Boggle in an Instant!

I have been wanting to put up a Boggle activity for my students on one of my bulletin boards, but I haven't done it for the same reason I put off lots of things...I haven't had time!   I found this and I love it because it's an instant Boggle game for your Smart Board.  It has letter tiles that you can change with one click. I plan to use it next week as a collaborative activity.  Here it is: 

http://www.teacherled.com/resources/letterdice/letterdiceload.html 

If the link doesn't work, be sure to copy/paste the URL into your browser.  

Enjoy!

Free 2014-2015 Editable Academic Calendar!

As we approach August, it's time for teachers to start thinking about the upcoming school year and what resources we'll need.   I'm not a fan of the plan books with a calendar that you buy at the teacher store, because I can't easily edit them and they never have what I want in them.  So instead,  I keep a planning binder with a plan book that I created in Microsoft Word.  But, I also need a calendar. So, every August, when I am getting started on my planning for the school year, I download a FREE, editable academic calendar for long term planning and save it to my computer.   I download it from a site called www.calendarlabs.com.   Here's what I like about their calendars:

• They offer a variety of calendars in different formats, orientations, and starting months.
• All national holidays are already in the calendars.     
• They are easy-to-use Microsoft Word (.doc) files 
• You can use them "as-is" or you can edit the font size, font color, and personalize the header.
• They are a "minimalist" design and don't have any graphics on them (but you can add them)
• You can easily share the calendar with teammates via e-mail.

Where my own calendar is concerned, I like it to begin in August, rather than July.  These calendars span 12 months, but you can edit that too.   I use the "portrait" orientation so that it fits well into my planning binder.  I edit the header to put my school name and school year.  Then, I enter all of the school holidays and other school-related dates so that it's ready to use for planning out the school year. I enjoy "cutesy" stuff as much as the next teacher, but where it comes to my planning calendar, I like it very simple.  However, you could add graphics if you want to.  

Here's what a sample page looks like.  I decided to choose June since that month makes me happy! (Sorry for the dark picture.)

 

Here is the link to the Calendar Labs 2014 2015 academic calendars.   I hope that you find this information helpful and have a great school year!

A Shout-Out for The Purple Cows Hot & Cold Laminator!

   

I have to give a shout-out about one of the best things I've purchased for my classroom in a long time. I bought it on Amazon.com and it's the Purple Cows Hot & Cold Laminator!  I use this thing all of the time!  I used to have to wait for "laminating day" to get things laminated and sometimes pieces would get lost after a trip to the laminator.  But now, I can laminate whenever I want to.  This laminator is for small items (8 1/2" wide or smaller), and that's perfect because I mostly laminate small items.  The lamination at my school is thinner than the lamination pockets that come with the Purple Cows laminator.  I find the lamination at the teacher store to be thinner, as well.   I think that they must have ordered thinner laminate than they used to have in previous years.  Last year I had my student name tags laminated at the teacher store in August and they fell apart in the fall...so frustrating!   Of course you can laminate stuff at the big-box office supply stores, but it's super expensive.

I ordered my Purple Cows laminator last summer for $25 which included 100 hot pockets in different sizes.  I still have some left a year later.   The Purple Cows laminator does hot and cold laminating, but I admit that I've only tried the hot lamination.    This laminator is small enough in size, so I can take it back and forth between school and home easily.  If you're a bit of a control freak like me and you want to just get things done immediately, then you'll love having this laminator in your classroom!

Here's a photo of a couple of the things I've recently laminated.

   

Click here for the link to the Purple Cows Laminator on Amazon.com

To Give Homework or Not to Give Homework? That is the Question!

 My teaching team and I have had in-depth conversations about homework just about every, single year since I began teaching, 14 years ago.  We wonder about whether or not it's effective for elementary-aged kids, especially in early elementary grades K-2.  We wonder if the homework we give is too much or not enough.   We get concerned about how much help one student may get from a parent or guardian, while others may get little parent help at all.  We also debate about how to account for homework that is turned in.  Should it be graded when returned or should it be checked by parents prior to turning it in?    Is homework primarily about work habits and responsibility, or about reinforcing concepts learned? 

In the last few years, I've heard that research suggests that homework may not be effective for elementary aged kids.   So I've done some research on the homework debate... and it's still as clear as mud!  The researchers seem to disagree quite a bit.  I found that many of the studies are very, very old.   Things have changed so much in the past decade...I wonder if those outdated homework studies support the concept of educating 21st century learners?     

