Smore is an online website builder that lets you create delicious, bite-size websites that are easy to make and impossible to mess up.
ThingLink:
Thinglink is an interactive image tool that provides users with the ability to turn any image into a multimedia launcher. Teachers can create media rich visual resources packed with content to engage students in deep learning experiences. Students can create a ThingLink to present knowledge and ideas or to document learning.
Here are two examples of how I've used this platform:
Standing Up by Sitting Down ~ to build background knowledge before reading aloud The Watson's Go to Birmingham, I added links to news articles, videos, timelines, Wonderopolis, etc. Students explored the ThingLink, jotting down information and questions. We re-visited this ThingLink often as we read this book.
Boy + Bot ~ create Book Advertisements that you can share with students and families. On this one I include a link to the author's website, a book trailer, and a link to IndieBound.
Need more ideas for how you (and students) might use this platform? Visit these links:
Congratulations to Maine's Teacher of Teachers: Nancie Atwell
Today in Dubai, Maine's own Nancie Atwell was awarded the inaugural Global Teacher Prize from the Varkey Foundation. By recognizing Nancie's huge influence in the teaching world, this award also honors the ideas of allowing students choice in reading and writing, in authentic purposeful ways that are grounded in student centered classrooms. So fantastic to see her work and dedication recognized! Click here to view her acceptance speech.
Using Your Own Writing as a Teaching Tool
As K-2 teachers have seen during Rebecca Cronin's (TC Staff Developer) visits earlier this school year, using our own writing can be powerful "mentor texts" to use with students. Elizabeth Moore supported this idea with a post that highlighted 4 ways you might use your own writing as a teaching tool on the Two Writing Teacher's Blog this past week. These tips are for any grade level. Click here to read Elizabeth's post
Increasing the Life Span of Charts
This post from November 2014 on the ChartChums blog is a good reminder about how to get the most out of the anchor charts. Just as posting about reading helps students track their thinking, anchor charts that are made with students, also serve as tracks of learning and thinking within the classroom community. This is a good point in the school year to step back and re-assess how your charts are functioning, keeping the "3 Rs" of charting in mind: "reposition, revise, or retire".
Click here to read their post.
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Kindergarten From award-winning illustrator Chris Haughton, one of the most exciting new voices in children's literature, comes a brand new picture book about a beautiful bird, an unquenchable desire and plans gone awry...Four friends, three big and one little, are out for a walk. Suddenly, they spot it - a beautiful bird perched high in a tree! They simply MUST have it and - SHH! - they have a PLAN. So they tip-toe, tip-toe very slowly, nets poised - "Ready one...ready two...ready three...GO!" But, at the turn of the page, we find a ridiculous bunch of very tangled characters and a blissfully oblivious bird, flying away. | Grade 1 By now I think you know what happened to your sandwich. But you may not know how it happened. So let me tell you. It all started with the bear . . . So begins Julia Sarcone-Roach’s delicious tale of a bear, lost in the city, who happens upon an unattended sandwich in the park. The bear’s journey from forest to city and back home again is full of happy accidents, funny encounters, and sensory delights. The story is so engrossing, it’s not until the very end that we begin to suspect this is a TALL tale. | Grade 2 Princess Magnolia is having hot chocolate and scones with Duchess Wigtower when . . . Brring! Brring! The monster alarm! A big blue monster is threatening the goats! Stopping monsters is no job for dainty Princess Magnolia. But luckily Princess Magnolia has a secret —she’s also the Princess in Black, and stopping monsters is the perfect job for her! Can the princess sneak away, transform into her alter ego, and defeat the monster before the nosy duchess discovers her secret? From award-winning writing team of Shannon and Dean Hale and illustrator LeUyen Pham, here is the first in a humorous and action-packed chapter book series for young readers who like their princesses not only prim and perfect, but also dressed in black |
Kindergarten
From award-winning illustrator Chris Haughton, one of the most exciting new voices in children's literature, comes a brand new picture book about a beautiful bird, an unquenchable desire and plans gone awry...Four friends, three big and one little, are out for a walk. Suddenly, they spot it - a beautiful bird perched high in a tree! They simply MUST have it and - SHH! - they have a PLAN. So they tip-toe, tip-toe very slowly, nets poised - "Ready one...ready two...ready three...GO!" But, at the turn of the page, we find a ridiculous bunch of very tangled characters and a blissfully oblivious bird, flying away.
Grade 1
By now I think you know what happened to your sandwich.
But you may not know how it happened.
So let me tell you.
It all started with the bear . . .
So begins Julia Sarcone-Roach’s delicious tale of a bear, lost in the city, who happens upon an unattended sandwich in the park. The bear’s journey from forest to city and back home again is full of happy accidents, funny encounters, and sensory delights. The story is so engrossing, it’s not until the very end that we begin to suspect this is a TALL tale.
But you may not know how it happened.
So let me tell you.
It all started with the bear . . .
