iPad Apps and iPad Mini Giveaway

iPads.....I was so excited when we got an iPad cart for our grade.  Then I got nervous.  What apps should I use?  When do I fit it in?  What rules do I need to put in to place?  Of course, those worries quickly went away when I saw all the possibilities and learning that could, would, and did occur!

Today I wanted to share with you three of my favorite FREE apps. I have tried out all three of these in classroom and found them to be super successful for me and my students.

graphics from the pond

My all-time favorite app right now is ShowMe.  It is a great way to record what is happening on the iPad screen.  The audio and visuals are recorded.  My students have recorded themselves solving word problems or reading sight words.  You can even email the videos to yourself, parents, or pen pals.  We sent our story problems to other students and they solved them! If you want to read more about how I used it in my classroom, you can find that here. I have found it to be SUPER engaging for them and me!

graphics from the pond

 Front Row is an app that I learned about at the end of the year.  It is a math app that assesses the students and provides math problems at their individual level.  If students do not understand something, there are even videos they can watch immediately to explain what they need to do.  I want to explore this app more this year but we found at the end of last year that they kids were engaged, progressing through the levels, and challenged!   I have not written a post about this but Tessa has and it is a great post!

graphics from the pond

Scribble Press is another app that we have really enjoyed using at my school.  For the past two years, students have created a book using this free app.  They learn to type their stories and illustrate using the markers on the extensive "marker wall" within the app.  The stories turn out really cute and the kids talk about that experience all year long!

Well, if you don't have an iPad, have no fear!!
 
I am teaming up with 19 other teachers to give one lucky teacher an iPad mini!!! The giveaway is open to teachers (classroom and homeschool) in the contiguous United States. Please see the terms and conditions for more information.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
These other blogs have partnered with me to bring you this giveaway. They also have some great technology tips and products for you. Click on each blog link so you don't miss any!
The winner will be selected on August 10th. Good luck!

Teacher Treasure Hunter	Teaching Momster	Mrs. Payton's Precious Kindergarteners	Crayons and Cuties	Primary Possibilities
First Grade Fun Times	Burke's Special Kids	Comprehension Connection	Reading Toward the Stars	Kelly's Classroom
Differentiation Station Creations	Teacher Mom of 3	The Reading Tutor OG	Stories and Songs in Second	OCD in First
Tech with Jen	Curious Firsties	Growing Little Minds	Laugh Eat Learn	Practice Makes Perfect

InLinkz.com

Letters from a Blogging Teacher

 Is anyone else SUPER behind on their blog reading??  Grrrr....I am!!  I follow all these great blogs but time just is not my friend.  Okay, sorry.  Complaining will not make my time move slower or give me more time.  So, let's move on.
I was attempting to read through my Bloglovin' feed today, when I came upon this post:

Loved it!! It was just what I needed today.  I needed to reflect a little.

It has been a year since I started my TPT journey.  It has been two years since I started this great blogging journey.  It has been eleven years since I started the teaching journey that I am on.  And it has been about eight years since I started working with the amazing team that I am on right on.

I have a few things to say about all these journeys!

Dear readers,
I hope you have a great start to your school year.  I wish you lots and lots of great "Back to School" deals and steals!  And a year's worth of fantastic blog posts :)

Dear Maria,
It was your idea.  It is ALWAYS your ideas that get us going.  And I am so thankful for that.  I am thankful for the encouragement, the belief in me, and the balance that you remind me to have.  You have helped me find the writer in me.... I didn't even know it was in me.

Dear Bloggy friends (I hope you know who you are),
We have had the chance to get to know each other throughout these two years.  And I have enjoyed that so much!  I love learning from you, emailing with you, solving problems with you, and sharing with you.  Thank you for believing in me.  Thank you so much for believing in me.


Dear Meijer,
I really miss your Cinnamon Hazelnut coffee.  But your French Vanilla coffee and bags of milk chocolate chips help get me through late nights and rough days!  Keep up the good work :)

Dear Karen,
You are my mentor.  You have always been my mentor.  You will always be mentor.  I learn from you every day of my career.  And I am so honored to be your daily student.

Dear husband,
Mmmmmm.....the late night cookies and cream ice cream hits the spot every time!

Dear Jenny,
Thanks for the late night burgers, the long conversations, and the thrift store shopping.  You came into my life right when I needed you :)

Dear sisters,
Love.


Who would you write to?

What's in Your Binder?--Tons of FREEBIE links

My teacher binder IS my life!  I hold everything in it and...well....it gets a little messy as the year goes on.  It is also what motivates me and gets me ready for the school year to start.  And it has been my mission this past week.

The first thing in my binder are my lesson plans.  I have ELEVEN groups this year in my schedule!!  As the Title I teacher, every second of my time is spent in small group or one on one settings.  These lessons are what I use the most because every group, every kid is different.  I spend a lot of time planning.  My lessons are super simple but it works out perfectly for what I need.

guided math and guided reading lesson plan format

 Then I have my calendars.  I keep my district calendar for all the upcoming big events.  Then I have a blank calendar to write in meeting dates, school events, celebrations, and anything else that pops up! The calendar goes Monday-Sunday.  It is my FIRST fan freebie on our FB page.

2014-2015 Blank Calendar

Next up, my schedules.  Since we are departmentalized and I am moving to four different classrooms, my schedules are.....hmmmm.....SUPER important!  I color code them based on the group and class.

 I use many different guided reading references to help me write my lesson plans each week.  We use Reading Street as one of our guides for phonics and comprehension.  I have a "quick sheet" to help me look at the skills that will be focused on.  Then I have my SnapWords lists.  We use their sight words and I use this checklist I created to keep track of the individual lists that each of my groups are on.
Guided Reading instructional focus
Fontus and Pinnel Instructional Level Expectations

Click above for the sheets

 All of the instructional calendars come next.  I only have the writing one printed off so far.  But I like to keep these in the binders to make sure that I'm on the right track with the rest of the district. 

