 40404 with the message “follow [your Twitter username].” From there, parents will start receiving all of your updates via text message in real-time.
3. VolunteerSpot: Get more parents involved in the classroom by streamlining how you ask for help and making it easier for parents to sign up to help. VolunteerSpot replaces paper signup sheets, reply-all email chains and backpack Pony Express. Simple online signups from smartphones, tablets or computers make it easy for class parents to choose a spot that fits their schedule or to send food or supplies for special events; auto reminders and calendar syncing help parents keep their commitments. Quickly organize parents to read to the class, help in the lunchroom or at recess, attend parent-teacher conferences, and help with class parties, field trips and performances.
4. Pinterest: A virtual vision board for classroom inspiration, Pinterest offers a great way for teachers and parents to build community and share ideas. Invite class parents to create and share pinboards with links to age-appropriate themes and ideas including educational boards like fun math apps, favorite books, vocabulary games, and science fair ideas – student-centric boards like recess games, scholarships and prom fashions – and boards geared towards parents such as healthy snack and lunch ideas, afterschool sports resources, and class party ideas.
5. Edublogs: A free, safe blogging platform for teachers, students and school communities, Edublogs lets you easily create and manage student and classroom blogs that keep parents up-to-date on class happenings and give students a safe portfolio for sharing their work with parents and extended family (via password-protected blogs). Post a few times a week adding videos, photos, links to volunteer signup sheets and educational resources – parents will enjoy your current content and feel more informed and connected to the classroom.

Source: http://www.weareteachers.com/community/blogs/weareteachersblog/blog-wat/2013/05/30/5-apps-that-engage-parents-in-the-classroom

Back to School Craft: Painted Pencils

 

I love this idea for a back to school craft. It can also be an "at home" idea for teacher so that the "teacher pencils" are easily identified and returned....

 

Kids can decorate pencils by winding extra-thin tape around a plain pencil, painting it, and then unwrapping the tape.

 

See full, detailed instructions, materials list and examples at the source: CLICK HERE

Pintrest in Action... Setting up the classroom

My good friend and colleague has been back at school all week setting up her Grade 4/5 classroom.

She is active on pintrest and used a lot of the pins she found over the summer to implement in her classroom.

Background:
Last year she changed the set-up of her class. She wanted to observe how students worked in different seating arrangements and how it changed when she set up sseating assignments vs. when students chose their own.

The Options:
She had tables lined up on each side of the classroom with bleachers at one end (and clipboards) as well as big comfy rugs in the middle. There is also a cloak room area to work in, the hallway and a table in a cubby area down the hall. Students often have the choice of where to work during work time.

This Year:
She has continued with the lay out of the classroom listed above and has implemented some awesome pintrest ideas. I wanted to share some of the photos...



On her desk to organize everything easily



Drop Zone - handing in work



Help Wanted and Job applications for class jobs



Clothespins with students names or numbers will be attached to this chart and be moved if needed throughout the day.



Each student has a number and they can move their magnet if they leave the room (Especially good in this class given the choices of where they may go work in and around the school)



No Name? No Problem! Clip up work here



Class volume

See similar: Voice O Meter



If they get too noisy she will add one of these letters up on the board. If they spell noise it becomes a 'no talking' time



Book Hospital, a tub to put damaged books into so they can be fixed



Clip boards (for workers on the bleachers) and school supplies



Dry Erase pens with "puff balls" attached to lids for easy erasing



Shelves she  bought to put tubs on, each student gets a tub to keep their supplies (since she doesn't have traditional desks with storage in them)



Shout Out Box, if you have something nice to say about someone, write it down and put it in the box



Her class library, full of all the books she has bought and some comfy chairs

She writes a blog here and recently did her masters exploring classroom design. I always love going to her class and have talked about her classroom design before.

I had to share these photos she posted of her class, because she is an amazing teacher and has some great ideas! Her students are very lucky to have such a caring teacher and a welcoming and innovative classroom!

For TTOCs:

Which of these could you implement as a TTOC? I like the "NOISE" letter idea for classroom management as well as the number magnets for leaving the room.

Check out this post with some more ideas: HERE

Special Chair in Class

The idea of a special chair in class is not new. As a TTOC I have seen the aithour's chair, L'aime Speciale chaise, the reader's chair, the calendar "leader" chair and so on and so forth.

I saw this post and really loved the creativity of the chair decor.

