Author Interviews

By making books come alive, children are more likely to fall in love with reading. My students have always loved Jan Brett and Eric Carle books, but when I show them videos of the real live author speaking about their books, there is a sense of connection they begin to feel with the books. Reading Rockets has a library over 100 interviews with well-known authors about their lives and books they have written. This would be a great addition to any book study. Besides enjoying listening to the author's interview, think of ways to use the video to encourage higher level thinking in your classroom! Such as, before watching the interview brainstorm questions that you would like to ask the author. Maybe these questions will be a part of the interview, maybe not - you'll have to watch to find out! Or, after researching the author through watching the interview and reading their bio on Reading Rockets or other websites, set up and video mock interviews with the "author" (aka. one of your students). Ask students to create questions that may not have been in the interview, but was learned through their research. I'm getting excited. :) Hopefully by April my first graders will be ready for such an activity!

Mastery Connect

I just completed a project for my Integrating and Implementing Technology class about Mastery Connect. This formative assessment and collaborative tool is absolutely outstanding! Besides creating two of the best Common Core apps for teachers, Mastery Connect is redefining the way in which teachers collaborate and assess standards. The following video is the main part of my project in which I guide you through the free options of using Mastery Connect. If you would like a simple instructional guide to begin using Mastery Connect click here.

 

Visit Mastery Connect to create your own free account, or view pricing and plans for your school and district. For the school districts using Mastery Connect, there are added questions that correlate with NEWA MAP test items, benchmarking tools, and so much more!  

 

Besides collaboration between educators, the goal of using Mastery Connect is provide a way for teachers to formatively assess students, provide immediate feedback, and plan for immediate intervention or corrective activities. This is known as Mastery Learning, originally developed by Benjamin Bloom in the 1970's. The diagram below shows the process of using formative assessments to improve student learning. Please click here to read a short article about Mastery Learning and Bloom's process.

 

Graphite.org

Do you ever become overwhelmed with the plethora of websites, apps, and programs to choose from when using technology in your classroom? I do!!! Have you ever thought you found a fabulous website to use with your class, however you just couldn't decide the best way to use it? I have!!! Would you like a solution? Yes, please!!! Graphite.org is an outstanding free site in which apps, websites, and digital curricula are rated and described by teachers, for teachers. The screenshot below shows a sampling of the multiple ways you can search for technology. Check it out and join for free today!

Hello Dropbox!!!

I am all about finding anything that can help simplify the crazy world of education (and life)! Dropbox does just that! How would you like to be able to create a document on your computer and yet access it on your tablet or smartphone? What about downloading a document, video, picture, pretty much anything, to your tablet and being able to print it from your computer? Dropbox is the answer to all of this, plus more! I have spent many frantic minutes (that often feel like hours) searching for my lost jumpdrive with all of my important things on it... however since converting to Dropbox I can save and open without the fear of losing my precious, tiny jumpdrive. Not only can I use Dropbox, but so can my students. Students can easily save to a Dropbox account when working on documents or certain creation apps on the iPad. Now, when students work on a project in the computer lab and do not finish, instead of trying to save to the network or a jumpdrive, we can easily save to Dropbox and they can complete the assignment in the classroom or even at home. This also allows me to check over and grade their work on my own computer, at my convenience. Dropbox does have a storage limit for the free version, so take that in to account as you plan student use of it. For more information about Dropbox, see the video below. If you use Dropbox either for personal, professional, or classroom use I'd love to hear your ideas!

Kahn Academy

As an early childhood educator I have only heard of Kahn Academy, but have not been able to use it in my classroom. Kahn Academy is a great example of the new trend in education of Flipping the Classroom. When a classroom is Flipped students watch lectures and instructional videos online presented either by their teacher or another source, such as Kahn Academy. During class time, students are then engaged by practice activities and group projects instead of lectures. Flipping the classroom allows teachers to provide more individualized instruction and as the video below states, teachers become more of a coach in which they can go into further detail in explaining misunderstood parts of the curriculum. This past Sunday Kahn Academy was featured on 60 Minutes on CBS. Follow this link to watch and learn how Kahn Academy is changing the way innovative educators are teaching in their classrooms.

Symbaloo for Classroom Management

Classroom management in technology usage is an important, yet sometimes overlooked part of TPACK. Without proper and effective management, precious teaching and learning time can be wasted. I have used Symbaloo to organize and keep track of my favorite links personally for a while. However, it never occurred to me to use Symbaloo as a classroom management tool. A colleague shared with me a few weeks ago how they use Symbaloo in their computer lab. Her Symbaloo account holds each grade level's personalized webmix and is set as the homepage on all the lab computers. When students sit down at the computer and open Internet Explorer all they have to do is find their grade level's webmix tab and they are ready to begin. Brilliant!! The more I thought about this brilliant idea my mind wandered to additional ways Symbaloo could be used for classroom management. Here are a few webmix ideas that came to mind:

1. Grade level (Thank you Kris Davis!)
2. Subject Area (Reading, Math, Writing, Science)
3. Class Period (For upper grades)
4. Leveled Work for Students (For differentiated work)
5. 4C's - Collaboration sites, Communication sites, Creation Sites
6. Sites for Homework (Simply place a link to your Symbaloo or embed it on your class blog or website)

In the past I have wasted so much of my planning time adding links to the desktop on all the computers in the lab or my classroom. Or I have had to bug someone with an administrator account to add links to the desktop for me. My problem is now solved... and it is so simple! When I find websites I want my students to use frequently, I simply login to my account, add the link to a tile... and I'm finished! The next time students open the web browser whether it be on the computers in the lab, computers in my classroom, or the iPad, they can easily access the links.

If you are not familiar with Symbaloo check out the video below for a quick overview.

                                                  Video from Youtube

Barnes and Noble Online Storytime

One of the greatest parts of teaching first grade is teaching young students to read...and even more than that is teaching students to LOVE books and reading. My previous post was about Storyline Online in which famous actors read animated books online. Well what about the author of the actual book reading to students? Barnes and Noble is making this possible on their website... for free (one of my favorite words in education)!!! I have yet to share this website with my students, but I cannot wait to return to school and share with them this jewel! Listening to the actual author read the book aloud will surely excite and motivate all students. As with Storyline Online, this too would be an excellent choice for a listening center or class activity on the Interactive Whiteboard. An example of the retelling can be found below. Enjoy!