I read the blog “How I stay Organized: Weekly Lesson Planning Tips & Tricks” by Miss DeCarbo and it was a great blog on helping teacher stay organized and focused without spending hours upon hours each night getting organized and working on lesson plans. She starts out by listing what she does every Monday which includes pulling all of the activities, materials, printables, and assessments that she knows she’ll need for next week – no matter what happens to her plans, she always, always uses and needs these items. Tuesday is copying day. She takes her pile of printables and activities that she gathered on Monday, and she spends time with her BFF “The Copier” and copies all of her materials for the following week. Miss DeCarbo likes to do this EARLY in the week because then she’s not fighting for the copier on Fridays when everyone else is. Now that everything is copied and pulled, lesson planning is a breeze for her on Wednesdays and Thursdays. She simply plugs all of the activities they are doing into her plans – main subjects on Wednesday and she plans her small reading groups on Thursdays. By Thursday after school, her plans are done! She prints them off and saves them into the schools district dropbox.

Altogether Miss Decarbo is very organized and has lessened her hours spent at home getting organized each night. In her blog, she showed tons of pictures of how her classroom is set up and different procedures she goes through each and everyday. She is on top of it! She has inspired me and how I want my future classroom to be set up. 

I loved doing this assignment because I got to learn more about Kansas history. I grew up going to Marysville, KS to visit my grandma and she owned an antique shop there. When my cousins and I would go visit, we would “help” her at her shop (we mosty just played around the store) but none the less, we learned a lot about antiques and where they came from and the stories behind each item. I also grew up knowing that Marysville, KS was part of the Pony Express route and that is how mail became to be. My grandmother has also been a part of the farming business for quite a while. Doing this assignment made me realize how much my grandma has contributed to the history of Kansas and how we have all been a part of making history.

I used iMovie to create this assignment and I found it very easy to use since we had already used it in previous assignments. I could add pictures, music, and a voice over to create my project. Most of the photos seen in my project are ones that my grandmother had but I had to add a few off the internet to to the length of my project. The iMovie app is $4.99 but is definitely worth the money. It allows you to do all sorts of cool things to create something beautiful!

The first episode I watched was about how we need to have early childhood

apps and he has picked apps that have been researched and found to be useful. The first app he talked about was PBS kids. PBS app allows you to watch TV episodes that you missed. The PBS kids app is completely free and easy to navigate through. The second app is talks about is Learn with Homer. It allows kids to learn sounds of the alphabet. This app is great because if you are on the road, it doesn’t need wifi to connect to your kids can practice learning and their sounds on a road trip in the car or anywhere for that matter. It sounds out each word and also gives examples of words that go with that sound. It is very educational and would be a great app to help your child learn. Both apps are free and easy to use.

The next video I watched was about apps that help exceptional children learn. The first app he talked about was called ArtikPix and this app allows

the student to match, use flashcards, and more to learn words. It helps with words that start with “TH” and combining syllable sounds into one. It shows an image with each letter so the child can associate the letter with words. This app costs $29.99 so it is out of my price range but if you were severely needing help with your exceptional student then I think it would be a great investment. Your students can test each other and it keeps the scores of each student so you can assess where they are at. The second app she talks about it is called injini lite. It works with students on matching. It has patterns the student can work on and gives tutorials for each category. For example, it asks what pattern is missing from a set of patterns. The skills get harder as the children moves up. This app also costs $29.99 so also expensive but it would be worth it if it improved your child’s learning. It has won multiple awards and the reviews are great on the app so I definitely think it would be worth the investment.

The last video I watched was about free assessment apps which I think would be great to know so your students can practice taking assessments. These apps will work across a series of devices. Quizlet is the first app he talks about. You can create flashcards to help you study. The teacher can create a classroom set or the student can make their own. I have used this app all throughout 

college to help me study for tests and quizzes. Quizlet is free and easy to use and navigate.  It is a popular app for college students but also would be a great resource for younger kids as well. The words as nice and big on each flashcard. You can change the language of theflashcard if you are studying a different language. The quizlet app allows you to test yourself using multiple choice, matching, fill in the blank, and true and false. There are multiple games you can play to study your terms.

http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=DQn1fge

I created my first interactive whiteboard using the Show Me app. It is very easy to use and allows you to pause the video whenever you want. Showmen allows you to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online. It’s a very simple app that anyone can use for any age. You can easily switch colors and it has very smooth transitions. If you press pause, you can easily press play again and keep recording. This would be a great app to use to explain a math lesson, science lesson, or any lesson for that matter. This app is free and easy to download in your App store. The only downfall to this app is that you have to pay $5.99 if you want to download the video you created onto your device. Since I did not want to download my video for $5.99, I had to put it as a link in my post. Children can easily use this app for homework at home. I can see myself having my students downloading this app and working through their math problems going step by step what they did recording their voice and drawing out their steps. I overall think this app would be great in a classroom and children would enjoy using it.

I chose iPad Integration in Elementary Education under ideas for inspiring teachers. I want to integrate technology into my elementary school classroom so I think it is important to know how and what apps are appropriate for elementary school students. Monitoring the iPad is also very important so they don’t get broken or off task.  This particular section in this app includes books to consider reading to learn about certain subjects. It has a manual for each grade on how to integrate technology in the classroom. It also has a section of documents and sample rubrics that you can download. It gives you a list of 38 apps to use in the elementary school so I think that is extremely helpful. You already know what apps work so you don’t have to go searching. there is a section for images but there is currently only one image in there right now. It also gives you web links for resources to use. Altogether it gives you everything you’ve wanted to know about how to integrate iPads in your elementary school classroom. Once you download the course you want, it downloads into your iTunes U library. It is very accessible and easy to find. I believe the most helpful thing about this course is that it gives you a list of 38 apps to use for elementary school kids. I wish it gave more written instruction and gave more reviews from other people. I discovered that this a huge, helpful resource for teachers. I honestly didn’t know what iTunes U was until I did this activity. If you want to know anything about subjects or how to integrate certain things in your classroom, iTunes U is a great resource. I can’t believe how many topics and ideas this app has.

