My firsties have been doing great at logging into their computers all week. We attempted a  math lesson, finding numbers on a 120 chart, in ActiveInspire. Only for me to realized the software wasn't installed on the desktops, just my laptop cart. Oh well, plan B that day. At least I was able to change the setting in Inspire for the laptops. They are ready for next week.  On Friday we did another learning lesson with GAfE. They had already explored the shapes tool in Slides and played with them earlier in the week. I wanted to teach them about the fill bucket. I used Christine Pinto's #gafe4littles Color Word template. This was also a way to see who can read the color words.  I am teaching the students the correct computer terms, browser, Chrome, tab, select tool, lock the computer, etc... After they opened the document, I reviewed where to find the shape tool and then asked them to come show us how to change the color. The first student pointed to the line color but...
Friday was the first day we got out our laptops. My first grader were ready for learning tha laptop procedures: * get the laptops off the cart * logging in * locking the computer * putting the laptops away AND plugging them in to be charged All was going well, several remembered from Kindergarten how to use the shift key for their password. A few had trouble pressing CTRL and ALT at the same time, but I showed them how.  Next, it was time to log into our class accounts. That is when we broke the internet. The site times out and this error messaged appeared.  To which several students piped up with "The WiFi isn't working." That made me smile. Yes, 5 & 6 year olds can understand how technology works! Turns out the whole district lost internet. We were unable to get back on and try, that will wait until Monday.  For the limited things we did, the students did great. My goal next week is to have them in our Google Classroom and to complete som...
I am moving to first grade this year. I'm excited. I taught first grade for many years. Of course the standards have changed in the recent years.  I am moving to a new room as well. It is a blank slate, awaiting my attention.  Michael came to school and helped move all my stuff, boxes and bins, oh my! This is with about 3/4 of the boxes unpacked.  I finished the boxes before I left, but the pile in the desk grew a little. I am trying to  be thoughtful on my organization. As long as I finish putting everything away tomorrow, I'll be able to get my room set up without panicking. I hope. ...
The Florida bloggers had a great time welcoming everyone to Florida to kick off the 2016 TpT Conference! We want to thank everyone for coming out and joining us as well as our amazing sponsors and donors!! Mary, from Full of Smiles Photography , did a fantastic job of capturing the event! First, we must thank Adam, Amy, and Paul for coming to our event!! Don't they look great?! A huge thank you goes out to Sarah from  Educlips  for making this amazing clip art! But for real...  Thank you to Team TpT for coming out to the event!! It was so awesome for them to come and help us welcome everyone to Florida! BIG thanks to Tabitha Carro from Smartphone Marketing for all her support and fun giveaways throughout the event! Another huge thanks goes out to A+ Images for sponsoring our event and giving away a class set of shirts! We hope everyone enjoyed all the great stuff they found in their swag bags! These were packed with...
The first week of school is exciting, nerve wracking, terrifying, overwhelming, thrilling, and more. And that is just for the teacher! Between learning names, teaching procedures, drying eyes, and assuring the students they will be alright; teacher need to start teaching. There are so many wonderful books for the first week of school, but these are two of my favorite:             Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten             Oliver and His Alligator Let's start with Miss Bindergarten. I love all the activity in this book. It is a great way to start teaching how to use the illustrations to tell the story. This books features rhyming words while teaching the alphabet. Each student in the class has a name that starts with a different letter of the alphabet. The students are named using a rhyming couplet. It is on the next two pages that the illustrations take over. Each two page spread features Miss Bindergarten setting up her classroom. The text is the same each ti...
Time to make the donuts? Wait, wrong commercial. It is, however, time to restore the devises.  My current count is 1 iPad for teacher use, it may be an iPad 2, with a cracked screen, but it still updates to the current iOS and works perfectly. The OtterBox case has kept the screen from getting worse, and it isn't noticeable during use. I run Splashtop on the iPad. This allows me to access my desktop from anywhere in the room. No more running to change the ActivInspire center, I can do it from my small group table.  I have 7 old iDevices, some are old phones and some are old iPods. Only one will update to the current iOS, but I have found that most apps will run on iOS6 or iOS7. There were 8 devices, sadly the battery on one of the phones gave up this year. The ability to control access to one app makes the Apple devices great for center time. I bought 2 Kindles last year when they were on sale. I don't mind the ads on the lock screen, the kids open the device so qu...
Our schools started using Google Classroom this year. I am learning more about Google apps and way to use them in my classroom. I use technology every day. I am fortunate enough to be 1:1 with laptops in my room. I am the teacher who tells everyone "Yes, Kindergarteners can do that!" Google Docs now have the microphone as a tool. YAY!!! Story dictation for my kinders. This week we have been doing a Close Read of Tooth Trouble . I created a simple document with pictures to represent the major events of the story.             Getting into our Google Classroom is the easy part. I worked with a few kids today. I had to help them enable the microphone since this was the first time using it. I showed them how to click next to the picture so it didn't get deleted and how to start and stop the recording. No problem, we have been practicing using the microphone in ActivInspire. A few were able to get right to work. This is where it got interesting. * Because the pict...
Nothing like a new month and new year to inspire a new blog post. And Farley's Currently  is always a favorite linky of mine. Listening: I am going to the Garth Brooks concert in two weeks. Time to binge listen to get ready. Loving: Loving the break, the weather, not so much. Yes, Florida is supposed to be warm, but this year is HOT.  Thinking: There is a really cute pair of pants at Anthropology that I want. They are on sale and a good price.. decisions, decisions, decisions Wanting: Of course I'd love a couple more days off. It has been a good break though. Needing: I washed clothes  yesterday. They are in the dryer. They may stay there a little longer.  One little word: I've been thinking about my word for 2016, I THINK that I have settled on increase.  Increase my knowledge on a variety of topics, Increase my store inventory, Increase my happiness So what is your 2016 looking like?  ...