There's another factor to consider in the homework debate... regardless of what the research says, most parents expect homework to be provided.  Not only that, but many ask for "additional" or "challenge" homework.  After all, parents had homework from the time that they were in elementary school all of the way through college.  Most of us have, right?   But, it is a different time now, given that it's a predominately digital world for today's kids.  That definitely makes one wonder about what form homework should take, if it is assigned to students.

As we approach the 2014-2015 school year, I know that my teaching team will once again discuss the issue of homework.  Recently, I looked at some research from the ASCD website (See below).  I found some research-based guidelines to use as a jumping-off point for conversations with my teammates about homework.   

   Research-Based Homework Guidelines

Research provides strong evidence that, when used appropriately, homework benefits student achievement. To make sure that homework is appropriate, teachers should follow these guidelines:

·        Assign purposeful homework. Legitimate purposes for homework include introducing new content, practicing a skill or process that students can do independently but not fluently, elaborating on information that has been addressed in class to deepen students' knowledge, and providing opportunities for students to explore topics of their own interest.

·        Design homework to maximize the chances that students will complete it. For example, ensure that homework is at the appropriate level of difficulty. Students should be able to complete homework assignments independently with relatively high success rates, but they should still find the assignments challenging enough to be interesting.

·        Involve parents in appropriate ways (for example, as a sounding board to help students summarize what they learned from the homework) without requiring parents to act as teachers or to police students' homework completion.

·        Carefully monitor the amount of homework assigned so that it is appropriate to students' age levels and does not take too much time away from other home activities.

 These guidelines are from: 

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar07/vol64/num06/The-Case-For-and-Against-Homework.aspx

Are you having trouble remembering all of your usernames and passwords?

Are you constantly forgetting your usernames and passwords for educational apps and websites you use for teaching?  Everything that we do now requires a username and password.  And every site or app requires a certain number of characters, symbols, letters, and numbers.  So you can't easily use the same username and password since all of the requirements are different.  Of course when you forget your user info, you have to go through some crazy procedure where they send  information to your e-mail and you have to create a new password.  It's a HUGE hassle.

I used to write down all of my usernames and passwords on a sheet of paper in my plan book.   Real high tech!  Eventually, it looked like something that had been through a war zone due to all of the cross-outs and additions. Whenever I didn't physically have my plan book with me at a workshop or other meeting, I couldn't get into apps and websites.  I knew if I ever lost my plan book,  I'd never remember all of those usernames and passwords.

 Preview or Download Keeper Here

A couple of years ago, I downloaded a FREE  iPhone app from the App Store that has made my life so much easier! It's called Keeper Password Manager and Digital Vault by Callpod, Inc..   I always have my phone with me, so now,  I always have my usernames and passwords.  For me, that's 58... just related to teaching!  Of course my personal info is stored there too in a different folder.  Keeper is password protected, so no one can get into your private information.   And, yes... you do need to remember that one password!   While the app is free, starting at $9.99 you can back up in other locations aside from your phone, like your PC.  That way, if you lose or damage your phone, you'll still have all of your passwords saved and accessible! 

You can do more with this app like store important documents, but I only use it for my usernames and passwords.  I've had several teachers ask me what app I use and it's definitely worth downloading!

Back to School 2013-2014

I have been away from my blog for a long time due to life getting busy!  As I'm getting ready to head back to school for the new year, I decided that I'd like to keep track of the things that I do so that I can review them next year!

Back to School With Daily 5!

I'm excited for another great year in 2nd grade!  I've got a great group of students and I really look forward to working together his year.  Some of the things that I'm working on this year are the Daily 5 (Year 2) and the Daily 5 CAFE. 

I was very happy with the success of the implementation of the Daily 5 last year, but I want to make it even better this year.  I am going to have only 4 rotations at 15 min. each rather than 6 rotations at 12 min. each.  Given my enthusiasm for D5, I was trying to do too much each day.  Luckily, students did very well in language arts and reading, but I did feel it was a bit rushed.  Part of the way that I'll accomplish this is by only meeting with 4 reading groups per day.  I'm excited to get started (once training and stamina are built up this year, of course)!

I'm also excited about the CAFE.  I've come to the conclusion that it's really just good, explicit instruction.  It seems like a great way to make sure that you're teaching students all of the independent skills necesary to be a good reader and writer.  I'll report back on that later once we've begun lessons.

Another challenge this year is that we're having copier "challenges".   But, I am trying to be more efficient with my resources anyway, so that will be another improvement that I'll make this year to D5.  It'll be less paper intensive.  I plan to have students use their binders a lot more. 

I'm looking forward to building stamina so we can hit the ground running in my classroom this year!