Eberopolis: Teaching Reading and Writing with Technology

Overwhelmed, you say? How to Cope

2013-06-17T11:28:00.000-04:00

Despite being on the planet for 30+ years, I still don't seem to have the concept of time worked out. I came to this realization last night as I compared my summer to do list against my calendar. Yikes! Honestly, the number of lesson plans I'd intended to write, TpT products I'd hoped to create, and professional books I planned to read were more than I could probably accomplish in a year much

Giveaway Winner!

2013-06-15T07:32:00.000-04:00

I had so much fun seeing what everyone posted in the Teacher Toolbox Trio linky. Thanks to everyone who linked up. I went to the Random Number Generator this morning, and drumroll... I'm excited to announce that Stephanie Ann from Sparkling in Kindergarten was the winner of the $25 Teachers Pay Teachers gift certificate. Congratulations, Stephanie Ann! And welcome to all of my new

Why Teachers Love Technology

2013-06-13T09:00:00.000-04:00

An infographic about "Why Teachers Love Technology" was recently shared with me, and on the heels of yesterday's post, I felt like now is a good time to share the infographic with you. Graphic from OnlineUniversities.com Do you love technology? I'd love to hear why in the comments section!

In Defense of Classroom Technology

2013-06-12T10:37:00.002-04:00

Usually when I talk to people about the fact that I teach in a 1:1 iPad classroom, they think that's awesome. But now and again, I'll run into someone who thinks handing a kid an iPad in school is an atrocity, and I feel like I have to defend the work that I'm passionate about. This happened to me recently at a social event when my attempts at small talk quickly turned into a debate about what

Number Talks Book Study - Chapter 2

2013-06-11T11:28:00.000-04:00

The farther I get into the book Number Talks, the more excited I am about implementing them next year. This is such a great resource, and I'm only on Chapter 2! I'm linking up with Misty at Think, Wonder, & Teach for her fabulous book study. If you haven't checked it out yet, be sure to visit her because she's already offering some great resources to support the book (whereas mine are still

3 Favorite & Underappreciated Apps

2013-06-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

I recently stumbled on an adorable blog called "Thirsty Firsties," and Kelly, the author, is hosting a linky party about iPad apps. The rules are to share three apps - one free for classroom use, one paid for classroom use and one favorite app for personal use. She's also giving away an iTunes gift card as part of the linky, so be sure to check out her blog and join in the fun! I've already

Teacher Toolbox Trio Linky Celebration!

2013-06-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

Since the advent of Teachers Pay Teachers, my teaching toolbox has changed quite a bit. There are so many things that I've made or bought for my classroom, and there are many others that are on my wishlist. To recognize that, I'm hosting a Teacher Toolbox Trio linky party. Here are the rules of the trio: 1. Share a product that you've made that you couldn't live without. 2. Share a product

Paperless Mission #11: Getting Started with Edmodo

2013-06-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

This is the eleventh installment in my Go Paperless! Challenge Series. You can check out the other entries in the series here. Also be sure to link up with my Paperless Challenge Linky! Mission #11: Get Started with Edmodo One of the tools that I started using in the classroom this year is Edmodo. If you're not familiar with it, Edmodo is a learning management system that allows students

Pinterest Professional Learning

2013-06-05T09:30:00.000-04:00

I love Pinterest. I love professional learning. Put them together, and I'm as happy as can be! That's why I was thrilled to see that Jivey's Workshop Wednesday is all about favorite pins (and she used my Assess Yourself posters as an example)! So without further adieu, I'd like to share some of my favorite pins! Back to School Organizing I'm planning to replace my table-top caddies this

The Secret Knowledge of Fourth Graders

2013-06-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

As I was reminded in reading all of the June Currently's, not everyone is on summer vacation yet. So for those of you who are not yet enjoying time off, I wanted to share a fun creative writing activity that works well for the end of the year. One of my favorite books to share with students is The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups by David Wisniewski. In this highly-entertaining book, Wisniewski

Paperless Mission #10: Distributing Student Assignments

2013-06-03T09:30:00.000-04:00

This is the tenth installment in my Go Paperless! Challenge Series. You can check out the other entries in the series here. Also be sure to link up with my Paperless Challenge Linky! Mission #10: Distribute Student Assignments through Shared Folders Once my students had their iPads, I needed to figure out a way to get their work out to them. At first I tried using Edmodo, but that proved

Number Talks Chapter 1 - Thumbs Up for the Silent Thumb

2013-06-02T09:00:00.000-04:00

I'm linking up with my friend Misty over at Think, Wonder, & Teach for her summer book study of Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies, Grades K-5 Given that I'm wrapping up a K-5 Math Endorsement this month, this is a timely book for me. I love to teach math far more than I ever anticipated that I would when I entered this profession, and I really enjoy

Currently June (?!)

