Using Prezi in the Classroom

I am a die-hard PowerPoint user. It has been my go-to tool for YEARS. Thinking about not having Powerpoints ready to go for my Reading Street stories is enough to make me twitch.  Now that I've learned Prezi - and love it - I find myself going to it more and more.

Prezi is great because it isn't just a linear, flip-flip slide show.  You can set a path and zoom in and out - the results are really amazing!  Here are a few Prezi shows I've created.

My NCCAT Experience on Prezi

Figures of Speech on Prezi

Welcome to Fourth Grade! on Prezi

These all had specific purposes.  Some I used with students and some with adults.  My favorite Prezi is this last one.  I used to do a PowerPoint show each morning.  It guided the students and made sure they were ready to start the day.  I think this shows the path setting and zoom features best - What do you think?

Good Morning! on Prezi

Now I'm thinking about how to compensate for all those Reading Street PowerPoints I no longer have.  I'm debating between doing Prezis or Glogs or maybe a combination of both.  Or maybe neither?

What other uses do you have for Prezi?  How do you introduce stories from a basal textbook?

Sixth Grade Reading Outline

So, thanks to Shannon's lovely website, I got my act together! I feel so good - practically giddy. In fact, if I didn't have a migraine as I typed this, I'd probably be downright giddy! I'm that happy, relieved, excited. I could go on, but I won't.  Without further ado, here is my outline for the new school year!

I made it in Word, printed to PDF, and took an image capture from there. The images should enlarge a good bit if you click 'em.  The scroll-y box above is the Google Doc - who knew you could embed it?! I just wish the box was bigger!  Here is the link to the file on Google Docs - Sixth Grade Reading Outline.doc.  If you'd like to see the original doc file (or my month-by-month year long plan that is VERY specific) just post a comment or find me on Twitter.

I need to investigate more options for linking doc's and things. Any ideas?

Resources I Use: Pinterest

I was introduced to Pinterest through my personal Twitter account. Folks are using it for all kinds of things but it immediately struck me as a way to save ideas for using in my classroom. Here is a shot of my view of my Teaching Ideas board on Pinterest. ( I have no idea why it says my past pin was 3 weeks ago - I was pinning last night until the wee hours!)

Clicking the image will take you to my Teaching Ideas board on Pinterest

You can see that the ideas I've "pinned" are arranged nicely and my comment/caption shows up underneath them.  On the right are links to my other boards and to the boards of people I follow and who follow me.  There is a search box at the top that lets you search everyone's pins.  Here's how Pinterest explains what they are.

I think Pinterest is a great tool for teachers.  We spend lots of time surfing the web looking for ideas.  Now we can save them for ourselves, remember the source, and share it with others in one click. (They've got a nifty little bookmark tool that installs into your browser.  Find and idea, click "Pin It," choose your options, and done.) Fantastic!

What web resources do you use?

Mid-Month Reflection

So I've been blogging daily for a solid 2 weeks - 16 days, over half a month. And it feels really good! I have been using the scheduled posts feature - I must write when time allows. It frees me up to be more creative and to spend more time on posts, instead of feeling rushed to hit Publish and be done.

I started blogging again thinking I'd be teaching a self-contained 4th grade class of mostly AIG students.  And I reflect 16 days later as a new, slightly scared, 6th grade Reading teacher.  I'm excited - I feel like this is my chance to really stretch my wings and my skills. I'm looking forward to being the "new one" for a change. For many years, I've been the "veteran," the one people turned to when they had questions.  I liked that - but it was a huge responsibility.  I was the only experienced teacher in 4th grade last year, working with 2 brand new teachers. It was hard for all of us - they are sweet ladies but I'm glad I'm not in the same position this year.

I've got many worries, concerns, and ideas floating around in my head.  And they've kept me awake some this week.  But I got a really good night of sleep last night - and I feel like I'm getting my act together.  I don't have teacher manuals and my classroom needs to be moved (Help me, Rhonda!), but I know my subject matter inside and out. And I'm ready! Next week, I'll start outlining some of my concerns, worries, and ideas - maybe getting them out of my head and into print will continue to help me.

