Alice Keeler is a Unicorn

Posted on April 24, 2018 by richesone

If you follow Alice Keeler, you will probably agree with me that she must be part unicorn. She consistently amazes me with her fresh ideas for technology integration. Her latest magical invention is using a Google Slides presentation linked to a Google Sheet to create a spiral warm up that refreshes automatically. You don’t have to understand her technological genius to benefit from her idea because she guides you through the set up in this blog post. Anyone who ever needs to review something they have previously taught (which is….everyone?) should check out her post to Automagically Create a Spiral Warm Up.

I ♥️ you Alice Keelker. I ♥️ you.

Language Is A Virus-But in a good way!!!

Posted on April 6, 2018 by richesone

Langauge Is A Virus

I made the above image with a visual poetry tool on languageisavirus.com. That tool alone is pretty cool but it’s not all that Language Is a Virus has to offer. It also has daily writing prompts, writing games, exercises, techniques, text generators and text manipulators. Here is what Language Is a Virus has to say about their purpose:

“Languageisavirus.com exists to cure writer’s block and inspire creativity. You can choose from a multitude of writing games, gizmos, generators, writing prompts and exercises, tips, experiments and manifestos from infamous avant-garde writers and how-to articles on fiction writing and poetry.”

Language is a Virus is a tool I think every language arts teacher would love to have in their collection.

TeacherLed.com

Posted on March 19, 2018 by richesone

TeacherLed.com is a website full of teaching and learning resources. All are compatible with desktop and mobile devices and no subscriptions or log-ins are needed. Here are some of my favorites:

Letter Reveal: Scratch off one box at a time as students guess which letter is underneath.

Virtual Dice: Roll 1, 2 or 3 die at a time to work on subitizing or addition.

Hundreds Chart: I especially like this hundreds chart because you can “roll” it forward or backward to reveal negative numbers or numbers past 100.

Magnetic Numbers: I like that the “flip cards” reveal random numbers. For example, for the image above you could work on mentally adding 45 and 30. Then you can click either the 4 or 5 in 45 and work on counting by decades from a different number.

There are many more interactive activities for both math and language arts. You can check out their resources here as well as a collection of all their resources here.

Leveraging YouTube

Posted on March 17, 2018 by richesone

You can learn just about anything you’d like on YouTube. Our students use it daily to discover video game hacks, learn how to make slime or watch someone else unpackage the newest toy. Why not harness some of the power of YouTube for your instruction? Here are a few YouTube channels that present educational content in a media format that is engaging to our students:

Crash Course-10 to 15 minute videos on sociology, computer science, film history, mythology, physics, philosophy, games, economics, U.S. government and politics, astronomy, anatomy & physiology, world history, biology, literature, ecology, chemistry, psychology, and U.S. history.

MrBettsClass provides education and humor on all topics social studies related. History is a collection of stories and MrBettsClass aims to tell that story in the most engaging way whether it be jamming out, making art, acting up, or diving deep into what made the world the way it is today.

This bi-weekly show from the producers of Crash Course is all about gradeschool science. Topics include Earth, Habitats, Space, Chemical Reactions, Engineering, and much more.

Instant STEAM Challenges!

Posted on March 15, 2018 by richesone

Here is an app that fits two needs: STEAM challenges AND quick, time fillers! The Instant Challenge app by Destination Imagination gives ideas for fun group activities that must be solved within a short period of time. Students can use their imagination, teamwork skills, and a few everyday materials, to be as innovative as possible.

Click here to download Instant Challenge Shaker on your Apple device. For Android devices, click here.

Workbench EDU

Posted on March 13, 2018 by richesone

Workbench is an innovative one-stop shop for teachers to find and share projects that support STEAM curricula. It is a project-based learning platform where students can complete STEAM tasks in class or individually, using everything from basic art supplies and recyclable materials to innovative technologies such as Sphero & Makey Makey. Resources are free for teachers to access. If you’re interested in STEAM or the Maker movement, Workbench is a great place to start!

Imagination Forest

Posted on March 11, 2018 by richesone

Imagine Forest is a free, online resource that makes writing stories easy and fun. They have created a collection of inspirational creative writing resources for kids. They also have a creative writing community where students can publish their work. You can read more about Imagine Forest on their blog. One caveat: kids under 12 need an account under an adult. (Read here for the specifics.) So, if using with students less than 13 you could consider a generic Gmail account set up by you for this purpose.

Happy writing!

Thank you Campbell USD!

Posted on March 9, 2018 by richesone

Looking for STEAM activities to implement in your classroom? Then you MUST check out Campbell USD out of California’s STEAM resource page! Their “STEAM task force” put together a website full of STEAM activities and resources. You will especially want to take a peek at their STEAM Integration Lesson Menu that gives suggested STEAM activities for each grade.

Thank you, Campbell USD STEAM people! You rock!

Jack-O-Lantern Writing

Posted on October 4, 2017 by richesone

Do you ever see things for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers and think to yourself, “I could make that myself and not have to pay anyone.” I’m not saying I did that, but here are some directions you could use with your students to do a little virtual jack-o-lantern decorating and writing. Happy October!

(A little note…these directions assume your students use Google Docs. If they don’t there are certainly other ways to have students create a document. Also, this activity would be a PERFECT one to share out via Google Classroom.)

To view the directions CLICK HERE!

Summer’s over…

Posted on August 3, 2017 by richesone

I’m betting I’m not the only teacher who does this. As summer approaches I make lists (both in my head and in numerous list making apps and tools) of all the things I’m going to accomplish over the summer. In my dreams, literally, I think I can get SO MUCH DONE if only I’m not going to work every day. The problem that occurs EVERY SUMMER is that I do have to work. I just work in a different way. I’m a mom…enough said. I do presentations at conferences and school districts. (This year I did LOTS of these.) I run and do take the time to enjoy running at times and places I can’t normally run during the school year.

Long story short, I NEVER finish that to-do list. And this summer one of the things I had on my to-do list was to add so much great content to this blog. Let me check when my last post was…oh. May 25th. Right before school let out. I did GREAT with this list item. 😂

Well, no time like the present to make amends. Since I DID present at and attend tons of professional development, I will complete this too long intro by sharing just one snippet of a great resource I acquired this summer.

I discovered this resource literally by a chance conversation with an attendee at one of the ISTE 2017 sessions at which I presented. This is a collection of video Brain Boosts. I also call them Brain Breaks. There are several categories but the one that drew my attention the most was Dances in Your Chair. I like Dances in Your Chair for two reasons. 1) Sometimes you don’t want to lose all control of your class. Dances in Your Chair allows for movement and a bit of a break without having to contain the chaos again. 2) For those students who are reluctant to really let loose, Dances in Your Chair are low risk. Everyone can dance in their chair. (Bonus 3rd reason: Dances in Your Chair reminds me of those videos you used to see on the public access channel of older people doing “aerobics” in a chair. I loved those older exercisers who refused to give up.)

So, how did you do on YOUR summer to-do list? Have you finished it yet?

(Feel free to comment below!)

PS-An added perk to learning of this school’s collection of Brain Breaks was learning about the tool they used to collect and categorize them. They used Stampsy which is, “A single place to share, curate and discover visual content that tells a story.” Maybe this could be a future blog post…🤔