A Few of My Favorite Techy Things

Today I want to talk about a few of my favorite techy things that I use in my classroom all the time.

I'm super lucky to have 24 iPads in my classroom, but I started out with just one little iPad 5 years ago that was funded by a Donorschoose.org project. I got a 2nd (same way) and then I wanted MORE! I wrote 5 grants and was about to give up when I finally won a grant and got 14 iPad minis for my students. Just recently, I convinced my principal to use some of our technology funds to get me 10 more so I can pilot a 1:1 classroom program in my school. I'm still learning about how to best implement technology in my classroom, and as quickly as things change, I'll always have to keep learning. Over the years, our iPads have become tools for learning and augmenting instruction.

Screenchomp is my favorite screencasting app so far and it's FREE! It's very kid friendly and easy to use too. Screencasting is just a video record of what you write or put on the screen and the audio in one nice little package. Two of my favorite uses are as an assessment tool and a reteaching tool. I love to use it as an assessment because I get to hear AND see what kids are thinking when they solve a problem in math, for example. I give the students different problems to solve, they write theirs down on the screen, hit record and start solving it as they talk through it. You can use this in any curriculum area! Some kids like to share their videos with the class and some are more shy. I have students copy and paste the link to their video to their notes so I can review them in one easy place. This is also an awesome thing to share with parents at conference time.

I also like to use Screenchomp to record mini lessons for my students to replay. This is awesome for your intervention group or for kids that just need reminders on how to do something. My goal is to have tutorials made for all the major skills I teach and have the links (via QR code) up on a bulletin board for students to access at anytime. You can also record directions for centers or for activities you want students to do independently. When you want to share a recording, just copy the link, paste it into a QR code generator and make a QR code that kids can scan easily so they don't have to type the link. Print out that QR code, stick it with your center materials or post around the room and you don't have to worry about kids not knowing what to do. You can also imbed photos to show kids visually exactly what to do. Click the pic to watch and hear one of my mini tutorials (warning: nothing fancy).

Speaking of QR codes, I'm not sure what I'd do without them! In addition to making websites easily accessible for students, you can create QR codes with text. Mainly I use QR codes this way so students can check their answers for task cards. It provides immediate feedback and is highly motivating. I have also made audio QR codes with students' speeches, stories, and songs. See how I made audio QR codes here. BTW, parents love these! QR codes can also be used for classroom scavenger hunts. The possibilities are mind boggling. If you'd like to know more, download my free QR code info guide:

My grade level is departmentalized so I get to teach math all day to my 2nd graders. Two of my favorite apps (by the same developer) are Pieces Basic and Number Line and they are both FREE! They are super kid friendly and really help students solve addition and subtraction problems. Pieces Basic is an app that has base 10 blocks while Number Line has, you guessed it, number lines. Students can manipulate the blocks or the number line to suit the problem they are solving and even write on the screen. What I love is that the set up and clean up is a breeze! No more hauling out (and storing) sets of manipulatives and then cleaning up after your lesson. No more missing pieces or mess. Also, if you tap the information icon, there is a great How to Use section that you should definitely show students the first time they use it. Both apps are set up very similarly so it is easy for kids to use.

Finally, I'm in love with nearpod. I can't even say enough about it, but I talked about it briefly in another post and I'll do it again! It is a way to push out content to your students' devices and control the pace of the lesson. There are interactive activities for students and their responses get sent to your device in real time. You can use this in the computer lab or with tablets. I tried it out for the first time this year and I'm hooked. There is a really awesome tutorial about it on the iTeach Third blog, which is where I first read about it. Just go. You won't regret it!

Check out my Classroom Tech Pinterest Board for more great ideas from educators all over the place. You can also read about some of the lessons I've learned over the years when using technology with your students.

Global Glitter Tribe December Linky

Hey everyone! I'm linking up with the GGT for the December linky and I must say that I really love the graphic this month! If you'd like to link up with us, please click on the button below to get your graphic, add your text, write your post and join in the fun!

Here goes nothin': 

First up, one of the easiest recipes you can make that will serve a family of four or can be doubled or tripled to serve a crowd is my Crockpot Chicken Tacos. Take a look:


One of my favorite holiday read alouds is Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto. I love this book because in my family we usually fight over the tamales because they are so delicious. You know you are loved when someone brings their tamales out of hiding to serve to you. In fact, this weekend we made 18 dozen tamales but we have to split them between four families, so we really don't have too many tamales...

