Blog Challenge: Day 16 Grant

Blog Challenge: Have you ever earned a grant? What was it for? Who was it from? What tips might you offer someone seeking a grant?

Grant: that sum of money that you worked diligently to receive from a philanthropic organization to implement a change in your classroom.

I have written and received funding for three grants during my classroom career. I received a grant for an interactive whiteboard, a grant for literature circles, and a grant for integrating literature with math. The first two came from large corporations that did business in our community, and the last came from a foundation created upon the death of a multimillionaire that lived in our county.

All three opportunities provided for a change in instruction in my classroom. I was the second classroom in our building to have an interactive whiteboard, (the first class was AIG and their board was purchased with AIG funding). If you can think back to (or imagine) when touch activation was just starting, then you can feel the excitement the students felt with that board. It was a favorite center and a favorite teaching tool.

The opportunity to buy several sets of books with various reading levels, various genres, and even several from the same author opened opportunities for students to create a reading community. They would read and discuss the books and grew to ask thoughtful questions to each other about the work. It was amazing.

Finally, I was able to incorporate a love of mine into math instruction with the literature. We would use various math stories (such as Grapes of Math, Sir Cumference and the Round Table) to jump start problem based learning activities to enhance math skills. I set aside time each Friday and the kids couldn't wait to get their hands and minds into math concepts in a fun way.

My tip for those of you seeking grant opportunities is to let your passion show through the application. In our district, we have a person that specializes in grant writing and is willing and able to help you. Take advantage of help such as that. And good luck!

Blog Challenge: Day 15: Classroom Wishlist

Blog Challenge: What would be one (or two) items on your classroom wishlist? Why? How might you get this item?

One or two items? Really? Can the I cheat and use two broad categories? I would wish for technology devices and furniture. That is two items, right?

Let me explain. I am basing my wishes on an elementary classroom (although I think with a little tweaking it could apply to secondary classrooms as well). Most people would say that they would want a 1:1 environment for their students. I am not against 1:1, I think that would be pretty awesome. But, I would want a variety of devices in my classrooms and not just one device. I don't use just one device for everything, do you? My classroom has 25 students, so I would love to have 10 student iPads, 5 desktop computers, 5 laptops, 5 iPad minis, and 5 eReaders. This would give students some choice in devices, allow for collaboration, and teach them to plan so they can use the device they need at some time during the day/week.

As for classroom furniture, I would want to get rid of the typical classroom desk. (If you have never read Carl Hooker's Obituary for Student Desk, I highly recommend.) I would want instead a few tables, some low so students can sit on floor (or comfy cushions), some high so students can stand around them. I would want comfy benches (or couches), chairs, bean bags, etc. Furniture that is easily moveable into a variety of configurations so students can get into groups easily or get away to work independently when needed. I also think it would be neat to include a booth set up (yes like in restaurants) so students could work collaboratively there as well. I would include a couple of single desk options for students to have if they want. Of course, I would want a couple of carpeted areas so students could work on the floor if they chose.

Now let me find that Genie lamp and give it a nice polish!

Blog Challenge: Day 14 Homework

Blog Challenge: Talk about homework. Do you give it? Why or why not? What types of HW do you give? How do you balance it with other demands?

Homework....a hot topic in many ways. Should students have homework, how much, how often, what kind? Should I think about flipping my class? What about grading homework? And on and on and on.

Instead of getting into a debate about homework, I am going to tell you one thing that was consistent in my classroom about homework. My students had to read 20 minutes each school night because I saw a difference in academic performance of students who read vs. those that didn't. Across the board, all subject areas. Research validates. Have your seen this infographic on reading? Pretty compelling!

The accountability piece in my classroom for those 20 minutes of reading time was a reading log with parent signature. Today, a Google Form could easily take the place of the paper log that my students kept. Click this link to see a sample. 

Blog Challenge: Day 13 Favorite Book....

Blog Challenge: Tell about a favorite book to share or teach. Provide at least one example of an extension or cross curricular lesson.

I am going to take creative liberty with today's blog challenge by sharing some online sites to access electronic books...

The first one I learned about from one of our Pinnacle leading Media Specialist. It is called MackinVia. The site is an eResouce Management system that provides access to eBooks and educational databases. One of my schools signed up for the free account and teachers now have access to 37 free books. It allows you to filter your books according to AR level or even Fountas and Pinnell. You can also create groups such as a classroom group where you save titles for those students. The system works across all platforms. Check it out.

