Websites

So... my New Year's resolution was to do a better job at keeping up with my blog with what I thought my be a manageable goal of at LEAST once a month. Seeing that it is March, and I am finally making an entry, I need to try harder!

Anyways, I just wanted to share some FREE (to public schools) websites that I have come across.

ABC mouse is geared for kindergarten and under students (meaning I am going to have the kids use this in the BEGINNING of the year next year), but teachers can create a classroom account, set students at various levels, and the site will even e-mail parents progress reports!  I have had several parents rave about the site and my kids seem to really like it.

Adventure to Fitness is also FREE to teachers (make sure you register with your school email and address). On this site, you have access to several half hour long "fitness adventures".  Kids follow Mr. Mark hopping, running in place, stretching, climbing as they go on a dinosaur/snow/castle adventure.  There are lots of fun facts thrown in during the adventure and my kids LOVE it!  It is perfect for those inside recess days when they need to get up and move around!

Turtle Diary is not completely free, but has a LOT of free content on it.  It is geared for Prek-2nd grade, and has reading (English), math, science, and fun games on it.  There are also worksheets and activities that can be printed out.

AbcYa! has educational games for K-5th Grade.  Several of the games have sound.  LOTS of great learning opportunities to use on on individual computers or even on your Interactive White Board.  I use the interactive 100 grid on my board all the time!

Starfall.com has a TON of beginning reading/phonics skills for kids.  There is also a Math component/section that I didn't even realize existed until one of the kids showed me the other day!  TONS of stuff to do in your classroom as a center, group activity, etc!

Here's what you probably are used to seeing on Starfall Classic

Here's some of what is available on more.starfall.com  Some of more.starfall is free, but they also charge for full access... 

Well, that's all for now!  I am going to try soooo much harder to post at least once a month!

Class Dojo

I'm discovering that I am more of a tech geek than I realized... while this isn't really a surprise to anyone who knows me...  Anyways, one of my colleagues shared a new website for classroom management with me called Class Dojo (www.classdojo.com) . Basically, each student is given a monster avatar (which tied in beautifully after using Kathleen Pederson's Monster Behavior book!) where you give awards for positive behaviors, as well as take awards away for negative behaviors, and yes, you can customize the awards to fit your class and targeted behaviors.  

Below is a "demo" class, and you can see I have awarded (and taken away) awards from various students.  You can set it to only show students with a positive balance if you want as well.

Here are the "default" awards and how I have changed them to better fit my class.

You can also print out behavior reports to send home to parents, or to keep track of how students are doing.  I send one home at the end of each week, so there are no surprises when report cards go out! :)

If you have a smart phone, you can even use it to enter awards!  Since I am lucky enough to have a Promethean board, I just keep this minimized at the bottom, and use it throughout the day.  The kids LOVE it and once they hear the "ding" indicating someone got an award (or see me pull it up) everyone's behavior immediately improve as they hope they are getting a "good award".  I strive very hard to make sure everyone has a positive balance at the end of the day/each week.

Since this is BRAND NEW, there are still a few things that are being worked out, but in the month or so I have been using it, they have already made a lot of positive changes!

Here are 2 YouTube video that explains it further. http://www.youtube.com/user/classdojo#p/a/u/1/jxFTMmF0a6c and http://www.youtube.com/user/classdojo#p/a/f/0/b5uihmPlbvA
Try it for yourself and let me know what you think!

Tech In-Service

Today myself and a couple other staff members had the opportunity to go to a neighboring school to see a presentation about technology and using it in the classroom. I really didn't know if I would be the best person to go, seeing that I (only!) teach kindergarten and our school is 4K-8th grade, but since I am coming to realize that I am a tech geek in the making, I thought it'd be worth my while.  After all, 5 years olds are coming to school more computer savvy than I was in high school!  Well, the presenter, Kevin Honeycutt - was GREAT!  It's amazing to see how much teaching and learning is changing in this digital age!  Technology can do so much for us now a-days that it's kind of scary!  Will children even need to learn how to read in the future, or will computers and such read everything out loud?  Will people need to know how to write, or will we all just type - or dictate?  Will schools of the future even look like the schools of today?  Or will students be learning and collaborating via their digital devices from their living rooms and creating virtual projects in a virtual world, with "classmates" half way around the world!  The next 20 years will probably see more changes in how society interacts, functions, and handles everyday routines then the last 100!  As long as the premise of Idiocracy (one of my favorite satirical movies) doesn't come true, and we have people continually learning, creating, developing and sharing, I think (or at least hope!) I can handle it!  Anyways, I seem to have gotten off track here a bit...  I wanted to share with you some of the amazing resources that I found today!  There's so many you just need to go and check them out for yourself!  Click on the link and it will take you to Kevin Honeycutt's site.  Then, click on the picture of the toolbox and you will find a TON of links to various educational sites, resources, etc.  It's awesome!  Oh - and after watching the presentation, I REALLY want an i-pad for the classroom!  Sooooo many great educational apps!  Happy exploring!