Read to Succeed!

Did you know???

Read to Succeed is an exciting program that encourages students in grades K through 6 to read for fun. Students who complete six hours of recreational reading earn a free ticket to Six Flags! The program is available to teachers and schools at no cost to participate, and it's a great way to motivate kids to read. The program deadline is March 3, 2014 at 5pm CST.

Registration is now available for the Six Flags Read to Succeed program.  Here is the website:

Read to Succeed Website

There are two parts to the program, the handwritten part and the online part. Both need to be completed to earn tickets.

1. The Student Reading Logs are handwritten by the students/parents as they log their minutes from reading. Students need to turn the logs into their teacher. Starting this year, teachers will NOT have to mail the Student Reading Logs in. However, we do ask that teachers save the completed Student Reading Logs for future reference. We may also conduct periodic reviews of Student Reading Logs, so please keep the Student Reading Logs in your files.

2. Educators will need to register online if they did not participate last year. Once you are registered, you will have an online account. You will need to enter your students’ names and total hours they have read in your online account.

Things to note:

• This is an optional program.  If you registered last year, you do not need to set up a new account. 
• Students can start logging their reading right away, so sign up as soon as you can.
• Once you register, you can download the reading log to copy for students.  (Linking the log to your website might also be helpful!) 

Reading Log

Parent Letter

• If you register at least 1 student and log their reading hours, you will receive one free teacher ticket to Six Flags.
• The deadline for entering your students' reading hours is March 3, 2014.  Any entries made after this deadline will NOT get their free Six Flags ticket.
• Students must complete 6 hours of recreational, NON-SCHOOL-RELATED reading.

Let me know if you have any questions or need help setting up your account.

Flocabulary!

Did you know???

Flocabulary is an online library of songs, videos and activities for grades K-12.

There's a Flocab for that.
Whether you're teaching elementary math or high school English, Flocabulary has hundreds of songs and videos to engage your students and bring your lessons to life.

Tackle the Common Core.
Flocabulary songs, videos and exercises will help you meet Common Core objectives in ELA and math. Their engaging material for social studies and science supports interdisciplinary literacy practice.

Customize your experience.
Flocabulary videos are designed to fit into your curriculum wherever you need them. With the digital subscription, all you have to do is log in and press play. Use the videos and lessons flexibly for introduction, enrichment, differentiated instruction and test prep. Then save videos to your favorites for easy access during class.

Flocabulary has some videos that are free. These free videos change periodically.  There is also a free 14 day trial.

If you would like help with this or any other media/technology tool, please let me know!

Virtual Board with Sticky Notes

Did You Know???

The same tool Leela is using on our staff website can also be used in the classroom with your students? Padlet (www.padlet.com) is a virtual board with sticky notes that can be easily moved, shared, and embedded. There are several views, including something that looks more like a scrollable blog, and it’s easy to personalize the experience and organize notes. The privacy and moderation settings make it easy for students to become members of a board where a teacher can post resources and encourage them to do the same. It’s a great way to quickly share resources with your kids and moderate what they post.  It's also a useful tool for activating prior knowledge, checking for understanding, and providing collaborative opportunities for students.

Check out this link to see a few examples of how a teacher is using Padlet in her elementary classroom:

http://www.techitikes.com/2013/06/sharing-information-with-padlet.html

Multimedia Reading Resource

Did You Know???

GCPS has added a resource to the Online Research Library called TeachingBooks.net.  I briefly introduced the parapros to this resource during our recent professional learning session, and I hope to use some upcoming PL time to work with our teachers using TeachingBooks.  In the meantime, here is some information about what this database has to offer.

TeachingBooks.net is an easy-to-use website that adds a multimedia dimension to the reading experiences of children's and young adult books. The online database is developed and maintained to include thousands of resources about fiction and nonfiction books used in the K–12 environment, with every resource selected to encourage the integration of multimedia author and book materials into reading and library activities.

Author resources include:
Meet the Author movies
Written interviews
Guest blog posts
Audio name pronunciations
Author interview

Book Resources include:
Book Apps
Book guides and lesson plans
Book readings
Book trailers
Book websites
Movie and TV adaptation websites

TeachingBooks.net can be found in the Online Research Library under Professional Resources.