I've been so lucky the past two years because I have been getting some great technology to work with in my classroom. As of yesterday, I am officially a 1:1 teacher! I just got 10 more iPads and now I have 24! One of the things I love is using nearpod. It is a lesson presentation system that pushes out content to your students' devices (tablets OR computers). You control the pace of the lesson slides and the students engage in interactive activities, quizzes, polls, videos, questions and more. The most awesome thing is that when they answer a question or do an activity, the results show up in real time on your device! I can instantly see who is really understanding the concepts or who needs more help. I can also send examples of student work to each device so we can have discussions. My explanation can't do it justice so you should check it out for yourself. You can sign up for free and there are many free nearpod presentations plus you can make your own!! Here's a sample of the presentations I have in my library.


I was preview shopping last month before the big sales and wandered into Bath and Body Works to pick out some scents for my daughters. I almost always shop online but you can't smell the scents online so I actually went to the mall...gasp! I totally fell in love with this new scent and then I couldn't decide which daughter to give it to so I bought it for myself!!! It's called Fresh Sparkling Snow and it just smells SOOO good.

I'm doing a book study at school with Ron Clark's Move Your Bus, which is totally motivating the leader in me and kinda frustrating me at the same time. The concept is that your organization is a bus and instead of having an engine, the bus is propelled with the power of the people. Now, on your bus you have runners, joggers, walkers and riders plus (hopefully) a driver. I love Ron's description of the different types of workers and now I can't help but to constantly think if I'm being a runner or not. Check it out for yourself:

When it snows around here in the desert (which it occasionally does) people freak out! I'm not kidding or exaggerating when I tell you that everyone expects a snow day when we get one inch of snow. We make tiny muddy snowmen and put on our winter gear and play around until about 2:00 in the afternoon when it melts. I'm a summer girl. Flip flops. Tank tops. Hot weather. Bring it on! I do not like to be cold so you can bet that if it snows, I'll be bundled up inside, fire roaring, sipping hot cocoa. I can enjoy how pretty it looks from inside. Here's a picture I took last year when we did actually get a good amount of snow (for us):

Well, I hope you've enjoyed reading my post and encourage you to link up or check out some other posts!

A Few of My Favorite Things Linky

Ok, a midweek linky party that I can actually get done? Yes, please! I'm linking up with the Teaching Trio for their new(ish) monthly linky called:

I'm sharing three of my favorite apps to use with students! I have many more, but I'll just talk about the three that I use most.

#1 Is a freebie and I literally use it everyday! It has replaced my dry erase boards for my guided math groups. I love that I can have the students take screenshots of their work to add to their digital portfolios. The kids love all the chalk colors! They enjoy using this app with a stylus to help with their handwriting. Another plus: no messy dry erase markers that dry up!

#2 Isn't free but it is a must have app in my book. The kids actually beg me about the next time they get to use Explain Everything to demonstrate their math thinking. My school asked one of our Senators for some extra money for technology and my principal brought him into my classroom when we were using this app and it knocked his socks off! This is a simple screen casting app that records students' voices and annotations. I write a few problems on the board, students take a picture with the iPad and then import it into the app and start recording as they write and explain their thinking. Talk about powerful assessment!

#3 Has a limited free version that you can upgrade. My kiddos love to play all the Slide games (Slide 100 and Slide + & -) but this one is their favorite. When they are especially good or have been working super hard, we'll have Slide tournaments. This game is awesome because it can be played with 2-4 players. When we get down to the "final four" players, we'll jump on AirPlay and watch the kiddos play on the big screen! I'm sure you can hear them cheering for their friends all the way to the principal's office. Sometimes an especially confident student will challenge me to a round. It is way too much fun to resist.

Five for Friday: Thanks and 2 FREEBIES

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for FFF this week and feeling so thankful!

 I am super thankful for my supportive husband, talented daughters, and loving/crazy family. My husband lets me get away with just about anything and allows me to be my true self. I also couldn't be more proud of my talented daughters, who are growing up to be such amazing young women. I am also blessed to have wonderful parents, siblings, and grandmothers! My life is full of amazing people!

 I am extremely thankful for my job. I would be a liar if I told you that each day teaching is sunshine and rainbows, but I do love my job. I am almost always excited to start each day knowing I have some great lessons planned and getting to make such a huge impact. My students are amazing, sweet, and funny. They make me want to wring their necks and give them hugs at the same time! They also make me laugh and give me hope. I also have two awesome principals who are supportive, fun and care about kids.

 I'm thankful for all the opportunities I have because I get to live in this great country. I'm thankful for all those who helped paved the way for my freedom.

