Apps and Ideas

For picking students without bias, go to the App Store and search "ILEAP Pick a Student"

http://appfinder.lisisoft.com/app/ileap-pick-a-student.html

25 Great Ideas

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/clever-classroom-tips-for-elementary-school-teachers

Problem of the Month

Part of the shift to Common Core involves more problem solving skills. Here is a site that offers a "Problem of the Month" for various ability levels, starting a Primary Grades.

Common Core Transition

Great video talking about the transition to the Common Core standards for both Math and Language Arts. Found at www.teachingchannel.org.

Click on the above banner to link to the Power Point from last week's grade level meeting. (You can view it as a Google doc, but it is easier to see it if you download it to your computer and then open it from there.

Here is the link to the Singapore Math article.

Here is the link to the solution to the 2nd problem on the Power Point.

More Resources:

Article by Bill Jackson

Example of the Bar Model process

Some bar Model Resources

Practice Problems (with answers!), On-Line lessons, and more

Pinterest

Here is a link to an article that highlights the 20 Best Pinterest Boards for Education.

Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, I have added several Pinterest sites you can visit toward the bottom of the blog. Enjoy!

Another Teacher Resource

Great Teacher Resources....

Hopefully you already know about the following resources:

• Pinterest: Tons of resources, most of which are free.

• Teachers Pay Teachers: Some freebies, others are cheap, depends on source. Worth looking at!

• Pro Teacher Community: Message boards and more. Good resources.

Here is a new one I just found out about:

•  Teacher Notebook:  Similar to Teachers Pay Teachers. Some freebies, others you pay for. On this site, teachers receive 100% (minus pay pal fees) of the money generated.

Do you have any other resource sites you would like to share? Use the comment section and I will post them in a side-bar.

Common Core Resource

commoncore.org/

Click on MAPS in the upper right corner for a host of helpful instruction and planning information.

CAPE Teacher Connection - Hodge Podge

This is from Teacher Connection on 9/19/2012

There are 3 books that Edgewood received as resources. They are...

1.  Phonics & Fluency Practice with Poetry by Timothy V. Rasinski, William H. Rupley, William Dee Nichols.
• Use this book to help ENL's and struggling readers.
• Good resource for Success Time Remediation!
2.  INCLUSION 450 Strategies for Success by Peggy A. Hammeken
• Ideas for the classroom and small groups
• Suggestions for assessing
• Ideas for RtI interventions
3. 99 Ideas and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners with the SIOP Model by MaryEllen Vogt and Jana Echevarria 
• Don't let the title fool you, this was by far the best book of the 3
• Resource of ideas for Success Time activities
• I recognized some of these ideas from ER&D classes
• Research based!

These books will be kept in the conference room, and are available for check out.

Apps:

• For those of you who use I-Pads, there are many apps that can be of use in the classroom. One of these is "Too Noisy," an app that meters the noise level in the class. As the meter approaches red, the students can self-monitor and  know they must quiet down. Great for center and group times.
• dv Prompter: a teleprompter for the classroom. Great for meeting notes or building fluency.
• Sand Timer: A digital countdown timer for the classroom.
• Rover: Lets you watch items that would normally require flashplayer on the I-Pad

Pinterest

• Great resource for teachers
• Has an "Educational" tab you can use to find tons of items, which constantly change.
• Can also search things like, "Daily 5"

From 1st Session

• Talked about the need to "teach" children to lengthen their attention span.
• Related to "Daily 5" and idea of "building stamina"
• Several teachers at session using Daily 5, all were very positive about it!
• Strategies to Creative and Critical Thinking (website)
• Emotion Management: Calm Down Kit: Have a pencil box with items the child can use to calm down (10 straws for counting, squeeze ball, crayons, play dough, bubbles, etc.) Child uses items in box as a cool down time.
• Low-Tech Tools: Items that increase teachability without a lot of technological know-how.
• Colored overlays. Use to track words, take glare off paper (reducing eye-strain)
• Tracking Devices: smaller strips of colored overlays, usually in a frame
• Highlighter Tape
• Sticky Notes
• Post-It tape flags
• Highlighters (various colors, can be coded for meanings)

ENL Session

• When asking "How long should I wait after asking an ENL a question and moving to another student," Answer: Till it feels uncomfortable, then add 15 seconds.
• Remember, ENL's must do a lot of language processing before they can understand and respond.
• Takes an ENL 2 years to develop a "playground" vocabulary, 5-10 years to develop an "Academic" vocabulary
• Fluency in speech does not necessarily equal fluency in understanding concepts

Afternoon Sessions

• Purple words: When reading student samples, highlight great words in purple. (Example: instead of calling it a big dog, call it a mammoth hound.) When students get their papers back, they will look for how many purple highlights they have!

Websites of note:

• toolforeducators.com
• simplyscripts.com - Find television and movie scripts to use for reading and fluency. (Be careful to use good judgement!)
• storylineonline.net - Famous actors reading storybooks to children. Great for read-aloud. Sign up for the classroom projector before someone else does! Includes downloadable activity guides. (Free site, donations requested)
• Smenkens page with links to websites for scripts.

Here is just one of the stories...

BONUS:
Be the first person to respond by e-mail: What was the rank, first, and last name of the character Ernest Borgnine played in the comedy series, "McHale's Navy?"