Using apps for vocabulary

I can't believe this is my first post of the year!  Crazy busy this year. Hope to post weekly from now on.

We have a set of five mini iPads in our classroom. I use them daily in RTI and daily five. 

This week our second graders used an app called Pic Collage for vocabulary during RTI time.

Pic Collage is my all time favorite app so if you haven't used it you just have to give it a try.

The students were instructed to use the vocabulary words and the app to find pictures on the web that show what it means. I saw a student use the word share and it had a cute teddy bear sharing an ice cream cone.

The next day I looked at the other photos and found the word suddenly. They had a picture of Suddenly Susan with a cigar in her mouth and a group of girls in bikinis with a saying on the bottom "suddenly she realized why men didn't date her".

Although it is a good activity I realized I need to see what pictures will show up when you type in the vocabulary word.
Lesson learned!

We just finished our final standardized fall test. RTI groups are in full swing and the students are settling into their weekly routines. 

Glad to be back in the school year and I hope to make it a good one.

Be sure to check back next week because I will share another app I use for vocabulary.

Wish I had 1:1 Ipads! It would make things so much easier. Until next time!

The first picture was done by a student to show the word City and the second one is from our welcome back night, both were created in Pic Collage app. 

End of the year thoughts

5 days left

Whoa, May sure went fast! We have 5 more days of school left. I think the kids have already checked out though. We have been working on a couple of interesting projects and that has really kept the kids on task but I think this week will be tough.

Progress reports

Finishing up my progress reports was such a relief and basically I felt pretty good about them.
What I really wanted to accomplish was to show what students know when they get done with 2nd grade. I feel like I have done that.
Some things to think about:

1. When doing standard based grading make sure you have a plan when it will be taught and how to assess it right from the beginning of the trimester/quarter.
2. If you pick a standard make sure you plan on guaranteeing that at least 95% of the students will know that standard when you get done with 2nd grade. All other grades above you are counting on that!
3. Make a plan right away if students are struggling with a standard. How you will pull them out if it is only a quarter of your class? How did you teach it the first time? How did the other grade level partner/s teach it? 
4. What percent do you expect the student to get on the assessment? How will you assess the students to see if they exceed the standards?
5. Make sure you only assess the standard at the level you expect them to be at when they finish 2nd grade. (we made that mistake and learned from it). 
6. Keep faith that the next time you teach it they will get it because they probably will. 

What the government should really look at. 

My favorite part of this week was when I got out the writing papers from September and October and had the 2nd graders compare and read what they wrote with a writing this month. One of my students told me that it was so embarrassing what they wrote in September. This shows so much more than the Iowa Assessments. If the government wants to know if students are proficient they should enter the 21st century and see what we see! I wish I would have copied a couple of those to post. One student at the beginning of the year wrote like a kindergartner and didn't use any spaces. Nothing made sense and what he wrote was off topic. What a difference a school year can make, I was truly impressed.

Internal Motivation

Sometimes it is hard for a teacher to understand what motivates a student to do a good job on something such as an assessment. The writing that we did on Thursday this week was simply write about your favorite summer activity. I told them when they get done writing I will let them see what and how they wrote at the beginning of the school year. This was motivation for many students to do their very best. I didn't say it goes in the grade book, or if you do a good job you get a sticker. Sometimes we don't give enough credit to students internal motivations. 

Final thoughts

Summer is almost here but teachers are never really disconnected from their job. I will spend a few days just watching movies or playing games but then I will think about what I need to do for next year. 

I am teaching summer school for 3 weeks so I won't really be done working until the end of July. 

Thanks for reading! 

Augmented reality space app

Spacecraft 3d app

Last week the story our class was reading was all about space. It was called Working in Space and we also read about space in small group reading.

In connection with the story our class used an app called Spacecraft 3d which is put out by NASA. The students were able to see many of the space things they read about in an image they could turn and explore. 

