Website Wednesday: Schoolgirl Style

Okay, so typically my featured website on Wednesday aren't blogs or stores but when I stumbled across this teacher's blog I was floored!  My addiction to all things that are visually stimulating was in high gear when cruising Melanie Rulbusky's site.  Talk about a majorly talented designer (and by the looks of it, teacher too) - Melanie masters the art of making her classroom a welcoming place for her students.

I have always prided myself on my own room. It is 99% of the time extremely neat and organized and while I've always dreamed of making it more themed, I've always been typically happy with what I have managed to do.  But after seeing her site and ideas, I am now charged up to make some bright colorful and creative changes to my own classroom!  I can't wait to start my design board. :-)

Not only does Melanie create welcoming environments for her own students, she also shares her work with others for a nominal fee. And since time IS money for many of us, I think it's a fabulous and wonderful thing that she does sell them for other teachers to use.  Be sure to check out her latest creation - an Owl themed classroom.  She also has a Pinterest (of course) with more fabulous ideas.

Have you come across a classroom or design website that you just absolutely love? Share it below. 

Website Wednesday: Even MORE Apps

I have continued my hunt for fabulous apps to use in the classroom and came across another goldmine - the TCEA Recommended iPad Apps!  I may be late to this one.....as I was viewing this spreadsheet there was 35 other people on it at the same time.  Apparently, this one is a bit more well known.

After visiting the Twitter Account that this particular app spreadsheet had listed, I found out that this HUGE collection of apps (which is being constantly updated) was put together by Texas Computer Education Association aka TCEA.  And while I thought I had spent a lot of time on the other App resource I posted last week, it dulls in comparison to how much time I'm spending on this one.

They have neatly organized by subject - you think of it, they have it listed.  Handwriting, Literature, Creating, Counting, Dividing, Earth Science, Weather, Health & Fitness, Technology.....the list goes on and on and ON.  Seriously - check this one out.  Also, at the bottom of the spreadsheet they have a tab for Personal Use list of apps which was pretty cool too!

Are there anymore app lists that you have found that would be great for me to check out?  Post them below!

Website Wednesday: RubiStar

Search ability in RubiStar

Hello everyone - it's another WEBSITE WEDNESDAY!!!  Today, I want to talk about my favorite place to get rubrics for almost every assignment you can think of.  Personally, as a teacher, I am a big fan of rubrics.  They really assist me when it comes to grading student projects and writing.  Unlike tests and regular worksheets, I find that grading projects and writing is very difficult and hard to remain consistent from one student to the next.

RubiStar is a website in which you can create your own rubrics for assignments or you can search their database of other teacher created rubrics.  You have the ability to create an account and save any rubric you create and also add it to the database they have for others to search.  Often, when I'm not quite sure what project I want to do, I go to RubiStar and do a generic search of keywords.  For example, if I want a math project idea, I go and search the words "math project" and I quickly scan the results. If I find a rubric that sounds like something I'm looking for, I grab it.  Then I work backwards with the rubric in hand and create the project for my students.  Some of my best ideas have developed this way.

Customizable rubric screen

However, sometimes you don't always find a great premade rubrics for what you need.  When this happens, you can create a rubric.  RubiStar makes this extremely easy!  You choose from a list of customizable rubrics for whatever assignment you are creating one for.  From there, they provide you a blank rubric that allows you to go in and create categories and number values.  BUT the best part is, they also provide a drop down box with premade categories for you to choose from.  And these are also editable.  Once you have your perfect rubric created, you can print it or export it into Excel.

Here are my top two reasons why I think every teacher should use rubrics:
1.  Guidelines - rubrics provide not only the teacher guidelines as to how and what they will be grading on but they also provide those guidelines to their students and parents.  That way it is no secret as to what the teacher is looking for in the assignment.
2.  Self-assessment - I personally love to print out the rubrics and give them to my students when I give the assignment.  When students turn in their final assignment, they also turn the rubric back into me which they self-assessed themselves on.  This has been a huge step in getting students to actually look back over their work.

Now trust me, I know there are MANY websites that you can get rubrics from but in my opinion none are quite as fabulous as RubiStar!  And if you are completely clueless as to what to do, they even provide a tutorial for you.  Check it out and tell me what you think.

