I know, I know.  My Fresh Look Fridays posts usually center around an interactive website/app that can be used by students in your class.

Well, today I went a different route.

Maybe it's the fact that my baby sister is convocating from Education in a few short months, maybe it's the fact that I love organizational pieces, or maybe it was the nostalgia I felt goiing through my box of elementary stuff from my 6 months teaching Grade 5...whatever the reason, I had bulletin boards and certificates on the brain.

And so, I give you a few resources to find templates for these areas.

First up? Educationworld.com

Not a super fancy website (and with one of those annoying 'sign up now' ads when you first enter the site), but a fair list of templates none the less.  Check out the certificates and classroom organizer templates.

Next up - ABCteach.com

I personally like the portfolios section as well as the bulletin boards area.  Not sure if I'd be printing off 18 sheets of paper and cutting them out to make a border, but hey, that stuff's expensive at teacher stores!

Finally, check out certificatesforteachers.com

A subdivision of Teacher Planet, this website is entirely devoted to certificate templates.  What I really like is that it is also broken down by subject, and not just the usual "star student" categories. 

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Vanessa

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

As with every holiday, there are TONS of great ideas floating around out there for you to use in your classroom.  I know, I know, it's Saturday, but it might be fun to do some themed activities with your students Monday morning, or even play around with your own kids on your computer today.

The SMART Exchange just keeps growing and growing, and with that growth comes an abundance of activities for you to use on your SMART Board or SMART Table.  Not sure where to start? Click here to see the list of idea with a St. Patrick's Day theme.

Some of my favourites are listed below.  Just search the actual title of each activity on the SMART Exchange if you're looking for a specific one I've mentioned. Remember that you can preview a thumbnail version of the activity by clicking on the image online.  Saves you time and effort to see if you think it's worth downloading before you commit to doing so :)

1. St. Patrick's Day Logic - Just a few run-of-the-mill logic problems using items of St. Patty's Day.  Cute, easy, no adaptation required.  Probably appropriate for Math in Grades 3-5.

2. St. Patrick's Day Alphabetical Order.  Another basic activity that has been adapted to fit this theme.  Again, no further changes required by you, although it would be extremely easy to add more pages to this Notebook file.  Probably best for Grades 2-4, in L.A. 

3. History of St. Patrick's Day.  An integrated web activity with follow up questions embedded into SMART Notebook.  Use this with your students in upper elementary in their Social Studies class.

4. Spring.  Have a SMART Table? Lucky you (maybe luck of the Irish?).  Check out this table pack for a quick and easy activity centre centered around St. Patrick's Day.  Obviously, most appropriate for Grades K-2 (although the little, little ones may need some help with the word based activities).

5. Counting Shamrocks.  Some great pages made here centered around number sense for your primary students.  Obviously, the skill is a Math one, but it's fun to mix up some of the usual activities and link it to a St. Patrick's Day theme.  Again, no changes required by you! I highly recommend checking this one out if you're a Grade 1 teacher!

6. St. Patties Day (their spelling, not mine, haha).  One of those creative attendance Notebook pages.  You'll have to ungroup the students names with the gold coins, retype YOUR student's names, then group them with the gold coins to make this one work.  But a cute idea, nonetheless.

That's all for this year! Have a great day everyone!

Vanessa

I often look at my 8 month old son and wonder just what technology trends he will witness in his lifetime.  I mean, c'mon...it wasn't THAT long ago that people were celebrating the introduction of an affordable colour TV, motion pictures with sound or cameras that didn't require bulky film inserts.

No place is this the rapid growth of technology more evident than in children's toys.  Let me tell you - it is nearly impossible to find a toy that doesn't have some razzle-dazzle feature of blinking lights, magical music or dancing animations at the touch of a button.  We've tried to really hard to balance these exciting items with some that require the use of good ol' imagination...but it's not easy.

Luckily, our little guy seems to be super attracted to books.  And no, not the Kindle kind.  I'm talking about those with actual pages that you have to physically turn and read aloud making up your own voices.  Shocking, I know.

He has quite a few favourites - "Ten Little Fingers & Ten Little Toes", "The Going To Bed Book" and the age-old classic "Goodnight Moon".

Thankfully, some creative soul has adapted that last book to bring it into the 21st century, and make it a bit more true to the experiences that this generation is growing up with.  I give you "Goodnight iPad":

Thanks to @ryflinn for bringing this gem to my attention on Twitter last week.

Vanessa

Wow. Even as I write that title, I realize just how huge of a topic this could be.  Nonetheless, it's one that I'm interested in, and while I don't plan to analyze it to death, I'd like to share at least one lightbulb moment when I realized just how influential consumers can be.

The Big Bang Theory is one of my favourite shows at the moment (I mean, we even have our very own Sheldon, Leonard and Howard in our office, haha).  As you have all probably heard by now, there's some speculation that this show has made Science, and Physics in particular, cool again.  Click here for an analysis of how some people are heralding the TV show for a sudden upswing in the popularity of Physics courses at University.

Pretty cool, right? 

But it doesn't stop there.  Even a simplistic concept such as an iPhone app can be sent spiraling to the levels of viral popularity simply due to its use on a TV show.  While watching the Big Bang Theory's latest episode last Thursday, "The Weekend Vortex", my husband and I laughed at the use of Howard's "whip" app...essentially used when mocking a guy for being whipped by his girlfriend.  Don't want to spoil the show for you, but it was hil-AR-i-ous!

Natch, we decided this would be the perfect app for the hubby to torment some of his friends whom are, shall we say, on somewhat of a short leash, and wondered if such an app actually existed.  Funny enough, when I went to the iTunes app store to search, there were 3 main options that were already in the top 25 for that day! (we were watching the late timezone feed).

It seriously amazed me just how quickly the running joke in this episode spurred an influx of downloads of an app! Can you believe just how much power this show wields? 

And you can admit it...I know that most of you did the exact same thing we did, thereby perpetuating the Big Bang Theory's power over our decisions! :)

Vanessa

I know, I know.  You're a teacher.  You're busy.  You're supposed to be focusing on educating minds and shaping the future citizens of tomorrow.

But let's face it -- many times you are required to do SO much more than that.  In fact, depending on the size of your school and access to resources, you may actually be required to be your very own maintenance person, accountant, parent helper and IT personnel.

With so much new technology hitting the classroom year after year, it can be hard to keep up.  And believe-you-me your tech support are feeling the crunch too.  So I thought I'd give you a few of the top YouTube videos I found that can help when you're stuck with a piece of equipment that it snow.  'Cuz we all know when that will happen -- the very day that your entire lesson/activity/project revolves around using it, and instead of planning a back up, you decided to enjoy a glass of wine after marking a gazillion essays the night before.

*Disclaimer* I have NOT done all of the fixes shown in the videos myself, nor do I want your principal to contact me when something goes horribly wrong whilst following the steps shown.  Use your own discretion with what you're comfortable doing yourself, and always make sure to follow your school division policy regarding DIY projects.

If you choose for forge onwards, I give you 4 excellent videos:

Haha - I love the comment, "Is it on?" I can't tell you how many people that has happened too!

Vanessa