Fun Friday with Animals: Coloring Book & Discover Your Inner Animal

Elementary teachers: Animals are a popular topic this time of year, so here are a couple sites for extension activities or just a little fun!

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National Geographic's Animals Coloring Book

Choose from over 40 animals at this site!

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Your Inner Animal 

What is your "inner animal"? Find out HERE!

Here's mine… a 3-toed sloth!!! "Slow and Steady"! I'm laid back, but not THAT much… I don't think!!! ;-)  And I only WISH I got away to tropical destinations!!!

Do the brief assessment and leave your "inner animal" in the Comments section below this post -- I already started with mine!

Teacher Appreciation Week: Teachers Count

To finish out TAW (Teacher Appreciation Week), take a glance at some famous people and the teachers who inspired them at the Teachers Count website. You can also request free posters from these stars (both teachers and their famous pupils)! Here are some famous people who are included:

• Guy Fieri (chef)
• Edie Falco (actress)
• Carrie Underwood (singer)
• Ne-Yo (singer)
• Jeremy Pivens (actor)
• Alec Baldwin (Words with Friends aficionado)
• CC Sabathia (baseball pitcher)

Now think about your students... first of all, who will be one of the "famous ones" in the future... and would they pick you to be the teacher standing behind them in their poster?

Thinking Thursday: The Don'ts & Don'ts of Teaching

Strange to have a "don'ts and don'ts" list, but the author explains...

Here's a GREAT article from ASCD for novice AND experienced teachers!!! Wish I knew all these when I was teaching! It will be 5-10 minutes well spent to refine your teaching craft… Here's the abbreviated list, but read the details at the link above:

1. Don't try to teach too much in one day.

2. Don't teach a lesson without a student activity.

3. Don't send kids to the office.

4. Don't allow students to shout out answers.

5. Don't make tests too hard.

6. Don't be indecisive.

7. Don't tell a student you're calling home.

8. Don't try to be a buddy.

9. Don't dress too casually.

10. Don't babble.

Wonder Wednesday: Testing 1,2,3... Testing

Participate in the poll above... (by May 16)

This month's poll is about... State Testing... For Ohio at this time of year, that would be the OAAs or Ohio Achievement Assessments for grades 3-8. What do you think will happen with state tests in the next 10 years? (Answer at the top of this page!)

RECAP:
The last Wonder Wednesday poll was about Spring Break Plans... Turns out that many decided to either work on house projects, make time for some R&R (Good for them!), or catch up on grading or lesson plans -- too bad! (Click image below to see full results)

Tools for Tues: Livebinders & Infographics

Here are two tools that are visual AND help us organize information, which is an essential skill today and well into the future...

LiveBinders - although not a new "tool", this may be an alternative for teachers or students to save websites, PDFs, videos, images and more to one location... Here are some possible uses:

• bookmark/favorites alternative
• eportfolio
• online presentation resource (alternative to PowerPoint)
• collaborative resources space (share with colleagues and all add to it)

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LiveBinder on Infographics

And take a look at this sample LiveBinder on Infographics -- the FUTURE of presenting/sharing information!

Learn more! Here are some more resources on InfoGraphics...

Visual.ly - a website dedicated to visual expression of data and information... Explore, share, and create here!

10 Tools for Creating Great InfoGraphics

Sample InfoGraphics

Infographics App — An app for finding infographics

Google's Education On Air Conference

Looking for more professional development in ed-tech? How about trying Google's "Education On Air" offering on Wednesday, May 2nd from 12-10pm (ET) via Google+ Hangouts (so get an account/sign up soon!)

More info, including presenters and session topics, are available at: https://sites.google.com/site/eduonair/home 

Tools 4 Tuesday: SMART Board Thinking Games, Audio Books & eBooks, and Interactive Maps

Librivox: Free books site (eBook links & Audio recordings of book readings) - books from public domain

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Cool Interactive Map Website
http://show.mappingworlds.com/usa/

Choose from the U.S., World, or Japan... "Select a subject from the top menu and watch the countries on the map change their size. Instead of land mass, the size of each country will represent the data for that subject --both its share of the total and absolute value."

 

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 SMART Board Logic Games
(Re-shared from Teachers Love SMART Boards)

Here are five strategy games that Teachers Love SMART Boards blog best qualified as "educational." You can click these links to view and/or download these SWF files which can be inserted onto a SMART Notebook slide/page. 1. Peg Solitare – Jump over other pegs until all the pegs are removed from the board.   2. Shot – Try to knock other balls off the grid. Be careful you don't leave a ball alone on the grid.   3. Code Master – This is my favorite game. You have to assign a number from 1 – 9 to a letter to break the code. This game uses handwriting recognition to recognize the numbers that are written. It works very well although it struggled a few times trying to recognizing my number 8.   4. Recognizer – This is another number recognition activity where students can write in the answer to a two-digit addition problem using the SMART Board pen or their finger and the activity will recognize what number they wrote.   5. Tacoyaki - Click tiles to change the color of the surrounding tiles trying to get all the tiles the same color.

Manic Monday: Planner & Calendar Templates

Planning is good… Free, pretty planners make it more fun to do "good"...planning! 

View and download the daily or weekly planners and calendars in PDFs or Word formats from Xerox. They even come in 2 per page! (Note that calendars are for March-December 2012)

Fun Friday: Plan Ahead for April Fools' Day

Image from: http://curiousphotos.blogspot.com/2010/07/awesome-office-cubicle-pranks.html

Study these pranks so you're ready to NOT be fooled!!! It's on a Sunday this year, so keep a close eye on your family and loved ones!

Family Pranks from Disney
 
April Fools Zone
 
Pictures of Office Cubicle Pranks (may help you think of some of your own for home!)




 

Wonder Wednesday: Plans for Spring Break

Participate in the poll above...(by April 27)

This month's poll is about... Spring Break: How Will You Spend Your Time? (Answer above!)

RECAP:
The last Wonder Wednesday poll was about Technology Tool Professional Development (PD)... What technology would you like to learn how to integrate into your lessons? iPads/iPod Touch were the top pick! (Click image below to see full results)

FREE For Limited Time Educational iPad/iPhone apps-March 20, 2012

Most of these apps are free for a limited time! Check them out ASAP (click on name to see iTunes info)…

 

(TODAY ONLY) - Tapeulator Pro - add, subtract measurements and see your results on a measuring tape in both inches and centimeters

Handwriting - write, draw, doodle, design, practice letters/numbers, etc. on an endless sheet of digital paper (then email it to someone, if email is set up!)

Alpharoids - earn your letters while you have a blast in this action-packed old school arcade (asteroids) style game

Doors Room Escape - a logic and critical thinking game

Paris Walking Tour - Heading overseas soon? You don't even have to with this app! Five separate audio walking tours guiding you though the quintessential Paris neighborhoods of Bastille, Montmartre, Marais, St. Germain, and the Latin Quarter

SimplePhysics - design complex structures for everything from tree houses to ferris wheels and then simulates your design with a sophisticated physics engine

DrawingStar - create "pretty pictures" with paints, stamps, shapes, backgrounds and more!

A+ Spelling Test - spelling lists and quizzes