HBA, Craziness, and Technology

So I give myself the HBA...Horrible Blogger Award...this summer. I have posted here and there, but not as much as I intended to. Things have been very very hectic! I don't feel as though I have had much of a summer break. Thanks to many of you my bucket business has taken off! Every spare moment I have been making buckets. For the bigger news we have decided to begin our move to the west coast! Yep, we are wanting to move to Ashland, Oregon area. So our little trip to California was not just time to see family, but we were also looking at areas to live, school districts, and jobs. Therefore we just put our house on the market and are going from there. More than likely my husband will head out there prior to my daughter and I going...it may be another year until we go. We also adopted/rescued a cutie, 7wk old, Maltese girl puppy, Georgia (it's like having another infant), but she is so cute it's worth it! And I have to admit she is good, really really good! She slept through the night, doesn't whine, and loves to snuggle.

Now on to teaching stuff....

One of the other things I had to complete this summer was a technology inservice for the county I work in. They are starting a new technology push called eClass, and my school is one of the pilot schools. Believe it or not I LOVE technology! I know I don't post about it a lot, but I am a bit of a techie geek at my school. A lot of my files are mimio files for the interactive board and those are very difficult to share on blogger, I don't even know if that is possible.

Well the class was mostly run by Discovery Education was was pretty neat to be a part of, a lot of the presenters were from around the US. As I get back into being a "good blogger" I intend to share some of the fun things that were presented so that maybe you can get a few ideas of how simple it is to integrate and use technology in your classroom, not just interactive boards.

The first thing I wanted to share was using student created videos in your classroom. This was probably the most hands on class I attended, as well as the most interesting and believe it or not simple! I know that when people mention video in your classroom you immediately think of actually video taping (do we still say taping???) your actual students. It doesn't have to be that!

There was this great and simple activity that can be done in one, YES ONE, class session. It's called paper slide videos. The easiest way to explain it is...a Power Point using paper and a video camera! Not kidding.

What better way to show you how to make one, then for you to watch one! The only difference is that the students can only have ONE take! Yep ONE take, so they have to be serious and practice.

Now here are a few great examples of how to use them in your classroom and a few student created ones!

Possibilities are ENDLESS!!!!! Seriously can't wait to make some of these with my students this year!

As an added bonus for being so horrible, AND for reaching over 1,000 followers...I CAN NOT BELIEVE THAT....I have tried to put as many of my documents that you may need for the beginning of the school year here! Hopefully this will help you as you area getting started and setting up your classroom. I will be in my classroom next week, so be prepared for pictures and hopefully a lot of great ideas!

Guided Math Checklist: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4-SUxXaRtQsNDdjNjY4M2ItMjRhZC00Mzg2LTg0ZTItNTkzZmZiNjEyOTVh

Vocabulary Word Work page: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4-SUxXaRtQsMDQ4MjU4N2ItOWJkNy00MGEzLWEyODItYmY4MDg0NjE0ZjI2

Behavior and Work Folder Labels: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4-SUxXaRtQsYjQyYTVjNDUtNGY1MS00MWZmLWI4ODAtMzRmNzk3ZDk5ZjM5

Behavior and Work Folder Page: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4-SUxXaRtQsMmx3SEQ0d1E3MjA

Lesson Plan Pages: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao-SUxXaRtQsdEpfblRWQUx1QU1icXFGSk5YdTE2Q2c

Lesson Plan Pages (how mine look): https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4-SUxXaRtQsUGFfWEw5dklQLXM

Grade Book Page: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4-SUxXaRtQsSEZXSEtyR29HSU0