Welcome to Kindergarten!

Some classroom snapshots...

Daily 5 book basket storage and student computer

Hoot and Holler for excellent work!

This wall will be FILLED with comprehension strategy anchor charts!

A little inspiration!

Along with getting my classroom ready for my Kinders, I found an awesome welcome letter template from Fun in First.  This isn't just ANY welcome letter....students can use a QR code scanner to listen to the letter being read to them by yours truly!  What a great idea!  I also modified the letter for families and used the QR code to bring them to our class website.  Loved it and plan on using it again! Click here to get your own Welcome Letter with a Technology Twist!

Welcome Kindergartners!

Finally, to let my students know just how excited I am to have them in my class, I put together a snack bag of Goldfish crackers with a cute little tag.  The idea is NOT mine, but I did make the tags using PPT and love the feeling of creating something for my own use and sharing with my colleagues.  

O-FISH-ALLY a KINDERGARTNER!

Have a happy school year!

Rules of the Classroom

Here is a unit I put together for the beginning of the school year to teach rules in the classroom.  The unit focuses on being safe, responsible, and respectful at school.  Click on the image below!

Enjoy!

Final Reflection

For my final reflection, I thought that I could create a PPT presentation to share with my colleagues this fall about how we can use our iPads in our classrooms for more than just apps and games for students to play.  Check it out!

Ted Talk

As I was reading the article assigned, I came across a link titled Hacking School: One Teenager's Path to Happiness.  The link brought me to a Tedx Talk from the University of Nevada.  Logan LaPlante, a speaker who recently became a teenager, discusses what he wants to be when he grows up.  Unlike what most adults would like to hear, such as astronaut or neurosurgeon, LaPlante states that he wants to be happy.  He poses the question, “What if we base education on being happy and healthy?” 

LaPlante’s research brought him to Dr. Roger Walsh who has suggestions as to how to be happy and healthy.  The eight Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) are exercise, diet/nutrition, time in nature, contribution/service, relationships, recreation, relaxation/stress management, and religion/spiritual.  LaPlante goes on to discuss how typically, students in traditional school systems, are not offered these opportunities so his parents made the difficult decision to pull him out of the traditional school.  LaPlante’s family friend opened a school in which students are learning through hands-on experiences such as camping on a mountain and discussing mountain safety one day and weather the next day.  LaPlante refers to this type of schooling as “Hackschooling” (2013) and equates it to freedom in education.  He calls himself a ‘hacker’ because his mindset is that his learning is essentially a “remix or mashup” (LaPlante, 2013) of experiences to help him learn faster and better.

During LaPlante’s presentation, it was clear that he had the best interest of the audience in mind.  His persuasive discussion of creativity and freedom in education was inspiring and made me think about how I can do a better job implementing those ideas in my own classroom.  He clearly communicated with and engaged the audience with a bit of humor and visual representations of his main points.  I found myself feeling proud of this young man for his passion in his own learning and his profound insight on what is truly important, health and happiness.  I would recommend other teachers watch this Tedx Talk so that we don’t forget what the big picture is really about.

Reference

LaPlante, L. (2013, February 12). Hackschooling makes me happy. Retrieved July 10, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=282&v=h11u3vtcpaY 

Simple K12 Webinar Reflection

The webinar I attended entitled 15 Apps to Support Struggling Readers was both informative and inspiring.  As I prepare to teach this upcoming fall utilizing iPads in my classroom, I wanted to learn more about how to engage all of my learners but also how to help struggling readers with this new technology.  Jenna Linskens, a Senior Educational Consultant with the International Society for Technology in Education presented on this topic and shared apps to implement in our classrooms relating to the five pillars of reading instruction; phonemic awareness (PA), phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.  Below is a summary of the apps and where they fit within the five pillars. 

Phonemic Awareness/Phonics:

1. Vocabulary Spelling City http://www.spellingcity.com/

2. Tell About This http://www.tellaboutapp.com/

3. Abitalk Word Families http://www.abitalk.com/webapps/wordfamily/  

Build Vocabulary Skills:

4. MindMup https://www.mindmup.com

-Allowing students to group their words together based on sound or meaning 

5. Educreations https://www.educreations.com/

-Put vocabulary words in and creates a picture

6. Write About This http://www.writeaboutapp.com/

-Students choose a picture, create a prompt, and record the story.

