Online Resources

I decided to write this post about some of the online resources that I use in the classroom to make life a little easier. There are many teacher who do not use these, but I think they make scheduling and planning easier for me and wanted to share them with you.  Some of them I use to help manage paperwork, some I use for parent communication, and others I use with my students in the classroom.  They all serve different purposes and can help during the school year if you are interested.

 

SignUpGenius.com is a great resource for any appointment needs.  I use this at the beginning of the year to schedule my parent teacher conferences.  It allows me to enter parent contact info and it saves it for me to use for the year.  I then create a signup for when I am available for conference dates and times and the parents can sign up for a time that works for them. The site will email them a reminder two days before their appointment to remind them about it.  If parents need to change a time they signed up for, they can also do this on the site.  I do not have to worry about it, I just need to check the sign up to know who is coming in for a conference. The site will also email me to alert me when a parent signs up or changes anything on my signup.

I also use this site to ask for parent volunteers and donations throughout the year.  I try to make one monthly, but I have also made them quarterly.  It just depends on the needs for the year. 

Brainpopjr.com is a wonderful site that allows me to show videos to my students about different subjects taught throughout the year.  The students LOVE Moby the robot and they are able to get the information through a video as well as me teaching it to them in class.  After the video, there are quizzes you can take to see if the students understood the lesson.This site does cost money, but it is a wonderful resource to use in the classroom.

My team and I also use Google Docs. for pacing our year.  We have a calendar for each month of school and we add everything that we need to cover within the calendar year.  We add our homework words, subject units, and any special days/holidays.  This is nice because the whole team can access it and make changes to it if needed, but also allows us to stay on the same page in planning and pacing. 

Myon.com is a great resource for online books.  I use this a lot when we are in the computer lab, or in the classroom to have the students listen to treading.  I also like to use this resource when we are doing special reading units.  They have a lot of different books and levels on the site.  

Dreambox is a new resource for us as of last year.  We got all the students an account in the school and it is amazing!  It allows the students to play games and do activities that is at their own level.  it takes them through different lessons with the support of game playing and then the students can earn coins for the levels they clear.  If a level is too hard, the program takes them to a lower level of the lesson and if it is too easy it takes them to ta higher level.  The students LOVE this program and we use it in the computer lab and in the classroom.

These are just some of the resources that I use during the school year.  I use them along with other resources and lessons.  Our county has paid for accounts for most of them, but they have made planning a lot easier in the classroom. 

Teacher Tip Tuesday #1

Sub Planning

When creating Substitute Plans I found it easiest to make generic lesson plans for the sub to follow throughout the day, and have written directions on post-it notes attached to the activity.  Also, having procedures in place ahead of time with your students will help with a substitute teacher.  I also have a sub tub that I keep behind my teacher table that holds files for each subject that can be used at any time throughout the year. This comes in handy if I need to be out unexpectedly or toward the end of the year when I don't have time to write sub plans.  I go into my sub tub and grab activities for each subject for the students to complete that day.  I can also have another teacher on my team prep this for me since the copies are already made and all they have to do it set out for my substitute.

 These are what my sub plans look like.  They are a "skeleton" copy off my daily/weekly schedule broken into subjects and times of when to do what.

 This is an example of my math lesson and what I leave for the substitute to do with my students.  This includes a math book, and 2 pages.  I usually have them do a journal page and a Worksheet each day in math.  With a substitute, I usually have them read a story and i will include some extra work activities in case they need a time filler.

 This is an example of my post-it note directions for what to do with the activity.  Since my lesson plans are so vague, I include the directions to the activity so that the sub can pull extra activities to do with the class if needed.

 These Time For Kids Magazine are a GREAT resource. My students LOVE reading these in class and they are a really easy activity to have a substitute complete with the class.  Sometimes I have them complete a worksheet along with the magazine, sometimes, I have them just read the magazine and write about it in their language arts journal.

This is how i organize my sub lessons and worksheets/activities by subject.  I have several copies of my lesson plans in the front file, in each subject, I try to keep at least 4-5 activities so that the students have plenty of work to keep them busy.

Binder Covers, Spines, and Dividers

This pack is so cute and helping me stay organized this year.  I love the dividers for specific organization topics, and mix of black with colorful words.  I have a binder for each subject that I teach and within that binder includes the lesson plans and pacing calendar.  In math and reading I have included dividers for keeping track of data and progress of students.

For math and reading, I have included "guided" binder covers, spine and dividers so they are kept separate from my regular whole group reading and math binders.

You can also check out my Guided Math Binder Set Up pack or my Guided Reading Binder Set Up pack on my store to see the forms I use to keep my binders neat  and stay organized in the classroom.