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Teacher Tools

Brochures for Parents 

Give parents take home brochures when they come in for your next meet the teacher night or open house. I created 2 brochures to give to my parents explaining how their children will be using Twitter and how they will be using blogs to create their eportfolios. Also, these brochures include benefits, tips and tricks to get them started on this learning journey together.


I used the following resources to create these brochures:


Ontario Curriculum Checklist
You can purchase the "I can" checklist for the FDK here 

21st Century Resume
I spent 2 weeks trying to update my resume on microsoft word. I wondered why it was taking me so long to complete it and quickly realized that I was bored of the usual way of putting a cv together. I thought to myself there must be a 21st century way! Glogster! Perfect, a fun, new and creative way of putting my resume together. Give it a try:  http://www.glogster.com

Classroom Management
Keep your students engage, motivated and behaving well. Start using ClassDojo.  There is also an app available.
How do I use Class Dojo in Kindergarten? (From 2012 to presently)
  • to work on name recognition (first and last name)
  • to take attendance
  • to problem solve (e.g., If we have 25 students and 2 are not here, how many are we today?
How I've used Class Dojo in the past?
  • to work on learning skills
  • together we choose a learning skill goal (e.g., participating)
  • make an anchor chart together and list the success criterias, the "look fors".  My kids love it when I take pictures of them and add them to our anchor chart (e.g., For participating.  I can engage in daily physical activity.  Take a picture of them exercising, print it and put on the anchor chart)
  • give points when you catch them participating.  Accumulate points all week at the end of the week the student with the most points can choose something in the treasure box.
  • During the weeks, the kids love to talk about their monster points!   It's a great opportunity to talk about numbers:  more, less, how many more, estimating...  
  • I keep the scores up on the smartboard and if we leave the classroom I take my iPad with us and continue giving points.  My students and I both love this!
Organizing Tools
Staying organized helps me be productive and efficient. I can't stand clutter and that's why I like to use Evernote, Springpad, Symbaloo, Pinterest, Diigo,
How do I use these tools in Kindergarten?
  • Symbaloo:  visually organize my favorite websites. 
  • Pinterest:  online scrap book, it allows me to create theme based image collections such as ideas for math, art, reading, science.... 
  • Evernote: save your ideas or things you like and find on the internet directly to your notes in Evernote.  create student's portfolios.  There is an app and you can download the Evernote widget. 
  • Springpad: organize and save notes (e.g., parent communication, staff meeting notes).  There is a free app and you can add the springpad widget to your home-screen.
  • Photobucket:  to upload photos and videos.  You can create slideshows and share them with friends.  There is an app! 
  • Radbox:  organize my videos by subject.  There is an app! 
  • Educlipper:  let's you build clipboards like Pinterest.  Educlipper is geared towards K-12 educators.
  • Livebinder:  organize resources easily by binders.  There is an app!
Communicating
Blogging is a nice way to communicate with parents what is happening in the classroom.
How do I use these tools in Kindergarten?
  • Edublogs:  Daily blogs on what we learned that day, upcoming events and reminders.  We use text, pictures and video to share what is going on in our class with our parents.  The blog can be password protected. There is also a free app.
  • Edublogs:  to build student's eportfolio. 
  • Blogger:  my teacher blog to reflect, share and connect with others globally on 21st century teaching and learning.  There is a Blogger app available for free.
Voicemail
Add voicemail to your blog or website. This FREE widget is from a program called Speak Pipe.  Visit their website and start getting messages from anyone around the world!  It is very easy to set up!

Screencast
http://www.screenr.com
Make a short tutorial using this web-based screen recorder.  It's very easy to use and there is nothing to install or download.  Great to show my kindergartens how to log off after using the netbooks.


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