Blended Learning in Room 45...so far.

Recently the district I teach in has decided to implement Blended Learning. My first thoughts when I heard the news were, "Great, but how can I do Blended Learning with 2 classroom computers and one computer lab to share with a whole school?"

  The process that I've used to answer that question has a been a slow but rewarding one.

I started where I start every year, by trying to beg, barter and steal more technology.  Eventually I was able to get two hand-me-down laptops and one of my own to use in my classroom. I was able to locate one additional class computer from a non-tech savvy teacher at my school as well.  Bonus! This gave me 6 classroom computers which I could house in my classroom and use for a rotation model without having to fight for computer lab time.

My next step was setting up an edmodo.com account.  As usual, my class loved the opportunity to interact in and outside of the classroom in a 'facebook-like' fashion.  The really great news is that edmodo has a new function called 'snaphot' which is an easy way for me to assign quizzes based on common core standards in a PARCC-style format.  The snapshot feature gave me an easy way to start getting a rotation model going during my math block.  I normally set this up by having 6 groups of students go through 4 station rotations.

• The first station is group practice of what we've been doing in class i.e. a collaborative poster or group completion of a worksheet of practice problems.  
• Station 2 is with me.  I normally use an 'I do, We do, You do' model with a more challenging application of the standard we're working on in class. 
• The third station is a partner game designed to give students a fun and challenging game for practicing and discussing math strategies related to our learning in class. 
• The fourth station is to rotate to the computers for the edmodo snapshot quiz. (Students who finish the quiz before it's time to rotate can get on sumdog.com.  They love this site!  I have my class set up for math, although you can also do reading or writing I believe.

Lately, I've been using schoology.com to get even deeper into my implementation of Blended Learning in my 'advanced reading group'.  It's a work in progress but definitely proving to be exciting and engaging for a group that loves to extend their understanding of topics further than the classroom setting.  I even have a couple students that like to get on from home and get a 'headstart' on the learning for the next day! I am excited to keep learning about Blended Learning and see how useful it can be in my classroom.  My next mission is to become an experienced screen caster!  Wish me luck :(
 

Problem Sovling 4 Kids Through Games!

 

 

I have finally finished updating these two resources from my own collection of Smart games. I use Smart versions of Connect 4 and Math Monopoly to teach different kinds of problem solving to my students!  Each page has a different type of word problem (i.e. Join Unknown, Change Unknown, etc.)  As always, I would love to give it to the first two readers who request it for free!

My Dream Realized!

   I have always used famous quotes from people throughout history to help teach character education and critical thinking in my classroom.  I have finally taken the time to turn these famous quotes into a journaling activity to use in conjunction with the Smart board.  Check it out!

   This file includes 40 weeks of inspirational and motivational quotes from famous people throughout history, a printable journal, printable pictures of each person being quoted, and 82 pages of Smart pages to last you the whole school year!  Right now I'm selling this unit for $9.99 on TPT, but will give it away for free to the first two people who request it here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

How To: Symbaloo

   Haven't tried symbaloo.com?  Trust me, for getting students to the educational sites YOU choose, it's the best! 
   Whether you are a teacher with one or more student computers in your classroom, you have a school computer lab, you want your own child to use educational web sites, or you want a central location for all of your own favorite sites, you need symbaloo.com!  
   Here's some information about symbaloo.com: 
"Symbaloo is a customizable start page tool that lets users add all their most important links in a format that is easy for your students to use. The user’s webmix appears as sleek buttons with icons or logos. The user can drag and drop items to organize them in a way that is convenient and practical. The items, or tiles, can be searched so users can find those that are most relevant to the items they are adding. Users can view their home webmix or browse webmix collections. News highlights and major news are also accessible through tabs on the Symbaloo homepage. The user can access an online resource simply by clicking one of the tiles on the webmix they are currently viewing. "

   I've created an easy tutorial to get you started. Follow these steps to set up your own page!


Step 1- When you type symbaloo.com in to your browser window, this is the page you'll see.

Step 2- Click on "Create free account" in the upper right hand corner.

Step 3- Enter your information and click on "create my account".  Important note for teachers: I recommend creating two different accounts, one for your students and one for your valued teacher sites. To do this you will have to use different email addresses.  For my student account I created a gmail account specifically for my class so that I wouldn't have my students getting into my personal email!

Step 4- If all of your information is entered, and no one else has the same info. you should see a page saying you've succeeded.  You're not ready to start your page yet though!  See the next step.

Step 5- Using the email you listed during signup, you must verify your email address to start personalizing your Symbaloo page.  You will receive an email from Symbaloo. If it doesn't show in your inbox you may have to check your junk/spam inbox.:

Step 6- Now that you have verified your email address, click on the link to "Get started with your web mix".

Step 7- You have the option of making symbaloo.com your active homepage.  I recommend this if/when you set up a teacher page for your important teacher sites.  If you have student computers in your classroom, I recommend doing this on those computers so students have immediate access to the page you're creating.

