Teacher Tips for Technology in the Classroom

Welcome to the second installment of my "Teacher Tips Thursday" weekly posts :) Each week I will be writing up quick tips that I think will benefit new and experienced teachers alike. I love collaborating, so if there is something you would like to add to this list, please leave me a comment in the comments field below and I will add your tips with credit to you. 

Technology in the Classroom

If you have noticed a trend in other teachers using Chromebooks and tablets in their everyday teachings, you aren't alone. I'm going to quickly outline a few good reasons why we all should be following suit, too. 

Waste Reduction 

As teachers we have a social responsibility to help sustain our resources. By stepping into the digital age are saving paper, ink, writing tools, and other related resources. In addition to being good role models by reducing our consumption and waste, we are showing our students we aren't stuck in the stone age either (which give us brownie points too, trust me). 

Time-Saver

We save time by eliminating the amount of paper handouts (newsletters, homework sheets, writing assignment information, etc) as we move towards digital technology. By setting up digital experiences we can all have the relevant information and lessons at our fingertips - students, parents and fellow teachers alike. There is no more running around the room looking for that loose leaf sheet of paper with the instructions printed on them. When we move towards a more digital classroom and everyone can access their work in a heartbeat, everyone saves time. Which means there is more time for actual learning.

Student Career Prep

Teaching our students now about  how to use technology helps prepare them for the rest of their education and even for their careers later on. Students need to learn how to be tech-savvy in today's world. 

Engaged Students 

When students are excited to use resources like Chromebooks and tablets they are more likely to learn the lesson within it. That's a fact.

Current, Portable Learning

Say goodbye to bulky, heavy outdated learning resources and textbooks. With today's technology we can easily guide our students towards top-notch learning experiences through lightweight devices and amazing apps, alongside traditional teaching methods.  

It's time to embrace digital learning in our classrooms because whether we like it or not, it is the way of the future and we need to help our students prepare for the 'real' world!  

Previous Teacher Tips Thursday Posts: 

1. Teacher Tips Thursday (Child Behaviour Guidance)

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Freebie: Trace and Cut Worksheets (emerging skills)

Whether you are working in a toddler, preschool or kindergarten classroom, you likely know the important link between developing fine motor skills and printing/cutting with precision. That's why I developed a quick set of Trace and Cut Worksheets that allow your students the opportunity to develop and refine those crucial skills. It is comprised of simple shapes and images using dotted lines that can be traced, coloured  then cut with scissors. 

Trace and Cut Worksheets

Simply head over to my TeachersPayTeachers Store and download the FREE file. It's a PDF and can be printed easily. 

Resource Link: Trace and Cut Worksheets

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Honey, Cinnamon and Sugar Roasted Chickpeas

As I had mentioned briefly in my last post, I have recently made a batch of delicious honey, cinnamon and sugar roasted chickpeas. Here's a picture of the what they looked like before my family and I devoured them:

Honey, Cinnamon and Sugar Roasted Chickpeas

As you can probably guess by now, these aren't exactly the umm let's say "heathiest" chickpea recipes I've tried lately, but as far as a protein-packed, kid-approved late snack goes, this certainly fits the bill!

The recipe itself is very simple and easy to execute. Here's the breakdown:

Honey, Cinnamon and Sugar Roasted Chickpeas Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

1 (28 ounce) can of chickpeas

4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon (halved)

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Drain and thoroughly rinse chickpeas under cold running water. Remove skins if desired.

3. Dry chickpeas between two clean dishtowels or pieces of paper towel.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, half of the cinnamon (2tsp), and granulated sugar. Add in the chickpeas and mix thoroughly.

5. Spread the chickpeas in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until chickpeas are crunchy. Shake the pan every 10 minutes to prevent burning, DO NOT OVERBAKE!

6. Remove baking tray from oven and place chickpeas in a medium sized bowl. Coat chickpeas evenly with honey. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon and powdered sugar on top. Mix until well coated.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Devour! 

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Five for Friday!

Good morning!  Today I am joining the lovely Kacey at Doodlebugs for my third Five for Friday linkup.