Website Wednesdays: Free Font Sites

Since I just posted my first Linky Party yesterday, I thought it would be a good idea to stay with the theme of free fonts and make this a quick post.  Here is a list of my favorite websites to get some free fonts.

dafont - (I just wasted spent about 30 minutes looking through this site. I love it!)
1,001 Free Fonts - I wonder if they really only have 1,001 fonts.....
Kevin and Amanda - this is my new favorite site - I came across it just a couple of weeks ago. This is where I found one of my absolute favorite fonts - Spicy Sushi Roll.

What are your favorite websites to download free fonts? Comment below.

Website Wednesdays: Weebly (and a biome project)

I'm always on the lookout for new ways to have my students create projects. And if they can involve technology - I'm usually sold.  Nothing gets my kids more fired up, than the thought of using a computer versus a pencil and piece of paper.  

So when it came time for my kids to study biomes and ecosystems, I knew that having them create a pamphlet just wasn't going to cut it this year.  Which leads me to today's Website Wednesday - Enter Weebly.  A fabulously (is that even a word? It is now!) free website that helps you....build websites. Ironic - I know. 

My students assignment was to create a website based upon the biome they were assigned and design a tourism site to inform potential travelers of the facts and sights they would see there.  These were their basic guidelines (*note - I did not create the original template of this project. I found it a few years ago and cannot locate the original author. I did, however, modify it to be a website project):

Home Page: Introduction
• Include a brief introduction to your biome to encourage them to visit the rest of the website.
•  Include why this Biome is globally important.

Page One:  Biome’s place on earth
• Where is it (geographical distribution)?
• What are its physical features?
• What are the native plants and their adaptations to live there?
• What are the native animals and their adaptations to live there?
• Give examples of cooperation and competition between and among species.

Page Two: Attractions/Tour Packages/Weather Report
• Advertise your biome’s recreational activities
• Publicize points of interest
• Suggest supplies/gear that tourists should bring to make their trip more enjoyable.
• Suggest other biomes nearby for side trips
• Weather Report (Used to aid tourists in packing their gear)

• What is the average precipitation?
• What is the average temperature?

Page Three: Warnings
• What are some threats to this biome?
• Are there any endangered species?
• Is there a fear of climate change for this biome?

Page Four: Sources Cited
• List where you found your information.

They make it easy to sign-up your school!

Weebly is a fantasic and easy resource for the students to quickly understand and begin working in.  Some of its best features include drag and drop editing, a collection of designs, no advertising (which is huge when talking about educational purposes), and the ability to put in rich multimedia.  At my school, we are lucky to have our email completely linked up to Google and all the awesome Google apps that come along with it.  Weebly is one of them, so my students could easily log in without me having to create sign-ins for them. 

Julia's Amazing Artic Website

You seriously just need to check it out today! In the meantime, here are some of my students' websites for your viewing pleasure. :-)

Chloe - http://chloesfreshwaterfacts.weebly.com/

Julia - http://theamazingarctic.weebly.com/

Kamila - http://thefantasticfreshwater.weebly.com/

Dhruv - http://dhruvstropicalrainforest.weebly.com/

Share below how you would use weebly in your classroom!

 

Website Wednesdays (errrr....I mean Thursday): Mangahigh

Okay - I realize I'm a day late. However, I was super swamped yesterday and could only get one post in and the Leibster Award won.....literally! ;-)  BUT, I'm back today with my Website Wednesday post.  Today's website I want to discuss is Mangahigh. If you haven't had a chance to check out this FREE math game website, you need to get on it!  I stumbled across this site last year and I can honestly say it is one of my students' favorite websites.  When we do math stations and I list Mangahigh as one of the activities that needs to be done, the kids are always excited.  And hey - what's not to love about students being excited about math? Nothing...that's what!

This fabulous resource allows you to create a personalized account for your school.  You can have just one teacher use it or multiple teachers can create class lists (which the more students learning and playing the better!).  Each student gets their own personalized login and password (and the site allows you to print out easy to handout login information slips).  Once you have your class list in, students can begin to search through math games and play.  But even better, you can begin to assign game challenges to either individual students or to the entire class.  Students have an opportunity to earn medals (bronze, silver and gold) depending on their score.