Build Fluency:

7. News-o-matic http://press4kids.com/

8. Padlet http://padlet.com/

-While reading a story, students respond to story by developing pictures and words to retell or

summarize

9. Chunky English - Grammar Patch http://www.shortsnaplearning.com/

Build Comprehension:

10. Professor Garfield - Fact or Opinion https://learninglab.org/life_skills/fact_or_opinion/

      Fat Cat Books http://www.professorgarfield.org/yourfuture/fat_cat_books/fat_cat_books.html

11. Evernote https://evernote.com/

12. KidBlog http://kidblog.org/home/

-Students think about what they’re reading and blog about it

Assess Student Learning:

13. Socrative http://www.socrative.com/

-Look at Space Race

14. Book Creator  http://www.redjumper.net/bookcreator/

-Free version you can create, but must delete the previous book or you can export the book, and it will always be in your iBooks

-Students can add what they learned from non-fiction books. 

15. Toontastic http://www.launchpadtoys.com/

-Student takes what they read and create a new ending

I enjoyed the webinar and took her suggestions but also thought of other ways I could use the apps to work at my grade level and with the curriculum I use in my district.  One of the apps she mentioned, News-O-Matic, sounds like something to integrate into a Project-Based Learning (PBL) problem.  I can work with my students to create newspaper articles depending on our problem.  It would be a goal for me to complete a PBL with my students at least once per semester. 

Another app she mentioned, Educreations, is one that I am relatively familiar with.  I never thought of using the app by having the students draw a picture of their vocabulary word but agree that this would be an effective way to use technology to promote vocabulary learning in the classroom. 

While I enjoyed this webinar, I did find it difficult to schedule a time that I would be available to attend.  Because it’s a webinar, there was less flexibility in my learning. I wasn’t able to stop or rewind if I missed something, however, I was provided the presenter’s notes after the webinar that was helpful.  Overall, I think participating in webinars is one more tool in my ongoing professional development and I would not hesitate to participate in another webinar in the future.

Reference

Linskens, J. (2015, July 16). 15 apps to support struggling readers [Webinar]. In Simple K12. Retrieved from http://community.simplek12.com/scripts/student/webinars/

Social Bookmarking

Pinterest
Well, where do I start with this one?!  Raise your hand if you LOVE Pinterest!! This tool came into my life in 2011, right about the same time that I went on maternity leave with one of my little guys.  Yep, we bonded while pinning ideas of cute newborn photos, delicious home-cooked meals (‘cuz I was home and I had all the time in the world, you know), funny quotes, teacher outfits, home organization, classroom organization, garage organization, closet organization, organizational ways to organize…okay not really on the last one ….BUT seriously, I could go on. I might have been a tad addicted, please do not judge.  Best of all, I was introduced to AHHHMAZING teacher blogs and free resources for my classroom.  The Pinterest revolution took over my school as the hallways were filled with adorable art projects, themed classrooms, and I might even say teachers were walking with a spring in their step. Probably because they just had a delicious home-cooked meal after organizing their classroom all the while wearing the cutest pair of jeggings, boots, and sweater with matching scarf. You know what I’m talking about. 

Here are a few snapshots of my Pinterest boards for education...

Follow me!

So, we know how to use Pinterest for our personal and professional life, but how can we use this tool with our students?  With my Kindergarten Kiddos, Pinterest would be a great way to organize websites depending on what we’re learning.  Each board would contain websites that would go along with a certain concept.  For example, a board titled ‘ABC’S’ might have different websites such as ABCYa and Starfall.  If my students were looking for websites for math, they would go to the ‘MATH’ board and choose Everyday Math Online.  Pinterest is free option for teachers and students to organize their learning using on online tool.

I've also used Symbaloo in a similar manner for my classroom.  I've created a 'webmix' of sites for my students.  It's simple to sign up for free and start creating and searching webmixes.  Below is an image of my Symbaloo board for my Kindergartners.  As I come across new websites, I can easily add a tile and let the collection grow.

ISTE-T
1a. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity
4b. Address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources

ISTE-S
5a. Advocate safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology
6b. Select and use applications effectively and productively

Sources

ISTE standards- students. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards/standards-for-students

ISTE standards- teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards/standards-for-teachers

Pinterest

Symbaloo