{#1}

As February draws closer, I have begun planning for Valentine's Day activities. My students LOVE my "Roll-a-Word vocabulary games", so I created this nifty Valentine's Day Roll a Word Game. I just need to laminate the sheets and then I will be filling it for later use. Tip: These are marked down by 50% for the next 48 hours.

Valentine's Day Roll a Word ELA Game

{#2}

I whipped up some delicious (but not terribly healthy by the time I was finished)  baked cinnamon sugar chick peas. I will do a post about this later on, but let's just say these were very yummy! These are great for those long teaching days because I can snack and not feel too guilty! 

Teacher Power :)

{#3}

This week felt super long to me, and I literally laughed out loud when I stumbled across this meme right before bed on Wednesday. Can anyone else relate? 

A Teacher's life

{4}

My family went sledding and had an absolute blast! We came home, kids had hot chocolate and then each one of them coloured in this neat little page before we headed back outside to play in the yard. Yay for snow! 

Sledding in winter

{5}

Finally, I grabbed some amazing resources at an awesome deal during the TpT "Start your year inspired" sale! I can't imagine going back to a time where I wasn't able to use other teachers' tried and true resources like I can now! It's such an energy saver!! Thanks to all the marvelous TpT teacher-authors and their fabulous resources!

TeachersPayTeachers.com

Well that just about sums up what I've been up to this week. What were you up to? Thanks for reading!

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TpT Site-wide Sale!!

Great news - there is a huge Teachers Pay Teachers site-wide sale happening from January 20th 2016 to January 21st 2016! 

Site-wide TpT Sale

Be sure to fill your carts with lots of goodies and score some GREAT savings with code START16!! My entire Teachers Pay Teachers Store will be marked down an extra 20% so be sure to pop over and grab some goodies! 

Happy shopping!

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Martin Luther King Day Vocabulary Game - Printable

My kiddos love learning MLK vocabulary words with this Martin Luther King Day dice game: 

MLK Printable ELA Game

Simply print (there are 3 pages), cut and laminate if desired. Post them at your literacy centre or hand them out individually to your students. Students must roll a die. The die dictates which word they must write out. The first student who has completed a column "wins". 

This great game can be played alone or with friends :) 

Learning Opportunities:

► Reading ‣ Students must read each sight word

► Subitizing ‣ amounts up to 6 (rolling the die)

► Matching ‣ Students match the number on the die to its corresponding sight word

Additional Details:

► Can be played alone or with friends

► Makes a great practice tool for spelling

► Makes a great file folder game

Find it here: Martin Luther King Day Vocabulary: Roll a Sight Word Game

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Five For Friday!

Good morning!  Today I am joining the lovely Kacey at Doodlebugs for my second Five for Friday linkup.

s

{#1}

The first thing I want to write about is my new facebook page! It is a page that highlights great teaching resources, funny teaching moments and other teaching-related experiences. It is located at http://facebook.com/JenRece and is seriously brand spankin' new and in need of some love. I think I literally have 1 person "liking" it, so I invite you to come on over and click on that pretty little "like" button so I don't keep sharing ideas with myself ;) While you're there, I'd love for you to say 'hi' and leave me a link to your blog/store/fb page too so I can follow you back. It's all about building community, after all! {Also, feel free to send me a facebook friend request if you'd like to network: @jenreceontpt} :) 

Facebook.com/Jen-Rece

{#2}

The next little project that kept me busy this week was implementing one of my newest winter emergent readers with my students. It's entitled "Snowman, Snowman, What do You See?" As you've probably guessed, it is modeled after the same style as "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?" My readers are available in 3 different versions (great for differentiated learning) and was thoroughly enjoyed by my little readers! This sweet little reader helps students practice various skills like phonics, comprehension, word and story predictions, vocabulary and even coloring. It's available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Snowman, Snowman, What do You See?

{#3}

I had some spare time earlier in the week and decided to play Candy Crush while I was waiting for a meeting to begin. Clearly I should have known I would become a little obsessed with it again - I'm so determined to beat all the levels now! It's such a fun, simple game but boy do I sometimes wish I never started with it. Now I'm on a mission to beat the level I'm currently on but man it's a challenge! I'm on level 235. Do you play it? 

