Techie Turtle Teacher

I've agreed to take a student teacher for this semester.  My student teacher will be in my classroom 2 days a week.  Since this is the first time for her being in a classroom, I have a very important job to do.  I've had student teachers 2 other times and I want to share some things I've learned about being a mentor. I'm going to run this series until the end of the school year.  It most likely will run every other Thursday until I run out of tips. With that being said, here's my first tip in this series. The preparing stage is very important.  As soon as you agree to take a student teacher, you need to start preparing for it immediately.  Start making sure your room is ready for someone else to occupy. Your student teacher should be given a desk.   He/she will also need copies of your schedule and class lists.  Highlight names of behavior problems and academic needs. Make a list of important things you want...

If you want to join the linky, grab the Tech Tip Tuesday button.  Post about a technology tip.  Then link up below! Click { here } to fill out my form if you are interested in helping me improve my tech tips. ***************************** Do you want to know how people post shortened urls to their blog posts or other pages?  These short url codes are very popular when trying to save characters on Twitter. There are a couple different ones that I have used. The first one is from Google.  You just go to  https://goo.gl/ Paste or type the url that you want to shorten in the box. Let's say I want to link to my blog.  I would put the address of my blog in the box and then click on the shorten URL button. It will give you the short code for you to copy and show you a snippet of the page.  That way you can easily check to make sure you entered the original link correctly. Now, you can post the short code in a tweet and it won't take ...

If you want to join the linky, grab the Tech Tip Tuesday button.  Post about a technology tip.  Then link up below! Click { here } to fill out my form if you are interested in helping me improve my tech tips. ***************************** When you're creating products, do you get tired of using your mouse or trackpad to save, copy, paste, or bold text? You're in luck!  You need to use keyboard shortcuts.  I've compiled a list of my most frequent keyboard shortcuts.  These shortcuts definitely help me and I hope you'll learn a new one or two today! Keyboard shortcuts are really simple.  For almost all of the ones on my list, you just hold down control (on a PC) or ⌘ (on a Mac) and then type the letter that goes with the shortcut you want. For example, if I want to undo something that I've done, on a PC, I would hold down the ctrl key and then type z.  Poof, whatever I did is now gone!  This is so helpful if I'm testing something out...

I saw this post from Teaching with Style and I just had to have those Wall Pops.  I had been wanting another option for dry erase boards for my classroom.  It usually takes me a long time to pass out the boards and materials.  I was looking for something to save me time.  When I saw these, I knew they'd do the trick! Well, what are they? Giant circles that you can write on using dry erase markers.  They erase perfectly and are so motivating for students! You can get them on Amazon.  As soon as I finished reading her post, I went right over there and ordered 3 packages.  Each package comes with 3 wall pops.  There are many different colors.  I got all green - it matches my room theme and I wouldn't have any fighting over the colors. The circles are fairly large, so you could cut each one in half and double the number of writing spaces. Every time my students use these, the wheels in my head are spinning on how else I coul...

Last week I showed you some place value manipulatives that you just have to have for your classroom. Remember these? Have your students get in groups of 3.  Assign a place value to each person - hundreds, tens, and ones.  That person is in charge of rolling that place value dice.  Groups can practice making numbers using standard form, word form, and expanded form.  If you want them to write down their numbers, they can use this chart .  It's free! Do you have dry erase boards for your students to use?  Like this? Give each student a partner.  Have partners sit back to back.  Partner A gets to use the dry erase board, so make sure they also have a dry erase marker and an eraser.  Partner B gets to hold on to the place value dice.  Partner B will roll the dice and use clues to tell Partner A what number was rolled.   If Partner B rolled the dice that are pictured above, he or she would say somethin...

When teaching math, you should always have a supply of manipulatives to use.  Students have a hard time visualizing, so you have to help them by showing them. I keep these base 10 blocks in my room all year.  I pull them out for many lessons.  So far, I've used them in all the standards we've taught so far - NBT1, NBT2, NBT3, and NBT4. I keep them in baggies, so I can easily pass out blocks to the students when needed.  Each baggie has hundreds, tens, and ones.  The students can just use whatever ones they need and keep the rest in the bag. Another thing I love is these foam place value dice.  They are quiet when rolled across a desk.  Every teacher loves that, right?  I use these when practicing expanded form.  The students can easily see the different place values.  Our school has 2 sets of these.  I would love to have more so partner groups could use them at the same time, but I'll take what I can get.  These ar...

Do you have a problem encouraging ALL your students to participate in class?  Do you want to make sure you are calling on everyone and not letting a few students do all the talking? You're in luck!  I have the perfect tip for you today! Buy some popsicle sticks.  Write each child's name on a stick.  Keep all sticks in a cup or basket. When you're ready for a discussion, start pulling sticks and calling on those students.  Don't put their name back in until every child has had a chance to participate. It definitely encourages students to pay attention because they never know when they're going to be called on. It also helps me make sure students are participating and understanding the lesson. How do you make sure you are not calling on the same students all the time?

Do you read Chrysanthemum with your students?  I read it with my students this year and they loved it!  If you haven't read it, you need to.  It has a very important message to share. Basically, Chrysanthemum is being bullied because of her long name and it teaches students to think about how to make people feel like they are blooming, not wilting. I had a long conversation with my students about what it means to feel like you are blooming and what it means to feel like you are wilting. I have these posters displayed in my classroom as a reminder and I have individual reminders on each desk. You can get these posters and more for free by clicking on the picture below.

I assign numbers to my students.  This is very helpful when checking to see who has turned in work and who has not.  It's also helpful when returning papers to students. In order for my students to learn their numbers, I write them on their name tags.  This way, they see it all the time and have it to reference when completing their work. One way the numbers help me is for their mailboxes.  Last year, I labeled them with stickers with their numbers, but they started peeling off throughout the year and were difficult to read with papers in the mailboxes. I saw this strategy on Pinterest and decided I needed to try it!  I tried peeling off the labels that I used last year, but they were stuck, so I just left them. I got enough binder clips for my mailboxes.  I wrote student numbers on stickers and put those stickers on the binder clips.  Then I put each binder clip on the mailbox slot. My hope is that they will be easie...