Integrating the Arts (with A Love of Teaching)

I've always loved integrating arts and crafts into my curriculum. When I taught fourth-grade math and science I would do this on a consistent basis. To begin with, I integrated arts and crafts for fun but then gradually noticed that student's retention levels increased when pairing content with a matching art or craft activity. Studies have shown that arts integration uses teaching practices that have been shown in brain-based research to improve comprehension and long-term retention. For example, when students create artwork that expresses the content they are learning, they are also forming connections and helping to embed the information. Basically, this creates a memorable learning experience which lays the foundation for deeper retention levels in students.

One of my favorite ways to integrate art into the classroom is by using directed drawing.  Directed drawing is a step-by-step activity that guides students to produce a piece of artwork that is intended to look a certain way. What I love about directed drawing is that...

1. It sets the foundation for how shapes work together to create a bigger picture.
2. Every student produces a piece of artwork that looks so different, yet the same (makes a beautiful bulletin board).
3. Students feel incredibly successful when they are finished.
4. It's the perfect way to integrate art into the curriculum seasonally or through content.
5. It's super easy to tie directed drawing to the standards.

We have an amazing art teacher at my school who guides students each year to complete a directed drawing for Art to Remember, a PTO fundraiser (which I highly recommend). The image at the top of this page shows the directed drawing artwork my daughter completed last year. I was so in love with it that I ordered snowflake ornaments, coffee mugs, and refrigerator magnets with her artwork on it! 

If you Google "Direct Drawing" or search for it on Pinterest you'll find tons of examples and directions to use in the classroom. These 6 Christmas Themed Directed Drawings are a few of my favorites. They are perfect for any classroom, and I know students will love them, too!

6 Christmas Themed Directed Drawing Project for Kids 

Santa Claus Directed Drawing from Proud to be Primary

Proud to be Primary is my all time favorite go-to site for directed drawing projects. Elysa gives step-by-step instructions that are easy for kids to follow and the end result is always precious! 

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer Directed Drawing from Busy Kids Happy Mom
This activity is perfect for all ages. A list of drawing supplies needed and a step-by-step printable of directions are included. See if your students can follow directions. You'll know by the way the reindeer turns out!

Snowman Directed Drawing from Proud to be Primary
Another one of my favorites from Elysa over at Proud to be Primary! This project can be adapted for any primary classroom, and I absolutely love how she incorporates watercolor paint. Printable directions are included!

Grinch Directed Drawing from Art Projects for Kids
This website is amazing! There are so many directed drawing projects to choose from. You can download each project which includes step-by-step instructions. They have amazing projects to choose from including plants and animals, fall leaves, and holiday specific tutorials.

Elf Directed Drawing from Learning with Mrs. Parker
Mrs. Parker has created an easy to follow video for students to watch while drawing a Christmas elf. She also ties this project to elf themed literature. A list of recommended books to read to your class is included.

Christmas Tree Directed Drawing from Art for Kids Hub
This website is phenomenal! Rob (Mr. Hubs) creates video tutorials of directed drawings for kids. He includes his family in his videos which make them very entertaining for students to watch. You can find tons of directed drawing projects on his site that will tie to almost any content area or seasonal theme.

What's your favorite directed drawing project to complete with your students?

Classroom Time Savers Any Teacher Can Use

Like all teachers, time and energy play a huge part in my everyday routine. I'm often overwhelmed by my never ending to-do list, and constantly spinning my wheels while feeling like I'm never going to catch up. Last summer I read Angela Watson's book Unshakeable, and her words hit home hard for me.

"The goal here is to get more done while expending less time and energy." -Angela Watson

"Your productivity level is far more important than the number of hours you work." -Angela Watson

If you are finding yourself running on fumes and desperately needing more time and energy, I highly recommend that you read Unshakeable. After reading her book I wrote a blog post, Learning How to Prioritize and Letting Go of the Rest. In this blog post, I talk more about Angela's book and I shared my thoughts as I read it. In my opinion, it's a book every teacher should read!

