Narrative Elements Rap

Fourth and fifth grade Reading and Writing teachers! See if you can use this to help your students remember some of the vocabulary from the standards! It is worth a look!

Meet Me at the Corner!

Meet Me at the Corner is a site dedicated to virtual field trips for kids. On it, you can view dozens of short videos or even submit your own!  New educational, kid-friendly episodes are uploaded every two weeks. Included are links to related resources on the web, as well as follow up questions for the videos.

This would be a fun site to share with your students as they leave for the summer.  They may be interested in learning from other kids throughout the world, or they may be more interested in learning how to make their own video.  Either way, their brains get a workout and they are doing something constructive.  It's a win-win!

Karaoke Fluency!

Looking for new ways to increase reading fluency in your classroom?  You are in luck!
A new strategy that was developed by Timothy Rasinski combines the use of singing and reading with a Karaoke machine. When students are singing they are forced to have their voices keep up at a certain rate. A group of students at Hillside elementary were able to raise their reading scores a whole year with just 3 months of after school instruction in Karaoke club once a week. You can check out the feature on Fox 6 news here:

 
 
Think about all that you could do with this!  If you choose a song that is not well known by your students, they will be forced to read the words and practice reading them fluently.  Have fun!

Infinite Potential

Infinitec means "infinite potential through technology." Infinitec, Inc. is the assistive technology program of the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Greater Chicago. The mission of Infinitec is to advance independence and promote inclusive opportunities for children and adults with disabilities through technology.

Infinitec.org to SLPs on Prezi

Troup County has been given access to http://www.myinfinitec.org/, which has a wealth of resources to help level the playing field for all students when it comes to learning.  It is a beautiful resource to use when planning for differentiation. For example, I learned about twurdy, which is a search engine that categorizes results by reading difficulty!  How helpful is that??!!  (We are working on getting it unblocked!)

To gain full access, there is a simple registration process.  Just look for the word register in the top right hand corner of the home page.  Enter your date of birth, click submit, and fill in the form.  Remember to use your school email address.  Use georgia as your password.  For more in-depth details regarding registration, click here!

In the Last Minutes...

Have you ever seen the television show Minute to Win It?  I have never watched a whole episode, but my children have and they love it.  The show features everyday Americans competing in 60-second challenges with household objects for a shot at a million bucks.

Mrs. Wynn, a fifth grade teacher at Hogansville Elementary,  decided to use the challenges in her classroom for short brain-breaks during class.  What a fantastic idea!  You already have most of the necessary items laying around the house or the classroom.  It only takes a minute! 

If you are looking for another trick to put up your sleeve to engage and motivate during this stressful time of year, think about following Mrs. Wynn's lead.  All of the games and necessary supplies are listed here, and the theme music can be found here.  Have fun!