Liebster Award!

How exciting! When I first started blogging, I had no idea the blogging community could be so supportive of each other. I am so glad I met Marie at Once Upon a Classroom, who nominated me for the Liebster Award this week.  I linked up with her for her weekly Tech Tuesday and am excited to continue collaborating with Marie - as she has a whole lotta talent! 

In case you aren't familiar, the Liebster Award is passed from one beginning blogger to another in order to get to know each other better and spread the love. It provides a path to discover new and upcoming blogs as well as make connections with other bloggers! I have found a number of upcoming bloggers I would love to recognize as well! They are listed at the bottom of this post. Happy reading! :o)

1.            Why and how long ago did you start blogging?

 I started blogging 3 years ago as a way to visually appeal to my student's parents and create a classroom website essentially. However, I have since transitioned to a district that has fully integrated technology and now my focus is on providing a lens into our classroom, the ways we integrate tech, and the various other hilarious things that happen in K. 

2.         What one word sums up the heart of your blog and why?

Dynamic. I reflective to a flaw. This blog, my purpose on it, what my goal for it has changed and probably will change in the future. I am constantly looking to improve, make adjustments, and make the most meaningful experience for myself and my students. 

3.         Is there something you learned late in your blogging journey you wished you knew before?

How to make purposeful connections with other bloggers. I am still definitely learning this. You see a lot of bloggers with a TON of followers, great link ups, and who are part of meet-ups - I would love to get there! I feel like the blogging world is SO huge and I am definitely working on finding my niche and bloggers who I could work with collaboratively on a continuous basis. So, if you have any tips let me know... or if you just want to be my blogging friend ...you know that's cool too ;o) 

4.         What is your favorite pastime other than blogging?

Right now, being outside. I LOVE the outdoors and in Chicago, you only get a few great months, so bring it on! But, I have horrible allergies which is like a sick joke right now.

5.         How many hours a week do you dedicate to your blog/TPT?

Marie's response to this question was incredibly accurate. It is really hard to find the time during the year because my first passion is my students. And I can NEVER sell them short. All my TPT things are present in my own classroom, so I would say the majority of my effort goes there because those are products that are actually benefiting my students. I usually blog whenever I get a chance - stopping and going until a post is through. And I always make it about what is relevant to our class right now so its super organic. Or so I hope. 

6.         What category of blog posts do you enjoy most?

I love new stuff on technology - specifically iPads because that is what I am putting a lot of effort into in my room. Making it meaningful for me and other teachers who are exploring tech in primary.

7.          Where does your blog inspiration come from?

My 20 lovely faces that drive me both up and wall and make my day. My inspiration comes from their needs and my ever changing desire to be the best teacher I can for them. A lot of this is my professional journey, what I have learned, where I am going...trying to humbly learn from the littlest, most brilliant 20 minds each year.

8.         Which post that you’ve written are you most proud of?

I think my latest post on the purpose of technology in K/the reason I do what I am doing. It provoked more ideas I have and made me reflect on what I am really doing for each and every of my students, and what I can improve upon. 

9.         Is there a post you have been planning to do but have been postponing it for a while now?

Not really because honestly my mind goes a million thoughts a minute so I pretty much just go with what's the current need and my reflections after the school day. So all those really great fantastic ideas I had in the shower this a.m. are gone, gone, goneeee. Ha!

10.     What is your favorite aspect of blogging?

Hearing feedback that what I type has made sense or has helped spark an idea of someone else's. I love collaborating - there are so many fantastically creative people out there! Like I said above...who wants to be friends?! :o) 

11.         Which idea from a blog would you like to try yourself?

I would LOVE to implement more of the ideas from Technology Erintegration. She has a great blog about teaching with technology, tools for personal technology development and more. When I need a little reassurance I go to her!

So, blogging has definitely been a joy, and I cannot wait to see the developments I have over the next year. It will be fun to look back on the post and compare my journey at that time. 