By using our time wisely we become more productive. In this post, I'm sharing three time-saving tips that any teacher can use, however, there are several past posts from our Elementary Entourage teacher-authors who share some great teacher time savers! Some I wanted to include here, but to avoid repetition I encourage you go back and read those past posts. 

Last year I took a new position as technology facilitator at my school. I teach over 550 students per 

week in grade K-6. It's an overwhelming task and keeping up with student logins became a nightmare! We have logins for this and logins for that and very few of them are the same. I knew that I had to find an easy way for students to access the login information they needed. I also knew that it had to be accessible to them when they sat down at the computer. I see one class from each grade level for 40 minutes each day. I simply couldn't spend part of that time passing out login cards. I just didn't have that time to waste. So, I designed a mini easel and begged my husband to make 26 of them! These mini easels are made out of PVC pipe, filled with sand, spray painted black, and stand roughly 8 inches tall. I made cards (over 550 of them), put student names and their login information on them, assigned seats, and had students hang their login information on the easel beside their computer. Now, when students come to the computer lab they quickly flip to their nametag and login to the program or website we are using for the day. This took some A LOT of time to make and do, but it was so worth it in the end. This time-saving trick has saved me 5-10 minutes during each class that I teach during the day.

I've been a teacher for 16 years and during that time I've learned one very important thing about

starting a new school year. You need name labels for students, and you need LOTS of them! As a classroom teacher, I was constantly labeling books, notebooks, book bins, cubbies, mailboxes, folders, envelopes, you name it...the list goes on and on. I found that creating labels with student names ahead of time saved me a lot of time. Let's face it, teachers don't have time to sit down and create labels for students every time they need to label something - which happens to be quite often. Creating a class set of labels, printing multiple copies, and storing them in a folder on my desk made labeling anything in the classroom much easier and quicker!







                                                                                               
We are getting ready to have Parent-Teacher Conferences at my school, and as I think back to being a classroom teacher it wasn't always easy to schedule parents to come in and meet with me. A few years ago I ran across www.signupgenius.com, and WOW what a time-saver! This website allows you to create FREE sign up forms that you can email to parents. You choose the date, times, and location. You can even personalize your form with your information and choose a cute template (lots to choose from). You can also set reminders to be sent to parents 1 day, 2 days, up to a week before the conference. You get an email when parents sign up, and you can log in at any time to check parent progress. Parents can also see if times are already taken so they will easily see that they need to choose a different time. If parents don't choose a time you can schedule a reminder email that alerts parents that they haven't yet signed up for a conference time! This takes all the headache out of sending notes back and forth trying to agree on a time to meet or writing notes back and forth to parents in student planners. It's a huge time-saver when it comes to scheduling parent-teacher conferences!

I hope these time-saving tips help you as a teacher. We all need more time in the day to get things done! Click here to read some of our past posts on more excellent teacher time savers!

What I Wish I Had My First Year Teaching {with A Love of Teaching}

Thinking back to my first year teaching, there are several things I wish I had known about and had. Sometimes the little things can make large tasks seem simple or more enjoyable. Here are 3 of my favorite things as a teacher. I wish I had known about these during that first year trying to survive as a new teacher!

#1 Flair Pens

I never realized I was a pen addict, but in my 15 years of teaching, somehow I have become one. A flair pen addict that is. Not just any pen – must.be.a.flair.pen. (Or, Paper Mate Ink Joy Gel Pens will do, too!) 

How in the world did I ever live without this beautiful, colorful, rainbow of happiness? Okay maybe that's a little much, but these do make me happy!

During my first year teaching, I was happy to have a red ball point pen to check papers with. I had no idea that Paper Mate Flair Pens even existed.

Flair pens are perfect for grading, taking notes, writing in my planner or just doodling. I seriously can’t get enough of them. Another teacher recently introduced me to Paper Mate Ink Joy Gel Pens, and I ended up ordering a pack of fourteen that same night on Amazon.  