 

 

 

See many more amazing chairs at Source: http://teachingmyfriends.blogspot.ca/2013/08/authors-chair-share-chair.html

Desk Decorating

I love this desk! As a TTOC, I think I crave the "my own classroom" ideas. Although I am now a "continuing teacher" I am only a .4 contract (so I am part time and most likely job share a class) but I love the idea of having my own full time class and decorating my desk up like this.... it's so cute!

http://pinterest.com/pin/61431982390099308/

Cool Door Decor

Source: craftysisters-nc.blogspot.com via mika on Pinterest

50 apps for teachers....

Check out this post that features 50 apps for educators. You can also download an easy-to-print PDF to share with your colleagues or display in your classroom: 50 Fabulous Apps for Teachers PDF

Education—there’s an app for that. In fact, there are hundreds of thousands of apps on the market designed for teaching and learning.

Check out the website for dozens of apps in various subject areas.

Showcase Student Work

One thing I have had very little experience with is 'bulletin boards' Granted, as a TTOC I have put up some student work on bulletin boards for a teacher I was in for, and in my grade 6/7 temporary contract I did a few boards myself for our class work, but I can honestly say, talking to my friends who teach Elementary School, I am very inexperienced in the ways of the walls.

I am always amazed at the bulletin boards some teachers create and though I could do a blog post on some of the awesome ones I have seen (I often take photos of them!) I decided instead to show some new, interesting ways to showcase student work besides fancy bulletin boards.

This first one is using clothes lines to put up work hanging in the class.

This next one is awesome, if you have enough clipboards, you can put them up and decorate them. What I like most about this is that each student could have their own clipboard and decorate it. Then they just clip their work on to show it off, this may mean several different piece of work being shown as each student could choose what to clip up.

 

Similarly, this is a way for each student to have a "spot" to show their work....

 

What other ways do you showcase your student work?

Source: dandelionsdragonflies.blogspot.ch via Michelle on Pinterest

Tech Tool: Visualead: Colourful QR Code Generator

Cool Tools has another awesome blog post for us. I would love to use these in my class, I noticed the new Socials Studies text books we got have them inside and the kids have used them to scan and learn more about history.

Visualead: Colorful QR Code Generator

Visualead is a free and user friendly tool for generating colorful QR codes in three simple steps.

1.  Uppload an image.
2.  Drag the slider over the image.
3.  Click lick a button to generate the embed code.

Visualead is integrated with many popular social networking tools which allows you to create a QR code to suit your needs.

Here is an example of a QR code created with the free version of Visualead. This was designed to help training participants quickly jump to my Digital Differentiation interactive page.

Uses in the Classroom

Here are some excellent sources of  ideas for using QR codes  in the classroom from some amazing educators.. 

• QR Codes in the Classroom, Kathy Schrock's Gude to Everything. @kathyschrock
• 50 Interesting Ways to Use QR Codes in the Classroom,  Tom Barrett's collaborative, interactive Google Doc filled with ideas. @tombarrett 
• AutoGenerate QR Codes in a Google Spreadsheet, Tammy Worcestor's Tip of the Week. @tammyworcester 

Try Visualead

Scroll over this interactive image to try Visualead for yourself.

Website: Instant Classroom

Another cool site someone showed me... You can add your class list and it will generate seating plans, groups, class lists and more. I haven't played around with it much yet, but it is free and could be great for classroom teachers and TTOCs to quickly create random groupings or draw a random name for a job or to present first etc.

http://www.superteachertools.com/instantclassroom/

Student-Driven Learning

Although USA based, this article looks at student driven learning and essentially the start of inquiry learning which is huge in the district I work in.

STUDENT-DRIVEN LEARNING

Most student-driven classrooms start with a question. It’s usually one that springs from a common place but allows for individualization by students based on their interests. It allows them to build questions and go about answering them, utilizing the skills and knowledge that the curriculum provides. The teacher facilitates this learning, to be sure, but also gives authority to the student to “own” their question. The student moves to center stage and the teacher assumes a supporting role.

[Source]

Cool Classroom Design and Decor....

I love all the cool classrooms out there. I need to take more photos of classes I see. My friend Melody had a paper "beaver dam" reading corner built in her class during their study unit on the animal. I also love the green giant fan/leaves from IKEA that many Primary teachers have in their class so students can read under the treeleaves.... Pintrest has lot's of great photos..... I especially love the classroom 'trees'......

Source: journeyofasubstituteteacher.blogspot.ca via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: mrseolson.blogspot.ca via Nat on Pinterest

Source: mrsblankenburgsclassroom.shutterfly.com via Nat on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Nat on Pinterest

Source: pin4fun1997.blogspot.com via Julie on Pinterest

Source: mrsnunezclassroom.weebly.com via Courtney on Pinterest