Tuesday Teacher Tips October 23

Teacher Productivity Tips

There are two apps I have been using to sync across all my devices—SmartPhone, iPad, Desktop Computers—that really help to save time.

When you download the desktop Application,
SkyDrive will appear in your favorites,
so you can easily drag & drop files to it.

SkyDrive—I wrote about SkyDrive a few weeks ago. You can download an app to all your devices that will allow you to manage files in a “drag and drop” system—making it even easier to save & retrieve files from your 7 GB Cloud storage. Look for the app in the App Store for your devices or see the link below to download to your desktop. You use your school email & password to log in and begin using the storage. Think about how this could be used to share photos/videos made on your iPad. (Let me know if you would like a how-to video for this!)

SkyDrive

Evernote—is another great productivity tool that you can put on your smart phone, iPad, and Desktop. It is already installed on iPads. You can use this app to create lists & take notes. It’s a great tool for lesson planning—or just making a to-do list that syncs across to all your devices. I use it daily to keep track of things to read, links on Pinterest and ideas for lessons. You can share your work with others by sending an email. You do need to set up an account for Evernote—but they have a free version. Let me know if you want me to write more about how I use this. See the link below for more information.

Evernote

New Document Cameras—How To Insert an image into Smart Notebook for Annotation

If you have one of the new document cameras, I put together a little 2 min video (linked below) that explains how to take a picture of the handout/photo under the document camera and insert it into a Smart Notebook file so you can use it for annotation. If you need written step-by-step directions, let me know and I’ll put some together.

Inserting a Document Camera Screen Capture into Smart Notebook

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Library Centers for Kindergarten & First Grade

Center Inspiration After much debate at the end of last school year, I was able to get 10 extra minutes added on to each of my classes for this year boosting class library time from 35 minutes a week to 45 minutes a week for my fixed schedule. For me, 35 minutes a week, just wasn't enough to pack in all the awesomeness I wanted to achieve. It seemed like we would just be getting started into something great when it was time to go. I was thrilled to know that this year I was going to have the extra time to work with my classes on research skills and technology projects while working in more time to allow them to browse the shelves and look at books. That being said, truth be told, I was completely freaked out about what to do with my kindergartners for 45 minutes. Did I mention in my former life, I was a high school English teacher? Four years ago, my first two weeks in an elementary library were a complete culture shock to me. I was used to walking into a room and just say

Project Genre-fy the Fiction Section!

After a lot of thinking, I finally decided to take the leap this summer and move the fiction section of my elementary library from the traditional first-three-letters-of-the-last- name organization to a genre based organization. Now that the project is almost complete, I cannot wait to get the kids back in the library so I can show them! Deciding Factors There are many reasons individual teacher librarians might choose to genrefy their library. For me, I was driven to start with the fiction section because I've noticed an alarming drop off in students checking out books by the time they get to fifth grade. This drop off could be for any number of reasons: increased activities after school, loss of interest in the materials they see on the shelf, lack of time, or they could be overwhelmed by book after book organized by letter. I realized, too, that although my 3-5 graders don't ask for "funny" books or "animal" stories, they seem to get stuck on c

Digital Interactive Notebooks: Getting Started

Post appeared also on FtEdTech It's no real secret that I love Digital Interactive Notebooks. I create them every chance I get and encourage teachers to use them for everything from long term Project Based Learning (PBL) projects to weekly unit work with vocabulary . The Interactive Notebook (INB) has long been a staple of the classroom to engage students more directly with their notes. The traditional interactive notebook often includes traditional student notes, questions, and interactives that students cut, fold, color and paste into their notebooks. You might find graphic organizers, pockets with measuring tools, data charts, and foldables that act as study aides. In the NSTA article " Science Interactive Notebooks in the Classroom " Jocelyn Young explains the benefits of INB when she shares that " By using notebooks, students model one of the most vital and enduring functions of scientists in all disciplines—recording information, figures, and data.

Learning in Progress

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