My FAVORITE websites and tech tools!

This year I am beyond lucky to have a netbook computer for every child.  It has changed everything in my room!   We are able to do the coolest things.   My absolute favorite website to use is Edmodo.com.  Have you tried this?   It has made my life so much easier and my kids are in LOVE.  It looks a lot like facebook and we are able to communicate in a social network atmosphere,  but I get to moderate the whole thing.  It is a free site,  you set up a teacher site,  and get a log in code.   Then you set all of your kids up on it.   BEST PART?  Quizzes and assignments!   You can write a quiz while you sit and watch Grey's Anatomy and assign it to the class - you can set it for the next day,  or really anytime in the future, assign it to the whole class or just a group of kids.  The kids take it, and you watch the scores come in.   Did you get that?  It GRADES them for you.   Then if a few kids bomb it, you can IMMEDIATELY call them back and remediate... HELLO!  This is so awesome.   Now I don't have to bring the all the papers home in my giant bag,  pretend I will grade them,  get distracted, take them back to school, bring them home the next night,  grade them,  and then take them back and try to remember who was struggling when we have already moved on to the next objective.   Freaking amazing.   The kids get their own scores and their parents can log in and log at home and see how their own child is doing.

You can also send out notes to the class, to individual students,  send badges, create polls, post pictures etc.  You can link websites you want them to go to and see if they have actually gone.    My kids write me on the weekends,  at night,  when I am out.   A few weeks back I was out for 3 days in a row with pneumonia.   I was able to communicate with them all day.  I sent out quizzes,  checked out they did and put them in my grade book.    (I usually toss out everything they do when I have a sub so this was a major bonus!).  I had one little stinker decide he was not going to take the quiz and go to another website.   I called the sub and asked her to let me speak with him.   He was a little freaked out,  but got right on it.   My kids truly believe I can see everything they do,  even when I am not there!   I kind of felt like the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz!   Edmodo works great with a full set of netbooks,  but my whole team has their classes on it using the hall computers or the traveling netcart.   Kids can take quizzes at their leisure or on your schedule so this could be used in any setting.  Give it a try!  You will not be sorry.
http://www.edmodo.com

This year we have also been using http://wallwisher.com/ .  This site is great for bellwork.   You can pose a  question and students get on and write a sticky note to answer the question.   It sticks to the wall so you can read all of them and they can read each other's post.  I literally took minutes to teach my second graders how to use this.   My kids now make their own walls and invite their friends to come and post on them.   We have used to for vocabulary sentences,  sharing good news,  writing story problems etc. 

My favorite gadgets this year are our Easi-Speak Microphones.  They are cute little digital microphones.   They record and playback what the kids say into them.   They have a USB port that hooks into their computers (or mine) and saves their work.   They can be used for a million things,  but so far we mostly use them to read into.   I have students do a cold read of a guided reading book on Monday into the microphone and save it,  then read it again later in the week and listen to their fluency.   We talk about how it has changed and what they can do to improve it.   It makes explicit instruction of fluency very simple.  I have also used it do to do a running record on a child I didn't have a chance to meet with.  Best of all?   I will be using their recordings at parent teacher conferences next week!  I am so excited about it. 

These a pretty spendy so I  wrote a request for them on DonorsChoose.org and received them at the end of last year.   I also received the sound system to plug the microphones into ...

I am not in love with this yet.  If I had to do it again and I probably would not even bother with this thing.   Please let me know if you use this in some amazing way.  

 

What websites do you love?  What fun things are you using in your room?   Please comment and let me know!

The things you learn in second grade!

I think I learn as much in our classroom as my kids do.   Did you know that an aquarium snail will escape the tank at an opportunity he (or she - no idea) gets?  Did you know that they can survive for hours outside of the tank,  even if it looks like a little dried up worm inside the shell?

