Here’s hoping your weekend was tops. I spent some time moving dust around in my attic. Lots of sneezing took place and a couple of squeals. I can’t help it; spiders—even dead ones—give me the creeps! I did unearth a dusty box of really, really old 
mementos from my school years. One project in particular tickled me, so perhaps I’ll share that later in the week! 🙂
Today I want to remind you that it’s the last day to enter our “Geeks-Are-Great Giveaway!” All you need to do is share a technology-based tip or activity with us before midnight. Not only will your name be entered in a drawing for a free book from The Mailbox, but our editors will also be reading your tips and ideas for possible purchase for use in upcoming magazines. And remember, no tip or idea is too simple—especially for anyone like me who is eager to learn but just a teeny-tiny bit clueless!
Your geek in training,
Diane
PS I’m talkin’ about ideas for computers, digital cameras, document cameras, interactive whiteboards, tablets, and any other electronic device you use!
Congratulations to Jennifer! She’s the winner of our giveaway!
Thanks for the reminder! 🙂
One of the things I do is give my Prek Parents a listing of appropriate learning websites. Yes some Parents know about some of them but usually I find that I am giving them one more resource to use in the home.
I teach PreK and I have done the Clifford Magazine videos and games with the students on a Smart Board in the K room when they were out of the room.
Save money and time by doing lesson plans at a glance on your computer, both for monthly planning, or daily planning. I’ve even done a variation for year long mapping this way. Using Word, drop in a text box large enough to fill a page. Then use the Table function to drop in a table with as many boxes as you need for subject, time, etc. You can drag the boxes to be as large or small as needed, then fill with lesson topics, resources needed, special student notes, pull-outs, etc. I would actually master plan my whole grade level team for a month like this (each subject’s text was color coded), and then we each adapted our individual plans from this master plan. Each cell in the table is completely customizable and you can easily “save as” from week to week with slight modifications so you aren’t writing the same text over and over. You save money by not buying plan books or purchasing online web plan templates, and save time by not re-writing the same info. repeatedly that you do weekly.
i teach preschoolers 2 and 3. I have the whole alphabet letters in upper and lower case in which the children practice first their first name and than their last name. I use plastic covers 3 punch hole binder a eraserable black marker and a old white sock. These plastic covers can be use over and over. No mess each have a binder and the next assigment to do. They are having fun while learning.
I do the same for shapes, colors, numbers.
Elizabeth
I use my digital camera to take pictures of my students a they work at various activities or lessons throughout the month. Then, I download the pictures onto a dvd and use the slideshow to shar with parents so they can see their child and friends as they go through the day. I, also, add some monthly pictures to my school website. This gives parents who can’t make it to school a chance to see our class in action. I use the digital camera to create pictures for class made books and collages for the students to view themselves working correctly.
I use my smartboard for letter and number identification. They use it to practice handwriting and addition and subtraction. I have also used it to retell stories and to view online science activities.
I teach Prek and I use the Mimio on the whiteboard to teach and reinforce letters, numbers and shapes. It allows the children to physically participate in the activities by using the stylus to pop balloons to reveal a numbers or to drag a letter to the appropriate uppercase or lowercase basket.
I have used the flip video camera to create interactive teaching lessons! We did a video on the ditty…when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking. We also did a gallon song. Check them out on our web site: http://www.minot.k12.nd.us/gregory
Lots of fun!
A teacher I worked with a couple of years ago got the students involved with creating a “Shutterfly” album. She wanted to create a digital scrapbook for her one year-old daughter & helped get the students involved wih downloading photos, finding backgrounds pictures & colors, as well as be able to make comments! The book came out beautiful! Anyone can create a book under Shutterfly.com – very user friendly! FYI- the students were Life Skills Grades 3 – 5.
To save on paper, I project a copy of what we are doing onto the whiteboard and then I have students come and write their answer on the whiteboard instead of the paper. This way if they make a mistake it can be erased easily off of the whiteboard and paper is not wasted. Plus the kids love coming to the whiteboard.
We use the Let’s Find Out website on the Smartboard. It not only reads the booklet, but it has small videos to help them understand the concepts and games to play with the students. They love it!