Wonderful FREE Printable Posters/Signs for Your Classroom

If you have yet to discover www.venspired.com you are missing out. She is beyond awesome and I love her posters. She has graciously allowed teachers to use and print her posters. Just to be on the safe side I contacted her for permission and she said, "Yes Indeed!". 

I love the messages on the posters and the color schemes. She also has some great information on teaching Gifted students and STEM. I also love her Pinterest page!!

Here are a few examples as she has tons and I mean that!!

      

I hope you enjoy the work of Krissy Venosdale!

Staff Development Strategies with a Technology Twist

Hi everybody and good morning! I wanted to blog about a site that I learned about in February and have been using ever since. I really enjoy it and the great ideas that are provided! I know as educators we are always looking for new strategies and ways to engage our audience. 

The site is called Professional Learning Communities: Staff Development Strategies. The strategies that are posted are really great and can be used with students, teachers, and/or principals. The ideas are innovative and incorporate a modern twist. I love the use of technology integration in a lot of them. 

I really like that you can choose your audience, different categories, and learning styles. There are many different aspects of this site as the Staff Development Strategies is only one part. Make sure to check out the Lesson Plans that are chalk full of great technology integration ideas. The goal of the site is to provide best practices for integrating technology into the classroom. 

I love it and I hope you are able to use this information with your students, teachers, and/or principals.

You do not need to sign up to access to site.

To check out the full site click here-->http://teach.oetc.org

FREE Creative Writing App..Your Students will Love It!!

Today I want to talk about one of my favorite apps for creative writing. The name of the app is Bill Atkinson PhotoCard - Postcards. 

And guess what?? It is FREE!! Yes I said FREE!!

I have had the pleasure of using this app with students and teachers and it has been a huge hit!!

What I love about it is not only do they practice their writing, but they also learn the format of a postcard and adding a stamp when mailing.

The students begin by choosing a picture for the front of their postcard, in which they can use the camera from their iPad or iTouch to take pictures (field trips, playground, around the school, geometrical shapes, science experiments, etc..) or they can use the beautiful images within the the app.

Once the image is in place they can begin their writing based on the image they chose. The writing that comes from the students is amazing. They have a blast and they love that they are able to choose and change many things within their postcards. 

This app would be great to use for any subject and grade level, but here are a few ideas I have that will get you started:

• Students take a picture of something in nature and they are to write as though they are that picture.
• Students take pictures while on a field trip, use the app to tell others about their favorite part of the field trip.
• Students choose an image within the app and are challenged to be as descriptive as they can about the image. Let them know that when you read their postcard you want to feel as though you are that image.
• Students take pictures and write about famous people, states, countries, ancient times, key vocabulary, authors, composers, etc..
• Students create a postcard based on Science safety rules and write about the proper ways to act in a lab setting.
• Students use this app to help them better understand difficult vocabulary words and math problems. They take a picture of the word, what it is or looks like, and then they write about it as if they were teaching someone else.

Click to Download

There are other add-ons within the app like stickers. I have the students add stickers and other fun stuff after they have written their postcard.

Once the students complete their postcard, they can email them to their teacher or to family members. If the students forgets the stamp, it will prompt them that every postcard needs a stamp before mailing = )