We have a Mystery snail in our tank.   Sometimes I have trouble finding it.   It moves about surprisingly quickly.   There have been times when I have just not been able to find him(or her).  But later that day,  he (or she) always shows up.  Monday morning,  one of my kiddos was INSISTENT that the snail was not in the tank.  I was INSISTENT that the kid get back to work so I assured him that he was in there.   He kept running back to the tank and checking,  each time bringing along more of the other kids. I was annoyed.  I was getting through reading groups, so I stayed put.  HOURS passed,  specials and lunch and recess and science... and the same child came up to me and said there was "something like a shell" on the counter.  I was thinking that this kid was just imagining things,  but I went back to look (and prove him wrong).  And there was our snail shell.   The snail inside (usually a very pale yellow) was dark brown,  shriveled up and nasty looking.   I felt AWFUL.  I told the class that he had died,  but they BEGGED me to give him a chance and throw him back in the tank.  I did (after all,  I had been a royal bitty about the whole thing all day).   He sank to the bottom of the tank and just sat there looking dead.  Soon it was time to go home and I had to run to a meeting off campus.   I never got back to the tank.

Yesterday I walked into my room,  completely expecting to smell the funk of dead snail (and my own guilt) and was surprised to walk in and smell nothing but the slight smell of spoiled milk from our milk carton community.   I walked over to the tank and that little stinker was on the other side of the tank, completely hanging of the wall, doing what snails do - ALIVE.  Crazy.  A few of my children were convinced that it was a reincarnation and the others were sure it was a miracle.  I think I side with the second group.  Never a dull moment.

We worked on our milk carton community today,  starting to add in some skyscrapers in our urban area.  We have built it up from a rural community.   We have been talking about how communities change over time.   It was been very fun.  The town/city doesn't look quite like I was envisioning,  but the kids think it is awesome.   They have started to add in shopping areas and even a planetarium.  My favorite add so far has been from my rodeo obsessed little buddy.   He asked told me he was adding a store - when he was finished we had a Cavender's Boot City right between our suburban and rural areas.   He explained that mostly cowboys would be buying boots!  I love that!  Here are a couple of pictures of our city in progress.

 

 

We also worked on my TpT magnet mini-unit today.   We had a great time with it.   I did realize that some of the pictures that I had added were too light or too busy to copy well,  so when I got home I went in and edited the unit some.   Here are a couple pix of my buddies working on it.

 

 

Have a fantastic Thursday friends!





 



New TpT Mini-Unit - Magnets

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Magnets-A-Delighfully-Attractive-Lesson

We are doing magnets this week and have had a really hard finding cute things that we could GRADE...I feel like I am constantly in search of something to grade!  Let me know what you think.   I will post some pictures soon!

Ever notice that there is no such thing as a "lawyer" supply store?

My bestie Sara and I have talked this over a million times,  we have even considered writing a book telling the "truths" of teaching - sort of a precautionary tale for teachers in training.  Things  like,  you have to buy your own EVERYTHING.....pens and pencils, scissors, and staplers and pencil sharpeners and stuff to decorate your walls, classroom books and games for the kids in your class to play. Half the time we even end up buying the kids basic supplies because their families are not able.   So much stuff in fact,  that there are complete stores and websites and catalogs full of stuff for us to buy for our classrooms.   Can you imagine a lawyer supply store?  What would they buy?  I can't imagine lawyers buy their own file folders and pens.  I won't even get started on the other things they leave out of teacher training...  But still I love it.   I mean it,  I really love my job - not everything about it,  not all day or every day,  but most of the time I love it. 

Teaching can be lonely business though.   We are in a classroom all day by ourselves with a group of children.  Sometimes I catch myself talking to myself under my breath.  Sometimes I just wish someone else could witness how ridiculous my days are (like how many times I have to ask someone to stop chewing their hair, or shredding their own shirt, or how we tried to revive a snail that escaped from the aquarium).  I think that is why I love things like teacher blogs and Teachers Pay Teachers.   It gives us a place to share and collaborate with teachers around the country and around the world.  I love seeing what others are doing and incorporating their ideas into my plans.  I cannot tell you how much time I spend on the brilliant blog -
stepintosecondgrade.blogspot.com/ .  Today we started teaching time in math and I was so glad that I had her time unit to help get it started.  I have to admit I sort of HATE teaching time.  This packet helps a lot,  but will say I will be very happy when all my little peeps can tell time and stop asking me when lunch is!

Today in class, we worked on communities - rural, suburban and urban.   I created this little freebie that I put on TpT to help determine who was getting it and who wasn't. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rural-Suburban-and-Urban-Flip-Book-FREEBIE

 

We are also creating our own little town with milk cartons from the cafeteria, and construction paper.  We are starting out small - a rural area, and building up daily, adding stores, more homes, gas stations, etc. By the end of the week we will have a big urban city.   I will post pictures as we go! 

