Pet Peeve! I don't have that book!

One of the biggest pet peeves that I have during the school year is finding a great lesson from a colleague or a resource and  then not having the book that goes with it. I have an extensive classroom library (I think I am up to about 800 books) but somehow I don't always have the book that I want or need.  Sure,  I borrow some from our school library but sometimes it is already checked out or they don't have it.  I also spend a ton of money each year buying books to "complete" my collection.    I have used some sites in the past like discovery education and storylineonline.  Sometimes, I have time to scan books and I have also used my elmo to project books that I do have up onto my smartboard.  This year, over the summer, I have decided to look for some of my needed books on internet video.  I started by making a you tube playlist for each workshop.  I wanted to share my reader's workshop and writer's workshop playlists for the first grading period.  Hope you enjoy!

Ellen

Teacher organization part 2

One of the things that I dread every year is organizing parent volunteers.  There are so many events to coordinate throughout the year and there are many many parents who would love to give up their valuable time to come up and help.  Field trips, science lab, carnival, class parties, parent readers, parent teacher conferences...  you get the picture.  In the past,  I have given some of the sign up jobs to my homeroom mom and sometimes I have done them all.  Very often, I became overwhelmed with keeping track of all the dates.  This year I decided to try sign up genius.  Wow!  Can I say how much I love this?  I created sign ups for all my different needs and then asked the parents to sign up for what they wanted.  I sent the link out by emails and I posted the links to my website.  Gotta love technology that makes life a little easier!

http://www.signupgenius.com/

Online reading homework! Help save a tree!

So, it is a beautiful Sunday afternoon and it is Earth day!  I just got done giggling at my students' weekly reading discussion question answers and I was thinking about ways to help the earth!   At our school, we are not allowed to send home leveled readers from our literacy library or our adoption.  This forces us to either print all of our homework books or send them digitally.  For a long time, I was printing the books but do to some budget restraints at my local campus this year,  I switched to a digital format.   I do this by assigning their reading books on www.edmodo.com .  Each week, I upload a pdf copy of their leveled reader and then I enter discussion questions into a short answer quiz.  They go on each night and read their book to someone and on Thursday, their parents help them read the discussion questions, type the responses, and submit the quiz.  I think this is a great way to get parents involved in discussing their child's reading rather than just listening to them read and signing off on it.  When I get the quiz,  I go in and look at each answer and it allows me to comment if I wish.  This is my favorite part.  I love to show them that I am giggling at their answer or to ask them follow up questions.  It also allows me to add the "grade" to my gradebook.  We don't keep numerical grades in kindergarten but it does help me see who is on track doing their homework.  If I don't want to assign discussion questions, I can upload a multiple choice quiz or some other printable like graphic organizer for them to fill out and return.  I also love that edmodo is available not only on a computer but also as an app for the iphone/ipad or android devices.  I have a few students who do not have a computer but their parents have an iphone or ipad...My answer to that..." No problem!  Have your child read their book to you from your phone!"  It allows me to create groups within my class and give only certain students certain assignments.  Perfect for differentiated reading and a way to go green!  Happy Earth day everyone!  

Cool way to publish kids' writing

Woo Hoo!  I finally got the flip books made!  It turned out to be my phone pdf scanner that was the problem. Once I scanned them at school... no problem.  They turned out sooooo cute!  The kids were tickled to see them.  I ended up using flipsnack and it was super easy. Let me know what you think.

Ugggg... Technology frustrations!

Ok.  So here is the frustrating part about technology...  Sometimes it doesn't work like you want it to!  I had this great idea of taking my students' non-fiction "question/answer" books and turning them into flippable pdf books.  They worked sooooooo hard on them and did a fantastic job.  They made question answer books titled, What do plants need? .   They finished today and I tried to upload one of them to two different websites, flipsnack, and youblisher.   I haven't been able to get either one to work. Bummer.  I am sure that it is user error and that I will figure it out but I hate to make my little ones wait.  I promise to keep everyone posted!  Wish me luck.

Life Saving Website!!!

Ok,  I always dread rainy days and standardized testing days.  Why?  Because we don't have recess, specials (art, pe, music) or both.  This makes for an extremely LONG day in a kindergarten class.  By the end of the day the kids and I are very fidgety and quite grouchy!  Standardized testing days are starting up next week and I am not dreading them nearly as much this year.  This is because I have signed up for www.adventuretofitness.com .  My students absolutely love this website.  "Mr. Mark"  the guide is very engaging and they are "glued" to the adventure.  They are also very, very tired at the end of the adventure.  They have a new adventure regularly and you can always go back and watch previous episodes.  I highly recommend that you sign up for your free access today!