Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

I love my job...I get to go to a bunch of different schools and I always like checking out what other teachers have posted or have done in their classroom. Here are some of my back-to-school finds. 1. The "You Decide" poster. It was located outside a nurses office and when I saw it, I stopped to look at it (which is always a mark of a good display). I loved its simplicity and message. 2. The "stage". I delivered a class set of iPads in this classroom and and literally said, "Shut the front door! You have a STAGE?!?! With a RUNWAY?!?! Can I walk it?!?!?". It was ridiculously cool (#everyoneshouldhaveastage). The teacher made it over the summer after visiting the Ron Clark Academy last year and he did an awesome job (side note: visiting the Ron Clark Academy is on my bucket list). There were other Ron Clark touches that I need to take pictures of but it is the stage that I really loved (the kids loved it as well and laughed when made a big deal of wal...

My husband oddly enough brought this to my attention. Apparently there is a White House initiative to get all four graders and their families (including 4th grade teachers) to experience federal public lands. It began September 1, 2015 and runs until the end of August 2016. It looks like this is the first year so I am not sure if it is being offered this coming September 1st. There seems to be an educator package that I thought would be good to look at with four activity guides. In my neck of the woods the activity guides would be good for after state testing as a way of introducing the program for summer fun (even though it seems good for the entire year). So if you are a fourth grade teacher, or have a fourth grader at home, you might want to check it out! Here is what is on the website: "To help engage and create our next generation of park visitors, supporters and advocates, the White House, in partnership with the Federal Land Management agencies, launched the ...

My favorite purchase I made last school year were these Easy Lunch Boxes . I was looking for a bento style lunch box that I could use to help put healthy lunches together (it is a goal of mine...sigh!). In my search I found these. I had a gift certificate to Amazon so I purchased a set...along with the little "mini dipper" containers (a friend gave me her silicon cupcake holders that she doesn't use..so I pretty much have everything in the first picture above). I love love love them (and that is saying a lot for me to wax poetic about lunch containers!). I even wrote a review on Amazon (which I don't normally do). What makes them different from other compartment containers? They are deeper...so wraps, salads, cut up anything fit in easily (right now I have a salad in mine for tomorrow with dressing and cut up fruit). They don't warp in the dishwasher at all. I like having all the compartment options (I'm a snacker so that works for me). The "mini d...

This is one of my favorite videos/songs sung by 14 year old Rachel Crow. Since October is Anti-Bullying Month I thought I would share how you can use it in your classroom (as an excuse to show it :). You can have students write down what they think, "I'm just gonna comb you out of my curls" means. Explain how figurative language can be used to paint a picture (have them draw a picture of someone combing mean girls or mean words out of their hair - post in the hall). Teach students what pronouns are and then have them count the number of pronouns in the lyrics version of the song . (Lesson idea came this website ).

Today's post is called "Fun with Flags" (after Sheldon Cooper's webcast in The Big Bang Theory...yes I love the show!).  The school is Coosa Elementary School and they have a great art teacher (Donna Sams) who creates these classroom flags each year. They line the entrance going into the school, on both sides of the road, to create a fun drive in experience for parents and visitors. They seem to be made of sturdy canvas and are zip tied to the pole to keep from flapping. Not being an art teacher I have NO IDEA what kind of paint she uses but it holds up pretty much the entire year...even during the most severe thunderstorms! The backs of the flag have the student's hand print and name. They are generally made the first week of school and are up within the second or third week.  I thought it was a super cute way to make a school entrance appealing and student friendly.  

I follow a blog -  http://gingersnapstreatsforteachers.blogspot.com/ -   and she posted her long range plans this morning and I LOVED the format...which she provides for free (you do have to download some fonts to view it correctly but I believe those are free as well).  My favorite was the "Year at a Glance" that she provides to parents at the beginning of the year (which is what I really liked and think it's a fabulous idea).  I'm pass it along in case folks are working on their LRP's this summer :) 

Last year I made an “about me” presentation that I used when introducing myself to teachers and students. The goal was to show teachers and students how they could easily create one on their own using the Promethean software our district has. Since a lot of my readers do not have Promethean software I created two tutorials highlighting how to make this easy back-to-school presentation. The first is using Promethean’s ActivInspire software and the second using PowerPoint - both are around 5 minutes.   As you can see, it is a fairly simple process. I've done this project with third graders on up and they catch on fairly quickly (and they like it a lot better then being forced to write a paper about their summer vacation). I do make them type details about their picture (so there is some writing involved) and I limit them to one piece of clipart from the internet…otherwise the process gets bogged down by picture searching. When they are done I either let...