I would love to nominate the following teacher-bloggers:

1. Ms. Spethmann @ Lacquer Teach Repeat

2. Andrea @ Always Kindergarten

3. Chrissie @ The Undercover Classroom

4. Erin @ Very Perry Classroom
5. Kellee @ Stomping Through First
6. Jessica @ For the Love of Fifth
7. Beth @ Morrow in the Middle
8. Peggy @ Primary Flourish
9. Nicole @ Why Pencils Have Erasers (LOVE the name!)
10. Amber @ The Pirate Queen Teacher

The Rules to Receiving this Award are:

-Link back to the blog that nominated you

-Answer the 11 questions posted by the nominator

-Nominate 5-11 people (blogs with followers less than 200 followers) and link to them in your post

-Contact the nominees and let them know they have been nominated

Thanks for stoppin' by!

Why 1:1 Technology Matters

I teach at a school where 83% of our students are low income. All my kids have iPads (that they take home). And we are all Kinders. These three things in isolation are not all that unique, but when you put them together, our classroom and school becomes one of a kind.


Putting technology into the hands of young, inquisitive, active minds, who would otherwise may have limited access to it, opens the doors of differentiation, project based learning, extending the school day, instant engagement, and increased home-school connection.

I have recently read on a few forums posts where teachers have asked, "Why does technology matter?" or "We are looking to gain more technology in our buildings, what are the pros and cons of iPad carts or 1:1 technology?"  There is so much more that goes into it than just a simple "reply." 

Soooo....below are the five components of integrating technology (for all grade levels) than I find extremely important: differentiation, project based learning, extending school day, instant engagement, and increased home-school connection. I am by no means an expert at integrating technology, but I love the opportunities it presents to my classroom and have explored many aspects by trial and error. Since I am most familiar with iPads, I will mainly talk about those devices. Here we go...

Differentiation

We all have students who have never been with a group of children before and those who have been in school for two years as well as attending all the museums in the city a million times.  Putting all these students into the same class presents quite the quandary for teachers. Enter iPads. Each student can have individualized apps that fit their learning profile. Once the app is no longer needed, move it to a folder for "old apps." Ok, that's easy, what else?

How about uploading all those PDFs, teacher created materials, worksheets, pictures, etc to the iPads for students to edit? I can upload 2nd grade material to Maggie's iPad and letter tracing to Emily's iPad. They can then work (write on, fill in, edit, draw) and submit work back to me - in class, homework, you name it. I use Showbie for this, but you can also use Schoology, Google Classroom, etc. More on how I use Showbie here.

Your kids can also record themselves reading for reading responses, research through YouTubeKids using a voice search, compare work samples, and watch center instructions. 

And YES! My 5- and 6-year-olds do all of this! Does it take training and time? Of course. But the results are exponential. 

Project Based Learning

Above, I touched on research through YouTubeKids. We just finished a unit on the rainforest. After the kids did a graphic organizer on Showbie, they went to the YouTubeKids app to research rainforest animals. Can anyone spell those words correctly? Not really...so they press the microphone next to the search bar and voila - voice activated research. Oh, and I should mention, it was one of my little ones who figured that out. :o)

In K, it's a little harder, but for older grades, you can give your students a task, give them app choices, have the work flow (Showbie) set for for submission, and you are off!

Students can create a portfolio of resources on their iPad, and share out the finished product using Air Play or uploading their project to Showbie, Schoology, or Google Drive. 

Extending the School Day

The driving force for our district being 1:1 technology is to extend the school day. The entire district hovers around 80% low income families - hard working parents with multiple shifts or night shifts, kids spending time at extended families' homes, packed schedules - you know, such is life. Giving our students a tool to take with them at the end of the school day that can be used wherever they go to promote learning, is priceless. Our students have textbooks, trade books, reading and math programs, writing tools, all at their disposal on one device. They have it for weekends, sick days, etc. Which brings me to the next topic...