So begins Julia Sarcone-Roach’s delicious tale of a bear, lost in the city, who happens upon an unattended sandwich in the park. The bear’s journey from forest to city and back home again is full of happy accidents, funny encounters, and sensory delights. The story is so engrossing, it’s not until the very end that we begin to suspect this is a TALL tale.
Grade 2
Princess Magnolia is having hot chocolate and scones with Duchess Wigtower when . . . Brring! Brring! The monster alarm! A big blue monster is threatening the goats! Stopping monsters is no job for dainty Princess Magnolia. But luckily Princess Magnolia has a secret —she’s also the Princess in Black, and stopping monsters is the perfect job for her! Can the princess sneak away, transform into her alter ego, and defeat the monster before the nosy duchess discovers her secret? From award-winning writing team of Shannon and Dean Hale and illustrator LeUyen Pham, here is the first in a humorous and action-packed chapter book series for young readers who like their princesses not only prim and perfect, but also dressed in black
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Grade 3 "My name is King. I am a dog. I am also a detective." King has a very big mystery to solve. His family is missing, and he's been put in the P-O-U-N-D. Why doesn't his beloved human (Kayla) come to get him? When King is adopted by Connor and his mom, things get more confusing. The new family calls him Buddy! And just as Connor and Buddy start to get acquainted, Connor disappears! Buddy (aka King) has big problems to solve, but with some help from his friend Mouse (a very large dog) and the mysterious cat with no name, he shows what a smart, brave dog can do. Mystery fans and dog lovers will be swept up in Dori Hillestad Butler's funny, satisfying story... and left eager for Buddy's next adventure. | Grade 4 New kid Mitch Sloan wants to fit in, but his nerdy love of statistics and making money isn't winning him any friends in his sports-loving town--until he finds the perfect way to attain instant popularity. But running a football betting ring at school eventually turns sour, and Mitch loses the only real friend he's made. He'll have to win her back by using his brainpower for good and helping the school football team achieve victory--if they'll listen to the advice of a former bookie! | Grade 5 Piper has never seen the Mark of the Dragonfly until she finds the girl amid the wreckage of a caravan in the Meteor Fields. The girl doesn't remember a thing about her life, but the intricate tattoo on her arm is proof that she's from the Dragonfly Territories and that she's protected by the king. Which means a reward for Piper if she can get the girl home. The one sure way to the Territories is the 401, a great old beauty of a train. But a ticket costs more coin than Piper could make in a year. And stowing away is a difficult prospect--everyone knows that getting past the peculiar green-eyed boy who stands guard is nearly impossible. Life for Piper just turned dangerous. A little bit magical. And very exciting, if she can manage to survive the journey. |
Grade 3
"My name is King. I am a dog. I am also a detective."
King has a very big mystery to solve. His family is missing, and he's been put in the P-O-U-N-D. Why doesn't his beloved human (Kayla) come to get him? When King is adopted by Connor and his mom, things get more confusing. The new family calls him Buddy!
And just as Connor and Buddy start to get acquainted, Connor disappears! Buddy (aka King) has big problems to solve, but with some help from his friend Mouse (a very large dog) and the mysterious cat with no name, he shows what a smart, brave dog can do.
Mystery fans and dog lovers will be swept up in Dori Hillestad Butler's funny, satisfying story... and left eager for Buddy's next adventure.
King has a very big mystery to solve. His family is missing, and he's been put in the P-O-U-N-D. Why doesn't his beloved human (Kayla) come to get him? When King is adopted by Connor and his mom, things get more confusing. The new family calls him Buddy!
And just as Connor and Buddy start to get acquainted, Connor disappears! Buddy (aka King) has big problems to solve, but with some help from his friend Mouse (a very large dog) and the mysterious cat with no name, he shows what a smart, brave dog can do.
Mystery fans and dog lovers will be swept up in Dori Hillestad Butler's funny, satisfying story... and left eager for Buddy's next adventure.
Grade 4
New kid Mitch Sloan wants to fit in, but his nerdy love of statistics and making money isn't winning him any friends in his sports-loving town--until he finds the perfect way to attain instant popularity. But running a football betting ring at school eventually turns sour, and Mitch loses the only real friend he's made. He'll have to win her back by using his brainpower for good and helping the school football team achieve victory--if they'll listen to the advice of a former bookie!
Grade 5
Piper has never seen the Mark of the Dragonfly until she finds the girl amid the wreckage of a caravan in the Meteor Fields. The girl doesn't remember a thing about her life, but the intricate tattoo on her arm is proof that she's from the Dragonfly Territories and that she's protected by the king. Which means a reward for Piper if she can get the girl home. The one sure way to the Territories is the 401, a great old beauty of a train. But a ticket costs more coin than Piper could make in a year. And stowing away is a difficult prospect--everyone knows that getting past the peculiar green-eyed boy who stands guard is nearly impossible. Life for Piper just turned dangerous. A little bit magical. And very exciting, if she can manage to survive the journey.