I saw a goal list on Pinterst (see first picture) and I thought it would make a good research collection template for students (what student wouldn't love working with post-it notes!). I created a template for upper grade levels (collection of six facts - using 11x17 paper) and a template for lower grade levels (collection of four facts - using 8 1/2 x 11 paper).  I printed out 24 copies of each on card stock and laminated them. I worked with third graders using them to collect biographically information for a black history project and with first graders collecting facts about habitat specific animals.  The idea, in my mind at least, was that these collection boards would allow for more research and collection opportunities in the classroom...other then the typical 1-2 a year.  Here is what I learned... 1. The third graders really didn't know how to gather pertinent information. They were a bit all over the board with their facts so I ...

I thought these two classroom doors were too cute not to share. This is in a school with a school wide nautical theme and the top one was for Browder's Beacons and the second was for Porter's Pirates.  For the pirate one she used contact paper for the black parts and a plastic table top for the bandanna.  For the beacon one she used yellow and red bulletin board paper outlined in black electrical tape. 

I ran into this project walking the halls at one of the schools I go to. It was done in Leslie Larussas' fourth grade class as a creative writing piece. The students were to take one negative thought they had and find three positives within it.  I love love love this assignment! What a great way to teach children to turn their thinking around (I know several adults who need to do this assignment...on a daily basis :) She took pictures of the kids thinking and they created speech bubbles around themselves. She let the kids color it...which made some of them hard to read but they were all really good negative-to-positive examples.  Since I am a technology coach I looked for a way that the project could be done on the computer hence the last picture (FYI - our district is going to 1-1 iPads in grades 3-5 next year so the last project was done using an app called educreations as an example.)  It was inspired because I had just finished the couch to 5K a...

A friend of mine posted this foldable idea on Facebook through "WeAreTeachers" page and I loved, loved, loved it. The post directed you to THIS BLOG  where the teacher modified something she saw on Pinterest. I took the idea and modified it some more to incorporate a coloring aspect...because I can already see the earlier finishers saying "done!". I uploaded the editable file HERE if anyone wants to download and use it. Here are my responses to the foldable: 2 - new goals for this year: (1) Donate blood at least 3x this year and (2) Drink more water 0 - Something I'd like to stop doing: Spending money eating out and/or just eating out less in general 1 - thing I want to learn: How to make more things in my Vitamix blender besides smoothies and hummus (I do have a cookbook I just need to make the leap to opening it :) 4 - new books I want to read: (1) The Brainy Bunch by Kip and Mona Lisa Harding, (2) Shield of Winter by Nalini Singh (3) Night ...

 Here is a video that I made about how I teach writing. I was exploring how teachers can use videoscribing (tech technique - see explanation HERE ) to make instructional videos with the software we have in the district. I choose writing as my topic. I have presented my writing strategies to several schools and have been video taped on how I implement writing in my classroom. I have less time to go into classrooms to teach this strategy so I thought this video might help some teachers.  I know this is not strictly "science" but I used it when students had to write papers about animals in conjunction with what we are learning in science so I thought it would be appropriate for this blog.  To see this video direct from YouTube (as opposed to an embedded link - CLICK HERE )

I was looking for free end of year tech ideas on TeachersPayTeachers and I came across this fun idea. You make a Word document for each child in the classroom and then have each child in your class go into the document (centers or in a computer lab) and write a positive comment (what a great way to end the school year!). The final version can be printed out and given to each child. Activity can be found on this TeachersPayTeachers site -  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Graduation-Positive-Comments

A few weeks ago I wrote about a teacher who uses student self direction learning in her class every Friday -  http://sciencenotebooking.blogspot.com/2013/01/student-directed-learning-form.html . Another teacher saw the post and has developed a game plan for next year and wrote about it on her blog ( http://jessicaywinston.blogspot.com/2013/05/self-directed-learning.html ). I really like her ideas and will be following her posts closely as she implements this great teaching idea (picture of her schedule above is from her blog).

