Teacher Tricks & Tidbits #2

Graphics & fonts courtesy of Mrs. Stanford's Class, Emily Wean Designs, and Cara Carroll

If you are anything like me, you have students asking to go to the bathroom all.day.long.  Many times they just want to get out of the room with a friend & they miss valuable learning, but sometimes it is hard to decide when to let them go & when not to.  So... I started using a system where I let the students leave for water/ bathroom breaks 3 times a day.  I put all their names on index cards in a pocket chart.  I have a bucket of little circle counters, and they put one in front of their name each time they go.  This is a great visual for me as well as for the students, and has helped greatly in regards to managing bathroom breaks.  I highly recommend it!

Do you have a different bathroom break system that works well for you?  Please comment below!

Technology Tuesday

Well hello there...

My little ole blog got a makeover, so I thought I would try & revive it.  Those of you who stuck with me are AMAZING followers.  So thank you!!

I went to a really awesome technology training at Region 20 and thought I would share a little technology tip I learned.  Have you heard of Padlet?  It is a website where you can pose a question, give students the link, and they respond.  It seems great for all ages, but I could definitely see using it with first graders.  I plan on pulling it up on the screen and having them type the answer to a question so all the students can see what their classmates are saying.  Here is a link to my sample padlet.

You could use it to activate prior knowledge, have students respond to a book, have them make predictions, have them write their definition of a vocabulary word... etc.  The possibilities are endless!  What would you use it for in your classroom?

Adios for now,

Linsay