AI in the School Library

While the sensationalism of ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools has calmed down slightly in the last month, the capabilities have not. There are many concerns about students’ ability to use these tools to cheat. Still, I want to continue to focus on how we, as educators, specifically School Library Media Specialists (SLMS), can […]

AI- A Teacher’s Best Friend

For years I had a vision for this page but quickly learned that I had the most significant impact working alongside teachers in my districts and locally. Time taken updating here could be used to find new tools and develop models of how they could be integrated into the curriculum. But…then, Artificial Intelligence became easily […]

Seesaw- the best app/site for the elementary classroom

Seesaw, web.seesaw.me, is really the best iPad app/website for the elementary school classroom. If you use iPads and do not have this app yet, download it, then come back and read all about. Seesaw calls itself a “Learning Journal” and promotes itself as a great tool for portfolios. It is! But it so much more with the […]

EdCite

The Chromebooks have really stepped-up our formative assessment game. I’ve already posted about some of my favorites, Kahoot and Quizziz here, and now want to write about Edcite. Edcite.com is a free website that allows teachers to create assessments that look like PARCC.  Teachers can create classes and add students  so they have their own accounts.  Students […]

Kahoot vs. Quizizz

Kahoot and Quizizz are both great ways to gamify formative assessment in the classroom.  Each has it’s positives and it’s negatives and each has its place. First, why gamify assessment? it’s motivating it’s engaging it’s exciting Both are FREE and students DO NOT need accounts. Kahoot Quizizz Accounts Teacher yes No Questions Multiple Choice Multiple […]

STEM Poetry

We are lighting up our poems in second grade! During Poetry Month in April the second graders spend time using ReadWriteThinks interactive poetry websites.  They wrote Acrostics, Diamantes, and Haikus.    After learning about these 3 types of poems and others in their classroom students worked in small groups to brainstorm as many sources of light as […]

STEM Roller Coasters

My favorite part of the school year this year is probably teaching STEM/STEAM.  The curriculum concepts, the thinking skills, and the personal skills the students have learned have made STEM days my favorite days of the week. The last few weeks the fourth graders have been learning about basic physics concepts by building roller coasters. […]