I chose Scoodle Jam as an app to use in the classroom. Scolded Jam is used to enhance common core instruction and project-based learning with interactive whiteboard. Using built-in graphic organizers, templates, and projects, students can write, draw, type and add photos to explore concepts, illustrate ideas, and share their learning. They can even sun canvases to collaborate on the same page. There are 6 main categories the app has; literacy (5-11), social studies, literacy (14-18), mathematics, science, and art. Each category also shows what ages it is geared towards. Once you download the section you want inside the app, it will download to your iBook which should already be on your iPad. It is very navigable and easy to find and easy to go through. Once you get in a subject your interesting, it states the objective for that section, the topic, target age, ideal group size, and time to complete. It will explain the activity in depth so the student using the app understands and can actually complete it. There are sample images as well so the student can follow along there if the written instructions don’t make sense. There are many categories in each section so the students never gets bored or they can pick and choose what they want to work on. since there are multiple activities, the app isn’t just a “one-and-done” app so you can use it multiple times with different activities each time. I went through all the 6 categories and found each one to relevant and helpful so I definitely think this would be a great app to use when assessments are coming up. By the end of the year, students get tired of listening to the teacher talk and working on worksheet after worksheet. They also get tired of hearing the word “state assessments” so I think using this app to kind of trick the students into thinking they are playing a fun game on their iPad but really the app is geared towards preparing for common core.

I downloaded the One Best Thing about Apple TV: A Deployment guide. Paul Yip has worked a Technology Integration Team Leader and has worked with Apple distinguished Educators to demonstrate the use of Apple technologies to transform teaching and learning. I picked this article because I think Apple TV is almost crucial to have in a classroom these days. There are so much more opportunities to display things on the big screen. The wireless Airplay feature of Appl TV can effectively control the shared display such as a classroom projector or TV. It is fast, easy, and seamless. Things to consider when getting Apple TV is that your room must have great wifi. Your device will lose connection frequently if the wifi is not the best. You must also be connected to three different sources.It must be connected into power outlet, it needs a ethernet port and an A/V wall plate. Another great thing about Apple TV’s is that they are portable. many people believe that Apple TV is a whole TV system that you have to install but it is a small box with a few cords. A common mistake is confusing Apple TV with a Smart TV. In a school setting, it would probably be smart to mount the Apple TV somewhere in your classroom for security purposes. Apple TV is a little pricey but in the realm of things, it is manageable. It costs $109 for the actual Apple TV, $46 for the Tryten lockable mounts, $70 for the Kanex VGA adapters, $15 for the Network patch cable, and $10 for the plastic panduit coming to a total of $250. It also comes with a remote control so you can easily access the Apple TV from anywhere in the classroom. It comes with a manual but Apple TV is pretty self explanatory once you get the jist. Overall I think having Apple TV in the classroom is a HUGE bonus and will do wonders for your classroom.

I read a blog post from Green Bean Kindergarten about Classroom Management, Economy Style. Classroom management is a huge topic in schools today so I am starting to look for different ways teachers handle classroom management. It is important to be prepared with every type of behavior and actions. This teacher uses a money system to keep her students behavior in line. They not only get rewarded for good behavior, but for accomplishing goals, turning in homework on time, and following classroom procedures throughout the day. She changes the learn of her classroom every year so this year she did a rodeo theme and had “Cowboy Cash” that the students got to use. Every Friday she gives her students 30 minutes to spend their money at the “store”. There is a $5 bin, $10 bin, and a $20 bin. If the student has below $5 then they cannot buy anything and makes them try better next time. Having a cash system also allows students to use subtraction. They have to count their money if they receive more and also have to subtract how much cash they used to purchase their items from the store. Overall I think the teacher uses this method effectively and her students really seem to enjoy it!

I used the app Adobe Slate and it was wonderful! The features are so cool and you can do so much. I love how you can adjust the images in different ways whether that be full screen, half screen, zoomed in or the image can slide up with text like shown in my presentation. I chose this app because it was very modern and concise. Nothing was confusing about the app and just seemed “cool”. I love my presentation and I think students will be able to follow along really well. You can put text wherever you want, in different font styles, make things bigger or smaller, the options are endless. This app is completely free so I HIGHLY recommend it. I will definitely use this in my classroom and I think students would enjoy creating projects on this app as well. the only limitation with this app is that you can’t upload videos.

I read a blog post from Life as an Educator by Justin Tarte and the topic was “can we please stop saying in the real world?” I hear a lot of students during class ask their teachers, “why are we doing this?” or “how does this apply to my real life”. I even know that I have been guilty of asking those questions throughout school. It is hard for students, especially in the older grades, to see the bigger picture. Their parents also might influence them that they need to how to pay taxes instead of learn algebra which can be frustrating. What Justin Tarte was hitting on was that people say, “once they’re in the real world, they won’t need to know X.” Which yes, might be true but the important thing to remember is that you need these things to be knowledgable. Learning is a process and each at each grade you learn something new that expands your knowledge. As Tarte stated, we need to focus on the NOW not the future. This ‘supposed’ level of responsibility and accountability we are working to teach our students comes at a price. It comes at the price of making our students feel as if what they are doing right now really doesn’t matter because it can only pale in comparison to what they will do ‘in the real world.’ If students feel as if what they are doing right now is not important, then that is setting them up for failure. It was a huge eye-opener for me and a really good read. His blog talks about a lot of interesting topics and I will continue reading his blog posts!