 

 

Hope you had a fabulous day!

 



First TpT Craft - Contraction Hospital

Today I listed my first Teachers Pay Teachers craft.  I made a "hospital" to go with our contraction surgery lesson.   I LOVE that lesson so much but the project that we did with it is always really blahhh.... so I made this little book as a reminder of the lesson.  Each page is a hospital room with a bed and a contraction recovering on it.  It can also be made with smaller beds (included in packet) or it can be made into a poster with lots of little rooms on one page.  I am still really learning how to do all of it but it was fun!  I am not even sure yet how to a thumbnail of it,  but give it a peek if you get a chance.   I am working on learning how to do all of it.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Contraction-Hospital-Craftivity

Moving Movies and other fun!

This week was crazy,  I don't know about you but I find it incredibly hard to get in everything that we have in our plans.   Our district started using c-scope last year for math and science and added social studies this year.     We have found the pace to be fast and furious but I am enjoying it for the most part.

This week, one of our science objectives was to understand the ways that things move.   My incredibly creative teammate Mariel, suggested we have the kids make movies of each type of movement.   We focused on rolling, spinning and sliding.   We assigned a movement to groups of 7 or 8 kids and had them come up with skit to explain their type of movement.  We went out to the playground and had them perform an investigation and write out a plan.  Then each group performed their skit and we recorded it on our Flipcams and showed them to our classes.   They were in love.  We have taught this objective eleventy million times over the years,  but this year was completely different,  the kids loved it and we loved it.  I know we will be using movie making a lot in the near future!  I wish I could share the video!

We also did the fantastic Pop-Rocks writing project that you can find all over Pinterest.  We used this awesome packet we purchased from Teachers Pay Teachers
 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pop-Rockin-Descriptive-Writing-Activities .  I loved the thinking maps that were included and the adorable project,  but I was not really in the mood to do a complete project,  we were limited on time and this year I have some incredible artists... but they take FOR-EVA,  so I decided to change it up a little and just quickly took a picture of each kiddo with their tongue sticking out, and had them cut them out and add some glitter to their to tongues as the Pop-Rocks.   I loved the "floating head" effect and it literally just took a few minutes to print them all out.  (I took their pictures as they worked on bellwork).

 

 

 

Since I have named this page In That Room,  I thought I would add a few pictures of my classroom this year.  Our aquarium was purchased through a grant from PetSmart.    Several of the teachers at my school have received this grant.  It literally takes about 3 minutes to complete and as far as I know everyone receives it... you pretty much just have to promise not to eat or torture your pet. They will send you coupons for the pet itself and all the supplies that go with it.  My class has absolutely loved having a fishtank this year, and so have I.   My teammies have received funds for a turtle,  a hamster and a guinea pig!  Try it out!

http://www.petsintheclassroom.org/

 

My Wordwall (and our Me on the Map project)

 

Our reading area - under the "tree" and in several areas around the room I have added wall quotes from Dr. Seuss.  I purchased them from Amazon.com for about $6 and love them.  They will pull off the wall if I ever need to move rooms (but are not reuseable).   I LOVE them!

 

Working on our netbooks - and the tremendous amount of clutter on my back wall.

Our fishtank

 

 

We had a Donors Choose grant fully funded this week!  Hooray!  So we will be adding this carpet from ABC School Supply to our room in the next few weeks..



 



 

I am really excited about it! 

 

Hope you all had an amazing week as well! 

 

 



Something New!

I have been reading and loving countless teacher blogs over the past few years and have secretly wanted to start my own,  but have not made the time to do so.   I have finally decided that THIS is the year and so here I am. I am wife, mother of four amazing kids,   and a second grade teacher.   I started teaching in 1995 in a Houston school district.   I took 7 years off to be home with my babies,  so I am in my 11th year of teaching.

This year I am blessed this to have a DIGITAL classroom for the first time.   My district put out a grant opportunity at the end of last year that I jumped on and received.  I have a netbook computer for every child in my room (and a couple extras!),  my own laptop, and a Mobi board to use as a smartboard.   This is all very new to me and I am having a complete and total BLAST learning and "getting didgy with it" with my class!  I am excited to share all about what we are doing and learning!