{#4}

I played in the snow with my kids earlier in the week. It was a ton of fun seeing as we haven't had much snowfall this season! We made a hill to slide down and lots of snow angels. After an hour or so we came in for hot chocolate and marshmallows :) 

{#5}

My husband and I binge watched "Making a Murderer". I don't wait to spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it yet, but WOW. What a crazy roller coaster!! I also just saw a hilarious video online of a couple who reenact their reactions to the documentary and I swear it was DEAD ON. So funny! Have you seen "Making a Murderer" yet? Were you on an emotional roller coaster too? 

Well that just about sums up what I've been up to this week. What were you up to? 

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Teacher Tips on Child Behaviour Guidance

Welcome to the first installment of my "Teacher Tips Thursday" weekly posts :) Each week I will be writing up quick tips that I think will benefit new and experienced teachers alike. I love collaborating, so if there is something you would like to add to this list, please leave me a comment in the comments field below and I will add your tips with credit to you. 

Child Behaviour Guidance 

I'm a firm believer that child behaviour guidance is something no teacher every really masters. It's something that is very fluid - always flexing and growing from year to year. This is precisely why there is always so much professional development in this area. So I have decided to share my short list of some tried and true child behaviour guidance tips:  

Less is More.

What's the first thing you do when your class is acting up? Raise your voice? We all know what our "teacher voice" sounds like, and truth be told we all would probably cringe hearing ourselves using it. So why do we do it? To get attention? To be louder than everyone else? To assert our authority? While it seems to have its advantages, I can provide you with an even better, more peaceful way of reining in our classes without bombarding students with our constant talking (that's when we get tuned out, right?). It's quite simple but very effective. Ready for it? Here it is: Be Quiet. That's right - whisper quietly your requests to our classes. I like to whisper "hands on top...and of course my students put their hands on their heads and whisper back, "that means stop." At first, a handful of children will take notice and follow through. Then a few more children will join in, and within a minute the remaining students join in and you've got everyone's attention without using the dreaded teacher voice. I also maintain a quiet, peaceful speaking voice throughout the day because it provides a much calmer, happier environment. With all the speaking that we do, I think our voice tone really sets the tone of our classrooms. (Tone and tone, see what I did there?) There's definitely a connection, so let's try to remember that and not just talk for the sake of talking.

Observe and Mediate. Don't Solve.

Sometimes we tend to jump quickly into situations without checking things out first. That means we can miss important information and jump to wrong conclusions which can quickly escalate things. So the next time you see two students arguing, listen first to their words instead of sending one or both parties to a time out. Take the time to mediate the situation - without solving the problem for them. If anything, things have escalated because they haven't learned how to properly problem solve, so it is that much more important to teach them those crucial social skills. Mediating their problem solving means each person has the opportunity to speak and offer up their own solution. Telling students who is right or wrong, or separating them to opposite sides of the room is not solving anything. This leads to the same problem occurring again and again...until you observe what is happening and walk them through the process together. Like anything else, practice makes progress. So let your students practice solving their own problems, even when things get hairy. Remember, "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." 

Document Everything

Be sure to communicate effectively to parents regarding their child's behaviour. Always put it on paper-whether it's an occurring issue or a one-time deal. Having a paper trail will not only cover your back if things become escalated, but also help determine triggers and potential solutions. I use weekly behavior charts with my students who have ongoing issues in the classroom. It is an effective tool for school to home communication and helps tremendously in fostering a collaborative relationship with parents so they are continuously in the loop. Here is a quick screenshot of my Weekly Behavior Chart, available for download in my TpT Store;

Student Weekly Behavior Chart

What else would you add to this quick list of teacher tips? Comment below and I will add your ideas to this post. 

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Year Long Writing Prompts

Every primary teacher understands the importance of their students developing good writing skills. While it is sometimes a daunting task to have your students journal, I have come up with a weekly writing portfolio that my students actually LOVE and always look forward to!  It's geared towards kindergarten to fourth grade students.

Weekly Writing Portfolio (40 Prompts)

The weekly writing portfolio system that I've developed works really well for both me AND my class. Each student is given a duo-tang or binder with 40 writing prompts (40 pages = 1 page per week) and on Writing Wednesdays they independently complete their writing assignment. 