A few years ago, I decided to organize my cooking utensils, so I purchased one of those Pampered Chef black spinning organizers for my kitchen counter. Standing in my kitchen one day, it occurred to me that this thing would make the perfect pen organizer. Since I spend more time in my classroom than I do in the kitchen, I dumped all my cooking utensils back in the drawer and hauled it to school. Not only does it organize my pens but it’s perfect for highlighters, sharpies, scissors, white-out – you name it! There’s room for everything in that thing!

This summer while shopping at Target for the one-hundredth time, I ran across this Yoobi pen bag and had to have it! I love how it organizes my pens, and it’s so handy to throw in my bag to take back and forth to school.

 
#2 Erin Condren Planner

I love my Erin Condren Planner. It took me a few years to bite the bullet and purchase one of these babies, but after using it for a year – I was hooked! Not only do I love how beautifully designed it is, but I also love how I can use my flair pens while writing in it. I love all the stickers and accessories that you can purchase for it.

I may have I have sunk a small fortune in Erin Condren supplies over the past few years. My planner goes everywhere with me. It keeps me organized in my personal life and in my school life. I really could have used one of these during my first year as a teacher!

#3 Google Drive

I’m a technology facilitator at my school, so Google Drive is a huge part of my everyday life and has been a game changer in my teaching style!

Every student at my school has a Google account, and almost every assignment involves using Google Drive with students. I love how students don’t have to worry about saving their work - that can be a nightmare! I also love the sharing feature of Google Drive. I can edit and grade assignments right from my couch at home. Plus, there are so many possibilities for students to create and share awesome projects that they can work on from anywhere! I also love how I can organize my files and access them at school or at home. It would have been so nice to have had Google Drive as a first-year teacher.

What is one thing you wish you had known about and had during your first year as a new teacher? Tell us in the comments! 

Packing Up With The Ultimate Teacher Checklist!

For most of you, the school year is finally wrapping up and all you can think about is a million things you have to do before you walk out the door for summer. If you're like me, you just want to stuff it all in a big closet and head to the nearest airport for a much-needed getaway to anywhere but here. Believe me, it's a terrible idea! I've tried leaving it all behind only to come back at the end of the summer to a huge mess that I'd rather throw into a big burn pile than clean up. Let's be honest, May is exhausting! From testing to paperwork to cleaning to saying those bittersweet goodbyes -it's draining - physically and emotionally.

Motivation tends to dwindle away during this time of the year. Making a to-do list and crossing items off tend to give me a slight rush that keeps my motivation going. Surely I'm not alone here! I use an end of year checklist very similar to the one below, and I've adapted it to hopefully be more beneficial for a wider range of teachers. I know your to-do list is rapidly growing just as fast as mine is, and most teachers I know are list-makers. This list keeps me moving during those last weeks and days. I hope it helps to motivate you, as well as keep you organized as you wind down another school year. Download it now for free!

Did I leave anything off the list? If so, add your thoughts in the comments below. I'll add them to the checklist!

Don't forget to enter our giveaway below! It ends on May 31st!

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Going Green: The Paperless Classroom

The paperless classroom isn’t just around the corner anymore. It is here now! Thanks to 1:1 technology, students around the globe have access to their own digital devices such as wireless laptops, Google Chrome Books, and iPads. Many teachers and students now have access to a wide array of digital resources. This allows teachers to easily manage learning environments (even from their couch at home) and allows students to take responsibility of their own learning. Teachers are now using a variety of iPads apps and web tools to increase productivity. Classroom blogs, document sharing and storing sites, cloud based tools such as Google Docs and Dropbox, and even Learning Management Suites such as Google Classroom and Canvas are becoming more and more popular among teachers and school districts.

So, how can you transition to a paperless classroom?

It’s really much easier than you may think, and maybe you have already started the transition. Even if you only have one iPad, a small set of Google Chromebooks, or a few desktop computers – you can begin the switch to seeing less paper on your desk to more online digital products from students.

And, what's the best part? Students love going digital! This transition makes up a huge part of their generation today. We are literally in the “Digital Age” and students pick up and use technology much easier than most teachers can. Remember, if you only have a few devices in your classroom students can still complete online assignments during small group instruction with rotations. 

