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 October Linky

Trying to find time to blog during soccer season is like trying to nail Jello to a tree! Needless to say, it's almost the end of October and I'm finally getting around to linking up with the Glitterati on the Global Glitter Tribe's blog. Get on over there and link up too! Keep reading for lots of goodies and even a FREEBIE!

It's easy to link up, just grab the template, add in your answers and then plop it into your blog. Don't forget to link back to the Global Glitter Tribe Blog.

Here's mine:

Totally Inspirational:

I've started learning more about Growth Mindset and I'm totally intrigued by what it can do for students. The other day during our Number of the Day discussion, a student made a mistake in the equation she was presenting. She felt a little embarrassed but I made sure to heap on the praise because she was able to recognize her mistake and correct it. I told the class how I just saw her brain grow double and she just beamed! Immediately I saw more students take risks in their mathematical thinking with just that one comment I made. I found this awesome bulletin board (sorry about pic quality) on Pinterest that makes so much sense! I'm thinking about how to adapt it for my 2nd graders.

Responsiveness:
Normally I've always led the Number of the Day discussions in my class. This year I decided to shake things up a bit after the first two months. I let students come up and write their work on the board and lead a discussion about their thinking. I have discussion question prompts on the wall they can use if needed, but I really love when they challenge each other. My favorite is when they say, "Prove it!" and the leader can actually explain their thinking to the class. They also started asking the other students who agrees with the leader. The kids started having the most amazing discussions! It was painful and awkward at first, but their discussions have really started blossoming. Here are the questions I have posted on my wall. I got them from Guided Math in Action and made them into posters. Read more about the questions from this post and click the pic to download them for free.

Igniting Passionate Readers:
Even though I just teach math, I still have a substantial classroom library. Fast finishers can always grab a book to read for a few minutes. Plus, my homeroom students get to go book "shopping" each week for books to keep in their book bags to take to literacy class.

This is the fiction side, which makes up half the library.

What really gets kids excited about reading is when I unveil my new monthly theme bookshelf. Each month is a different theme such as holidays, science topics they're studying with their science teacher or special authors. These books are always the most popular because they're only around for a limited time. It creates a hype about reading that is contagious! Here's my October selection:

Bridging the Gap:
Since I teach math all day, I get to really hone in on the math skills my students are struggling with or doing well with. One way to bridge the gap is to meet with my students in a small group each day. Meanwhile, the other students are engaged in math stations. I like to differentiate my stations by having different levels for students. An easy way to do that is to assign certain tasks to certain students. They are just as fun as the other stations, and often look almost the same, but may have smaller numbers to work with or more basic skills (or review). One example is my Batty for Telling Time leveled task cards, which include three levels. You can also mix these cards up for a fun Scoot Activity or Quiz Quiz Trade. It's a bargain at only $3!

Enjoying My Time:
Who doesn't love binge-watching your favorite shows on Netflix? I've recently finished watching Orange is the New Black and Sons of Anarchy and stumbled across Bones, an old show I never got into until now. What I love about Netflix is that I don't have to watch commercials or even fast forward them. I watch while I iron and fold laundry on Sundays and it makes the task much more enjoyable!

Our Teaching Tribe August Challenge

Welcome to Our Teaching Tribe Blog Hop! We've traded products with other Teaching Tribe members for a product review, just in time for back to school. Maybe you'll find something new to try in your classroom!

I was lucky enough to be paired up with Katie Palmer, another 2nd grade teacher from Pop into Primary. Check out her awesome TpT store that features great Word Work Activity Books! Since I teach math, I got her See It, Solve It Stories Math and Reading Mashup, which is perfect for 2nd-3rd graders.

It's a great product that combines reading and math in one! Students read letters to a detective and solve the problems. They also need to find the caps and punctuation errors in the letters. They work on counting and adding and subtracting money too!

What I love about this product is that it crosses over curriculum areas and makes the most of your time, while engaging students in a fun mystery to solve! Once they solve all 8 problems, they use the information to get the answer to the mystery.

I can't wait to use this product with my 2nd grade students a little later in the year. I know they'll love reading the letters, looking for mistakes and solving the problems to crack the code! I will probably make a copy of the letters for students while projecting it on the Promethean Board, that way they can circle the mistakes on their own, but still get support with reading the letters if needed. I think it will be so fun for kids to try to make guesses to solve the mystery! I'm looking forward to hearing their theories!

To see more great product reviews, click the button to hop to the next blogger, which happens to be Katie reviewing one of my products! Happy Hopping!

Five For Friday: Short Week, Time Warp, $1 Deal

Hey everyone! I'm linking up with DoodleBugs for FFF. It has been an interesting week, to say the least!

 Sunday, I went to my grandmother's house to help clean it out. She recently moved in with my parents so we are slowly going through her things and deciding what to keep or toss. It brings me back to my childhood when we uncover treasures such as old toys and games I used to play with or random stuff that was in my grandpa's garage. My daughter found a newspaper from the day Nixon resigned, I found some 80's glam sweatshirts with puffy paint and matching earrings, my grandma found some coins from Italy, my mom found some really old records, and my sister found my grandfather's old wallet, complete with his Frontier Airlines ID card.

We had no school Monday! Wooohoooo! It was just in time, too because I was about to go loco! I decided to sit down with my sister/team teaching partner to write report cards in the morning and then invited my other sister and my sweet grandma over to make homemade ravioli. She supervised our rookie efforts and didn't laugh too much at the mess we made (mostly because it was my kitchen).

