Thursday

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#9

My teacher tip of the week is about pencil management.  As I am getting some things ready for the upcoming school year, I wanted to share this tip with you all.  I do not let my students sharpen pencils at all and I don't let them interrupt a lesson or work time to have a pencil sharpened.  I have 2 bins in my room.  One is labeled "sharp pencils" and the other is labeled "dull pencils".  I have used these bins for several years now and it is so nice.  When students can't find a pencil or break their tip, they just walk over to the bins and exchange their pencil for another one.  I sharpen the dull pencils in the morning or during specials so we don't run out of sharp pencils throughout the day.

Five For Friday

This was my last week of curriculum planning and I started tutoring.  I have also started shopping for Back to school already!  I love school supplies!

My teacher tip of the week was for dry-erase markers.  Over the summer I hot glue poms to the ends of all my dry erase markers that I will use for the year.  It works out very nicely as an eraser and the students don't have to worry about having an eraser or losing it.

I do these over the summer to get them ready for the next school year.  I had so many my first year that I didn't know what to do with, so now I save the ones that the students bring in and I will use those as my markers for next year. Check out my Teacher Tip Tuesday#8 for how I distribute/use these markers in my classroom!

Tutoring has been a lot of fun. This is my first year tutoring over the summer and I am really enjoying it.  It is a break from school but not a break from teaching and the kids.

These are great resources for math.  I try to do a math journal activity every day with my students.  It can be used as a center activity or just a classroom activity to reinforce the lesson.  These are for all year and include activities for calendar, numbers to 100, patterns, fractions, addition and subtraction, problem solving, measurement, money, and time. You can also go to my TPT page and look at journal activities for each individual unit.

This awesome project actually happened the last week of school to promote our summer reading program, but I forgot to post it.  This was my first time painting on windows and it turned out AMAZING!!!!!  I had a lot of help from the staff but I could not be any happier with how it turned out! 

I have taken the time to plan our what I would like to post on my blog and in my store to try to be more organized and consistent with my postings.  Within this binder, I have a calendar section which I find most helpful, but I also have a section for: TPT stats, sales, blog ideas, TPT ideas, Teacher Tips, clip art index, TPT index, and  an idea planning section.  I started using this binder in February and it has come in handy when I have it with me to follow.  I now have also added it to my online calendar so I can be alerted to work on/post.  

Five For Friday

This week started my summer break on Tuesday!  I had to go in on Monday to check out of the school and make sure everything was ready for summer.

This is what my room looked like when I left on Monday!  I can't wait to come back in September and see the shiny floor and take down all the paper off my shelves.

I am going to be VERY busy this summer.  I am doing my first year of curriculum planning for 2 weeks for the county.  I am excited about this opportunity and hope to meet and make new friends with this experience.

I just finished my 5th year of teaching!

We are having friends come to visit us for 4th of July and these are some things I have been working on for the weekend!

Teacher Tip of the Week was my To Do list for Summer!

I always like to organize as much as possible so that I am productive and get things done.  The way i do this is with to do lists.  I am terrible at remembering to do something unless i write it down on my to do list.  I write EVERYTHING down so that I get to do it and cross it off my list.  I know this is "old school" but this is how I work.  

This is my to do list for the summer.  What are your plans for the summer so that you are better prepared for next year?

Teacher Tip Tuesday #8

I love this idea for dry erase markers. I hot glue poms to the back of dry erase markers and use them as erasers. It makes it so easy to not have to worry about the students finding an eraser in order to erase their work. These also come in handy at guided reading and guided math time when I have the students write right on the table and then erase before I call the next group over. I make these over the summer for the next year's class. I have them in centers, at my teacher table, and in their pencil cases.

Teacher Tip Tuesday #7

To Do Lists to Make Back to School A Little Easier

I always like to organize as much as possible so that I am productive and get things done.  The way I do this is with to do lists.  I am terrible at remembering to do something unless I write it down on my to do list.  I write EVERYTHING down so that I get to do it and cross it off my list.  I know this is "old school" but this is how I work. I need everything in front of me.    

This is my to do list for the summer.  What are your plans for the summer so that you are better prepared for next year?