Shooting for the Stars in 1st Grade

I had the opportunity to introduce "Nearpod" to one of our awesome teachers this week. This teacher has excellent classroom management and the kiddos are hungry for technology! (More on Nearpod in a minute.) Last week as we were planning I challenged this teacher to really push the boundaries of what her lesson(s) and activities looked like. I reminded her that I'd be with her and her kiddos every step of the way and would assist in anyway needed! With that said- we had come up with a few awesome ideas that would challenge her, her students as well as myself!


Book Review Library:
A few months ago a few of our teachers across our district were able to network with each other. Since then it's been an amazing ride with these teachers! Both of them trade ideas on what they do in their classrooms. One of the things that we are working on is a Book Review Library in which students will produce book reviews over books that they had read. They are using iMovie for this task. Once the movie is created, they will put it on their teacher's YouTube channel. From there, the teacher and I will work our magic and put it on a Google Site in which other elementary campuses in our district will be able to see and hopefully make an informed decision on a book that they are wanting to read.
This is a huge work in progress that will definitely take the rest of the year but it will sure be rewarding!

 

Nearpod Rollout:

I had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to show this teacher a really sweet app called "Nearpod," She was introducing "objects in the sky" this week. However, instead of just having printables or such, I showed her the power of Nearpod! She immediately fell in love with this app used it for the first time on her own today! I had never heard so many "Ooohhs and Ahhhs" from a class before! The students were absolutely amazed on what they were seeing in front of them! Stars! Clouds! Sun and Moon! It was very "in your face!" The teacher was also thrilled about having "total control" of the student's iPad! I have a feeling that this teacher is going to be using it on a regular basis!