Home-School Connection

Not only do I use Showbie for submission of work, but I can message my students and receive messages from parents looking for clarification on work. Sure, they can e-mail me too, but messaging through a platform on the iPad allows the students to do it too, so that they can also take ownership of their education. We use Remind (a text messaging service) on the iPads too. The app is on the iPad, I send out a reminder or note I want the parents and kids to see. The kids get the reminder on their iPad, and parents get it sent to their phone. The parents cannot text you back, so it is kind of a one-way street to disseminate information, but that's why I have the message function in Showbie. 

Instant Engagement

Let's be honest, iPads make things fun. Why do adults buy iPads? For the apps, accessibility, the small, compact nature of the device and to available via social media. Why do kids like iPads? To have ownership, to pay games on apps, and to stay current with friends and family. iPads are highly desirable and many companies have excellent resources for choosing apps and implementing an iPad classroom.

Thoughts to Consider

Going 1:1 is a HUGE task. What works for us-each teacher has a iPad cart, each cart having its own ID. We check in devices at the beginning of the year and out at the end. Damages are assessed by the principal and students are in charge of covering a percentage of the repairs. 

My district does both personal sight visits and virtual sight visits, which is an awesome way for both in district teachers to learn from each other and interested parties outside of the district to get a feel for what goes on here. 

If you are looking for helpful apps we use, I will be posting about that soon - didn't want to add much more length to this post!

Anyone have suggestions for using tech in K? I would love to hear how you are using iPads in your classroom!

Five for Friday - 4/24

Wow. This week has been seriously busy! My Five for Friday is super quick this week and this is why....



We sold our house! It went under contract at the beginning of the month, and we close on the 30th! So it has been super crazy trying to pack up, work, plan out my life etc. :o) Totally excited about the new chapter!



In the other half of my life, we have been working on measurement and a rainforest unit in literacy. So our team meshed the two together for an outdoors measuring activity that will soon debut on TPT (the product is taking me for.ev.er, but you can grab a FREEBIE from it here).

For Earth day this week we made these cute little Earth's with a writing component about how our little ones will take care of the Earth. Um mine turned out totally not the way I intended (hence the side-by-side picture of my colleague's to the left.) Oh well!

Has any one else hard about this? Is this real life? If so, I am in danger...eeee.

Lastly, I am so proud of my little kiddos for working on their CVC boxes!! I posted earlier in the week about these and my group here has ROCKED it! Look how confident they are! Love, love, love!

So that's my week....apologies if this post seems hectic, I am running on caffeine! :o) Have a fabulous weekend!

Making CVC and Sight Word Centers

I don't know about you, by my little ones are ALWAYS needing a new center to keep their engagement high. The more we can play with, the better! I have been using these two centers with some good luck lately and one comes with a FREEBIE!

First up is fishing for sight words!

I picked up this chip/dip bowl at Jewel for $1 (whattt??) and the fishing poles/fish in the Target dollar spot for $3 a set. So for $13 I have a brand new center. And man oh man do the kiddos love it. The video above makes it pretty easy to understand the directions, so I project this Filpagram on the Smart Board when I am introducing the center. Having the visual makes it easy to understand so I let it play through centers. My littles complete this (FREE) response sheet and we are good to go! 

Next up are CVC Boxes.  I also found these in the Target dollar spot for $1 each.  I bought 5, put magnetic letters in each section of the box and use it with my small group for RtI. The other little ones wanted to have a go at them, so it became a regular in the center rotation.

Again, I play this Flipagram for introduction and they are ready to rock! What fun things have you been doing for literacy centers? I would love to get some new ideas!

Five for Friday - Instagram Tech Link Up

Helloooo there! Happy Friday all! I am super excited because I have been working all week on organizing a little Instagram link up and today is the day it goes out! Hooray!

Theses three sweet gals (Shanda, Andrea, and Marie have teamed up with me to provide a few tech tips and FREEBIES on Instagram. So head on over there, click my post, and click on through til you get each of our tips. I hope you gain some good resources from it and share some back with us!