This was an awesome adventure for the students and if you haven't tried augmented reality apps yet you have to give this one a try.

Using QR codes in the classroom

For the first time I experimented with using QR codes in the classroom on Friday April 4th.

WOW! I really didn't know how much of an impact it would have on my students. They were all so engaged in this activity I was amazed. My 2nd grade partner experienced the same in her room so I know it was real. Even the students that always mess around during group activity time were engaged.

I have probably at least 4 ADHD students in my classroom so the movement kept them engaged and working the whole time.

The activity was simply a review of prefixes and irregular verbs for the reading test they would be taking that day. All students were working and helping each other with the answers. 

I set it up so that there were 3 students in every group. Then I made a rotation schedule so everyone had a chance to use the ipad to read the QR code, write down the answer, and the third person was the locator and found the next code in the room. 

We checked the answers together after the activity. 

Check out this video to see how engaged they were:

Making the QR codes was easy! Here are the steps to do this activity in your classroom:

1. go to classtools.net

2. click on the QR game generator

3. get started

4. When you put your questions in make sure to number them and put the answer

5. Either go to the answers and print them off or write down your answers 

6. print them and post them around your room

7. Be ready to be amazed!

You've got to love your job

Some people never figure this out, but it is very important to love what you do as a job.
I am personally glad to be a teacher. Don't get me wrong, everyday isn't perfect. I am not saying that everyday is great. However, I am saying I love my job. I might not make as much as a business person, but I love my job and that is what matters.
When my kids were in school I remember a particular Secretary at one of the schools. She definitely did not love her job. She was always yelling at the students that came into the office. She wasn't very nice to me either and I was a parent. We really need to think about how we are perceived by those parents that stop at the school. What is really interesting is after I graduated from college with my teaching degree I subbed at that same school. As a teacher that same Secretary treated me with all the respect in the world.
Our school in the past have had parents take a survey to gather a perception of our school climate. The results show parents don't know if teachers like their job or not. I say if a teacher loves his or her job it would be obvious and the parents would know.
So I leave you with this question~ do you teach like you love your job?

Parent Teacher conferences

 Our district had our PT conferences this week and I had 94% attendance. I only had one parent not attend which is great! I personally love PT conferences because it gives me a chance to connect with the parents and let them know what goes on daily in the classroom. I wish I had the time to let the parents know this on a weekly basis for every student.

Parents want to help in any way that they can. It really is a brainstorming time with the teacher letting them know what they can do at home to help and to let the parent know what we are doing at school to improve scores and get their child on grade level work. Together is the only way to do this!

Of course there is always a student or two that seem like they don't care and both the teacher and parent are baffled on what to do about it. This is why these conferences are so important. Together maybe you can find a way to help their child.

Just giving the parents a call when their child has a great day or comes up with a great idea means so much to them. Last week we were learning money in Math and one student was just buzzing through the problems and I showed him how exciting learning can be. I asked him if I could call his mom and tell her how awesome he did. Of course he was excited (sometimes my excitement will do this) and said "yes".

Well, it was a really busy day and I didn't get the phone call made that evening. But, the next morning I called home and the mom told me he was waiting for my phone call last night. Both the kids and the parents love this!

Making this kind of effort is what teaching is all about to me! Trying to make these kind of connections on a weekly basis is definitely a goal that we all should make.

21st century learning

Yesterday and today I have had the opportunity to learn ways to use video and qr codes in the classroom. I always have to keep in mind "WHY" I want to use these things.
First QR codes: These are amazing and fun to use. It gives a mystery to what they are and gives teachers an opportunity to let students explore their own ways of learning. A couple of sites we used for QR codes include. http://www.qrstuff.com/  and to make an entire collaborating type of quiz you could go to this site.
http://www.classtools.net/QR/

We also did some video creating and sharing using Windows Live Movie Maker. This was an awesome tool to use. I am not sure my 2nd graders could use this tool but I could use it to put together videos from the classroom.
Great learning experience!