Weekly Writing Portfolio (40 Prompts)

Above is a sample of what the journal pages look like - and as you can see, there is a journal prompt at the top, followed by space to illustrate their thoughts and finally a writer's checklist at the bottom for self-editing. 

Weekly Writing Portfolio (40 Prompts)

I have also included two different sized binder spine labels and a cover page for each duo-tang...plus  a teacher's checklist so you know which prompts you have used. It's a snap to prepare and can be used year after year with excellent results! 

Product Details: 

► 40 prompts suitable for kindergarten to fourth grade students ‣ 1 prompt per page (my students complete 1 prompt per week)

► Each page has a space for writing as well as a space for drawing a picture 

► Each page also has a space for checking their work ‣ students must check off the boxes at the bottom of each page for Capitals, Spacing and Punctuation. 

► Includes a 2-page teacher checklist of all 40 weekly prompts. Simply check off the prompts as you go (if you're obsessed with organization like I am) 

► Fantastic tool for year long assessments 

► Individual pages can be displayed at your writing centre or handed out as needed 

► Can be printed on both sides to save paper 

► Portfolios can be bound together with staples or 3-ring binders with plastic sleeves on the front (this is what I prefer because it is the most durable)

► Spine labels can be printed onto colored paper and students (or you) can write their names before "Writing Portfolio" for fast recognition. Here's a tip for easy insertion of the spine labels: print on cardstock - they slide in without bunching up :) 

► Buy this product once and use year after year! I have not written any dates on this product, so it is suitable for years to come :) 

Learning Opportunities: 

► Creative writing skills 

► Opinion writing skills 

► Spelling skills 

► Increased vocabulary 

► Fine motor development 

► Sense of autonomy/independence

► Public speaking practice (if work is presented) 

► Sense of accomplishment and pride

Find it here: Weekly Writing Portfolio (40 Prompts)

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Five for Friday

Good morning, friends!  Today I am joining the lovely Kacey at Doodlebugs for my very first Five for Friday linkup {yahoo!} 

{#1}

So the first thing I did this week that's worth mentioning is that I started up this blog! I felt that after a year and a half of selling my teaching resources (and giving away freebies) over at my TpT store (Jen Rece on TpT) it was about time I step up and start a blog to connect with the lovely ladies and gents I've recently met! I have to say, I'm super excited about this new venture :)

{#2}

As part of my New Years Resolutions, I decided to take up a new hobby to help decrease stress...colouring! I have to say, this is SO therapeutic! I can completely lose track of all my worries (like parenting issues and lesson planning) and relax before I go to bed. I highly recommend them to you if you need a bit of a helping breaking away from your thoughts too! 

{#3}

I spotted this super cute Sesame Street magnetic book when I was out shopping earlier in the week. As soon as I saw it I knew my almost 3 year old would love it! Not only is he obsessed with Cookie Monster, but he also has taken up a love for printing and colouring and what better way to strengthen those fine motor muscles than playing with small pieces? So here is a picture of him doing just that:

{#4} 

I did some bulk cooking this week as well. It was in hopes that I would have been well prepared to throw dinner on the table at a decent time, thanks to heading back to work and school after the Christmas break.   Luckily for us it worked and I didn't have to scramble for ideas in the evenings. Definitely a huge time saver!

{#5} 

Lastly, I spent time printing off copies of my Winter Emergent Reader Book and they are now all ready to be implemented. I love printables, and this comes in 3 versions so it's going to serve me well from year to year. If you have a chance, feel free to check it out and see if it's something you could use, too! :) 

Well that just about sums up what I've been up to this week. What were you up to? 

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Student Personal Desk Dictionaries {K-4 Dolch Words}

As a teacher, I'm always looking for ways to help my students become more independent. If you're like me, you'll probably want to support your students’ ongoing learning with these Personal Desk Dictionaries: 

Pre-filled with the top 100 Dolch high-frequency sight words (grade specific), these ready-to-print dictionaries also provide plenty of space for new words that are personalized to each student’s individual spelling needs. Great resource to use instead of (or with) a word wall. They are available for Kindergarten up to Fourth Grade, so be sure to check them out in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store :) 

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