The next site has been around for quite a while, but it is a great resource for online books. It is by the Screen Actors' Guild and is called Storyline Online. You can search their available books by title, author, and reader. All readers are actors and are members of the Screen Actors' Guild. You can pause and discuss the reading at anytime and if viewing on an IWB, you can highlight particular text.

Our county public library provides free access to Tumblebooks.
Tumblebooks provide non-fiction as well as fiction text for students. They have created this ebooks, by taking existing books and adding multimedia pieces that becomes a book that you can read or have read to you. Tumblebooks include videos and games as well.

Blog Challenge: Day 12 Favorite Website Discovery Education

Challenge: What is a website that you cannot live without? Tell about your favorite features and how you use it in your teaching and learning.

Another of my go-to websites is one that our county provides for all employees and students: Discovery Education. The site is well known for quality educational videos that span all grade levels and include a huge variety for all subject/content areas. But it is so much more!

Along with the videos that are available, Discovery provides primary source documents, images, audio files, articles, lesson plans, and more. All of these resources can be linked, used, and  incorporated with web 2.0 tools, various devices, and best practices.

The beauty is that our students have access to all of these materials. So imagine, students using the editable video clips from Discovery Education and creating a narrative that is first person. They can also pull images into say a VoiceThread and discuss and make comments to share what they have learned. Or they can even create a digital story using the images as well. There are speeches available that students could use and add visual images to create a movie about the speech. Use the transcript from the speeches and paste the dialogue into a word cloud (such as wordle) to analyze key points from the speech.

For the teachers, I absolutely love the builder tools! These tools provide a way for teachers to create assignments, writing prompts, quizzes, assessments, and digital boards for their classes. The builder tools also allow linking to external websites and even embedding web 2.0 tools all in one place for the students. For example, I created various ecosystem projects for the students using the writing prompt builder. I included resources from Discovery of course, but also linked out to kid friendly articles and embedded a Google Presentation as well as the Voicethread for the students. So once they signed in, they had all the materials they needed for the research and background for their project. I was able to differentiate the assignments as well.

The newest feature is the Board Builder which in the teacher tools as well as the student account. The Board Builder is a digital poster creator allowing the user to embed Discovery Education material, add text, and even upload videos, images, presentations, word documents, and more.

All in all, the investment that our county puts into Discovery Education is well worth it.

Blog Challenge: Day 11 Brain Break Ideas

Blog Challenge: Share ideas that your classroom uses for brain breaks and/or indoor recess.

In Gaston County Schools, we have a program called Pinnacle that provides the latest technology tools and best instructional practices as we outfit 21st century classrooms. We meet for several straight intense days during the summer for the professional development. To model best practices, we incorporate brain breaks throughout the day every day.

Sitting is the new smoking, so we want to spend a few minutes up and moving in some way every day and pull those teachers away from their screens for a while. According to medical expert Dr. James Levine, from one of our nation's leading research hospital (the Mayo Clinic), "Sitting all day long is literally killing us." His best advice to all people is to "break up the sitting time."

Eric Jensen defines the valuable role and connection between movement and learning. "Brain research confirms that physical activity -- moving, stretching, walking -- can actually enhance the learning process." In a nutshell, sit less, live longer, learn more.

Brain breaks only take 1 -2 minutes. They should consist of crossing the midline, movement, and brain challenges that are designed to refocus us. We found a great playlist on YouTube for brain breaks. I hope you can use some of these in your classroom! An example is included below.

Blog Challenge: Day 10 Cool Tool

Blog Challenge: Share a topic/idea from class this week. What's one thing that can be used in class with students?

ReadWriteThink.org has created a very nice iPad app called Trading Cards. This free app allows you to create trading cards on any of the following broad categories that are applicable across multiple subject areas and grade levels:

• Fictional person
• Real person
• Fictional place
• Real place
• Object
• Event
• Vocabulary

Depending on the category that you select, each card provides certain subcategories for students to enter information. For example, the vocabulary trading card has:

• Definition area that includes meaning and part of speech
• Similar & Opposite Words include a spot for synonym and antonym
• Associations area contains a place to add other words and word clues
• Everyday Use subcategory has Where & People
• Finally, there is a Personal Connection subcategory for students to add a sentence and a personal reaction.

You can have multiple users on the app, so this works for classes that must share iPads. Another very nice feature is the ability for students to organize their cards into collections.

The completed cards can be shared to the camera roll, sent via email, or printed wirelessly. It is a pretty awesome app and very easily used as part of app-smashing activities. 

Blog Challenge: Day 9 Professional Read

Blog Challenge: Tell about a professional read (book, article, blog post) that has had an impact on you. Why/How?