Step 8- Your webmix can include any tiles you choose.  You can alter, delete, or add any tiles you choose. Important teacher note: When you create a student page I recommend putting all tiles on one page.  When I created my page for my school to use, I made the mistake of creating five pages by subject area.  Once finished I had to "share" each page individually which took a lot of time.  If you crete a one-page webmix with multiple subjects on the same page you can avoid this time consuming and technologically intensive process.

Step 9- To edit or delete a tile just right click on the tile and this message will appear:

Step 10- Once you've deleted the tile you have made space on your webmix for a new tile of your choice.

Step 11- If you want to add a tile, right click on the spot where you want your tile to appear on your webmix page.  (You can move the tile to a different location at a later time if you choose.) You can create your own tile or search for a tile that's already available.

Step 12- If you can't find a tile for the site you want, or you want a different tile than the one that's already available.  You can choose the tile and text color as well as a picture to show on the tile. Important teacher note: If you are familiar with the snipping tool you can take a picture of the logo from the website you choose and save it as a jpeg, then click on "choose icon".

Step 13- When you're happy with the look of your tile you can select "save".

Step 14- You should see your tile appear on your webmix.

Step 15- Try your tile out to ensure that the link takes you to the correct site.

Keep personalizing your page to create a Symbaloo page that's perfect for your classroom!  No longer do you have to help your students type in web adresses or do searches for the educational sites you want them to use.  Happy symbaloo-ing!  Any further questions just message me :)

-Mr C

Amazing Teacher/ Amazing Resources!

   I just have to take a moment to recognize the talents of one of my former co-workers who's making great resources for teachers as well! Miss Harris and I have always shared a passion for creating great activities and lessons and sharing them with other teachers at our school.  We taught together, side by side, bouncing ideas and resources off each other for 6 years.  If I was in a rut and needed creative ideas hers was the door I knocked on.  Now we're taking it to the streets and sharing our stuff with all of the wonderful teachers around the world!  Check her blog out at Teacher HQ or stock up on some SALE items at her TPT store at:  Q Harris TPT .  

   If you love her stuff, which I'm sure you will, or there's something from her site that you wish you had free of charge, put a comment below.  She has volunteered to share two of her resources with faithful followers of my page...for free! Check her out!

Bright Idea Bulbs! (Free Resource)

   Today I've been working on a ton of resources to share on my TPT account and thought I'd share one of them here.  I have used this in my classroom for two years in a row now and I have to say, it might be my best idea ever!  I was joking with one of my students in class one day that I could see the light bulb come on before he even shared his answer with the class.  And with that the "Bright Idea Bulb" was born.  The next day I had my students color and cut out two light bulb tracers and glue them together. (Don't forget to have them write their name somewhere on one side.)  Next, I laminated them, made a cut in the base of the bulbs, and inserted a large tongue depressor into each.  Students started holding the bulbs up in the air to answer questions instead of blurting out their responses!!  The way my students responded to the use of their bulb was amazing.  They kept the bulbs out on the top of their desks.
   After using the bulbs for the first school year, I decided that I needed to make a change.  I added a question mark to one side of the bulb as an indicator that a student needed to ask me a question. Now my students' bulbs are two sided with a light bulb on one side and a colorful question mark on the other.  I have my students decorate the question mark side however they choose, but tell them the light bulb side must be yellow so I can clearly see whether students want to share an idea or ask a question.  I hope you enjoy it! 

(Coming soon...a tutorial on creating your own symbaloo.edu account)

Introducing Resources for Teachers by Mr C!

  

A little about me, Mr C:

   First off, I am all about technology in the classroom!  I love creating technology that works seamlessly with my classroom lessons.  I have given presentations on the use of the following tools in classrooms: Active Inspire, Smart Notebook, edmodo.com, Photo Story 3, kidblog.org, and toondoo.com. (Posts all coming soon!)

   I created a central location for educational sites that the whole school could access through a username and password on any school or home computer. I accomplished this by creating two symbaloo.edu pages; 1 for students, and 1 for teachers. (symbaloo.com tutorial coming soon!) I was amazed by the things our students could accomplish when they were given appropriate tools to use and the time they needed to utilize them.

   Growing up with 2 sisters I learned at a very young age how to share! ;) So...this summer I've been on a mission to create resources to share with others again.  This time I'd like to share with teachers everywhere, not just at my own school.  I've created a teacherspayteachers.com account.  My page is at : http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Dashboard and I have tons of freebies! (Coming soon: Pinterest and Instagram pages for Resources by Mr C)

   My plan for this page is to update it often with ideas I've used or created that worked (or didn't), discussions about education in general, and technologies I've stumbled upon that may increase interest and engagement in your classroom. I will apologize in advance for any bulldog pictures that find their way onto the page.  Although my dog, Charlie, rarely has anything educational to say, he is so darn cute so he may stop in to say hello from time to time.  If you have any questions, comments, or requests for specific resources, I would love to hear them so please share your thoughts with me!