Another fabulous addition to this already awesome site are the Fai-Tos.  At some point your school may (and probably will) be chosen for a Fai-To.  A Fai-To is where two schools have an all out battle.....math battle that is.  When students login in and their school is up for a possible Fai-To, they actually vote on which school out of two that they want to challenge.  Then, through the games they play, they earn points and win rounds.  The winner receives the virtual Fai-To trophy.  These school vs school challenges are so motivating to the students! They never want another school to show them up.

When it comes to setting challenges, you have a variety of a games to choose from for your class.  One thing I have noticed is that the creators of Mangahigh work very hard at aligning their games with core standards and making it easy to search for a particular skill set you want your students to work on.  With a couple quick clicks of a button, you can easily find a game or games that suit your students' needs.  You have the ability to set multiple challenges for your students.

There are so many other neat components of this gaming website, that it really is impossible for me to list them all in this brief post.  Along with having awesome games , they really also make it easy for a teacher to see individual student results.  They also are super about responding back to individual questions and about organizing the site to make it really easy to use.  You definitely need to check it out today and get your class mathematically challenged!

Website Wednesdays: Classroom Freebies Too

It would be a shame if I didn't make Classroom Freebies Too my website for this week.  As a contributor (one who feels very honored to be apart of it!), I find it my job to promote this amazing blog that was started by Charity Preston from The Organized Classroom Blog.


Originally, Charity began the first Classroom Freebies blog back in September of 2011.  Within just a few short months, it has reached over 1,000,000 page views!!! Why? Because it has FREE STUFF on it.  Let me explain - a hundred different teacher bloggers post products that they have created and want to share with other teachers for free.  The criteria is that the items need to be free forever.  Bloggers cannot lure you in, only to charge for the product later. :-)  So, after seeing how wildly successful the original Classroom Freebies blog was Charity decided to start another one.  So now there is a Classroom Freebies Too. 


Besides offering free resources for teachers, these blogs also offer another great feature.  It is being able to search through the freebies based upon simple keywords which are Pk-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. 


So - search away and I'm sure you'll find some treasures awaiting you there.  And make sure you check out my first freebie posted and leave me some feedback.  :-)

Website Wednesdays: Artsonia

ARTSONIA - If you haven't heard of this amazing website then you need to! Where else can you find a plethora of amazing art projects for students.....by students?  Chances are, if you are a "pinner" on Pinterest, you have come across Artsonia.  You could spend hours on this website looking at student art work to pin and try in your own classroom at a later date.

So easy to get started!

Still confused?  Well, let me explain.  Artsonia is an online database of uploaded student artwork, which is organized by schools and individual student portfolios.  Basically, as a teacher you sign up your school and enter your student roster (after getting parent permission of course).  Afterwards it's time to begin uploading work.  As students finish artwork throughout the year, you either snap a picture or scan their work and upload it under an exhibit.  It takes about 24 hours for student work to show up on the site.  When it does, it is available for online viewing to everyone.  This allows family members of our students, who may not be close, to still see the artwork that is being produced in the classroom.

Doves Of Hope Exhibit
Student Work

However, not only can people cruise through these online portfolios, you can even purchase items (bags, postcards, magnets, temporary tattoos) with the artwork actually printed on it.  The best part - the school gets a percentage of all sales back to use on art supplies.   This is a fabulous opportunity for schools that are looking for ways to boost their art program, but weren't sure how.  Students also have an opportunity to win Artist of the Week.  If their artwork is voted as the best for the week, they receive a $50 gift certificate and the school a $100 gift certificate to Blicks Art Materials (they also have amazing art lessons on their website - check them out here).

From the teacher login, you can quickly
view your school's stats.

Our school has been using Artsonia for three years now (the first year only two of us used it but now all our teachers do) and every year our payout continues to grow and personally, I think the artwork gets better.  Parents love that they can see their child's artwork and share it with friends and students love to see their work online and students are proud to have their work up for the world to see.  Another cool component are the fan clubs, where family and friends can leave comments on any art project they see.  Students can also submit an Artist Statement that explains how they feel about their art project, what inspired them, what they would have changed, etc.