 These are things I could live without, but would rather not have to: coffee and technology. My favorite part of the day is sipping on my first cup of coffee and gearing up for the day. I also love that second cup to keep me running half way through the morning!  Technology has opened up the world to us. You have a question? Google it! Want to know how to fix something? YouTube videos! Want to connect with people from around the world?  Blogs, email, Skype, FaceTime, Facebook, and Instagram right at your fingertips.

Finally, I'm thankful for Teachers Pay Teachers! It may sound silly, but when I "discovered" TpT a few years ago, it drastically changed how I teach. My lessons improved, my classroom management improved, and my organization improved. I also found the educational blog world to be a vast collection of tried and true resources made by teachers! Now, I'm selling my products on TpT and helping make things a little easier on the budget for my family. I feel so blessed that I can pay for a new soccer uniform or cleats for my girls without having to stress about the money. The best part is that I get to use my creativity to help my family. What is better than that? Well, to show my thanks, I have two freebies for my elementary friends:

for my 2-3 grade friends

for my 3-5 grade friends 

Five for Friday: a $1 Deal, a tech tip, and monster fun!

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for FFF!

I prepped all my Halloween math centers for next week and I'm just loving how they turned out.
There's my Place Value Math Center with cute ghosts and a fun Pumpkin Place Value Math Center.

I think my favorite is the Even and Odd Sorting Center with the cutest witch legs!

Students will sort the task cards, write them on the recording sheet, and then can scan the QR codes to check their work. I have marked this down to $1 for the rest of the weekend!

My dear Yorkie, Scruffy, hasn't been doing so well. He's been hobbling along on 3 legs and not wanting to bear weight on his 4th leg. It got to the point where he couldn't even climb out of his bed, go through his doggy door or go up one 2-inch step to get back inside. I took him to the vet and she prescribed an arthritis pill. I gave him his first dose and the very next morning he was hopping and prancing around like he was (almost) his old self.

Tuesday we watched a video of I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll and read by Rita Moreno. Then we made our very own monsters! They look adorable! Check out the video here:

We're working on place value to the hundreds place. First, we put these flip flaps in our interactive notebooks from my Monster Math Place Value pack. Then we practiced writing our numbers 4 ways. Get my 4 Ways to Show a Number here for FREE!

 Have you heard of Padlet? It's a great web 2.0 tool that you can use with students to collect evidence of learning, share ideas, and collaborate on. It's super easy to use and can be a great digital portfolio to show parents at conference time. For the first Padlet lesson,  we started with a simple task: tell about a 3 digit number. Students were given a card with a 3 digit number. They had to build it with base 10 blocks and write it in expanded form and in word form (see above). Then they took pictures with the iPads and added them to their individual math Padlets by scanning their own QR codes displayed from the interactive white board. Here's an example:

You can imagine the possibilities with the ability to add photo, video and text! You can also make a Padlet for certain topics. We made a bat Padlet with video of kids telling what they learned about bats and pictures of their projects. I'm working on a more detailed post on using Padlet so stay tuned!

Tune into Technology 7/29: QR codes

I'm linking up with iTeach 1:1 for a cool linky called Tune into Technology.

This week's theme is QR codes! I have been called the Queen of QR codes at my school. I put them on everything! One thing I love to do is put them on the products I make so kids can check answers. I have even put QR codes on products I have bought and on information for parents. If you don't have a clue what QR codes are or how they can be used in classrooms, check out the post I wrote about them here.

I branched out a little last year and used QR codes to make student work come alive. When we studied the solar system, students made these adorable accordion books to demonstrate their learning. You can get the Solar System and Planet Flipbook Reports from Creative Classroom Lessons.

Then, I asked them to write a 3-5 sentence "speech" summarizing what they learned. I gave students at least a dozen sentence starters to help them craft an interesting speech. The last thing I wanted was: "Jupiter is a large planet. Jupiter is next to Saturn. Jupiter is cool. Jupiter is.....". BORING! I had the kids practice their "Power Speeches" with a buddy several times before I recorded them. Click on the link to hear one student's
space report. You can also scan the QR code:

 Now, you can see and hear what kids have learned. I set them up on desks (gallery walk style) and gave pairs of students iPods to scan the QR codes and listen to their classmates. Now the kids are learning from each other and getting visual and audio input. Let me tell you how impressed their parents were!

You may be wondering how in the world to make an audio QR code. This is the way I do it but there may be an easier way and I'd love to hear it if you know!

 Thank you to Amazing Classroom.com for the use of the tablet clip art!

I know this was a loooooong post! I hope you found it helpful. As always, if you have ANY questions, please comment below. Also, feel free to pin the heck out of this post ;) and if you'd like more info on technology use in the classroom, check out my Classroom Tech pin board.