Writing: Units of Study

 Then come the standards.  I have quite a few documents for this section.  I like to have the Common Core standards listed in a quick reference form.  But I also want a continuum.  We have two vertical meetings a week as a K-2 team.  Looking at the standards and how they grow off each other is really important to me and the success of our building team.
First grade ELA Common Core standards
First grade Math Common Core standards
K-2 Math Common Core continuum
K-2 ELA Common Core continuum

See the links above for these sheets

The last part of my binder has another set of reference sheets in it but for intervention or RTI.  I have a simple little chart to keep track of the IAT meetings that have been held and the changes that we have implemented.  A sheet with the benchmark scores that the school district is looking for on specific assessments.  And an "If....Then" sheet to help with specific interventions.
RTI Interventions Menu

If you would like to use any of these divider sheets for you binder, you can grab them here:
Teacher Binder Divider Sheets

I hope this helps you to start or add to your binder.  But...one question....what am I missing?  Is there anything you put in your binder that I should add to mine?

Let's Host a Book Swap

My girls and I worked hard this past week to throw a Book Swap party!  We wanted to share some of our favorite books and get some "new" ones.  I wrote all about it over at Adventures in Literacy Land! 

I created some Book Swap materials so that you can host your own at home or at school!  If you hop over to Literacy Land soon, you may be able to grab a pack for free!

Guided Math--A Starting Routine

Two years ago Natalie, Carrie (our amazing intervention specialist) and I started team teaching math together.  It was completely new territory for all three of us.  And, honestly, I was a little (nope...a lot!) freaked out about teaching math.  I have been a literacy girl my whole life.  Math...not my thing.

But....

Something changed that year.  I really think it was the passion that I saw in Natalie, our learning to co-teach for the first time, and our combined efforts for those kids.  I started to really love math.  Like, REALLY love math!!! This was a first. I wanted to read about math, research math, go to PD for math. 

And so I did and so did Natalie.  Together we came up with a game plan for our second year together.  Looking back on it, I think it was pretty successful.  We were happy with their growth and the changes that we made.  But also saw room for us to improve and grow (as we always do!)

Some changes we made for our guided math during  that second year: a set math routine, guided math templates for review, dot cards, and better learning space.

My groups always start with behavior expectations.  We use both CHAMPS and whole brain teaching.  I also remind my students that I am looking for their effort as mathematicians, not just correct answers.  We use this rubric and self-assess our effort at the end of group.

We also go over the learning objective for the group.  I have a binder that contains my daily guided math sheets.  On the front of the binder is where I write the "I can" statements for that particular lesson.  Last year my sheet looked pretty boring....this year....oh yeah!! It looks awesome!

Then it is time to start.  Before we jump into the meat of our lesson, I like to have a "warm up" period.  I do the same in my guided reading group.  (I do much better with a set routine, so I figure that they do too! ) Our warm-up begins with some type of dot-card.  Sometimes it is tens frames dot cards, two colored dot cards, or just one colored dot cards. 

The warm up continues but with some daily guided math sheets that Natalie and I created.  We wanted to practice/review skills that we had previously worked on.  But we wanted it to be quick.  We thought the best way to do this was to come up with templates that we could use every single day but with different problems.  We also wanted to be able to use them with different groups, meaning the problems on them could be easy or hard, depending on the group level. So we did.  We came up with a binder full of them :)

We created sheets for:
Telling Time
Geometry
10 more/less
1 more/less
Multiples of 10
Place Value
Missing Part
Story Problem
Fact Families
3 Addends
T/F Equations
Data/Graphs 

We put all the sheets that we made into sheet protectors.  This way we could write on them and erase them quickly.  We really wanted this to be quick.

Each week we would look at the skills that we had previously taught and the skills that students were still struggling to grasp.  Those would be the "quick" sheets that we would do during this time.  Typically, I would do about 2 to 4 sheets a day.  But it all depended on how much time we had to spend on each sheet/problem.

Here is an example: if my group was struggling with missing addend.  Then we would work on that sheet during this "warm up" time.  I would write the problem on the sheet with dry erase marker.  Then I would hold up the binder for my group to see.  They would solve the problem on their own, using a strategy that worked for them.  After they had their time to think, they would either tell me the answer to write in or they would write it in with the marker.  We would discuss the different strategies used to find the answer.

Another sheet that I did use just about every day was number identification.  They got really good at this and we could complete the sheet quickly and with very little think time.

 Then there were other sheets that I used periodically because it came pretty easily for them, but I wanted to ensure that they did retain the material over time.

Once our warm-up/review sheets were completed, we jumped right in!  Our guided math lesson went in to full swing.  I always teach the skill, we do it together, and then they do it on their own.  My guided reading lessons follow a very set routine.  But guided math is different.  My lessons are sometimes games, sometimes partner work, sometimes they create something.  It just depends on the skill and the best way to teach it.

But my warm-up routine is one part of our group that remains constant and is never skipped.  I really found that my students truly learned from each other during this period in the group.  The dot cards and sheets really allowed my students to have good conversations about how they solved the problems.  I would watch, over time, students tried out new strategies because they saw someone else in the group using it.  Because of this, the confidence in the group would strengthen and they got really good at these quick sheets!  I was able to create more challenging problems, since the templates are blank.

This was a really positive change that we made to our guided math groups and I will use them again this year.  I even added some more!

But I am always looking to better to my skills.  How do you set up your guided math group routine?