One iPad Classroom

Thanks to Austin for making this AWESOME vocabulary video for 5th grade Reading Street's Unit 4-2 Tripping Over the Lunch Lady!  I love everything the kids can do to create and expand their learning using technology.  It inspires the other students to create as well.  You rock, Austin, and so does your video!

5th Grade Reading Street Unit 2

I cannot believe that this is the last week for Unit 1 of our new Reading curriculum!  Time has gone so quickly, and I still don't feel prepared on a daily basis.  The school year is speeding by, as usual.  But ready or not, it's time to get prepared for Unit 2!  So here you go, for all who are interested... Selection Titles and Questions and Amazing Words and Selection Vocabulary for Unit 2.  You may notice that I added the number of the unit and story at the bottom of each page.  I'm hoping that will help me stay organized and save me a few minutes each week when I change my focus wall.  I will continue to work on the skills and strategies this week, and hopefully have them up soon.  Please share any ideas you have on implementing Reading Street for this novice; any advice would be much appreciated!

 

On a side note, I want to congratulate our Reading Specialist (and my friend), Mrs. Skoff, for receiving the classroom iPads from our district!  I could not be happier for her; it is well-deserved, and I know she will make the most of them while reaching a greater and more varied population of students in our school.  Congratulations, Mindy!  It couldn't have happened to a better teacher or a nicer person!  Yay!

Teachers Love Technology!

Check this out from Attribution to OnlineUniversities.com!  I love this! 

 

 

I learned so much in AFT this past summer and am in the process of applying for 1:1 classroom set of iPads.  I am so grateful for the one I received; in a scant week and a half of school, the students are already putting it to good use.  I can only imagine what they could do with a class set!  School budgets are tight everywhere, so my students are appreciative for what they have been fortunate enough to have, however I do see a big difference in the students who had access to 1:1 iPads last year.  As all teacher do, I want to provide everything possible to create the best possible learning environment and the best possibilities for my students' growth.  Teachers love technology because it engages and benefits all students: meeting (and challenging) their individual learning needs, as well as fostering their individual strengths!  No wonder teachers love technology!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

How many times have you been asked to write about that?   And how many different variations of that theme have you had your students do?  It's kind of the "back to school" rite of passage, right?

Well, here's mine.  I took an Apple Foundations Training for which I received an iPad to use in my classroom.  It was interesting, fun, and we now have a great "class pet!"  I can't wait to see everything they create with this tool.  I wish ours was one of the chosen few for a 1:1 classroom, but I am very grateful and appreciative for the one iPad and will make very good use of it.  I know my students will as well.  I only hope that those who were in a 1:1 classroom last year will not be too disappointed (although in my heart, I know they will be) (*mentally insert worried emoticon here!*).

We also made our own iTunes U course with materials we created in class.  If you go over to my class blog, tmcguffey.weebly.com, you can see a few of the things I made on my Meet the Teacher and Bixby pages.

In the meantime, I wanted something to teach/remind students how to treat our new class pet and loved Mrs. Dixon's chalkboard IPad Guidelines, however if you're like me and have limited wall space, you can use this consolidated list of guidelines I made.  Thank you, Mrs. Dixon, for the great idea and wording!

Of course, that's not the only thing I did this summer, but more about that another time!