Happy election day! I hope that you all found your way to the polls today to cast your vote. I wanted to talk about the excellent teaching tool, Edmodo. I was introduced to Edmodo this school year, and I have loved every second of it! Edmodo is a free website where you can interact with students, students can interact with you, and students can interact with students. Edmodo can be accessed from a computer and they also have a great I-Pad app.
With Edmodo you have the capability to post assignments, polls, and quizzes for your students to see. Once you and your students have created an Edmodo account you can begin. Today, I used Edmodo to have my students cast a vote for president.
I use Edmodo every day in my math stations. Edmodo is a great way to differentiate assignments because you can create groups within your class. Here's what the students will see when you post an assignment.
I have also used Edmodo in literature circles. I post assignments to students and they can answer questions about the book that we are reading. Check out this great article about different ways that you could use Edmodo in your classroom.
On the last post I talked about how I had started to incorporate QR codes into my classroom. For a quick review let me talk about how you can create QR codes. Its very simple! You can go to any QR generator website. I prefer the website "Go QR.ME" simply because its really simple and easy to use. Once you go to the website it will prompt you to this page:
You can type in text or a webpage address. I use the snipping tool on my computer to copy and paste the QR code into a word document. You can also download the QR code to your computer.
Okay! So once you have created your QR code let's talk about what to do with them! I use them a lot in my math stations. I will type in problems in the QR generator and my students scan the problem and solve it. You can also use the QR codes as a way for students to check their work after they solve a problem. I plan on using these a lot more in my classroom, and I can't wait to share with you guys how I've used them!
Below you will find some of the worksheets that I created for my math stations.
Hello! It has been a while since we have blogged! We have missed you guys! Life is so crazy this school year. Common Core has really taken over our lives! I have started Grad school this semester to earn my Master's degree. I never realized how hard work, school, and being a wife could be!!
Alright, enough complaining...life really is great! I wanted to share with you my latest obsession...QR CODES! QR Codes are the little codes that you see everywhere now. You can see these codes in magazines, books, and even on your fruit! They are a great and easy way to get more information.
Well this year, I have started using QR codes in my classroom. I have a QR code on the board for my students to scan their morning work, I use them in math stations, and reading stations. I wanted to show you how to make these codes today! I use the website GOQR.ME. I really like this website. It is a free and easy way to generate QR codes.
You simply type into the box what you want your students to see when they scan the QR code. I'll share more about how I have used QR codes in my classroom in a later post! Try creating your own QR codes. Have you used QR codes in your classroom?
This is a great resource to help our students with Common Core Math. Just sign your students up and they can work on this with an ipad or a laptop at home or school. There are problems for each standard and this will give the students a great oppurtunity to practice what you just taught. It is absolutely free.
Here are a few great ideas that may help you spruce up your classroom. I had was given this really old looking drawer. It was brown and scratched up a bit. I really, to be honest, got tired of looking at the ugliness. I thought about painting it, but I really didn't want to have to sand it and go through all of that. Instead, I found this amazing polka dotted tape. If you look around my room, you will definately see spots. I really like them! I decided to put tape on the front of the drawers and it has made a huge difference on the look of it.
I was shopping for school decorations at the local teacher store. I really like the idea of border on my white board. I just don't like putting the tape on and having to stick it. Well, while I was shopping, I found this incredible new invention. If only I would have thought of this. I saw magnetised border!!
I also was online looking at educational sites. I found this sight that had a teacher whose room had all table tops and desk tops covered with white boards. I thought that was a pretty neat idea. Well I knew that I would not be able to do this for the tops of the students desks, but I could put a white board on my back table. I went to Home Depot and bought a piece of shower board that cost around $14. I had my table measurements and I had them cut it to fit my table top. They didn't charge me to cut it because they only had to make two cuts. I will say that this has been a great benefit to me and my students. When I pull my students back for guided math, my students and I are able to work the problems out right on the table.
This year is off to a great start as we continue to look for new strategies to use in teaching these new standards. We have created a couple new anchor charts and some homework that goes along with some of the new standards. We hope that these are useful to you.