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Sunday, April 21, 2013

We've Been Pinned!

We LOVE Pinterest for so many reasons and now we've added another one! We were busy searching Pinterest for the latest on all things iPad related (a go-to past time for us!) and we stumbled across US! Yay!!! We've been pinned!!!! Kinda makes us feel like mini-celebraties!

It means so much to us that people value our opinions! We strive to provide helpful information regarding utilizing iPads/iPods in education and will continue to work hard to share our love for teaching & technology!!!! Thank you to everyone who follows us, finds us on Facebook, & of course Pins us!!!!!! We appreciate you!

Friday, April 19, 2013

Snow Day = Work Day for Normoff!

Not long after we got the call our school district had a snow day (yes for everyone not living in MN it is April 19 and we did just write snow day!) Normoff was on our way to our 'office' at our favorite Caribou Coffee to work on our favorite things: technology and education! Take a look around our blog, we've updated it to make it easier for you to navigate and find helpful information! We also spent some time fine tuning our 6 summer technology sessions for Resource Trainings and Solutions to make sure our classes contain the most beneficial and current info out there for educators looking to expand their knowledge and use of iPads and iPods in their teaching. All of that kept us very busy, not to mention all the great new apps we've found and activity packets we are in the process of creating! Make sure you follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest updates on The Techie Teachers!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Sophia Webinar

Hello!
Here are all of the resources from the Webinar that Angie will be doing tonight for Sophia Learning. Also, check out our Teachers Pay Teachers store for extension activities for your primary students
goo.gl/es3jN- App Listgoo.gl/9O6Yg- Google PresentationHope to see you tonight!

Monday, April 8, 2013

App Review: Record of Reading

ATTENTION ALL TEACHERS: THIS APP IS FABULOUS! Sorry to yell in all caps, but I am that much in love with this app! I just started my Rigby testing of my petunias today and I think that the Record of Reading app has to be at the top of my all time favorite teacher tool apps. Why do I love thee.....let me count the ways:)

1)Price-its free! Always adds bonus points to any app!

2)Ease of use. I 'played' around with this app and found the set up super easy to use. I was able to even do a quick demo for another teacher and because it is so easy to understand she decided to start using it too! Woo Hoo! Record of Reading app also makes my Rigby testing much more portable and quicker as I'm not constantly shuffling through paperwork. Anyone who has done reading records knows that it can be extremely time consuming, so this is a big plus!

3) Save a tree......or a hundred. I'm a big fan of anything that can cut down on my paper usage at school. Especially when the papers aren't needed to be kept in some file somewhere for eternity.  With this app I can access the information quickly, email it to anyone who may need it (ie interventionists and case managers), and even hold on to them until next year in an electronic file and send them to the student's 1st grade teachers. Lets be honest, when they are all in paper form they often get eaten by my desk monster, especially over the summer. 

4)Records their reading, saves it for playback, and does math for you! For whatever reason I really enjoy the fact that this app will calculate the errors and self correction rates as you go, give you the accuracy rate and classify if it is a difficult, instructional or independent level. Its not difficult math but it takes one task off of my many to dos and I appreciate that! The record feature is great as well. At the end the student and I will listen to their reading and I feel it opens up some great dialogue from them that I wouldn't otherwise get. Every Friday I try to film my students in their Guided Reading groups for their own observation, so we've had some practice at this type of reflection-but even with out practice the recording is still a great feature. Plus I can go back and listen too if I ever need to.

5)The pre-programmed choices and room for notes.  I can easily jot down notes on the first page of the reading record, and use drop down options to describe fluency.  This helps reading records become a more useful and complete tool, allowing for immediate and quick observation responses that I can reference back to after the fact. I'm finding I'm writing more detailed observational notes which will greatly help my teaching the next few weeks of school.

My only suggestion is to use a stylus to do the writing, it helps keep it looking 'cleaner'. Otherwise, go take a look! Hope you find it to be as helpful of a teaching tool as I do! If you want to know more about what other apps we use to make teaching life easier check out our events page here for our upcoming teacher workshops in the Central Minnesota area!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

App Review: 123 Number Magic Line Matching


abc 3Another app that I am loving for some easy independent intervention work is the 123 Number Magic Line Matching app by Preschool University! It is a terrific app that is FREE and I feel like you get a nice app for the price! It works on basic number sense in the app with 2 different choices of either matching number quantities to number quantities (such a tough concept for some of my Kinderfriends) or matching number quantities to numerals (so neat watching students discover that numbers actually mean something!) It only works on numbers 1-10, so it works really well for introducing the concept as it gives it a nice focus. It does only go so far for your higher students though.  However, when I added in our iPad Activity Packet from TPT my student's engagement went much longer! Plus, it helped increase their accountability of what they are working on in a Kindergarten friendly way!!

I was reminded of my fondness of this app when I had a new student join my class from out of state and I needed them to review the basic math concepts. Its great to pull up this app, grab the packet, and have them work for a bit independently. I know that they are getting the exact math help they need in a fun and engaging way! Check out this app and others by Preschool University-we are BIG fans of their apps! And don't forget to swing by our TPT store and scope out our iPad Activity Packets to help take your student's learning to the next level!