Entry Sixteen: Third Day of Third Grade

This fabulous idea came to us from one of our amazing teammates, Jen Carillo.  On the third day of third grade, we asked every child to bring in three items that best represented them for our class “Me Museums.”  Students not only brought in the items, they also brought home three note cards and wrote three sentences about each item.  Instead of having each child sit in a chair and share their items, we had ever child set up their desk like a museum with their items, note cards, and a sign.  Then after a lesson on giving appropriate, complete feedback they rotated to each table group to give written feedback on the items in the museums.  We played fun music for students as they rotated to each group.  Even our most struggling writers were excited to write and it was such a great way to build classroom community.  Each child left with a piece of paper with comments from all of their classmates.  What a wonderful souvenir from their first week!

Here is the letter we sent home to families to explain the project.

Here is an image of one table's "Me Museums."

Here is a copy of my feedback collage.

Look at these excited students writing!

Entry Fifteen: Classroom Favorite Places and Spaces

Back to school is such an exciting time of year. We love setting up our classroom and wanted to take a moment and share some of our favorite spaces and places with you!

Our schedule and objective board is such a simple way for us to keep focused on our daily goals and communicate them with students. Discussing the daily schedule is part our morning meeting routine and helps students understand our plans for the day.

 

Our morning meeting board is pretty simple…for now. When students arrive we will expect several comments in dry erase marker for students to share and discuss. You can purchase this set here.

Our jobs wall is an easy way to manage our classroom. Each student has a job in our classroom and gets paid for their work on Fridays. We will attach a clothespin with student names and then our job monitor will rotate the clothespins on Fridays.

Our digital portfolio center is a simple way to help us manage digital portfolios with the help of a parent volunteer.

Our effort and achievement center has all the materials necessary for students to set and track their academic goals. It doesn't look like much, but it's one of the most powerful things we do to individualize academic goals for our students.

Our writing center offers a ton of resources for students as they work on writing workshop. One of our favorites is the revision cans to help students revise-- and not just edit-- their work.  Get these revision cans for your classroom by clicking here.

Our math management board is a great way rotate groups and keep students focused on their tasks. Each group is selected using a unit pretest. You can read more about this method of instruction by checking out our math management pack.

Our reading and writing workshop management charts are a simple way to ensure we are working with each child on their own unique needs. Once we have our student data, the student names will be in groups horizontally ready for their workshop tasks. Read more about reading and writing workshop by clicking on the links.

We love our science board! It's such a great tool to use to help students understand the scientific method.  Get this set for your classroom here.

Back to School Sale

Get up to 28% off of my store and all the fabulous stores on our awesome blog tab when you use the code BTS12. Happy shopping!

Entry Fourteen: Team Teaching

We are so excited for our training this Thursday on Co-teaching! It's such an awesome model and we know that working together can make such a difference for kids. Check out some of our resources below...

Benefits of Team Teaching
Planning with a co-teacher

Entry Thirteen: iPad Apps Galore!

Using an ipad in the classroom is such a blessing! In just under a year, this one little tool has completely transformed our teaching. We have searched over (what feels like) thousands of websites, worked with hundreds of teachers, and have finally come up with the most effective ways to use one iPad in a classroom. Below, we would like to share our top ten resources for using an ipad in the classroom:

1. This first one is a slideshow of several useful apps for classroom teachers. We love how they not only share the name and picture of the app, but also ways to use it in the classroom.

2. We love this graphic showcasing several ipad apps linked to the different levels in Blooms! Simple, easy to select from but lacks a description for how to use this app.

3. If you want to be able to print a PDF to view the apps and simple ways to use them then this resource is for you! It include the top ten free apps for teachers and it only costs $2.00.

4. This list of 20 ipad apps for educators shares the names and uses of some common apps. Great, simple resource!

5. Appitic. Need I say more?

6. Eschoolnews shares their top ten apps for educators in this simple free post.

7. This resource costs $6.00 but shares 28 unique apps (most are free) and ways to use them. The apps are aligned with ELA common core standards for second grade but can be easily transferred to other grade levels.

