Animoto

I finally finished my video for my classroom website. I used Animoto. It was very easy and my parents love it.

Robots in the Classroom

A New Generation of Robots

 High Tech Ways Students Can Attend School

 I saw this report on ABC News this morning. In some schools, avatars are taking the place of students in the classroom. When students get sick or if children are disabled and can't attend school, becoming a virtual student is a viable solution. 

March 7, 2013

September 26, 2012

    West Seneca School District  

There are many more examples of children using the VGo Robot to help to attend school. You can find them on You Tube and Pinterest. I was not aware, but am now thankful that I am.

Post NJEA

        Presenting at the NJEA convention was very rewarding and, of course, the hats added a special flair. I recommend this experience to all. It was exciting to see a captivated audience and the positive feedback that we all received was energizing. Hats off to Jackie, Elsann, and Sandy for such a great experience! Much thanks to Amy for giving us the opportunity.

Sorry Jackie...I had to post this pic. I love it!!!

Getting Ready for the NJEA

It's Sunday night and I'm thinking of the upcoming week. Jackie, Elsann, Sandy and I are almost done with our preparations and we are excited and ready to present with Dr. Amy Ackerman in Atlantic City!

The title of our presentation is Take Ten from our PARCC Place.

Scan the QR code to view our Weebly or check it out on www.taketenparcctools.weebly.com.

Rest In Peace Lucky. You were my little fuzzy friend 

and the best cat any one person could ever ask for. 

We will greatly miss you in the Simmons household. 

Christmas - your favorite time of year. 

Gamification

    I really enjoy this video about the "Gamification Revolution". Gabe Zichermann is the keynote speaker at this Google conference. He is an author, has developed games, started up companies, created apps, and chairs a number of events. He's very busy!!

     Gabe tells you about his history, which is very interesting, and he goes into details about video/learning games (i.e. Where in the World is Carmen San Diego). I remember playing that game!! Loved it.  He also talks about the effects that these games have on learning and behaviors and human development. 

     It's a fairly long video, so you might want to grab some popcorn. Hope you enjoy this!!

Learning Centers

       Today, I would just like to briefly share my learning center approach. I recently changed my strategy and am finding that it is working fantastically!

      I have put the students into heterogeneous groups. There are five groups and five centers. The students go to every center, daily, for three days a week. Each center rotation lasts for 30 minutes. While everyone is working in their centers, I pull small homogeneous groups to work on reading skills. I like this because I can meet with all of my students each day and challenge them at their level. I also like the fact that all of my students have the opportunity to work with technology on a daily basis. Since I only have 3 desktop computers and one laptop, using technology can be a bit challenging. I am lucky though, because I have a wonderful school friend who shares some of her technology with me too.

Here is a list of the centers that I use and a brief description of each. 

Writing - The students are responding to a text (either nonfiction or fiction) in their Reader's Workshop binder. They are required to complete their writing assignment each day so in a week's period of time they are finishing at least three response assignments.

Reading Center - The students are required to read a book and fill out some sort of graphic organizer that addresses a specific skill that I'm teaching that week (i.e. text-to-self connections, identifying nonfiction text features, character trait analysis, etc.).

Technology - The students are on a computer working on completing a project (Prezi, Glogster) or in a learning program ( ScootPad, Moby Max, Edmodo, Zondle).

Activity - The students are working together to complete a PBL assignment.

Word Work - The students are usually playing a learning board game that builds vocabulary or reading comprehension skills.

I think the following video gives a great picture of what a center based learning community classroom can look like. This can be adapted to fit any grade level.

   

Using technology in the classroom is very important....and it's FUN!!!

Here are a couple of tools I use all of the time to improve ELA  and Math skills with my students.

ScootPad is not free. 

                      

             

Zondle is free.