Workshop Classroom: parent resources

Showing posts with label parent resources. Show all posts

Blogorrific!

Or blogtastic? Blogolicious? Yes, the beauty of being an elementary teacher is the poetic license to be corny. Here is the first of many posts that will be dedicated to the amazing blogs with interesting articles and incredible resources! I spend oodles and oodles of time reading them and appreciating their creativity. I hope you enjoy perusing them as much as I do!!

First there's What The Teacher Wants. I think their followers multiply daily because they're just so darn creative. And the bloggers span two grade levels, doubling my interest: I can reminisce about my first grade teaching (sigh) and take mental notes for the future while gleaning ideas for my current angels. And all their activities are FREE!

I have to give a shout out to Erica Bohrer's First Grade. She's an accomplished author, she has great contests, and creates amazing resources on TpT. And she's actually put me on her blog list, which I find a huge honor. Thank you for sending readers to my humble blog!

I need to explore the Ladybug's Teacher Files more so I can use her awesome blogging tips, like posting resources using Google Docs. She's just amazing because she actually has two blogs: one with FREE teacher resources and one designing blog templates. I am just so impressed!

So onto a teacher and parent resource: a father writes about how he honors children's authors and their books on their birthday in the blog, Happy Birthday Author. He does various activities with his own children that are specific to that author's characters or illustrations, including performing a skit on Mo Willems' birthday!!! How cool is that! As a teacher, I would totally show this off to my students, or possibly tie in an author's study with his/her birthday.

Happy Birthday Author via kwout

I know I've talked about in the past the challenge of finding quality math resources. However this all changed after my principal highly recommended Dr. Nicki's Guided Math blog. Math workshop, small group instruction, and differentiation are definitely hot topics in my district, and this blogger is a font of math pedagogy!

Dr. Nicki's Guided Math Blog via kwout

I also have to send some quick love to the blogs that have joined mine...I almost want to say that these resources found me!! I am in awe that I even have an audience that wants to read me ramble on and on and on...

As I discover more resources or more resources come to me, I promise to post them...

PS...I was reading up on What The Teacher Wants latest post about creating a mega page of web resources, and Second Grade is Splendid! posted this little gem of a resource: http://guest.portaportal.com/reiss. It's the mother of all resources!!!!

Math resources galore!!

Switching grade levels is frustrating. Switching positions AND grade levels is just insane. Just a little. It also doesn't help your blogging skills. Well, anyway, my job is to provide intervention in literacy and math in the upper elementary grades. In my humble opinion, there are approximately a bazillion (read: too many to count) resources, programs, and books that talk about literacy intervention. Because there is a lack of resources for math, it's become my mission as of late to discover these resources that provide some insight about strategies and approaches to reach struggling learners as well as possible resources for parents. I know there are a few good books on math intervention strategies; however time and money are not on my side, so my best friend Google and I have sifted through many search result pages, and I've created a list of blogs and websites that look promising. If you know of more resources, please, please share them.

Helping parents establish routines

I know that Back to School night is coming up and soon after report cards and parent-teacher conferences. Parents often ask for advice regarding how to best support their child at home, and they may want to see handouts or resources. I thought this little chart would be useful for helping establish a homework routine.