Pinterest, Part 1 How to Use It

Image obtained here

 I first need to confess that I LOVE PINTEREST. It is an additive site! It's a social bookmarking site that is mainly visual. I use it professionally and personally so it's perfect. You get to use everyone's collective research of the web based on the content you search for,  I hope you find it has help full as I have. This is a two part blog post. First I want to get you started pinning and then we will talk about how to use it with your students. So, lets get started.

Signing Up
To sign up for Pinterest, you need an invitation. You can request one from the Pinterest site  or ask friends for an invite. Feel free to email me and I will send you an invitation. When signing up, you will be required to login using either Facebook or Twitter. Some people get nervous about that because they don't want their Facebook account tied to their pinning. You can untie it from Facebook after you have created your account. If you are doing this at school, I suggest using Twitter because in most districts it's unblocked. If you haven't been twitting, it's a great time to start. Twitter is an excellent Personal Learning Network for educators. To learn more about Twitter, go here.

Getting Started
Next, you need to create boards to pin onto. Pinterest gives you suggestions on what to title your boards but I suggest using titles or names that make sense to you. I have some with long names and ones that are just one word. These boards are how you find your pins later and also how others might find your pins.


1. Get the Button: To pin on Pinterest, you need the "Pin It" button on your web browser's toolbar.  Go to the About menu pull-down in the top navigation bar and select "Pin It Button" and then just follow the direction .

2. Get Pinning: As you are surfing the web or if someone sends you a site and you want to save it, click the "Pin It" button in your tool bar and then select an image that represent the site to pin. Including a brief description of what you are pinning is a great idea, that way when you come back to it you will remember why you pinned it.

3. Follow and Repin: You'll also want to follow folks who have similar interests. When you do this, you get to see what they are pinning and have the opportunity to repin it (basically add it one of your pin boards). It's a great way to get ideas from others that you might not have been clued into otherwise.

So, go forth and pin. :)  Next time we will chat about what you can do with all those pins.

State Assessment Prep 2012

 Don't let the test sneak up on you!

It's that time of year again, state assessment prep....here are some tips I have had success with over the years when preparing my students for the state assessment.  I hope they help you out too. I recommend starting by reviewing the KCA tutorial with students, best way to do this is giving them practice CETE tests. If you haven't started doing that, it's never too late.

·          

     Test prep strategies:

o   Scanning Practice 

o   Critical Reader

·         Reading Activities:

o  Time for Kids Article & the highlighter tool in Word

o   Labette County Resources by Grade level  then subject 

o   Reading Comprehension activities 

o   Reading Matrix Comprehension Beginner Practice

o   Reading Matrix Comprehension Intermediate Practice

o   Reading Matrix Comprehension Advanced Practice
Reading online text

§  Story with Questions

§  Reading text online

§  Story (Grade 5) with Questions

o   Reading Lessons 

o   Fact/Opinion

o   Drawing Conclusions

o   Main Idea 

o   Author’s Purpose

§  matching game 

§  Author's Purpose & Point of View Practice

o   Activity Search based on Content Area  
o   Practice Assessment, 4th grade
    Sequence Assessment  

·         Math Activities:

o   Great site to practice reading math problems online 

o   Basic Calculator practice site

o   Labette County Resources by Grade level then subject 

o   Math Operations practice

o   Practice Assessment
   4^th grade
  3-5th grade

o   Brain Teasers
    3^rd grade

          4th grade 
    5^th grade 

o   Online tools

Illuminations Math tools

Graph Creator

3^rd grade 

4th grade

5^th grade 

o   Math games based on Kansas standards
Math Lessons

Classroom Management Tool- Class Dojo

Do you want to unlock the full potential of your classroom? With this tool it's easy.  Today I want to share a classroom management tool with you. It's called Class Dojo and my teachers love it. This in class tool helps you boost classroom engagement and improves behavior quickly and easily.  You set up your class in minutes and can customize the positive and negative behaviors in your classroom. The best part is the real-time data, analytic and reporting that is available. You can email or print behavior cards for parents with the click of a button.

I know I sound like a salesman but it's because I have seen my teachers set up their classes and use it with ease. The kids love it too. The other day a teacher shared a story with me about an incident that happened in the classroom. She said she was observing the students working, panning the room and noticed that a student went over to pick up his pencil off the floor a few feet away from his desk. She thought maybe he was misbehaving but wasn't certain. Then the student goes over to the interactive white board and gives himself a negative behavior without being prompted. The teacher walks over to the student and praises him for his action (even though she wasn't exactly sure what he did). He then confesses that he threw his pencil on the floor because he was mad and after he did it he knew she was going to make put it up on Class Dojo so he thought he would just take care of it.  She then told him that she hadn't see the pencil throwing but that he deserved a positive behavior for taking care of it before being told. Before Class Dojo that student wouldn't have told on himself but now he is more aware of his behavior and it's effect on himself and his class.

It's funny how powerful a little web tool can be in helping change the climate of a classroom. I hope you find it to be useful as well.

Dogs In Need

Sample Poster created by Clare

Students in Heather House's 5th grade class at Franklin Elementary wanted to help out some forgotten puppies by creating posters to help them get adopted from the Humane Society in Wichita, KS.  After students read a story in their Treasures book about a girl who relied on a therapy dog to help her function, they wanted to help dogs out in some way. The students began by researching 3 different breeds of dogs that were available for adoption from the Humane Society and create a chart to easily organize their research. 

Once their research was done, students selected their favorite breed  and then went to Big Huge Lab's Motivator tool to create their poster. This web-based tool easily creates a poster for you in several simple steps. Students used it to motivate someone in the community to adopt one of the puppies waiting for their forever home. The posters were then posted around the community in hopes that they would be rescued. The posters were also taken to the Humane Society and displayed in their front window.

Image taken by Jenny Gridley

In speaking to the Humane Society representative we learned that the marketing department wanted to take what Heather's class had done and make it into a competition for schools in the area. The students were excited to hear that their idea was well received and might be made into a yearly activity.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

 I don't know about your school but both of my schools are gearing up for conferences this month. This made me start thinking about how I could help my teachers have smoother conferences. Here are a few ideas I plan to share with them, see if they will work for you:

• Use this google form or this form to help schedule conferences with parents. 
• Do a student lead conference with this Smartboard Template or this PowerPoint template.
• Have soft music playing in the background to help create a soothing, calm environment.
• Have parents use the technology in your classroom in an interactive way (i.e a Smartboard activity, a Google survey)