Wordless Wednesday

I have finally done it!!

I have for years said I wanted to create a website for my class. I have finally done it. You see, I was still bogged down in the everlasting state of procrastination. Always saying "I would like to" and "I am going to", but never just sitting down and doing it. This is how it happened:

In the Spring of 2013 my school became a BYOD (bring your own device) pilot school. No one, and I mean No one I talked to, was as excited as me! I thought this was the best thing ever. My students and I were all over the place! But by the end of the year I had a better idea of how to begin the next year, but I had mostly figured that out by knowing I didn't want to do anything I did that spring.

The next year I did not allow myself to get bogged down in the search. The ideas on the internet and the resources are both astounding and exciting. But I let  myself earlier become overwhelmed by the search for the "best" thing to do with a class. Not this time, this time I focused on just a couple of things and did them thoroughly. But still, no website and I had exhausted myself trying to do so much at once. Again, I procrastinated making a class website.

 I love my fellow teachers, but I really had no one with which to share my excitement, wonder or need to experiment.

Last year, and by last year I mean last school year. A Media Specialist friend of  mine made me play with the site our county had supplied us. She knew I wanted to do it and was making a bigger deal of it than necessary and had let the whole thought of it just weigh me down to the point of inertia. Well the county site got my feet wet, but wasn't really that easy for me to work with. But I began to seriously picture in my head that I might really, actually make a website.

Then another friend whom I actually work with began communicating to me that she was interested in becoming stronger in our BYOD (bring your own device) program. She wanted me to help her remain motivated. Last spring we started bouncing ideas off of each other and this always led to a better idea. A beautiful collaboration was being born. We met with a real techy person in the spring and vowed to do so much this fall. I planned on doing so much this summer. I didn't do a thing!!

In my defense I had a beautiful granddaughter on July 9th, She was due in June. The summer was filled with labor starts and stops, it was quite the drama. But the very beautiful Lila Grace was born.

This fall came and the realization of all that is necessary to kick off the school year hit me. I thought, here I go again. Then yesterday, my friend messaged me to look at the website she started and had brought up to date and ready to share with parents. She had started working on it during the week, but she DID it! She said she was going to and did. I was inspired and wanted to preserve our new found collaboration, our new partnership that added the fun and excitement back into what had been my passion.I had to keep up! It is so much more enjoyable to share and work with someone that has similar goals. I don't think I can say that enough. So I just sat down and made myself do it.

I couldn't be more excited! It has no content yet, only framework. I can hardly wait to get to school tomorrow and add the content! But here it is: http://haganheroes.weebly.com/


Please check it out and let me know what you think!

Summer

Well I certainly took the summer off! I have enjoyed summer break this year. it brought me a new granddaughter. Her name is Lila- Grace and she is 13 days old. I know it has nothing to do with education and certainly not my quest for knowledge and growth on the technological front, but hey, this is what grandmothers do!

Ok, that was my gushing moment! Now back to the matter at hand. I will still be exploring technology and discussing it here. But for now I would like to let everyone watching that both of my stores are having Back to School Sales! Everything in both stores is on sale for $1! That's right! I will continue this sale for at least two weeks while everyone is getting settled back into the school routine. 

Keep watching for more techy discussions!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Pamela-Hagan

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/shop/pamhagan

Do you Symbaloo?

I must admit, I love technology. But sometimes it just seems like there is way too much out there and so I cling to the things that I already know. Although I am an older woman I have professional friends that are younger and encourage me to try these new things. A very encouraging friend told me to take another look at Symbaloo. It was introduced to me at one time, but it was introduced at a time when the amount of things being introduced to me were overwhelming. This blog is about my adventures as an older teacher trying to learn about and incorporate new things into my routine.
Today is about Symbaloo.

My computer screen is not the greatest, but you can see on the bottom, half of the sign in with Facebook button. I am a little tempted, but I won't. If I sign in with Facebook, I will forget my sign in information and then be limited. If this does what I hope, then I will want to have it as the desktop on my classroom computers.  I have already watched the video. You can watch their intro video by clicking the picture above. My young friend loves Symbaloo.

So this is what I did. I must also say that I do not yet know how to do those video tutorials really clever techy girls can do. But it is on my bucket list. For now though it is step by step pictures.

So, once I sign on, I get the above screen and I of course have the obligatory welcome email. I see quick start and LOVE that word so I click on it. But I then get the next screen which is not at all what I want. The next screen is more for personal use. I think that is a good idea, but I am looking for a place to put everything I specifically want my students to have at their fingertips. I do want to use it on my desktops at school, so it cuts down on searching for unnecessary icons.

So, I am not very good at reading instructions. This is probably why I like step by step pictures.
I poke around and find the button in the next picture that asks me if I want to create a new webmix.
Yes, this is exactly what I want to do.

Then I get the opportunity to name it. School Day. Not a very clever name but it does the trick.

I verify my email.

      

Then I begin adding buttons.  As you can see Google is right in the middle of things.

Then I click a list icon on the left and the Create a Tile option pops up.

                            

                           

All you have to do really is fill in the blanks (see above).

And voila, as you can see below, I have an icon that links my students to our first site.

Pretty soon, I have a functioning board. There is certainly more that I can add, however, this is a good start.

I also filled out a profile. As you can see they keep statistics. Do I need followers? I don't know. But I will have a great time peeking at the boards others have created. Maybe I will find some noteworthy websites! 

Do you all Symbaloo? What are some of your favorite websites?

Do you need followers?

 Until the next website!

    

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My first giveway!

I am having my first giveaway in my Teacher's Notebook store Lilly's Grace (after clicking on the store name you must go to the giveaway section to enter). I am giving away the Smart Board presentation "Adding er and est to Adjectives." It contains both instructional and interactive slides and is one of the prettiest things I have ever made. My students loved playing it and were able to choose when to use the different endings and explain why! If they choose a correct answer the answer will spin, if they choose incorrectly the answer will shoot out of the sorting pile and back to its spot.I love it too!
Below are some pictures of this presentation in use:

The giveaway begins tomorrow May 27th and runs through the 29th. There will be five winners! Click over to my store to enter!

Synonym Twister

My students have always loved playing Twister. Any group I have ever had over the past 10 years of my teaching career have loved Twister. About 8 years ago I started creating educational Twisters. I bought three Twister games and made a Synonym, Antonym and Homophone Twister. I would choose pairs of words and write one on the mat and one on the spinner. Kids loved it!



Now, we have Smart Boards. I love creating things on the Smart Board more than anything. It is so much fun to create and test it for myself and introduce it to my kids. That first day I have kids use a presentation or play a game is the most fun for all of us.



Over the years I have lost a Spinner or two. As I learned more and more about the Smart Board I figured out that I cold transform the spinner into what I needed.

My Teachers Pay Teachers store has a free antonym Spinner, as well as, a homophone and synonym spinner for sale, Click one of the links below to have a look!

Synonym Twister Spinner          Homophone Twister Spinner          Free Antonym Twister Spinner