Here are a few tips to help you start thinking about going green and creating a more paperless classroom.

Going Green with iPads

I’m constantly using iPads in my classroom. The best part about having iPads is that almost every student can pick one up and use it with very little instruction. Most students today have access or have had access to some sort of tablet since they were very small. I have kindergarten and first grade students come to the lab and touch the screen on my desktop instead of using the mouse because they are so used to those touch screen devices!

QR Codes are very popular and so easy to create. Sites such as Chirbit, Unitag, QR Code Generator, and QR Stuff make QR Codes come to life! Now, you can add sounds, voice narration, or symbols and shapes to your QR Codes. They are super easy to make!

Here's an activity from Erintegration my second graders competed earlier this year where they scanned QR Codes to learn more about shapes and their properties. This is a great lesson for 2nd grade and up! Click here to find this activity in Erin's store for free!

Here students are learning about parts of speech by playing an iPad Scoot Game from Erintegration found here! 

You can also use iPads in a variety of other ways. I love using Book Creator and Toontastic to create digital books and cartoons. Apps such as Explain Everything and Educreations turn iPads into interactive whiteboards. Plus, there are tons of spelling practice and math fact fluency apps that are fun and educational for students to use. Want students to be more creative? There’s an app for that! iMovie and Stop Motion allow students to create their own movies while Haiku Deck and ThingLink give students flexibility in creating colorful and interactive presentations. Do these apps sound too hard for your students to use? Trust me, they are not! I teach grades K-6 and even my youngest students use many of these apps.

Going Green with Google Apps

Google Apps make up a huge part of my classroom! Eighty percent of what I teach includes using one or more of the Google Apps at a time. Today, sixth graders received an assignment in Google Slides on writing a persuasive essay about their Washington, DC trip. They were required to write their essay in Google Docs and include photographs from their trip. Once they are finished, students will send their completed assignment to me through email and I’ll edit it, make comments and grade it right from my own comfy couch at home! 

And a few weeks ago, 5^th graders completed an interactive Google Slides assignment on The Water Cycle. They shared their completed work with me and I graded it from home. This lesson came from Danielle Knight. Her Go Interactive Google Notebook Collection is Ah-mazing!!!! You can check out this Water Cycle edition here.

Did you know that students can access their Google account from anywhere? Yep, several of my students finished this assignment at home and sent it to me to grade. All online, all digital, all paperless!

Right now, third and fourth grade students are working on Non-Fiction Text Features using Google Slides and the desktop Snipping Tool. They find non-fiction text features using Capstone Interactive (an online digital collection of non-fiction books that our school pays for). They take a picture of the text feature they have found using the snipping tool and insert it into the appropriate slide. My 2nd graders will start this soon! I can’t take credit for this wonderful idea. Erin from Erintegration actually created the majority of these slides. I just added a cover slide and a slide with directions. You can find it her At Home with Google Apps Series on her blog! {Can you tell I love Erin's products yet?}

I can’t leave out Google Forms. Google Forms is an excellent assessment tool! Use the add-on Flubaroo, and this Google App will grade the assessment for you! You can use Google Sheets to manipulate and gather feedback on skills you may need to reteach. Or, download it as an Excel file.

I also use Google Forms and Google Sheets to for surveys and needs assessments for our staff.

I believe that the paperless classroom is here to stay. Developing digital age learning environments by using the resources available to your students is not only “Earth friendly”, but it also prepares students for the future. The bonus is, you won’t need to worry about collecting papers, or those students who always seem to “lose” their assignment!

2nd Annual Teacher-Blogger Interview {with Erin from Erintegration}

Hi, friends! It's Kim here from For a Love of Teaching! Our 2nd Annual Teacher-Blogger Interviews have been another big hit this year. Be sure to check out our previous posts as we have interviewed some pretty awesome teacher-bloggers this month!

