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.

100 Days & Counting {with For a Love of Teaching}

Hip-Hip Hurray for the 100th Day (of School)!!!

I always love the 100th day of school! It's so much fun to celebrate! At our school, the building of anticipation for this big day starts in January. We live in the North Carolina mountains, and we miss a lot of school for snow. Due to the "snow days" we never really know when this day will come. For us, it often falls in February. This year (unless we miss tomorrow for snow) we will celebrate our 100th day of school on Monday, February 1st. 

Last week I ordered this super cute shirt from www.spreadshirt.com to wear this year, and I purchased one for my daughter just like it. I REALLY hope pray they arrive in time! I'm constantly checking the tracking on this order. I'll be soooo sad if they don't get here in time for our 100th day celebrations!

Want one, too? Click on the image for a direct link to the shirt!

How do you celebrate the 100th Day of School?

At my school, there's so much going on! Students are allowed to dress up like they are 100 years old, and believe me, they are A-DOR-A-BLE!

Meet Abigail: a cute-as-a-button first grader who's ready for the 100th day!

Meet Ms. Heather: Abigail's mom, who also happens to teach 1st grade at my school. Even teachers participate in the fun by dressing up, too!

When my daughter was in kindergarten her teacher sent home one-half of a colored plastic tablecloth to decorate with one hundred items. Students wore them to school as a cape on the 100th day. This was such a fun project to complete at home! We used fun puff balls in a variety of sizes for our 100 items. 

It's so easy to make a 100th day of School frame like this one in the picture above. Just purchase a large cheap frame from Walmart or Target, remove the backing and glass, decorate and get ready to take some super cute pics of kiddos on the 100th day! 

Here's a fun website that I love to use on the 100th day! Take a picture of your students and upload it to www.faceinhole.com. Kids love seeing themselves on the 100 dollar bill! Print and send home as a 100th day of school souvenir! (Even the older kids love this one!) Click on the images below to create your own! 

And, who doesn't love the AgingBooth App??? Grab those iPads and let your students have fun by instantly aging their face! Teachers love this app, too. It's actually fun for all ages! Click on the image to download the app onto your iPad or iPhone. (Also available in the Google Play Store for Android users.)

How do you get older students involved in the 100th day celebrations?

When I taught fourth grade, I found it hard to get my students excited about this day. A few years ago, I created 100th Day of School for Upper Grades. This resource is packed full of classroom ideas and engaging curriculum based activites for older students. Find it in my store here!

I hope you find these ideas useful as you plan your 100th day of school festivities! Comment below and tell us how YOU celebrate the 100th day with your students!

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