Rainy Days= Surfing the web

keep reading to learn about the dojo

     So it's been raining literally all day here in Houston.  Rather than swimming through the streets; I've chosen to stay home, read, and bake.  Big day, I know.  Reading, you know it's all about the Daily 5 and The Mockingjay (don't judge me.)  Baking, I've made pita and chocolate expresso brownies.

     Now for the most important part; the surfing of the web.  I found the neatest website: The Clever School Teacher.  You can find the button on my nav bar, and I''m sure I'll use it quite a few times this year.  We all know how awesome (grrr) I find basals to be.  I am all about using engaging trade books to get my kiddos excited about the skill we're learning.  I've always had literal brain farts when trying to find that perfect book to illustrate a skill.  This site has a plethora of trade books categorized by strategy, etc.  Soooo exciting!  Now, rather than picking my brain & trying to remember what book I used to teach that skill; I can do a quick search and come up with dozens of recent books.  Talk about a time saver! I am just giddy about the possibilities.

     Check it out!  http://www.cleverschoolteacher.com
 
One of my other faves:

Class Dojo  http://teach.classdojo.com/login

     This was a classroom management Godsend last year.  Basically, you set up a free profile; listing each student & assigning them to a class (helpful if you're not self-contained.)  You then choose behaviors, or add your own that you'd like to reward and discourage.  The students can earn points by displaying the behaviors you've chosen, but also lose points in the same manner.  It keeps a running tally for as long as you like--I usually reset it each morning.  The icons for each student are little monsters *new feature--students can login and create their own avatar (mine loved this!) 

As you add and take away points, there are noises & little numbers appear in the corner of their avatar (either red or green.)  They offer free apps for iPads, iPods, and Android phones.  You can take your classroom management on the road, easily awarding & taking away points in the hallways etc.  I kept it up on the Smartboard most of the day & the kids can see quickly if they need to change their behavior.

     I forgot the best part: DOCUMENTATION.  You can create these handy graphs of each students behavior for the week--it details, by day, what they did well & what they struggled with.  The best part *drum roll please* you can email these files as a .pdf directly to the parents all in one fail swoop.  LOVES IT!!  Just the fact that parents can see a detailed account of the positives their child earned, and not just the negatives. 

     I urge you to try this out next year.  It's super easy & they are constantly adding new features.  Click the logo below to try it for yourself....I hope you'll love it as much as I do!