8. While many of the following apps are paid apps, they are all simple and easy to use for educators.

9. The top ten paid apps for educators is a free tool that we recommend any teacher check out.

10. This last one is a great tool sharing free apps and the appropriate grade level usage.

Source: slideshare.net via Brenda on Pinterest

Want more?

Mobile Apps for Education

iPad in Education

iPads in Education

Entry Twelve: Around the World

We are so excited to present on global awareness tomorrow at the National Staff Development Council Summer Conference.  It’s a topic we are very passionate about and can’t wait to share some resources and learn from our participants.  Teaching students about global awareness is so important to help prepare them for their future.  We just learned about these great sites to take students on virtual tours of several large cities around the world.  This is such a great way to engage students for an upcoming unit, share similarities and differences of different cultures, and just introduce students to the sites.  Enjoy!

• Victoria Falls, Zambia  

•   Venezuela,Surroundings of Angel Falls,Venezuela  

•   Angel falls, Venezuela  

•  Kalyan, Minaret, Bukhara, Uzbekistan   

• Miami, USA  

•   Las Vegas,USA  

•   Lake Powell,USA  

•   Manhattan, New York, USA  

•   Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, USA  

•   Millennium UN Plaza Hotel, New York, USA  

•   Oahu, Hawaii, USA  

•   Las Vegas, Nevada, USA  

•   Millennium UN Plaza Hotel, New York, USA    

•   Statue of Liberty, New York, USA                                   

•   Manhattan, New York, USA  

•   Hollywood, California, USA                                   

•   San Juan and Colorado rivers, USA                                   

•   Goosenecks, Utah, USA  

•   Mono Lake, California, USA                                     

•  Chicago, Illinois, USA  

•   Los Angeles, California, USA                                   

•   Kiev,Ukraine  

•   Ay-Petri, Ukraine  

•   Dubai, UAE  

•   Dubai, Islands, UAE  

•   Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE  

•   Bangkok, Thailand  

•   Sankt-Moritz, Switzerland  

•   Cape Good Hope, South Africa                                   

•   Cape-Town, South Africa  

•   Moscow, MSU, Russia  

•   Moscow, Kremlin, Bolotnaya Square , Russia                                   

•   Moscow, Russia  

•   Moscow Kremlin, Russia    

•   Trinity Lavra of Sait Sergius, Russia                                   

•   Saint-Petersburg, Russia 

•   New Jerusalem Monastery, Russia                                     

•   Novodevichy Convent. Moscow, Russia                                   

•   Ramenki,Moscow, Russia  

•   MKAD, Moscow, Russia    

•   Krokus Expo Center, Moscow, Russia                                   

•   Moscow Region, Russia 

•  Moeraki Boulders, New Zealand  

•   Fiordland, New Zealand  

•   Nepal, Nepal  

•   Maldives, Maldives  

•  Kuala-Lumpur, Malaysia  

•  Grimsvotn, Iceland  

•   Amsterdam, Holland  

•   Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany                                   

•   Egyptian Pyramids, Egypt  

•   Hong Kong, China  

•  The Iguassu Falls, Brazil  

•  Twelve Apostles Marine National Park, Australia  

•   Sydney, Australia  

•   Buenos Aires, Argentina  

Entry Eleven: Prezi

Prezi.com is such a fun way to present information when PowerPoint just won’t do or when you want to WOW your audience. We have used Prezi for our trainings, to share information with students in a fun way, and even helped students create presentations in Prezi to showcase their skills using this engaging web 2.o tool. See how easy it is to use Prezi by clicking on this short tutorial here.

We used this prezi for our back to school night presentation for our new students and families:

Our students each created a prezi to share their goals and achivements with their families for student led conferences in the fall. Here is an example: The best way to learn Prezi is just to create an account and explore. Maybe you'll create your own back to school night presentation using this engaging tool!