Matt

YouTube.com/Teachers: A place for your class and student videos

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YouTube.com just announced their new YouTube.com/Teachers area designed specifically for teachers to use in schools and with students. According to an article on Mindshift.com: The new teachers site is part one of two big initiatives on the part of YouTube geared towards educators. In the next couple of weeks, a bigger announcement will be made [...]

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Reinforcing Daily Five Procedures and Expectations

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During the 2008-2009 school year, I began using The Sisters’ (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) process of teaching balanced literacy to my fourth grade students: Daily Five Reading and Literacy CAFE. Periodically I will post information, videos, or examples of how I am implementing this balanced literacy structure. One the keys to success with Daily [...]

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Use Google Calendar to Make Sign-up Forms

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Last week I posted an article about how to use to two FREE web 2.0 services to create online sign-up forms for parent-teacher conferences, classroom volunteers, and so on. Google recently updated their FREE calendar that is included with their Gmail (email) service. Using Google’s new “Appointment Slots” feature in their calendar allows you to [...]

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How To: Making Online Sign-Up Forms

So many of the procedures we use to contact and make appointments with parents are inefficient and extremely time-consuming for both teachers and parents. One very helpful way to integrate technology into your classroom is by using technology to make more efficient use of your time. Even if your school is committed to staying in the [...]

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Read To Self: Great Books for Reluctant Readers

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During the 2008-2009 school year, I began using The Sisters’ (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) process of teaching balanced literacy to my fourth grade students: Daily Five Reading and Literacy CAFE. Periodically I will post information, videos, or examples of how I am implementing this balanced literacy structure. Books for Reluctant and Struggling Readers When [...]

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Technology Tools For Teachers

I’m always interested in learning about the tools and resources other educators are using. In the spirit of sharing, this post contains a selection of my favorite and most often used technology tools and resources. Computer What can I say, I am totally biased and I hate dealing with problems!

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Being a Healthy & Strong Educator

Being a teacher and having many friends that are teachers, I know we all struggle with a great deal of stress and have trouble finding time to take care of ourselves during the school year. Over this past year I have been using P90X: Tony Horton’s 90-Day Extreme Home Fitness Workout DVD Program and I [...]

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Theater in the Classroom: Bad Wolf Press

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During the 2008-2009 school year I ended the school year with a musical play created by Bad Wolf Press. It was a terrific success on all accounts. The students and families loved it, students gained valuable performance skills and increased their reading fluency skills in the process. In the future, I would love to use [...]

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Word Work: Salt Dough Spelling

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During the 2008-2009 school year, I began using The Sisters’ (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) process of teaching balanced literacy to my fourth grade students: Daily Five Reading and Literacy CAFE. Periodically I will post information, videos, or examples of how I am implementing this balanced literacy structure. Word Work One of the five components [...]

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How To: Making Salt Dough Maps

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One interesting way to use Salt Dough in your classroom is to have students make 3-dimensional, or topographic maps. Using Salt Dough to create realistic topographic maps, helps students conceptualize a region of the world in a way that simply creating or coloring in a paper map cannot.   Basic Map Making Lesson Plan

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