American Gothic -
A Collaborate Group Project

As if all of this wasn't enough, there is even a section for teachers to browse and look up art lessons plans.  And if they so choose, they can submit their own to share with other teachers out there.  And just like last week's website, Artsonia is ALSO FREE!!!!!  Sooooo.....what are you waiting for?
Go - browse - pin - create!  Who knows - you just might have the next Picasso in your class. :-)  

Website Wednesdays: Edmodo

Today is the first of many Website Wednesdays, in which I will introduce and discuss fantastic websites I use in my 5th grade classroom! The website in which I want to talk about is Edmodo (www.edmodo.com). I'm a huge fan of Edmodo and have been using it with my students for the past two years. They have earned multiple awards, including the Award of Excellence in 2011 from Tech and Learning. However, I will admit that I have not probably utilized it to its fullest capabilities. My goal is to continue to explore this website and improve my students' learning with it.

In case you don't already know, Edmodo is an online learning platform which allows you to build classes and provide students (and parents) with individual logins. According to Edmodo's website,

 "Edmodo provides a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices. Our goal is to help educators harness the power of social media to customize the classroom for each and every learner."

Seriously - by reading that, what's not to love? :-)

When you create an account with Edmodo, you have the ability to create as many classes as you want. So for example, I can (and in the past have) create different classes for Social Studies, Math, Science, Writing and so on. Or if you teach multiple groups, you can create classes and have only a select group of kids join. Seriously, the possibilities seem endless. Oh....and have I mentioned the best part yet???? IT'S FREE!!!!!

A teacher view.

My students and I both enjoy using this site. This year, I created just two classes.  One for me to assign work, quizzes and polls and another class that we called "Talking" for the students to use to have their own discussions.  Edmodo allows me to monitor their posts so I can be certain nothing inappropriate is going on.  And because of its "Facebook" like look, students get really into it.  They create profiles and upload avatars. And I don't have to worry about someone who doesn't belong being able to see my students.


Let's review some 10 of Edmodo's capabilities.  They have much more than 10, but we'll start there. 

# 5 - Built in quiz creator!

1.  Able to create multiple classes for students with access codes.  This way, only the people you want to be in the class can join with the code.
2.  You can allow parents to login to the classes you create for students or you can even create one for just parents and communicate with them.
3.  You can assign and collect assignments and provide due dates which show up on the built in calendar.
4.  You can create polls!

# 6.  An example of my library.

5.  You can create quizzes and tests that the students take right on Edmodo.
6.  You can build a library of documents and websites and share them with students.
7.  You can award "badges" to your students.  (I haven't done this yet but the ideas seem endless.)
8.  You can join communities with other educators.  I enjoy visiting these and sharing ideas with other educators. Plus, I have found many great websites from this awesome community!
9.   Edmodo hosts webinars all the time to help educators maximize this site.
10.  They have a great app, so you can access this site even on the go.  This helps a lot because my students use this website as a means to communicate with me.  I have the ability to quickly respond back if needed.

Again, Edmodo can do so much more....these are just the basics.  If you haven't checked them out, I highly encourage you to do so.  And, in my opinion it's not just for upper grades.  I envision primary grades using this as a way to communicate with parents. Perhaps even more!

If you use Edmodo, what are some ways you utilize it?  Share down below in the comments section.

Wiki With Us

After taking some time since my beautiful baby, Kenzie, was born in July, I have finally decided to hop back into the world of blogging and sharing teaching ideas. In order to keep this resolution of updating my site regularly, I have created a couple days a week in which I will have themes. This is what I have come up with (and feel free to give me more ideas in the comments below). 

Market Mondays: I will review and post my experience with products for teachers. 

Website Wednesdays: There are SO many great websites out there for me to share and discuss.
That's it for now....as time goes on I may add more and of course I will post ideas or other things as they come up. 

In the meantime, I just wanted to take a moment to share with you my wikipage, which holds many resources that you just may find beneficial.  Some of the popular items are located under the "Classroom Posters" tab.  It is there that you can find posters that I have created for Genre, Literary Elements and Reading Strategies to name just a few. Why pay close to $20 on teacher websites when all you need to do is print and laminate?  I hope you enjoy! All I ask for in payment is that you follow my blog and share it with a friend.  AND - while you're there, be sure to join the wiki and Wiki With Us! 

Be sure to check back tomorrow, Market Monday, when I review an item that any teacher who teaches art should have!