 

 We are learning about the rainforest this week and today was parrots. After we read a non-fiction book on parrots, I projected this graphic organizer (grab it for FREE here) on the Smart Board and modeled how to fill it in.  Then the kids went off and worked on it (in Showbie) in their bubble spaces. As they worked, I walked around and read the book again to give them some ideas. I also posted words they would need to write next to the Smart Board (sorry no picture). After the kiddos filled our the organizer, they went on to step 2. Step 2 was to use the ideas to write 4 sentences on "things we know about parrots." I am AMAZED at what my kiddos came up with and the completion rate for my kids. Tomorrow we are going to continue to share with peers and next week we will publish digitally. Wowza. They are a pretty awesome bunch.

 Mmmm molten cookie... Is it bad that I have had this for dessert almost every night this week? Put a scoop of vanilla on top and it is sinful. #cookieaddict

Has anyone else seen this?! Thank you Google for making sure I don't look like a crazy who never attaches the attachments. Also kind of creepy....but I am for it! 

Last, obligatory dog picture. This week it's my two sleepy heads. I wish you could see how little room/blankets/comfort I have right now, but they are happy, so it's cool.

Also, HUGE thanks again to these ladies for helping me out and collaborating for my first tech link up on Instagram!

Shanda at The Little Teachers Who Could
Andrea at Always Kindergarten
Marie at Once Upon a Classroom

Lastly, my Friday Freebie  is the graphic organizer I used above! Check out some more Friday Freebies here:

Repost Showbie for Tech Tuesday

Linking up with Once Upon a Classroom this week for a re-share of my post on Showbie.

I love Showbie for student engagement during the day as well as for the home-school connection. You can upload documents, send voice messages, pictures, etc...Ok I am getting ahead of my self...

When I started teaching with two iPads last year, they were a way for me to reach students who were A) disengaged, B) bored, or C) in need of an extrinsic motivator.

Now, I can use each child's iPad to differentiate to ability level, in addition to using apps. Through the app Showbie, I can provide differentiated instruction, while using iPads.  Don't tell my kids, but I am tricking them into learning by making it fun AND relevant.

I have already posted on Showbie here and here if you are interested - but this week I wanted to talk about how we are actually using it in the classroom.

One of which is during Read to Self. Oh. em. gee. Read to Self was a little painful for those non-readers for a bit. Enter the iPad... and not so much anymore! After my littles spend 5 minutes practicing their book in Read to Self, I let them take out their iPad and record a video of themselves reading.  And BAM, reading is fun again.

After they record, my littles upload to Showbie so that I can see what they did, I have a record of what they are reading, and I can provide differentiation based on their comprehension, fluency, etc.

Here is a PERFECT example - a child who is very shy and talks little to adults in class. And look at all these uploads!

It is also absolutely hilarious to see what is going on in the background and the conversations I am having with other students.  Want a good laugh? Subscribe to my Showbie account, I wish you could. Hilarious. But then again, you know that because you also teach primary - I am assuming. :o)

Anyways, I digress. 

Another great daily Showbie routine is morning calendar. Each morning, the kids have a choice to do either the calendar app, or their Showbie calendar. Credit goes completely to our bilingual teacher, Lily, here for coming up with this idea. 

In Showbie, there are three pages which the kids can use to tell us the date, day, number of the day, weather, sight word, etc.  I usually then project one of my lil volunteers on the SmartBoard to keep engagement high.

Next post I will give out some more Showbie ideas and maybe talk about parental involvement? We shall see, there is just SO MUCH you can do!

Thanks for stopping by, leave me a comment or two! 

Instagram and FREEBIES!

What's better than cute pictures, free resources, and some solid teacher collaboration? Nothing, right? :o)

Great, then you're on board.

I am trying to organize a little Instagram link up with tech tip FREEBIES! I teach 1:1 technology and would love to collaborate with some other teachers who have been teaching with iPads or are looking to do so.

So let's link up on Instagram to share some resources!

Three cheers for Shanda at Little Teachers That Could who was the first to jump on the "tech tips" train with me!

We are looking for a few more teachers to link up their Instagram's with us. Here's how it works:

If you have a blog, post about a tech tip or trick you like to use in your classroom.  Link your post to a freebie in your TPT store or other free resource you use.

