Two New Sites...

Flash Card Exchange, http://www.flashcardexchange.com/, allows users to create flash cards and then produce a hard copy, study the flash cards online, or share with students/teachers via the web.
VerbaLearn, http://www.verbalearn.com/, is a comprehensive vocabulary building site that uses audio, video, flashcards, and games. It is a great place for teachers to help students improve English vocabulary at home or school.

Thank You Fifth Grade Teachers!

On behalf of the sixth grade teachers I wanted to thank the Eastside fifth grade teachers for greatly preparing Edinburgh students for their first year of middle school, along with instilling respect and maturity. I should actually be thanking all staff members at Eastside, because success in school starts on the first day of kindergarten. So, thank you very much! We (sixth grade teachers) have been blessed the last two years with a terrific group of students. I hope to have some student work on here soon for you to see how well they are doing.

6th Grade Laptops

The 6th Grade Laptops are up and running...due to the hard work and dedication of our awesome technology staff (Bob and Jodie). The laptops arrived later than expected and we have experienced a few bumps along the way but Bob pulled a couple of all-nighters and made things happen. I hope to be completely paperless beginning next Monday (8/24). My science students have already gathered data, inserted their findings into Excel and then created a graph. The same students also took a poll via www.polleverywhere.com and will now create a poll of their own for their classmates to take, followed by writing a report to support a newly designed graph. My reading students created a Venn diagram comparing similes and metaphors through a flash application at www.readwritethink.org/materials/venn and then converted it to a pdf to share with their classmates. Today my language students will create a word bubble at www.wordle.net so that their classmates and I can learn more about them. This is just the beginning...it's going to be an exciting year. I hope to hear (or read) about all the great things going on through out the corporation.

Thinkfinity

http://www.thinkfinity.org/ provides free lesson plans and educational resources.

Scholastic Instructor

Many of you, I'm sure, are aware of the Scholastic website but there may be a few things that you are not aware of. My two favorite options are Free Stuff and Quick Ideas. Click on the following link ( http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/instructor/index.htm ) and scroll down for the above choices. Free Stuff includes contests, grants, and resources. Quick Ideas is categorized by grade and has a different theme (Math, English, Vocabulary, etc.) each month.

A New Way To Present

If you use PowerPoint or SMART software to create classroom presentations then you should try www.prezi.com. You can sign up for a free account, which allows for 100MB of free space. You can also download your prezi presentations to use offline, keeping your online storage space at a minimum. I would recommend that you spend some time viewing the prezi tutorials before getting started. My students have really enjoyed the prezi presentations that I have created!

Free PowerPoint Presentations!

www.pppst.com offers numerous free PowerPoint Presentations (PPTs) on every imaginable subject. Start out by clicking on the provided link, disregard the cheesy layout, scroll down, and then click on a subject of your choice. A new window will appear where you will have to choose a subtopic. After choosing a subtopic you will be given a list of available PPTs and web links for children. You can click on a PPT link and then open it or save it for later use. I normally save the PPT and then make changes so that it fits my needs.

English/Language Arts

www.thewritingsite.org is an excellent website that provides links to several writing resources. Last week while at a conference I became aware of this sites real purpose - Writing Assessment and Instruction. On The Writing Site homepage click on Scoring Instructions, which will lead you to a section where you can select a grade (k-12) and a genre. After selecting a grade and genre you are given a paper to grade. You will then be able to compare your scores to the expert scores and read the rationales. This is just one of the many things that you can do through The Writing Site.

Science Site

If you are looking for science experiments/activities to enhance your already great lesson plans then check out http://www.tryscience.com/ There are also some greats things on this site that you could use just for fun as the school year winds down. After clicking on a tab (Experiments, Field Trips, Adventures) be sure to use the arrows at the bottom to scroll through all of the ideas within each category.

Looking for New Resources?

The following two sites are great for finding free lesson plans, ideas, resources, etc.

http://free.ed.gov/

http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome

Great Things on Google, and more...

Now that you have a google account, thanks to our blog, there are so many other things you can take advantage of. #1 - Google Documents, ask Rachel; Google Docs Rocks. With Google Docs you can create Word, Excel, and PowerPoint like documents and then access them from anywhere there is a computer and Internet connection. You can also allow others access to documents of your choice for easy collaboration. #2 - Google Calendar; I would be lost without this application. You can create a calendar through Group Wise as well but the Google Calendar is much easier to access at home or via your phone. With the Calendar application you can create events and have Google remind you via the email you submitted when you signed up, plus much more. As educators, Google Books is another free application that we can take advantage of. Simply sign into our blog or http://www.google.com/ and click on More to view the different programs that are offered.

Another website to check out: http://www.education-world.com/

Earth Day

In observance of Earth Day (April 22) I was hoping that we could spend part of the week in the dark. Some of us may be in the dark all week, ha! By turning off some of our lights, or possibly all of them later in the week when the sun is out and we can use natural light by opening the blinds, we can explain to our students that taking small steps can lead to big rewards (e.g. saving energy and money).

Below our some links that you may find beneficial for Earth Day activities, information, etc.

http://www.earthday.net/

http://www.earthday.gov/

http://www.epa.gov/earthday/

http://www.designareusablebag.com/

http://holidays.kaboose.com/earth-day/