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Volume 1, Issue 1 November 2013

November Newsletter
Survey Monkey
Anyone who has spent any time in a classroom can tell you that teaching, although rewarding, is a tough job. With the endless amounts of paperwork, planning, classroom management, etc. it can be easy to forget to routinely step back and evaluate the needs of parents and students. So how can teachers get parents and students opinions regarding things such as the fairness of assignments and thoughts on how the class may improve? Instead of providing parents and students with copies of paper surveys a teacher could use Survey Monkey. This free find useful to get them started, or they may write their own. Once each question is written the teacher has the ability to add a number of features to the questions such as the option for those taking the survey to add comments to each question. The best part about Survey Monkey is that these surveys are completely anonymous, meaning that parents and students will feel free to be as honest as they can be without fear of causing a dispute with the teacher.

Inside this issue:

Popplet 2

Rubistar

Quizlet

Edmodo

Live Binder

Jog the Web

service allows teachers to make surveys that can be taken online at any time and are easily altered to fit the idea they are trying to access. Survey Monkey has a complete list of questions that teachers may

Holidays this month:

November 11th Veteran's Day

November 28th

Shelfari
It is a common goal among teachers and parents to get students more interested in reading but it often proves to be quite the challenge for both. Using a website called Shelfari could help elevate some of that trouble because it allows students the chance to preview books and possibly get excited about them. Students can view their friends and teachers virtual bookshelves and see what others enjoyed read-

Thanksgiving Holiday

November 29th Thanksgiving Holiday

ing. From there they just might decide to pick up a particular book and give it a try.

Popplet
For a lot of people, the first step of a project is to brainstorm and many do this by creating some sort of web on paper that allows them to organize their ideas. The problem with a written web is that it can be hard to move ideas around and alter what it is youd like to end up with. For example, when creating our class website I found myself coming up with started to look like a test that I had not prepared for, full of eraser marks and smudged lead. It was then that I discovered Popplet, a free website that allows you to create a virtual web where moving, creating, or deleting ideas is as easy as a click of the mouse. This is incredibly user friendly website allows users to create their professional looking webs, save them,

things and, just as quickly, changing my mind. Before long my paper

Rubistar
Everyone has faced an assignment in at least one point in their school career where they had no clue what the instructor was looking for. When this happens, it doesnt matter how hard you try to do the assignment correctly you are taking a shot in the dark. That is why it is crucial for teachers to provide students with some sort of assignment instructions and/or On one free site teachers have access to any kinds of rubrics created and uploaded by other teachers rubric. The problem is that it can be unbelievably time consuming for a teacher to have to create a rubric for every assignment that gets handed out. That is what makes Rubistar.com such an amazing teaching resource. On one free site teachers have access to any kinds of rubrics created and uploaded by other teachers. Just simply search by keyword and there is a ready to go rubric to use for your assignment!

Quizlet
With so many busy visual learners using technology Quizlet is a perfect resource to allow students the chance to study wherever they are. Using a virtual version of the traditional flash card, students can prepare for tests using cards created by themselves, parents, teachers, classmates, etc. Quizlet makes it easy for students to access these cards anywhere by using a free smart phone app. Just imagine, a student could use that 30 minute wait in the doctors office to review their spelling words on mom or dads phone without needing to carry around a stack of cards.

Page 2

November Newsletter

Edmodo
Have you ever been frustrated because there wasnt a safe way for parents, teachers and students to connect and share ideas? Well, Edmodo is here to help. Set up much like the popular social networking site Facebook, Edmodo gives all of those who have a key role in a students success the ability to be more involved in the learning process. Unlike Facebook, however, Edmodo allows the teacher to control the content and who has access to it in order to provide students with a safe online environment. While it is more appropriate for older grades students, teachers can implement the use of Edmodo in just about any grade as a way to keep in touch with parents. Older students will enjoy being able to find assignments, grades, and classmates all on one convenient website. As if that werent enough, this free service is incredibly easy to connect to. Anyone can access it by visiting Edmodo.com or by downloading the smart phone app. So, no matter where you are, you have the ability to be more involved.

Live Binder
Imagine, as a teacher, you had unlimited access to other teachers lesson plans, information and ideas. This would make planning your curriculum a breeze. Now, with Live Binder, this isnt just a dream anymore. Teachers all over the world upload all kinds of useful resources to their Live Binders account and it becomes searchable by keyword to other educators. From there, a teacher can look through any other ideas that correspond with their original search and come up with a whole unit. Of course this free resource is not just for teachers, it can be used by substitutes and parents. Substitutes using Live Binder will be able to find everything Teachers all they need to conover the world tinue your lesson upload all without skipping a kinds of useful beat. Parents can resources help their children with their lessons by using supplemental material found both in their teachers binder as well as other teachers binders.

Jog the Web

As a teacher it can be difficult keeping track of who is on task and who is not. This is especially true in a computer lab as you may not always be able to tell, from far away, who is on the websites they are supposed to be on. Combined with the fact that a schools filter does not always block mature content, it is a recipe for a disaster. Thanks to Jog the Web, teachers can breathe a sigh of relief. This program allows teachers to pick only the sites they want the students to

visit and frame them in a distinct window that is easy to spot from a distance in order to monitor.

Volume 1, Issue 1

Page 3

November 2013
Sunday
Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday 1

Friday 2

Saturday

Spelling Test

Science Project Due

10 11 12 13 14

PTA Meeting

Spelling Test

15

16

Holiday No School

Spelling Test

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

Progress Reports

Spelling Test

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

Picture Retakes

Holiday

Holiday

No School No School