Teacher Insight Thursday: Technology in the Classroom

In a society where technology has become an integral part of many people's lives, it has become increasingly important, in my opinion, for teachers to integrate technology into the classroom.  It is our responsibility, as teachers, to prepare our children for the future and technology is ever changing.  Our students will encounter technology almost every day.  

I have developed a list of 10 different ways we can integrate technology into the classroom using ideas from various websites: 

1.     Go on an internet scavenger hunt or create a web quest for your students to complete

2.     Free Rice.com: not only will your students learn vocabulary, they will be helping others as well.  Free rice is a website in which you are asked to give the definition for a word.  Each correct answer means 10 grains of rice will be donated to those who are hungry.  Let's look at a chart: 

One Day 10 vocabulary words         100 grains of rice

One  Week 50 vocabulary words         500 grains of rice

One Month 280 vocabulary words 2800 grains of rice

One Year 1800 vocabulary words 18000 grains of rice!

(Note: The chart above is based on a 180 day school year)

Almost 20,000 grains of rice per student for a year! Think about this! If you have 25 students, thats almost 500,000 grains of rice donated by your class!

3.     Video Conferencing: Maybe you are learning about someone in politics and want to ask them questions? Or maybe your students are reading books by a certain author? Then skype or video chat with them! Contact the person of choice and find out how you can set up a video conference with them. Then have your students come up with a list of questions to ask

4.     Design a class website

5.     Apply for a Smart board grant

6.     In my pre school class, we use i pads.  You can find many free educational games for your students to play! I set a 15 minute time limit for each student.

7.     Have your students record themselves

8.     Encourage older students to use Prezi for their class presentations.  You can sign up for a prezi account here

9.      Spellingcity or BigIQkids: these websites allow you to create your own spelling list or vocabulary list.  Then your students can play games with the words or take online spelling/vocabulary tests.  I used it in tutoring and my tutees loved it!

10.     Jeopardy on Powerpoint.  Directions for this can be found here

Many ideas from the list above were found here: 50 Ways to Use Technology in the Classroom

Teacher Insight Thursday: First Year Teaching

If you have been following my blog, you will know that I am a pre school teacher.  This year happens to be my first year teaching and let me tell you, it is stressful! If you are a first year teacher like I am, then you are probably stressed as well.  Therefore, I would like to share with you some things I have learned already in my 2 months of teaching:

1. Lean on your principal, teaching assistant if you have one, and fellow teachers.  In my experience, these people are great resources for when you don't know what to teach or you find yourself in a stressful situation.  I am fortunate enough to have extremely supportive coworkers. For example, I had a conflict I needed to resolve the other day with a parent and I found myself feeling extremely stressed out about the situation. For confidentiality reasons, I will not go into specifics about the conflict. I will say this, however, after talking to my assistant principal, I felt much better. She gave me advice on how to handle the situation and I was able to alleviate the parent's concerns
2. Don't wait until the last minute to get things done. I have never been an organized person and I am learning that this really holds me back.  There have been times where it seems everything is piling up on me. So here's a tip: don't wait until the last minute to do things because you will find you have too much on your plate
3. Get to bed early. Being exhausted while teaching children is not a good combination. There have been days where I have to consume copious amounts of caffeine to stay awake
4. Establish routines quickly and have an effective behavior plan in place. If your students can fall into a routine, the day will run much more smoothly. I am learning this the hard way.  Even in student teaching, my classroom management skills were lacking
5. Be ready to make changes. This goes for lesson planning, behavior, and routines. Sometimes, my students will want to explore something else. I have found myself changing what we do during the day in order to promote student interest. I have also had to find alternative behavior plans for students so that they can be more successful in the classroom.  Finally, my classroom routine went through many changes before it got to where it is today. It's still changing to make up for disruptions in the day such as bad weather or an unexpected guest
6. If you are fortunate enough to have a curriculum coach, use them. My curriculum coach is always giving me great constructive criticism about my teaching and ideas for lessons, routines, or behavior plans in my classroom
7. Read books written for first year teachers. I recommend the following:

The First-Year Teacher's Survival Guide by Julia G. Thompson, $19.28 on Amazon

The First Days of School by Harry K. Wong, $18.51 on Amazon

Good Luck!

Teacher Insight Thursday: Handwriting Without Tears

I have recently began working with my intervention specialist to teach my students Handwriting Without Tears. So far, the children have really responded to it. Since I am not trained in HWT, Erin has leant me the book and CD.  She comes in once a week and does an activity with the children in the morning class.  Then I implement it in the afternoon.