The best part of the day: my hubby got a new job!!!! So excited and relieved that we won't have to move!

 Tuesday was a professional development day and because I went to the DI conference this summer, I gave a short presentation to the staff. One of the sweet parents that is highly involved in the school got all of the 2nd grade teachers a gift card to our local favorite pizza place for lunch. It is so awesome to have such supportive parents and PTO.

 We are starting to learn about coins this week, so (of course) we used Angie Olsen's Money Interactive Notebook. It just hit me that my kids have become so good at cutting, folding, and pasting due to all the IN pages we've made this year, that I barely have to give directions. That's what's great about this time of the year. All the hard work of enforcing systems at the beginning of the year has FINALLY paid off.

I had a pretty good response to my $1 deals in the past so I think I'm going to try to do one each week. Up this week is a companion to the Spring 2 Digit Addition & Subtraction task cards that I featured last week. A few people asked for a 3 digit version, so here it is:

You can pick up both for $3 and provide some great differentiation for your students. You can also mix and match them to meet your needs (just addition or just subtraction). 

Five for Friday: $1 Deal, Polar Bears and Multiplication--Oh my!

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for FFF!

It's been rough in the Palmer household lately. My hubs is searching for a job that may or may not take us out of state, I have two hormonal teenage girls, a messy house, and I'm on a diet so I'm HANGRY all the time. This week I saw this on one of my friend's FB pages and it just put everything in perspective for me.

We're working on multiplication in math and the kids L-O-V-E it. They are so excited about it and it makes teaching really fun. We've been adding to our interactive math notebooks and I even made a Kahoot quiz called Multiplication Basics, that covers some of the concepts I want the kids to know.

At recess duty on Monday I noticed one of my sweet girls jumping around on the faded hopscotch paths. I asked her if she knew how to play and she shook her head. I started teaching her and soon had several others join in (boys too!). I was blown away that none of them had ever learned to play hopscotch. After my stroll down memory lane, I thought of several "old school" games I used to play like jump rope and jacks. Next time I'm at the $1 store, I'll see if I can find any of these oldies but goodies.

We're learning about polar bears in science class and doing an awesome Polar Bear QR Code Webquest by Emily Gibbons. I love the structured/guided research they do and how easy it is to set up. We're writing a shared PowerPoint presentation so I can teach them PowerPoint basics.

I squeezed in a little time last weekend to make a new Spring Addition and Subtraction task card set. My students continue to need this mixed practice during math stations and I was in the spring mood, so I whipped up these little beauties! Because the weather has been so stinkin' beautiful, I'm putting these task cards on sale for 50% off. That's just $1!!!

How Important is Skip Counting in 2nd Grade?

We're just starting to learn about multiplication in 2nd grade and I started by reviewing skip counting. One of my students said, "Mrs. Palmer, you said we are going to learn about multiplication, so why are we doing skip counting? We did this in 1st grade."

What a perfect question! Of course, he was right. I work across the hall from a 1st grade teacher and I hear those kiddos skip counting every morning! Students with strong skip counting skills will have a much easier time in many mathematical areas, including multiplication.

One thing I wanted to students to be able do in this unit of study is identify patterns. First, I wanted students to be able to see the patterns when skip counting and to be able to identify what they are skip counting by. We did a little warm up/review and then we started math centers.

One thing I love to give students in their math centers are task cards. They are easy to prep and store and multiple students can use them at once. This week I used Skip Counting Scavenger Hunt by Primary Essentials.

Side Note: You need to check out Francheryl's store! She has tons of these Scavenger Hunts that focus on different skills. This product is normally only $2.50 which is a STEAL because you also get an editable version that you can make endless variations with!

These task cards are meant to be used as a scavenger hunt with the cards taped up around the room. I love giving students opportunities to get moving during math, but since I already had a couple of high energy math games going on at the same time, I decided to use them as a center at one of my tables.

I demonstrated how to use them and because they were a little different than the task cards I usually make for them, they were excited! They thought they were cool and asked me to thank whoever made them. How cute is that? In this set, there are 4 versions of skip counting so you can use them at various times throughout your unit. I also love that the recording sheet is compact (3 to a page) and I used way less paper than my usual full recording sheet. The best part is that this product includes an editable version! This is an awesome and simple way to differentiate for your higher and lower achieving students. I plan to make a set of cards with 3 digit numbers for my high achievers and a set of cards that focus solely on skip counting by 3's because I observed several students struggling a bit with this.

Here's an even better part! If you leave a comment on this post (with your email) by Sunday at midnight, I will pick TWO winners to get this product for FREE! If you don't feel lucky, you can still grab them up for 50% off through Sunday! That is just $1.25!!!!

We all know that kids learn in different ways. I strive to meet the needs of all my kiddos by providing information visually, through songs and videos, orally and kinesthetically. I showed a couple of these skip counting videos, had the kids skip count orally while using hand motions, and of course we wrote our numbers in our notebooks.





For some of my struggling students, we'll physically count groups of objects. We also search for patterns within each skip counting series and color those patterns on hundreds charts. All this is in preparation for learning the conceptual understanding of multiplication.

Come back soon for another post about teaching arrays.

If you'd like to check out some other products that real teachers have reviewed, click the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up