There are so many books and/or blog posts that I could list, so instead I am going to talk about how I get my blog feeds. I use a couple of tools to aggregate the posts from bloggers that I follow. Feedly is my go to source on my laptop, Chromebook, and even the app on my iPad to see the blog posts that I follow. I have lots of options of capturing and saving any posts as well from adding to my Evernote account, to Pocket, to Instapaper, and sharing via Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, or email.


I really like that I can capture posts for later reading using Pocket. Pocket also allows me to tag the posts so I can keep anything related easily searchable.

Blog Challenge Day 8 - Classroom Management Tip

Blog Challenge: Share a classroom management tip. What is one thing that you do that works for you?

pearsonlongman.com

This week, I have been co-teaching with kindergarten teachers to help students publish digital stories. It has been fun and the one classroom management technique that I used in a computer lab full of 23 or so kinders is to get their attention by asking them to do something, especially something that gets their hands off the keyboard and/or mouse. So we do things like, "Simon Says touch your head." Or "if you hear my voice, clap your hands one time. If you hear my voice, clap two times." Either way, I now have them looking at me and ready for the next instruction. It's the little procedures that are helpful.

But I would be remiss if I didn't talk about Classroom Management Web 2.0 Style! I am sure that most of you have heard of ClassDojo. It is a free, fantastic behavior management tool that monitors students' positive

and negative behaviors. ClassDojo will be a great help in assessing student behavior. Assessment is more than numbers in a gradebook. The collection of data regarding student behavior offers a snapshot and helps you target areas that my require intervention. ClassDojo is cross platform and works on any laptop, desktop, Chromebook, or through apps on tables and phones. Their fun graphics can be displayed on a SMART Board.

ClassDojo allows you to customize the different behaviors to fit your classroom culture and expectations. It also provides easy-to-read reports that can be refer to during parent-teacher conferences or IEP meetings. Parents even get their own log in to track their child's progress.

It's free and user-friendly, so check it out.

Blog Challenge Day 7 Just One Thing

Blog challenge: What is ONE thing you wish you were better at? Just one! Why? What could you do about it?

Great question to ask this early into the new year, a typical time of the year when people assess their goals, take a look back at where they have been, and a look ahead to see where they want to go. This so reminds me of Jon Gordon's challenge to pick one word to focus on for the year instead of a bunch of resolutions that are long forgotten by the time February 1 arrives. If you aren't familiar with Jon Gordon, he is probably best known as the author of The Energy Bus or The Seed. His books are meaningful and easy to read and I encourage you to check him out.

So the one thing that I wish I were better at, the one word that I want to focus on this year is joy. I, by nature, am a serious person and I think know that I am too serious. I wish I was better at letting go and loosing up, not worrying about being embarrassed and my face turning bright red. I wish I was better at enjoying the moment, of finding joy in everything around me.

So I am going to keep Jon Gordon's advice in mind as I focus on the word Joy this year. I will focus on stepping outside of my serious nature and comfort zone and start making some joyful memories. How about you? Have a good weekend!

Blog Challenge: Day 6 Assessment Tip

Blog Challenge: Give a tip for assessment. What is an example of an assessment you give? Share any tips for designing/giving/grading assessments.

This one is an easy challenge. Use Google Forms.

You can create a Google form for surveys, pose reflection questions for the students, exit slips for what was learned and what they still need help learning as well as student reading logs. Combine a Google Form with Flubaroo to created graded quizzes. The possibilities are endless and it is super easy to use. Click here for GCS ITF handout.

Blog Challenge Day 5 - Cool Tool

I hope you have heard of and are very familiar with the concept of making thinking visible in your classroom. I know that I have used and seen many teachers use the cut out thought bubble to put over the head while doing read alouds with the class. It helps students to understand the thought processes that go on "under the hood" when comprehending what you read. Of course, making thinking visible is across curricular and is useful in every grade level.

The 20 Day Blog Challenge for today is Share a topic/idea for the class. What's one thing you used that you would use again. The one thing that I would use as part of making thinking visible is an online whiteboard. There are many available and Richard Byrne just posted seven on his blog freetech4teachers.com. I want to choose one and show you the possibilities. To give credit where credit is due, Jason Mammano actually sent me info about this first. I am talking about Pixiclip.

Pixiclip is an online whiteboard that allows you to doodle, and to add voice over or video. You can draw your own information or upload images that you can then annotate over. The completed video can be embedded, shared via Twitter or Facebook, or emailed. The accounts are free and super easy to set up.