The program combines letter play, body movements, music and more to teach students there letters. The way it works is you have a different letter each week and center activities around that letter. However, instead of teaching the letters in alphabetical order, you teach them in a developmentally appropriate order. For example, we started with L and just finished up with the letter F. This week, we are focusing on the letter E.

One of the activities my students really enjoy is making Mat Man.  A song is played and we use various shapes to create him.

The creators of Handwriting Without Tears also have a program for Math. For more information about training, the program, or anything else, visit: http://www.hwtears.com/hwt

Teacher Insight Thursday: Stress Relief

Did you have a long day at school? Were the students misbehaving? Or maybe an administrator has been on your case lately? Perhaps you have meeting after meeting and aren’t sure when you’ll have time to get that lesson plan done.

If you answered any of the questions above with a yes, then you are probably stressed. Below, I have come up with five ways to de-stress.  Now, I am no expert on stress remedies but these five ways have proven effective for me and I wanted to share those ways with you now.

1. Make time for yourself: Read a book, watch television or a movie, just do something for yourself that you enjoy. Designate part of each day for “me time”
2. Meditate: Okay, so this may sound a little corny, but in my experience, meditation is very relaxing after a long day at school.  I suggest The Meditation Podcast. The podcasts in this series are often themed, such as “Rejuvenating Sleep” or “Positive Thoughts.” It is really up to you to decide which episode you’d like to listen to.  Another suggestion is to download a meditation app for your smart phone or tablet.  I have a meditation app downloaded on my android phone.  The version I use is free; however, you can invest in the paid version if you prefer.  You can find the app here: SelfHypnosis for Meditation
3. Exercise: Okay, so this isn’t my go-to when I want to distress, but I have, on occasion, found it helpful.  In my experience, however, exercising can be burdensome of mundane. Spice it up! I personally enjoy Zumba. You can find classes in your area here
4. Take a bath: I love this destresser! Here is how I do it:


• Fill your tub with hot water. It’s really up to you how hot you want it. I prefer to make the water as hot as I can stand it. I detest cold baths, and starting off with warm water runs the risk of your bath cooling off.  This can ruin your bath if you were planning on taking a long one.
• Invest in bath salts. I LOVE to use this bath soak from Bath and Body Works:

Stress Relief: $16.00

• Turn down or turn off the lights and light some aromatherapy candles
• Splurge on yummy scented body wash and shampoo.  Again, I find my favorite scents at Bath and Body Works.  My current scent is Orange Ginger
• If you have an ipod dock or boombox, put on some relaxing music.  I personally enjoy Norah Jones or Annie Lennox
• Slip into the tub, lay back, and relax!
1. Eat Ice Cream! Okay, so this isn’t necessarily a healthy snack.  But I find that after a long day, ice cream is just the thing I need. My personal favorite is Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie

Well, that’s all I have for you! If you have additional tips for distressing, please leave them in the comments section below.

Thanks!

Disclaimer: I do not receive money from Bath and Body Works, Ben and Jerry’s, or Android.  The above tips are just my suggestions.  Please feel free to alter them to suit your needs. 

Teacher Insight Thursday: My Classroom

Today, I started my first day of work! It was a pretty long day because I had a three hour staff meeting and worked in my classroom for about four hours of so.  Here are some before pictures of my classroom! I hope to post after pictures for the next Teacher Insight Thursday.

(P.S. Any pre-k teachers out there? I would very much appreciate ideas for classroom layout if you have any.  Thanks!)

Tables

Room View

Cabinets

Room View 2

Carpet/Meeting Area

Dramatic Play Center

Art Space

Teacher Insight Thursday: Introduction

I've decided to start Teacher Insight Thursday.  These posts will be different from my regular ones, which feature a quote of the day in the post title.  In lieu of the quote, I will title the post with the following:

Teacher Insight Thursday: [insert topic here] 

These posts will feature my opinion on a particular topic pertaining to education.  If you have a suggestion for a topic, feel free to leave a comment below.  Some topics might be:

1. About my Classroom
2. Current Events in Education
3. Educational Theories and the Theorists Who Fathered Them
4. Lesson Plan Ideas

Note: If you want to suggest a topic for Teacher Insight Thursday (T.I. Thursday), please use the following procedure: 

1. Click on "Contact Me" at the top of my blog, under the title
2. Fill out the form with your name and email address
3. For Subject, write the following: Suggestion for T.I. Thursday
4. Leave your suggestion in the message box

So until next Thursday,

Miss Liz