2013-06-01T21:45:00.004-04:00

Oh, how I love to start the month with Farley's Currently over at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade -- especially when I actually remember that it's the start of the month and don't have that revelation about a week in. :) Here we go... Listening: I got to see Sara Bareilles perform at a small Atlanta venue on my birthday a couple of weeks ago, and wow - can she ever sing! She's been in heavy rotation

How to Organize your Summer Reading

2013-05-31T13:54:00.001-04:00

Summer is the perfect time for me to make some progress on the massive stack of books that I accumulate throughout the year. You know that stack -- and if you're like me, that stack may have spawned offspring and multiplied into several stacks around the house. And given the number of summer book studies I keep reading about, I know the stack will continue to grow. Like last week, when I saw that

Thinking about Next Year

2013-05-29T23:04:00.000-04:00

Today was the last official day of post-planning, and for the first time in the history of my teaching career, I finished cleaning out my classroom and wrapping up my paperwork on time -- no extra days required this year! Granted, there was some definite "Oh, I'll just shove this in this cupboard and deal with it in July" happening around 5pm today, but nevertheless - I'm done! The cleaning

How I Decluttered my Inbox

2013-05-27T14:52:00.000-04:00

I try out new apps constantly, but it is rare that I find one that I consider a game-changer -- one that revolutionizes how I do something and boosts my productivity. Meet Mailbox. Mailbox works with iOS mobile devices (iPhones, iPads) and GMail, and it can handle multiple GMail accounts. The idea is that your email box should always have ZERO messages in it, and it helps you achieve that

Paperless Mission #9: Setting Up Your Class with Evernote

2013-05-14T16:09:00.002-04:00

This is the ninth installment in my Go Paperless! Challenge Series. You can check out the other entries in the series here. Also be sure to link up with my Paperless Challenge Linky! Mission #9: Set Up Your Class with Evernote Today's mission assumes that your class has easy access to technology. I teach in a 1:1 iPad setting, but I realize how blessed I am to have this and how few people -

Paperless Mission #8: Conduct and Archive Running Records (iPad)

2013-05-07T17:21:00.000-04:00

This is the eighth installment in my Go Paperless! Challenge series. You can see the other entries in the series here. Also be sure to link up with my Paperless Challenge Linky! Mission #8: Conduct and Archive Running Records At least once each six-week term, teachers at my school are supposed to conduct a running record as a guided reading level assessment. We use the Fiction Level Reading

Currently May & Life Updates (aka Why I've been a Bad Blogger)

2013-05-05T22:22:00.001-04:00

How could it possibly be May 5th already? And how could I have possibly neglected my blog for a week shy of a month??? Yikes! Things have been super busy in Eberopolis lately, and to start that big update and get back in the swing of things, I'm like the 400th person to link up with Farley's Currently over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade. Listening: It has been raining the past two weekends. The

Guided Math Resources

2013-04-12T09:08:00.000-04:00

I recently went to a workshop about guided math groups, and I have tons of new ideas that I'll be sharing in the coming weeks. I couldn't wait, however, to share a couple of the resources that I'm really excited about. First, is this book: Good Questions: Great Ways to Differentiate Mathematics Instruction, Second Edition is a resource that I was able to start using with my students as soon

Paperless Mission #7: Annotating Rubrics with GoodReader (iPad)

2013-04-08T14:19:00.000-04:00

This is the seventh post in my Go Paperless! Challenge Series. If you haven't completed the previous missions, be sure to complete those first. Mission #1: Gather Your Tools Mission #2: Build Evernote Notebooks Mission #3: Email Notes to Evernote Mission #4: Create Checklists in Evernote Mission #5: Organize Your Files in Dropbox Mission #6: Setting Up GoodReader (iPad) Also be sure to link

Paperless Mission #6: Setting Up GoodReader (iPad)

2013-04-01T21:21:00.000-04:00

This is the sixth post in my Go Paperless! Challenge Series. If you haven't completed the previous missions, be sure to complete those first. Mission #1: Gather Your Tools Mission #2: Build Evernote Notebooks Mission #3: Email Notes to Notebooks Mission #4: Create Checklists in Evernote Mission #5: Organize Your Files in DropBox Also be sure to link up at the Go Paperless! Linky. Mission

Paperless Mission #5: Organize Your Files in DropBox

2013-03-24T21:26:00.001-04:00

This is the fifth post in my Go Paperless! Challenge Series. If you haven't completed the previous missions, be sure to complete those first. Mission #1: Gather Your Tools Mission #2: Build Evernote Notebooks Mission #3: Email Notes to Evernote Mission #4: Create Checklists in Evernote Also be sure to link up at the Go Paperless! linky. Mission #5: Organize Your Files in DropBox I

Paperless Mission #4: Create Checklists in Evernote

2013-03-14T11:07:00.002-04:00

If you haven't already completed the prior missions, be sure to complete those first. Mission #1: Gather Your Tools Mission #2: Build Evernote Notebooks Mission #3: Email Notes to Evernote Also be sure to link up at the Go Paperless! Challenge linky. Mission #4: Create Checklists in Evernote I use checklists for everything -- keeping track of who has turned in assignments, what

Paperless Mission #3: Email Notes to Evernote

2013-03-09T09:03:00.000-05:00

If you haven't already completed the prior missions, be sure to do those first. Mission #1: Gather Your Tools Mission #2: Build Evernote Notebooks Also be sure to link up at the Go Paperless! Challenge linky! Mission #3: Email Notes to Evernote Now that we have our notebooks built in Evernote, we need to start putting things in them. One of the best ways to do that is through email.