The other day I taught an iPad science lesson with a group of eight graders. After the explanation and practice student were to work independently on their project. Unfortunately these 8th graders could not work independently and quietly at the same time (not a huge surprise). The students worked hard to fill the void of silence with smack talk across the room distracting each other and getting off task. Luckily I had a Kidz Bop 23 CD in my bag and I put it in and immediately the talking stopped (the singing, the foot taping, and head bopping started but hey they were all working). Surprisingly children have difficulty focusing in a completely quiet environment and they seek to fill the void with unproductive noise/chatter. Having some music that can play in the background will help to greatly reduce behavior issues in these situations. I like the Kidz Bop CD's because they feature songs the kids know but they have been filtered so there is no inapprop...

I made this poster a few year ago from book I got from my mother-in-law (who found it at a garage sale). Here is a link to the book on AMAZON  and better yet (!) a link to the FREE PDF of the book . UPDATE - Apparently the PDF site is down. Luckily I downloaded it before it went down and I have it uploaded HERE . I copied some of the templates from the book and made a "How to Make a Poster" poster (the kids think that is the funniest thing!). I left it up on the wall and earlier finishers were directed to the poster to pick a layout to make a poster for the classroom on whatever topic we were covering at the time. This could also be used as a guide for a right hand poster assignment. It currently resides in a friends classroom and she is using it in a similar fashion.

I recently had an opportunity to visit a couple of elementary school in Charleston, SC. The schools were using iPads and we were there look at student use of the devices in the classroom. I visited a fourth grade class at Goodwin Elementary School and the teacher (Mrs. Feit) happened to mention a student self directed schedule on Friday and I became very interested in that (as opposed to the iPads...although that was pretty cool to :)  She let me take pictures of the forms she used (see above) and told me a little bit about how the process works. On Thursday students fill out their forms of how they want to spend their time on Friday (academically). The teacher has some non-negotiable for that day (Word Master Test, math block, reading block). All the other blocks are for children to fill out. They can finish work they are behind in, practice skills they are rusty in, etc. The forms get turned into the teacher to approve on Thursday. The student has to note the activity/ma...

I ran across this project through Pinterest and forwarded it to all my friends who teach (preK through 6th Grade). http://projectsbyjen.com/Projects/HCE2012/hce2012.html   It is a global Christmas Card Project that looks extremely well organized. The site includes videos from previous years projects, the standards the project address and comprehensive instructions. It can be done with a classroom teacher or even in conjunction with the art teacher. The theme this year is SNOWGLOBES (fun!). Jen (the project organizer) even includes a link to her pinterest page with snowglobe ideas. If I had a classroom group this year I would definitely do this with my students. Please note that registering for this project ends this TUESDAY (November 20th) so if you are interested you will need to sign up ASAP.

I was admiring these student portaits outside a first grade classroom the other day and the teacher said that she has students create them within the first week of school. She says the pictures help her initally identify student skill level. She pointed out that the higher readers/thinkers tend to put a lot of detail in their pictures. In the examples above Estralla has eyelashes, lipstick, hair in pigtails and flowers on her shirt. In Janasia's picture, next to her, you can see details are sparse. In the second set of pictures you can see that Daryl has added teeth, full eyes, necklace, and hands to his picture where Keion doesn't have as much detail. She uses the pictures to help baseline her incoming students into appropriate groups until testing gets started. I thought this was an interesting way to help identify student needs at the beginning of the year. Who knew that a picture could tell so much about a child!

I ran across this video on YouTube and really liked this brain break activity. The purpose of the activity is in no way related to academics (although if streched one could say it falls under the "following instructions" standard which seems to fall into our reading/ELA standards). The purpose is to wake student brains up by doing something that requires a bit of thinking or moving. Often times I go into a classroom and the kids are zombied out and it doesn't matter how great your lesson is they are not "with it" enough to pay attention. Having them do one of these brain breaks is a great way to wake them up both physically and mentally. There are several in the series and I have tried a few in classes. I definitely recommend giving them a look through to see what might work in your classroom. Just type in "brain break" in the YouTube search engine and they should come up.