I had the pleasure of interviewing Erin from Erintegration. Erin is super talented when it comes to integrating technology (particularly iPads) into the curriculum in a variety of fun and innovative ways. Her love and passion for technology are evident in her creative resources and blog posts for teachers. She has a desire to help teachers integrate technology into their classrooms in easy to manage ways. The products she creates are so easy to follow, and her directions for students and teachers take the guesswork out of technology. Erin is continuously coming up with creative technology lessons that students are sure to love. When browsing her store, I find myself saying... "What a great idea!" or "How did she think of that?"

Keeping reading to learn more about this technology guru along with her blogging tips and tricks!

Erin: I started blogging a few years ago when I got an iPad in my classroom. I wanted to share how we were using it, what apps we liked, and the projects we made. Since then, we have acquired access to a whole cart of iPads and started to use Google Classroom, so that has changed my focus from blogging about being a one iPad classroom to blogging about technology integration in general. I also have written more about my feelings regarding the use of technology in the classroom – how to manage it and students using it, how to reduce screen time and the goals of technology integration. I wanted to join in the group of classroom teachers giving voice to these ideas – our perspective is important to the discussion even if we are not the ones with the purchasing power and decision-making responsibilities when it comes to technology use in our schools.

Erin: Usually, my teaching informs my blogging, but sometimes I will be thinking of something to blog about and I will end up creating ideas to use in my classroom. That is how my “At Home with Google Apps” series started and now thinking of and making projects on these posts has increased my use of Google Classroom.  

Erin: Family always comes first so the balance is always tipped that way. Teaching is a huge part of my life, too. However since it is my 11th year teaching, I’m very efficient at using my prep time and planning. I have tried to reduce paper greatly which also cuts back on time copying. I have the students take responsibility for a lot of tasks in the classroom included checking their work, which also helps them take ownership and learn from their mistakes. I try to blog once a week but I’ll be honest, this gets pushed back a lot! I have 3-year-old twin girls so my blog is at their mercy!

Erin: I think the key is to blog about something you are passionate about. Being interested in everything technology integration means I always have something to write about, and I can write my ideas very quickly because they are bursting out! A more specific tip is to learn everything you can about SEO, what it is, how it works, and how you can utilize it on your blog. Most teacher-bloggers are writing to help other teachers so you want other teachers to be able to find your blog!

Erin: I think the last resource I make is always going to be my favorite.  Right now it would be all of my Emoji resources – both digital for the iPad and tech-free. Before that, it was my Google Forms Pick a Path Math interactive adventure story. Earlier this year it would have been all of my iPad Scoot Games. Ask me in a couple weeks and it will be whatever I have just posted!

         

I actually first found Erin on Twitter (@erintegration) and started following her instantly! I figured out fairly quickly that she was the mastermind behind the famous #tptchat on Sunday nights. I asked her to tell us more about this Twitter chat for TpT sellers and how we can join in!

Erin: I love Twitter and was trying to find other TpTers to connect with so I started the hashtag and chat on Sundays 8-9PM EST.  Luckily other teacher-authors joined in and I wasn’t chatting to myself! Each week there is a different topic and questions to guide the discussion. I write them or the guest host of the chat does. Then any TpTer can join in! More info can be found on my blog. You can also use the hashtag anytime you are posting something TpT related on Twitter – I use an aggregate to round up all of the tweets with #tptchat in them each day.

With Twitter, you can Tweet anywhere and responses are short so it makes for quick and easy Professional Development. You can ask a question and get a response from a teacher across the world. So it broadens your ability to connect with other teachers, but you can do it in PJs with a messy bun!

Since Erin is the queen of iPads, I didn't let her go without asking... What are your top 3 favorite apps to use in the classroom?

Erin: My favorite apps are all free and facilitate creation:  Chatterpix, PicCollage, TACU, Haiku Deck, and Tellagami. And Google Drive for storage and sharing. That was more than 3!

  

Erin's blog, Erintegration, is ah-mazing! It is a wealth of technology information and tips & tricks at your fingertips! Be sure to visit her blog to learn more about Erin, how she incorporates technology into her classroom and her brilliant ideas for engaging those digital learners in the classroom.

