Here is the LAST resources post for my series of resources for the Grade 8 Science curriculum. With school starting right around the corner, I hope you can find these resources useful! If you missed my posts for the first three units of study, visit the following posts: – Cells & Systems – Optics – Fluids Water Cycle Song. (2011). Uploaded to YouTube by Mr. Parr. Available online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3BVa7PH_JE I really enjoyed planning out this unit for two reasons: I have a Geography minor and our province has experienced drastic flooding over the past few years.… Read More
Interactive "Connect With Us" Display
I am now spending almost every day in my classroom getting organized and prepared for the upcoming school year. As you know, I’ve created quite a strong online presence for my classroom and I want to make sure that my students utilize these resources and have easy access to them. To address this, I’ve created an interactive Connect With Us display at the entrance of my classroom! This display includes 3 laptops featuring the information for our: – Classroom Website – Classroom Blog – Classroom YouTube Channel In addition to the written URL for each site, I… Read More
Summer #EdTech To-Do List Revisited
At the beginning of the summer (oh geez, was that already 2 months ago!?) I shared my Summer #EdTech To-Do List inspired by a blog post by Anthony Vonbank. For the last five summers I have always worked two jobs to pay for the upcoming year’s school tuition, so I always considered myself very busy. This is my first summer since Grade 8 that I haven’t worked at all during the summer! I thought that this would mean that I wouldn’t be busy and was actually worried that I might be bored! HAHA! With the wedding, honeymoon, and planning for… Read More
Resources To Start Off Your Week 75
I am both excited and nervous as I write this post as it is my LAST Resources To Start Off Your Week post before I am back at school. Next week I begin my new teacher orientation although students will not return to classes until September 5th. When I first started these posts in January of 2011 I never thought that I’d still be doing them when I was preparing my first classroom! As always, I will be adding these to my ever-growing list of resources under the Fav Websites heading. 1 ) Math is Fun– This website… Read More
Using Flash Websites on iPads
Our school has an iPad cart that teachers can book to use with their students for a variety of purposes. While our elementary wing (K-4) has a laptop cart that can be brought into the classroom, Grades 5 and up only have certain periods where they have access to the traditional computer lab. As such, the iPads are a good mobile tech option for us. During my student teaching placement I used our iPads for:– QR scavenger hunts– Interactive options during centers– Research stations– Virtual labs– Taking photos– Recording audio reflections, etc One problem that I… Read More
Fluids Resources
This post is the third in my series of resources that align with the Grade 8 Science curriculum. (Previously in the summer, I posted a similar series for the Grade 7 Science curriculum.) Each post shares the resources I compiled for a particular unit that I will be covering throughout the year. If you missed my first two posts in the Grade 8 Science series, you can find them at:– Cells & Systems Resources– Optics Resources Easy Hydraulic Machines Screenshot. (2012). Uploaded to Instructables by Lance from Workshop for Young Engineers. Available online at: http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-Hydraulic-Machines/ My… Read More
The Homework Debate
On the weekend I read a post by Justin Tarte called The Truth About Homework in Schools in which he lists his thoughts on the “homework debate”. Being a new teacher I began thinking about where I fall in this often controversial discussion and what my thoughts are about having my students complete homework. I follow many education blogs from around the world and have seen teachers discuss all different types of homework ideologies, from those who are completely against it to those who have assigned homework every single night. I don’t really remember having homework… Read More
Classroom Pictures *Update*
In July I shared with you the first official pictures of my classroom. Since then I haven’t done too much in regards to decorating, as I’ve been more focused on my curriculum planning, but I did spend an entire day their today! While I did begin to rearrange some furniture (I’m still playing with layouts) my primary focus was the GIGANTIC bookcase that was previously blocking the rooms bulletin boards. *Before*This bookcase was screwed into the wall, the floor, and covered all of the bulletin boards in my room! *After*The bookcase is now dismantled & my bulletin boards havebeen freed! ———————————————————————————-… Read More
Resources To Start Off Your Week 74
This week I am really excited to have found some really practical resources that I know I can use right away in the classroom. I found one for math, one for art, and one for the general classroom! With there only being a few weeks left before school begins I am really happy to have found such applicable resources. As always, I will be adding these to my lists of resources under the Fav Websites heading. 1 ) Graphing Stories– This project by Dan Meyer & BuzzMath is a neat, engaging way to practice graphing with your students. This… Read More
Proud Canadian Blog Award
I am thrilled to announce that I’ve been awarded a new blog award! Not only is it awesome to be recognized by other bloggers but this award is Canadian-based as well! Almost 80% of the education blogs I follow are American and I always have a hard time finding other Canadian bloggers, so it is really cool to be linked up with some other Canadians 🙂 I want to send out a BIG thank you to the lovely Patti from Madly Learning for awarding me with the new Proud Canadian Blog Award and working towards getting other Canadian… Read More