Then create a photo to post to Instagram of your tech activity/tip/trick. I will send you a button to put on your photo that will denote it as our link up.

On Thursday, I will send you some text that you can post with your Insta picture that will include your blog post link and a link to the others in the link up.

Friends should click the next link up after looking at yours, and continue on down the line. At the end, each person should have a bunch of free resources to use for teaching with tech. 

Any takers? Please e-mail me at hiphoorayink@gmail.com to get involved! 

Five for Friday AND Friday FREEBIE!

Hello! Happy Friday! Time for Doodle Bugs Five for Friday and Friday Freebie through Teaching Blog Addict - and hey I am on time this week! :o)

Okay, I have been working on this jungle measurement pack all spring break and it is still. not. done. Argh. Anyways, I am giving away the reader that is in the pack for my Friday Freebie - Let me know what you think!

   

Hip Hooray for spring!! I was on spring break this week and I got to wear flip flops once. As you can see, I was accompanied by one of my favorite furry friends for this picture. They (all four today) are also LOVING being outdoors.

    

Speaking of...I couldn't resist. How cute is he? Fitz is our current couch surfer. He has an adoption first date this weekend and I am hoping it goes well so he can get to his forever home. If you have ever thought about fostering, I would highly suggest it - so rewarding!

  

Number four - Mom took me shopping yesterday (she's the bomb) and got me this super cute spring purse. It fits EVERYTHING. Which is excellent because I have a tendency to carry everything I don't need with me. 

 

Lastly, here is a sneak peak at my jungle measurement based unit that I can't complete. I am feeling like I need more in it, but am a little stuck. Any ideas for it? We are starting to learn about the jungle habitat next week and introducing measurement so I wanted to tie it all together. Suggestions welcome. In fact, suggestions are SO welcome that anyone who comments I will send you the pack when I am finished. 

So that's my week - back to school on Monday and hopefully rockin' and rollin' til the end of the year. Thanks for stopping by!

Showbie in ACTION!

Skeptical on what kindergarteners can do on iPads beyond apps?

Don't be! Kinders can TOTALLY do more on iPads than we can imagine. I mean, my attitude has completely changed over the course of this year, and I am sure I will continue to be surprised!

When I started teaching with two iPads last year, they were a way for me to reach students who were A) disengaged, B) bored, or C) in need of an extrinsic motivator.

Now, I can use each child's iPad to differentiate to ability level, in addition to using apps. Through the app Showbie, I can provide differentiated instruction, while using iPads.  Don't tell my kids, but I am tricking them into learning by making it fun AND relevant.

I have already posted on Showbie here and here if you are interested - but this week I wanted to talk about how we are actually using it in the classroom.

One of which is during Read to Self. Oh. em. gee. Read to Self was a little painful for those non-readers for a bit. Enter the iPad... and not so much anymore! After my littles spend 5 minutes practicing their book in Read to Self, I let them take out their iPad and record a video of themselves reading.  And BAM, reading is fun again.

After they record, my littles upload to Showbie so that I can see what they did, I have a record of what they are reading, and I can provide differentiation based on their comprehension, fluency, etc.

Here is a PERFECT example - a child who is very shy and talks little to adults in class. And look at all these uploads!

It is also absolutely hilarious to see what is going on in the background and the conversations I am having with other students.  Want a good laugh? Subscribe to my Showbie account, I wish you could. Hilarious. But then again, you know that because you also teach primary - I am assuming. :o)

Anyways, I digress. 

Another great daily Showbie routine is morning calendar. Each morning, the kids have a choice to do either the calendar app, or their Showbie calendar. Credit goes completely to our bilingual teacher, Lily, here for coming up with this idea. 

In Showbie, there are three pages which the kids can use to tell us the date, day, number of the day, weather, sight word, etc.  I usually then project one of my lil volunteers on the SmartBoard to keep engagement high.

Next post I will give out some more Showbie ideas and maybe talk about parental involvement? We shall see, there is just SO MUCH you can do!

Thanks for stopping by, leave me a comment or two!