This would be a great tool for students to show their thinking while adding voice overs to further explain. Anyone can easily see if students are explaining things to one another or offering creative ideas by the use of this site. The site works well on any computer browser. It also works on the iPad, although the audio and video portions are not available on the iPad. I think that is OK because there are several apps that can be used as an interactive whiteboard. Check it out!

Blog Challenge Day 3: Go to Website

Day Four: What is a website that you cannot live without? Tell about your favorite features and how ou use it in your teaching and learning.

I curate a lot of content and have to have a way to keep things organized. One website that I use to help me is...Pinterest. I am sure that you have at least heard of Pinterest, but in case you haven't, it is a virtual pin board allowing you to pin images as links to material you have found on the web. It is a social network in the aspect that you can follow others and they can follow you allowing you to view each other pins. You can even work collaboratively and pin to each other boards. Since I am very visual, I love Pinterest. Educators world wide have flocked to Pinterest and are providing lots of educational content and ideas. I categorized my boards by topic such as iPads, BYOD, Web 2.0 tools, digital storytelling, and more. I blend professional pins and personal pins that are related to my hobbies all in one place. Feel free to follow me on Pinterest and see what I am talking about. Warning: It is addictive!

Blog Challenge - Pass It On

Today's blog challenge will temporarily interrupt the 20 day blog challenge so I can respond to Lisa Montgomery's challenge of Getting a Spark Going!

You may have read about some of these challenges from other blog posts. Basically you are asked to give random facts about yourself, answer some questions, challenge others, and provide their questions. So here we go.

Share 11 Random Facts About Yourself:

1. I am the fifth child in my family. Yes, I was the baby and all of my brothers and sisters were much older than me. So it was kind of like being the baby and the only child at the same time. Unfortunately, all of my siblings have passed away and I miss them terribly.

2. I am extremely competitive. I think it comes from being the baby of the family.

3. I love mysteries and detective stories/TV shows. When I was little, I used to pretend I had a detective agency complete with a "license" that I made. I rode my bike to the crime scenes and solved the mysteries!

4. Just like about every other teacher, I also played school a lot when little. I would teach my stuffed animals as well as my dogs. Loved playing school with my friends and cousins.

5. I have always, always been an animal lover. I tried to bestow that love to the students in my classes. We had birds, hamsters, fish, and gerbils in our room. Imagine my house over the summer with these critters coming home to dogs!

6. I used to ride horses and was actually pretty good at it. I won Blue Ribbons at competitions for riding. 

7. I don't like snakes. Period. Enough said.

8. I absolutely love my husband. He is the smartest, kindest, funniest, caring, and most outgoing person I know. He never meets a stranger. We have been married for 30 years and I am hoping for 50 more.

9. There are still days when I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

10. My very first car was a sports car....a Pontiac Firebird. 

11. I am thankful for all the blessings God has provided in my life and for walking with me through good times and bad times. I really don't know how people survive without Him. 

Lisa's Questions:

1. What is your favorite and least favorite words? Why?
Favorite is "I love you!" I don't think you can ever hear or say that to your loved ones enough. My least favorite is "Goodbye." I have had to say goodbye to every. single. member. of my immediate family (mom, dad, sister, and brothers). Although I know we will be together again, saying goodbye here stinks.
2. What is the habit you are most proud of breaking and why? Or what habit would you like to break?
Eating lots of carbs. Because of my family history of heart issues, my doctor keeps a close eye on my health. When she ran a cholesterol test to check my cholesterol particle sizes and the report was not good, I researched how to work on correcting that. After learning how bad wheat and sugar are for you, I quit eating them. Cholesterol is improving, so it is worth it.
3. Describe something that happened to you for which you had no explanation?
I really can't think of anything for this question. I know that God is in control, so not sure what I couldn't explain. I might not understand everything, but I know that God does.
4. What is the longest you have gone without sleep? Why?

24 hours. You really don't want to be around me if I have gone without sleep for any length of time. Medical emergency was the cause.

5. What is the most memorable class you have taken? Describe it.

My first technology integration class at Appalachian State University for my Master's Degree. The professor was incredible and we were able to sacrifice a gummy bear as we learned to work video equipment. 

6. What is the most terrifying moment of your life so far?

Last roller coaster ride I did with my hubby. We were at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania, and the safety bar as not fully engaged. I was scared to death that I would be thrown from the ride. Not been back on a roller coaster ever again. No plans to either.

7. If you could spend the day with anyone (living or dead) who would it be? 

My family. 

8. Do you believe honesty is the best policy? Why or why not?

Yes, most of the time. I don't like to hurt others feelings, so when certain questions are asked, I may fudge a little. Do you really want to know how that looks on you? Of if I think that is a stupid idea?