So here is how I'll end the month - do you have anything you'd like to see me blog about?

• Resources: Pinterest, ScoopIt
• Prezi
• Discovery Ed
• Brainpop (?)
• Spelling City (?)
• Into The Book (?)
• NCTEP - the new NC Teacher Evaluation Process - a post on each standard and a final post with a way to document it all.
• My ideas, concerns, and worries about being in 6th grade
• Final Reflection

EOG Review

I reviewed for EOG's differently this year. In the past, I've focused lots of time and effort on drilling and killing the test-taking strategies kids will need.  This year - I didn't.  And it was ok! Here's what I did differently.

I used my time tested method of one test genre per week, for 5 weeks prior to testing. But instead of reading passage after passage, we turned into test makers. Here is how a week looked for each of our 5 genres (nonfiction, poetry, fiction, consumer, and content.)

• Monday - Read an exemplar piece. This was from a test-prep book or a released item from the state. We used our strategy (Runners) and QARs. We sorted the questions, worked in pairs to answer them, and checked the text for support when possible.  This was done whole group with the document camera. We discussed common question stems and wrote them on a chart for future reference.
• Tuesday - Student pairs are given a selection from a) the reading book or b) a magazine to read.  Then students used the common question stems from Monday to generate questions for their article.  I did this both with and without a framework. They sometimes wrote short-answer type questions and sometimes did multiple choice questions. It depends on your testing and your particular group of students.  I got better responses with a framework and the students doing multiple choice questions.
• Wednesday - Students re-read their selection and finished their questions.  We used the mobile laptop cart to document the questions on our class wiki. This is set up by our school district. (If you'd like the link, Twitter me or comment below and I'll send it to you.)
• Thursday - Students chose one of the other selections to read. Then they answered the questions on the wiki. They went to the original group to have their questions checked.
• Friday - Paper and pencil quiz on the genre. I usually used released items from the state or passages from a test-prep book.

This worked wonderfully!The kids really understood more of the nuances of test writing and how important it was to use the text.

Math worked a bit differently.  The students and I each created an EOG Review notebook.  Then I introduced 10 centers.  Some of the centers were reading and some were math.  Students had a partner (based on needed math skills) to rotate with.  These centers became our whole day - in the weeks directly before testing, we often did EOG centers for up to 2.5 hours a day!  One of the centers was ME. I was able to work with what I started calling "micro-groups" of students - 2 or 3 kids at a time. It was wonderful!

What did I do with those kids?  I used the NC DigIns.  I discovered them through my school district's use of ClassScape assessments.  Unfortunately, I do have to log in to view the site - so I'm not sure if you can access it or not.  Here is a screenshot...

Right now, the DigIns are available for 4th and 7th grade math and for Algebra 1.  They are so useful!  Each word problem - many taken from the released items produced by the state - is on a single page. Multiple choice, multi-step - typical EOG stuff.  The following page(s) are the gold! There is an answer key for the problem, but it goes a step further. It explains what the student may have been thinking to have chosen that answer.  Then there is a simple problem solving process to take the students through so they can discover it for themselves.

This combination - micro-group and having some insight as to why they might have chosen what they did - proved super powerful for my students. We were able to go through problem after problem, breezing through stuff they knew and taking more time to discuss and explore the tricky ones. The small group allowed me to closely observe their use of strategies (or lack!) and to catch issues quickly. The students were super engaged - after all, they had my undivided attention! I took notes and was able to differentiate instruction down to an individual level - if one partner mastered a concept, they could move on and the other person could keep working on what they needed.

I'll close by saying this - review for testing seems awkward at first.  However, if you pay close attention to your students (we had done some previous centers that they really liked) you'll find a way to review that won't bore all of you to tears.

How do you review for high-stakes testing?