Hello Mrs Sykes

This is a paid, sponsored post in partnership with TypeTastic! All opinions are my own. Keyboarding Skills TypeTastic! is a free web-based game that helps teach young elementary students basic typing skills. They have taken a QWERTY keyboard and broken it up into 9 color-coded sections to help young learners remember where the letters are. When you check out their site, TypeTastic.com , you'll notice an area for teachers to sign up for ad-free experience for their class. So far, they have a selection of games teaching the QWERTY keyboard (Games 1-3), keyboard games (Games 4-6), and basic typing from the home row (Games 7-13). Additional lessons and games are being added as the site evolves, so I predict this will be a one-stop website for your keyboarding needs.

Every year, schools have a "budget season," when purchasing decisions must be made for the following year. If you are an administrator in a school that uses iPads or other mobile devices, you need to take a look at Tech Tubs from Copernicus Educational Products . {source: www.copernicused.com}

Advice From A Teacher and a Mom Every year, during Parent Conferences, I set aside time to speak with each parent/guardian about how their child is using technology at home.  We know technology is important, even crucial, to the digital natives we are raising.  In many ways, we must prepare our kids to succeed in jobs that may not have been invented yet!  We don't want them thinking like this... Here are some tips I always share: Make the technology accessible and developmentally appropriate.  For example, we added bookmarks for the sites my kiddos use.  My 6-year old can click on his icon, and that takes him to the  games/sites he uses at school.  He is *not* allowed to just Google it, since we know that he might accidentally click on something we haven't discussed first.  My 11-year old has a lot more freedom, but she still clears new sites/apps with either me or her dad.  You know, the little online worlds, like Animal Jam, Dragon...

Have y'all visited www.ReadWorks.org yet?  This site is one that you will recommend to your entire staff! www.ReadWorks.org  Here's my favorite part - the Close Reading and Paired Text comprehension units - including a demo lesson plan to help guide you as you begin teaching Close Reading strategies with your class.  Simply find a copy of the trade book, project or print out the paired reading from ReadWorks, and you're set!  Here's one I'll be using soon with my intervention students, after finding the book from the library: How do you find resources for Close Reading? Just a reminder - Click on the image to enter the Pin it to Win it for any item from my store!!  Remember to go to the post below to enter the contest!

Okay, we're cruising into summer.  As you clean out your classroom, don't forget an important step... Back Up Your Files! {source} For reals... I work with a fantabulous teammate who creates uh-maz-ing materials.  She lost all of her files this year.  Twice.  Really.  I'm not gonna name names here, so don't ask me who this is...  The time we spend re-creating teaching materials, we could be on Pinterest!!  (BTW - feel like following me on Pinterest?   Click here! ) {source} Here are a few ways: Dropbox  - It is awesome!!   Dropbox  backs up my files on each of my computers, and I can also access all of my files on-line.  It's also easy to send files to others without filling up their inbox.  If you don't already have an account, click here to join for 2 GB free, and an extra 500 MB for each of us. Flash Drive - Old school, yes.  It works!  I have 2, since USB Drives fail.  I update one of th...

As a teacher, y'all know I'm kinda broke, and you may have figured out by now that I love, love, love anything that helps my kiddos with reading, so this was a fabulous opportunity for me!!   The day after Samson's marketing director contacted me, I had access to this incredible reading resource!  Since then, I have had an opportunity to explore this on-line reading software resource with my students and with my own green beans at home. Here are the highlights of this program and then I have an incredible giveaway for you ! First,  Samson's Classroom   offers three different products in their package:  Sight Words, Spelling, and Reading.  All are for learners from kindergarten to grade 5. Sight Words:  This part of the program offers 224 commonly used words.  I plan to use this with targeted 2nd graders, as many of my kiddos already know their sight words . There are five different activities:  learn the words, build words, i...

I get asked this a bunch - "How did you add that cool link to your comment on my blog?"  Well, here's the trick... (Doncha just love the graphics from The 3AM Teacher !?!) Here's what it looks like when I leave a comment: Here's the code: <a href="PUT THE LINK HERE">TEXT HERE</a> Happy Blogging!!  :)

Found some more Amazing Resources for y'all!  Enjoy! Reading A-Z.com - I know this is nothing new for most of you, but trust me - you want to read this tip!  Did you know that you can print books in multiple languages from Reading A-Z?  This saved me last year...  I had a student who did not enjoy doing his nightly reading.  His uncle, who didn't read/speak English, would tell him to read and ask him questions about his reading.  My student would pretend to read and then make stuff up to tell his uncle.  Uncle was frustrated (rightfully so!), and I began sending home Reading A-Z books in both English and Spanish.  Problem solved!  I love when there's a simple solution.  {Subscription service} Free Common Core Posters for K-5 - Really.  There are printer-friendly *free* posters for ELA and Math for grades K-5 available for download from  Core Common Standards .  At the home page , select your grade, add the fr...

Here's another quick round up (in no particular order) of some Amazing Resources for classrooms available online.  Best part of all?  They are all free!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If your class is stuck indoors, no worries!  Hop on over to Adventure to Fitness , and register for a free teacher account.  Mr. Marc guides the class through a dynamic and fun adventure to keep fit while exploring the arctic, the pyramids, or the jungle.  New episodes are added often, and teacher guides are available for each episode.   Be swift, be safe, be adventurers! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With all of the focus in Common Core on nonfiction text, it can be a challenge to find engaging, age-appropriate materials.   National Geographic Young Explorers has put all of their past issues online for free, and students can explore the articles or even have the articles read to them! ...

After 3 ag-ra-va-ting days without internet service at home, I'm back online!  Yay!  :)  I really missed y'all. Here's a super cool Common Core shortcut...  right over here ------------->> Click it.  Isn't it cool?  Want to get your own?  Check it out here . Also, have you checked out Dropbox?  I live in fear of losing my precious files, so I back up everything important on my laptop, desktop, and flash drive.  An easy solution is to use Dropbox .  You get 2 G of storage for free, but if you click this link ,  you'll get another 250 MB for free.  Enjoy!!