9. Which cartoon character do you resemble the most?

Scooby Doo. I watched that show so much growing up that I laugh like Scooby. 

10.  If you could have personally witnessed anything, what would you want to have seen?

I would love to have seen the moment when the iPad prototype was first used. 

11. How do you start a conversation with someone you don't know but want to know?

Hi, My name is Teresa. How are you?

I am challenging:

1. Julian Wilson

2. Tonya Dye

3. Leigh Herman

4. Brandi Smith

5. Kristen Miller

6. Becky Perkins

7. Angela Newton

8. Heather Hutchens

9. Sue Feikes

10. Sean Markwith

11. Jason Mammano

My Questions:

1. How are you really?

2. What accomplishment are you most proud of?

3. How did you meet your significant other?

4. If you could visit any country in the world, where would you go? Why?

5. Who in your life has influenced you the most? How?

6. What embarrasses you? Why?

7. What is something you wish everyone knew about you?

8. What is your favorite technology tool? Why?

9. What did you do on your 16th birthday?

10. What is your favorite clean joke?

11. What was your favorite subject in school?

The Guidelines of Your Challenge:
1. Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
2. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
4. List 11 bloggers, excluding the blogger who nominated you.
5. Post 11 questions for the bloggers you have listed to answer.
6. Let the bloggers know you have nominated them.
7. Post back here in the comment section a link to your post.

Blog Post Challenge Day 2 - Organization Tip

Day 2: Share an organization tip from your classroom. What is one thing that you do that works for you?

This idea is not my own, but when I saw it on Pinterest, I was like, really! Why didn't I think of this. Of course leave it to Martha Stewart to help us organize all those cords from our electronics. (Honestly, when I see cords dangling around IWB in classrooms, I cringe.)

Feed those cords through a hole in your desktop (you may have to ask permission to drill a hole in your teacher desk). Then mount that surge protector to the underside of your desk. Next hang a wire basket with Command hooks that will hold those cords in place. Plug in that projector, document camera, computer, etc. Label each with a tag identifying each item. Check out the photo from Martha Stewart below.

 Blog challenge to continue on Monday. Have a great weekend!

20 Day Blog Challenge: Day 1 Martin Luther King Jr.

I was catching up on my blog feeds this week and saw Kelly Hines' post about a 20 Day Blogging Challenge. I loved the idea so much that I shared the link with our year 2 Pinnacle Leaders in hopes that they would take on the challenge. Since I am their trainer, I figured what is good for them would be good for me to try as well and to add an instructional technology component as well. So here goes!

Day 1 Challenge:
Tell about a favorite book to share or teach. Provide at least one example of an extension or cross curricular lesson.

Since we are getting close to the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday, I am going to share an activity that can be done with the picture book My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers. Lesson would be for K-2 grade span and is based on a lesson from readwritethink.org. The book provides details of Martin Luther King Jr as a little boy growing up in the segregated South in the 1920s. As the story is read aloud with students, it is easy to make text to self connections with things students enjoy doing compared to Dr. King. Although students today may not have the segregation experiences of Dr. King, some may have the experience of bullies or even be excluded from activities or associations with people.

You could then have students draw images of things they enjoy doing and then times when they have been sad. Upload those images to VoiceThread and have students tell about the images. Their peers can then add comments right within VoiceThread.

If you need sentence starters for children, feel free to adapt these.

Let's make connections between your life and that of Martin Luther King, Jr. when he was about your age.

Martin Luther King, Jr. loved singing, music, reading, learning new things, and sharing his ideas with others. He was good at those things. I am good at _____________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________.

Martin's feelings were hurt when his white friends couldn't play with him anymore. At that time in the United States, black and white children couldn't go to school together or be friends. That made Martin sad. I was sad when ________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________.

Do Ink App

My next favorite item from the Boston iPad Summit is a paid app, but I totally think it is worth it! Thanks to Greg Kuloweic (@gregkuloweic) for introducing us to this app during his App Smash Session.

What app am I talking about? It is a green screen iPad app called Do Ink. Green Screening allows you to put images and videos behind any person and make it look like they are right at the scene (or in the movie clip). Seriously, Do Ink is a very intuitive app so I suggest you give it a try. It is currently priced at $2.99 US.

Leigh Herman and I tried this app while she was working on a community iBook project. She wanted to create videos of her students doing the weather for our area. Hince the green screen app. We actually put student drawings of the four weather seasons we have while they stood in front and talked about weather. It was so much fun watching the students do this and so super easy! You can check out Leigh's post here if you want to see examples of the project.