Student Response Systems

 

During my student teaching I had the opportunity to learn about and implement the use of ActivExpressions from Promethean. I loved using them with my fifth graders because I could do multiple choice, true/false, and short response! They are so expensive though! In my EIP room, I have ActiVotes which allow me to do multiple choice and true/false. This is a great tool, but sometimes I just would like a little more. The school won't purchase the ActivExpressions because they opted for iPads (5-6 per classroom). Well thanks to a 2nd grade teacher I work with, I have been introduced to a new technology tool, Socrative. I love it and wanted to share it with our readers. I got to see it in action yesterday in his classroom. It is a student response system the is completely internet based. There are apps that you can download for Apple or Android, but you don't have to. Teachers simply log in to their virtual classroom on t.socrative.com and set it up. Then you have your students log in on m.socrative.com to participate. You can use any device (computer, tablets, smartphones, iPod Touch, etc) that has a web browser. When you're finished with the activity you can print the results or have them emailed to you. I'm so excited to get to start using this tool! Check it out and let us know what you think! Have you used it before? Do you have a similar tool you'd like to share?

~Steph

Morning Work

What type of morning work do you use in your class? Do you sometimes find morning work to be a pain more than its helpful? I know that while subbing I've had good and bad experiences with it. Some of the classes don't have enough to do for their level. On the other hand, the younger ones can't do it without you having to give/read directions as the waves of students walk in the room. Does your morning routine work? Please share yours!

~Steph

Share your advice!

We are looking for people to contribute their advice to our blog. We want to cover the following:


--Advice to Substitutes from Classroom Teachers--Have you ever had a really awesome sub? Or a really awful sub? As a classroom teacher, share advice for the world of subs on the general do’s and don’ts in the classroom. Let them know what you need and expect from them that’s not in the sub plans. And what if it’s an emergency and nothing is left for them?

--Advice to Classroom Teacher from Substitutes--Have you ever walked into a room and had no idea what to do? Have you ever walked into a room and feel like you have everything you need and questions answered? We all know there’s emergencies, but what advice do you have as a sub for the classroom teachers out there that would help your day run smoother when you walk in their room for the day.
   
--Advice to Substitutes from Substitutes--We’ve all been there walked into a classroom where the teacher is out in an emergency situation and you don’t know where to find anything. What do you do? What general rule and guidelines do you follow when it comes to running out of things to do, unexpected events in the school day, or even leaving notes for the teacher. Sticky note, formal letter, or...? Tell your fellow subs what you do they you know only from experience.

--Advice to Student Teachers from Classroom Teachers--Sometimes having a student teacher can be bittersweet. Have you had a student teacher who sat in the back of your room working on their homework and not interacting with the students? Or a student teacher who stepped on toes and got in the way more than they helped? Have you ever had a student teacher who you feel shouldn’t have made it, but you didn’t know what to do? Have you ever had a wonderful student teacher who made your classroom a better place? As the classroom teacher tell student teachers out there what is needed from them and what you expect as they embark in their adventure into your classroom.

--Advice to Classroom Teachers from Student Teachers--Sometimes walking into someone else’s classroom is hard. Have you had a wonderful mentor teacher that you learned a great deal from? Have you had a mentor teacher who you don’t feel like you got anything from? Help those teachers understand what you need from them as a student teacher.

--Advice to Student Teachers from Student Teachers--There are many ups and downs to being a student teacher. There’s no more just laying out because you don’t feel like going to class. Did you learn something very important as your time as a student teacher? Share the things you wish you had known going in!

--Advice to Resource Teachers from Classroom Teachers--Classroom teachers, do you have wonderful resource teachers that work with you and your team? Share what they do and how they help. Or do you have a resource teacher you need more from? Do you need help for a student who hasn’t been deemed in need or services, but needs them? Share what you wish they would do and how they could be helping!

--Advice to Classroom Teachers from Resource Teachers--Do you have classroom teachers who just won’t work with you? Teachers who beg for things and then don’t use what you give them? Or are you’re lucky enough to have wonderful teachers that work with you to help the students when your services aren’t available? Help teachers know what they can be doing with students who do or do not qualify for services get what they need from their classroom teacher. Tell those teachers how they can help you and what to do so you can be more help to them.

Want to share your advice? Here’s how:
Send us an email with the following:
--a link to your blog post that discusses your advice (please make sure the post is only written about the advice and nothing else or we will not use it)
                                                                   OR
--Your advice typed into the body on the email
--Also include the following in the body of the email:
    --Name (whatever display name you would like for us to share with our readers)
    --Title (classroom teacher, resource teacher, substitute, or student teacher)
    --Contact method (if other than the email address you send the email from) for us should we have questions or need something else
    --City and State, State, or Region. We would love for you to include your school’s name however we will not be posting these.
    --Grade level(s) and/or Subjects(s) you teach (sub for or student teach in)
    --Years teaching or subbing or # of placements


Please have your advice or link emailed to us by November 30th, 2012. We will be working on reading through the advice and drafting our final post(s). Once we see the amount of advice we begin to receive we will decide if we will have one blog post or a blog post for each topic. Once we have determined that we will post a blog with the details and send out an email to everyone who has contributed. We would love for our contributors to follow our blog so you can see all of the advice people have to share! Send your email to us here!

Thanks!

Being the Room Mom

Our son's school is really big on parent volunteers. Steph is the room mom for Joey's 1st grade class. We are curious about other's perspectives.

Are you a parent volunteer?

Are you a room mom or dad or grandma or...?

Are you a teacher with parent volunteers? 

 As a parent volunteer do you feel overwhelmed at times or do you feel like you're in the way? Do you ever feel like maybe your overstepping or getting close to?

Teachers, we all love help in the classroom. But...do you ever just want to look at your parent volunteer and say "just stop"?  

The reason we ask is because as certified educators we sometimes forget the boundaries that may be present for us as parent volunteers. This time last year we were in charge of developing and implementing things in a classroom for a grade, but now we're getting a taste of being in the classroom again and love it! We just don't want to be overstepping when it comes to helping out. We want to help and not become a problem and just more work. 

Steph has become the "AR Queen" for the 1st grade Pandas class at SCE. In doing so we've come up with lots of ideas to help the students (and the teacher) with AR (accelerated reader). We're keeping an AR Folder Log. And we're working on other tools to use for monitoring. 

We feel like the teacher treats us differently than she would just any parent volunteer because we are certified educators.

So what do you think? Where is the line?