Social Studies at Western!

Once again I had the pleasure of sharing information with teachers at WMU! The information shared in class is available here and here !

Three Things on Thursday

Three things to help with your classroom at the beginning of the school year...

1.  Make nametags from plastic folders from the dollar store. Theses folders are available in LOTS of colors, and are very sturdy--they even hold up after being chewed on!  If you use a corner rounder, the kinder will not poke themselves!

 

 2. Put dice in small see-through containers.  When the kinder are using them, they just need to shake and flip the container like the bubble in  the "Trouble" game.  No more dice bouncing across the floor or "accidentally" going home in pockets.

 

 3.  To help teach the kinder the passwords that they  need to logon to computer programs use paper keyboards.  The students can color in the keys they will use, and practice tapping them.  This will save time in the computer lab at the beginning of the year.

 

Using Technology to Enhance Social Studies

Today I was able to present to a group of pre-service teachers.  Anyone who thinks teachers don't work in the summer should talk to these summer-class-taking students!
click here or the WMU Bronco to access the presentation.

MACUL materials

I need to stop editing my presentation and just post it already!!  I just keep finding more resources, and more that I want to say--THAT is the problem with presenting on Friday--too much time to think :)

Here are the links for my presentation and my list of resources......for now!
60 Sites in 60 minutes - MACUL 2014

60 Sites in 60 Minutes - resources

MACUL!!

Getting ready to attend MACUL in Grand Rapids in 3 days!  It is a different feeling NOT having to prepare lesson plans for the days I will be out of the classroom.  I think I am prepared to present--but I am nervous about being assigned to a room for 450 people!

Common Core and Math

I know that this year we are going to be focusing more on the common core State Standards in our instruction at my school.  I have put together a chart of the first couple of standards and some websites that the children can use to practice those objectives.  
My plan is to come up with some websites/online activities for the children to use in the computer lab for each of the reading and math objectives.
Hopefully this will be helpful to you :) 


Websites to support K.CC

Keyboarding Cup Stacking

My kindergarten students are very familiar with how to use a mouse, but not so much with the keyboard. I don't expect my kinders to be able to type--I can't type without looking!!!!--  but I know they need to start to become familiar with letter placement on a QWERTY keyboard.  A fun way for them to practice is to play the cup stacking game from Learning Games for Kids.

Daily Routines

Jill from the Kinder Korner Yahoo group asked if anyone had an interactive home page for a SMART board.  It sounded like a challenge, so I created one that I will most likely use with my class this year.  I have added it here--I hope someone else can use it too  :)
SMART board daily routines

Hot Dots!

When I was at ISTE at the end of June, the technology that I was asked the most questions about was my "Hot Dots" pen.  These pens have been around for a very long time, but they are still a good way for the children to practice skills independently. 
In a nutshell, when children select the correct answer on a card the green light flashes and a happy sound is heard; the wrong answer yields a red light and a cranky buzz.  The children always seem to like the "wrong" sounds better when they are first using the pens :) There are commercially available card sets, OR (my favorite) you can get extra "hot" and "cold" dots to make your own so that your children are practicing the skills that you know they need.
I did some quick (ha!) searching online and found the pens and dots are still available.  The best prices I found were at Amazon and Education Insights.

http://educationalinsightscatalog.com/hot_dotsreg_extra_dots-p-21819.html (dots $5.99)
http://www.amazon.com/Educational-Insights-Talking-Hot-Dots/dp/B000GZAD24  (pen $8.05)

Work Smarter, Not Harder

One way I use technology to help with my teaching is to use Excel to help create my reading groups.

My school uses the DIBELS tests to assess our students and as one of the measures the teachers look at to set up reading groups. I enter the scores into an excel spreadsheet. Then I use conditional formatting to have the scores totalled and color coded as I enter them. By the time I have entered the last score, my three main groups--intensive, strategic, and benchmark--have been created! Easy!
Here is my blank spreadsheet--with the formatting done--for the three assessments I will be giving this year. 

DIBELS assessment form

No fear!

Have you ever noticed that young children show no hesitation when presented with new technology? They do not hesitate to click buttons, follow links, and venture in to the unknown. When my kinders are using a new program, the only time they really need me is when the program locks up and stops responding, or they get to a "teacher page" with LOTS of text and seemingly no way out!