Fill that Pinterest Board!

Happy December! Only 20 days until Christmas, so I hope your Pinterest board full of new, fun recipes for family gatherings!

Even with the excitement of the holidays, as the semester winds down, it is a good time to reflect on how the year has gone so far. I feel very fortunate with my Geography class this year, as I am able to start new in January with new students and try what I believe to be a better approach to the semester. I have never taught Geography before, and it has been a learning experience for me too.

So, as this is a tech email, I encourage you to take a few moments to answer the questions below and reflect on your classroom technology use. And, although this is nothing that you need to write down, I highly encourage you to find a place in your notebook to record your thoughts. Often times, at the end of the year we reflect back and forget all of the awesome things accomplished in our classrooms. It is good to have a concrete reminder of just how much you have really done in your classroom. 

1) What technology (devices or web tools) did I try in my classroom this year?

2) How did this technology enhance student learning opportunities?

3) Should I continue to use this technology or should I look for another tool? 

If you answered that you would look for another tool, please share with me some of your ideas for your classroom. Nothing is too outside of the box, I promise. And, if I can't find the answer right now, I will continue to look to find something that will work for your ideas. 

Have a great week and enjoy the holiday season!

Samantha

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1) Fakebook (http://www.classtools.net/fb/home/page) will allow you to create or have students create Facebook profiles for famous, historical or fictional characters. There is also a listing of ones that have already been made that you could send students to at: http://www.classtools.net/main_area/fakebook/gallery/  

2) ePals Common Coure Resource (http://www.epals.com/commoncore/) has a repository of resources to help with collaborative projects for ELA lessons. If you are interested in any of this and would like some help setting up a wiki, website or blog with open permissions, please let me know and I'd be happy to help. Any of these concepts could easily be facilitated through teachers in other districts in South Dakota as well, so we may be able to make some of these ideas happen locally too. 

3) Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/) is a free resource that will allow you to download books to your iPad or other device (or print out) many books that the copyright has expired on. You can check out thousands of books and even do some self-publishing with some specific guidelines found here: http://self.gutenberg.org/ebooks/view/submission-guidelines-.aspx

4) Librivox (http://librivox.org/) is a great for audiobooks in the public domain. This includes mainly older novels, dramas and poetry, but there are a few others that are open as well. Utilize the search option to see what you can find. It may be a good way to integrate some audio into the classroom. 

5) C-SPAN Bell Ringers (http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/Members/Bell-Ringers.aspx) are a list of short videos that are meant for classroom "Bell ringers" to start your day. You need to create a FREE C-Span in the classroom account to gain access to the videos. The videos include a description, vocabulary terms and a short assignment to start the class period. There are many topics ranging from each of the branches of government to Supreme Court cases. 

6) LucidChart (https://www.lucidchart.com/) is a site for students to do diagraming or mind mapping. You can sign up for free or try it out without signing up. It also has a Google Drive integration component that could be installed as well. The colors and shapes help in creating a fun map, and the directions are simple. If you do any sort of character or plot mapping, I would recommend this site.

7) Common Core Achievement Level Descriptors (http://www.smarterbalanced.org/achievement-level-descriptors-and-college-readiness/) This is really not a fun tech tool like those above, but rather just some information put out by Smarter Balance to share. The link above will give drafts of the Achievement Level Descriptors (ALDs) for Common Core standards. I didn't read through it all, but when I went through the ELA standards, I found the diagrams/ charts about each of these ALDs helpful in clarifying purpose of the strands and splitting/ leveling of the standards. It also helped me to understand some of what Smarter Balance is doing in setting up the standards/ targets and categories.