New Classroom & Helpful Technology

Check out my new room to see what I will be working on come July and August! I am so excited to have tables (last year my firsties had desks). Those empty shelves near the back of the room are in a set of three and designed for my reading nook. I decided to be a "NO desk" teacher this year... I was anywhere BUT near my desk last year so I am thinking it won't be too hard to adjust! Here's what I'm working with!!!

I am meeting with my first grade team this upcoming Thursday and am very eager to learn more about their classroom management techniques! I hear that my colleagues have implemented the "bucket filler group" to encourage students to become positive contributors to the classroom community through kind words and actions! I have created two RAINBOW-FIED pages that I plan to use in my classroom this year! {Page 1} is a general poster to hang up as a friendly reminder to be a bucket filler. {Page 2} is a positive note that can be sent home with students who were remarkable bucket fillers for a day. Click the bucket or download button to grab your FREE copies of my bucket filler goodies below! If you are interested in learning more about what being a bucket filler is along with downloadable activities {click here}. This is such a great outside resource! (:

Need some technology to make your classroom library a bit more manageable???

My wonderful mentor teacher suggested to me earlier in the spring, and I FINALLY got around to checking Classroom Organizer out! I always wanted to check out books like a real librarian and now I can! Register and create an account for free for either your classroom or your building's book/resource room. Scan your books into the system using the books barcode after downloading the app below [using a Smart Phone]... this is SO much easier to get your whole classroom library into the program. I was amazed how quickly the title and author popped up on my phone when scanning! If you do not have a Smart Phone, you can enter your books in manually! As students check books in and out, they can even give book reviews to future readers in their class.

Click below to see app!

But wait, I have MORE! I love searching for reliable & dependable CCSS resources as they are truly hard to come by. I stumbled upon ReadWorks.org as I was looking up ways to include the Common Core standards into my everyday reading. Create an account with just a little bit of information and BAM- so many free purposeful reading lessons at your fingertips. Go to My Standard Alignment to search for your grade level and the skill/strategy you are teaching with CCSS! If you are like me, you may be interested in adapting these to close reading or even guided reading. Some  worksheets and tips that come with the reading lessons include building student vocabulary (if you want to pre-teach), student background knowledge (again... can be taken out if the text is for close reading), and teacher and student materials ready to print! Most of the books are well-known books... but the website also provides non-fiction passages with Lexile Levels! Visit {this PDF} to explore accurate tools for measuring a text's complexity. Perfect right?

Click below to join!