Virtual Field Trips

Some of my most favorite memories about elementary school were the field trips. It was always the best when were able to take a day off of school and go somewhere new. Unfortunately, many schools today do not budget for field trips, which is really disappointing. However, thanks to technology, teachers can bring their students on virtual field trips! Teachers can choose where they want to go and take their students on a tour via video chat! One of the sites that is really useful for this is 'Google Connected Classrooms.' On this site, teachers can see upcoming field trips and take their students on an adventure! I could definitely see myself using a site like this to make learning more fun and engaging! I posted the link for the site under 'Other Websites,' so if you are a teacher looking for a way to explore the world with your students, take a look at it!

First Day of School

The first day of school is one of the most exciting and nerve wrecking days of the year. As the summer comes to a close, teachers are preparing to meet a new group of students. As a teacher, it is very important to create a fun and open atmosphere for the students. One of the ways to do this is to do ice-breakers with the new students. A really cool website that I found is called Playmeo, which provides a whole bunch of beginning of the year activities! There are a bunch of ice- breakers, team building, and trust exercises that will make every students welcome!

Here is the link for the website and it is also posted under 'Other Websites' on the side of my blog. 

http://www.playmeo.com/

Blogs

There are so many teacher blogs on the internet that can provide valuable resources for teachers. One of the websites that my cousin recommended to me is by Laura Candler. On her personal website, Laura provides resources for all elementary school teachers! Here is the link if you want to check it out! 

http://www.lauracandler.com/

Reading and Writing

Elemetary school is a critical time to encourage creative writing and reading. Students learn the basics about what makes a good essay and also learn to ask meaningful questions. Below are a few websites for reading and writing that every elementary school teacher can use! 

http://www.101qs.com/

This is a great website to help prompt students to ask questions. The student will be shown a picture and are asked what the first question that comes to their mind is. It is a really useful website to help students ask meaningful questions and can help, especially with creative writing. 

http://readingandwritingproject.org/resources

This website provides reading and writing resources for students in all grades K-8. Looking through the content, I noticed that there are even videos to model how different lessons can be taught. I can imagine myself using this and watching the videos in order to get a better idea of how to teaching reading and writing in my own classroom. 

http://www.scholastic.com/stacks

This is a really cool website that I found where students can read and post book reviews, play games on different units, and watch videos about the author of different books. It looks like it would be something students can relate to and can share their thoughts about their reading material. 

http://www.readingrockets.org 

This website provides a bunch of reading resources for teachers and parents. Teachers can find different reading strategies to use in the classroom, as well as suggestions for read aloud books. 

All of these websites can be found on the side of my blog under 'Reading and Writing Websites.' :)