You can also find Erintegration on Facebook, Instagram, and Teachers Pay Teachers!

Thank you, Erin!!! You are the best! 

5 Apps for Effective Small Group Instruction {with For a Love of Teaching}

Over the past two weeks, the amazing teacher-bloggers here at The Elementary Entourage have shared many incredible ways they manage and monitor effective small group instruction. Let me just tell you, we have some rock star teachers in this group!

I am an Instructional Technology Facilitator, and I'm always looking for new and innovative ways to bring technology into the classroom. Today I'm going to share with you 5 Fast & Effective Apps to Use in Small Group Instruction. Some of these apps are free and some you have to purchase, but all are very effective! You can easily use any of these apps to enhance your small group instructional time.

#1 Stick Pick ($3.99)

Oh, how I love Stick Pick! This app lets you pick a student at random with a tap, swipe, or a shake, but that's not the best part! Stick Pick is unique because it suggests question starters for learners at different levels and also records how well students respond to the questions and small group discussion. The questions are based on Bloom's Taxonomy, and you can easily change the question level for each student. Stick Pick is also a great app for building and recording formative assessment data on students. It's definitely not your average student picker app!

          

#2 Popplet ($4.99 - free for the lite version)

    

Popplet is getting a lot of buzz in the world of educational technology right now and if you've ever used Popplet then you know why! This is one of the best customizable and interactive graphic organizer apps I've found. It is very simple and engaging to use which makes it the perfect addition to your classroom or any small group setting. Popplet will allow you and your students to capture and organize ideas in a visually appealing way - perfect for your visual learners! Create graphic organizers in a snap, illustrate a story, arrange the main idea with details, compare and contrast stories...the possibilities are limitless!

Popplet Lite is FREE! It offers many of the same options, but you can only work on one popplet at a time. Unless you plan on keeping your popplets stored on the device, the free version works great!

          

#3 Grammar Jammers (Free for Primary Edition - $2.99 for Elementary Edition)

   

Grammar Jammers is such a fun app full of catchy animated songs and rhymes that make learning exciting! This kid-friendly app teaches a variety of grammar concepts such as parts of speech, punctuation, and capitalization. Each animation unlocks a quiz. If students answer the quiz questions correctly within the Grammar Jammers topics it will unlock an interactive reward. This app is the perfect tool to use in a small group setting to introduce or review new grammar topics. There is also a reset feature that allows teachers to clear the data and reset the game for another group or the next user. 

Grammar Jammers was created by Pearson and is available as a series:

Primary Edition - FREE

Elementary Edition - $2.99

Middle School Edition - $2.99

#4 Learn Sight Words (free)

If you need to practice sight words with your small group of students - then this is the app you need! This app has over 300 flashcards with high-frequency words and easy-to-read print for students. Students can hear each word pronounced clearly or you can opt to turn the sound off. Learn Sight Words is a simple to use app that allows students to swipe through the cards of a 25-word mix. There's also a category for any words you flag to review for later. Students power through all 300+ words with 25 cards at a time. It's the perfect app to quickly review sight words within small groups.

          

#5 Running Record Calculator (free)

Why not make the most of your small group time and throw in a running record! This fast and accurate app makes testing literacy easy! It combines the standard running record calculator and stopwatch into one convenient app. It even has an audio recording playback option. The easy to use flagging function allows you to quickly refer back to the audio and it automatically counts errors and self-corrections. This running record calculator gives you immediate feedback. You will see the student's scores for words per minute, self-correct ratio, and accuracy percentage.

After you complete a running record with this app, press the email button to send a report of the running record to yourself, administrator, literacy specialist, or parents.

          

Students need a variety of opportunities to work with different classmates in different ways, and students love using technology! So, don't be afraid to incorporate it into your small group time. Students always surprise me at how much they can do and how quickly they learn how to use a new app or piece of technology. Even if you only have one iPad you can still incorporate many of these apps into your classroom or small group instruction.