Class Dojo

Class Dojo is a website that helps manages your classroom behavior. I have a very good class this year but there are some little things we need to work on. For example, I have a couple of students that have trouble with following directions. I can reward students who behave well in class. I can also give students negative points for bad choices. The students can see this on the Activeboard. I can control the points on my iPhone or iPad on with the Class Dojo app. I can create positive and negative behaviors to use in my class. There are colorful avatars that represent students. The students were excited to see their avatars on the board. Class Dojo is a way to reward students on great behavior. It makes a great game in your classroom. You will notice a difference in their behavior.

Cybrary Man’s Educational Web Sites

I just wanted to share an awesome website.  Cybrary Man has a wealth of information for anyone in education.  It doesn’t matter if you are a student, parent, or an educator this website has everything.  For teachers, it doesn’t matter what content you teach or what grade level Cybraryman has it!  Enjoy!

Sqworl!!!

Sqworl (pronounced squirrel) is a website that lets you create visual bookmarks. This is kind of like Symballo. I like this tool better because there is not a huge Google box in the center. Free Symballo has this. A lot of my students would always type in it. Free sqworl has ads but you can’t tell. Check out my sqworl! http://sqworl.com/vdfsot

2011-2012-What a year!

This year flew by!  This was an amazing year for my class.  I had little to no behavior problems in the room. (I guess this is what happens when you have 10 girls and four boys)  I also felt that my students progressed well in their English.  It was neat looking back at their Fall and Spring Assessments. In the Fall, the majority of the students wrote one word for their writing test.  But by Spring, there were a few that were writing paragraphs!  I have four that will be moving on to middle school.  Then there will be five students that will have to go back to their home school.  These students do not live close to Cumberland Trace.  Finally, there are five students that will stay at Cumberland Trace.  Four of them will be out in the school but I will have to keep one.  This student came into school at May.  It will be great to see in a few years on how well they will do! Check out our Animoto video of our school year!

Intensive English Unit 2012.

Elijah’s Toontastic Video

A couple days ago I posted about Toontastic.  Here is a video my son created using Toontastic.

Elijah’s Video

Animoto-Create videos fast!

Animoto is a web 2.0 tool that allows you to make videos.  Animoto is kind of like iMovies but it is much faster to make a movie.  For example, if you go on a field trip in the morning, you can have a movie to show the students in the afternoon.  You can also create videos from your iPhone by downloading the app.

Check out the video I created a while back so you can get a feel for Animoto.

Bemiss Intensive Unit 2009-2010

Toontastic- Creating Cartoons

Here is a neat app my wife told me about. Toontastic is an iPad app that allows you to create cartoons for free. You can set up your cartoon with a conflict and resolution. You can choose a setting or draw your own. You can also use the characters that come with the app or create your own. My son loves this app. He has created some that are very cute and funny. You can search and share the movies very easily too. Check out this app!

You Tube for Teachers

I had the amazing opportunity to go to NSTA this year in Indy. (Big thanks to my wife Allison by the way!) While I was there, You Tube was there to discuss their site for teachers. Youtube for Teachers allow teachers to show videos to their class without having to worry about if it is appropriate. I always show You tube videos on the fly for my ELLs. This means that if I think they are not understanding what a tornado is, then I’m going to show a video of a tornado with out screening it. Youtube for Teachers has videos that are screened and are very educational. The homepage is divided by core content and grade levels. It’s very easy to navigate through. The gentleman that works for Youtube, said that the comments can be disabled too. I was really amazed on how great it looked. I will use this in my classroom!

BrainPop ESL-Hello Ben and Moby!

Brainpop ESL is website that has lessons for ELL students.  I use this website has a whole class.  We watch the movie, we do the lessons, we play the games, and we take the tests.  The lessons are leveled, which means that it starts easy and then it gets harder.  The lessons involve listening, speaking, reading, and writing.  My students love this website.  Brainpop ESL is $115 for a year for a classroom.  It is well worth it though!

Pogoboards-Talking Wordwalls

Pogoboards is a webtool that allows you to create talking wordwalls.  You can print your wordwalls or email them too.  Pogoboards has a built in database that searches the images for you.   You can also us Google to find the images.  Pogoboards is $69.00 a year but it is well worth it.  I use it for all my classes.  Check it out!