SLANT: Sending Love Across the Nation to Teachers

I stumbled across an amazing blog this summer, Lessons With Coffee, and was intrigued by these SLANT boxes Jameson was organizing. This is the low down on how it works... you sign up and you will receive two email addresses at the beginning of the month and you reach out and start chatting!  There are a few rules that have been set! You have to follow the theme,  have a handmade item, a note and must be at least a ten dollar value.

Let me tell you about my experience with SLANT so far.  I met Ana from Mrs. Bentin's Blackboard and she actually inspired me to start my blog.  My partner from this month was Sarah from Kovescence of the Mind.  (Her box is below... the theme was 12 days of Christmas!) SLANT gives you that chance to meet other educators, correspond on a non-work level and you get the chance to send little tokens of appreciation to fellow teachers!

Head over to Lessons with Coffee and sign up for SLANT!

The Kahoot Craze

Have you heard about Kahoot?

My students go CRAZY over Kahoot.  My coworker, Mr. Baptie, told me about Kahoot at the beginning of the year and once you Kahoot with your class you can never go back.

Kahoot is a fun online way to review information. It is quite easy. You create a test with whatever information you would like to review. After you create the test, Kahoot will generate a game pin. Yours students log on to https://kahoot.it/#/ and they create nickname to log on. (This is the really fun part for my third graders!) Depending on how quickly and correctly students answer questions depends on where they rank on the scoreboard.

The benefits for the teacher... If a student gets the answer correct, the computer screen turns green and if the student gets it wrong the computer screen turns red.  It is a great way for you assess within in seconds. 

 

Don't forget to check out Teaching Trio to check out all the wonderful Technology Thursday Tips!  

Now go get your Kahoot on....

Sunday Scoop

I am linking up with Teaching Trio for Sunday Scoop! I started it on Sunday but didn't link up until today!

Have a wonderful week!

Animoto in the classroom

Last week, my students researched information about a continent. They had to find the highest mountain, the longest river and so on... I wanted to find a way for my students to create a video to represent what they had learned. I stumbled across and automatically fell in love with the website, Animoto!

Teachers... are you ready?! Animoto gives teachers a free 6 month subscription! All you have to do is fill out the teacher form.  Animoto generates a classroom code for your students and they just sign up using the code. 

Check out some of the videos my students created! They picked the theme of the video and the music. It is a very simple website to use! My third graders just added in their information and uploaded images! Here are two examples of South America videos.... they are not prefect but they had fun!

South America
South America


I contacted Animoto and told them we were having so much fun with their website.  The have given me an Animoto Pro Subscription to give away to a lucky follower!

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Painting Tables with White Board Paint

Working at a 1:1 school, I realized my kiddos still needed a place to work out their problems. Trying to be a paperless or being more realistic, a paper lite classroom, my students needed a workspace that wasn't scratch paper. (That was driving me crazy... having scratch paper everywhere!)

One of my fellow teaching partners painted her tables with whiteboard and I decided to follow suit and create a tutorial!

Step 1: Ask permission! My tables were from circa 1972 and my wonderful principal was on board!

Step 2: Supplies needed:

• Rust-oleum Dry Erase paint (I used 3 boxes for 5 tables and my U-shaped table) 
• sand paper (60 or 80 grit) 
•  A dense foam roll and roller 
• paint tray 
• paint sticks
• painter's tape (I used the blue stuff) 
• painter's plastic (I painted the tables in my classroom and I didn't want any drips on my new carpet!)

Step 3:  I then sanded all the tabletops and then removed the dust with water and a lint free cloth.

Step 4: To prevent drips, I used the blue painter's tape around the edges of the tables.

Step 5: It is really important to do all the prep work before you mix the paint. You only have an one-hour window to paint once can A and can B are mixed.  Paint one thin coat on all the tables.

Step 6: I convinced my wonderful boyfriend that he wanted to help me paint my tables. We applied three thin coats on each table and used 2 boxes of the paint. We then came back the next day and used one more box and painted on two more coats.  You have to wait 3 days before you can use Expo markers on the tables.

Here are the tables in action!