Mrs. Booksie's Story Time

Mrs. Booksie is an online video maker that reads, and acts out, popular stories for children. She makes the stories more modern and fun so children can better relate.
Here is an example of the Mrs. Booksie's story The Little Red Riding Hood:

Tea Party- Prediction Strategy

Tea Party is a way to introduce a book. The teacher writes phrases on index cards, passes them out to groups, and groups discuss what they believe the story will be about, based on those index cards.

Then, the students can compare their predictions when they see the phrase in context of the story while they are reading it.

Attendance App

This is an app called "Attendance" that costs $4.99. It allows the teacher to mark who is "present" or not, then, if the teacher is interested in picking random groups of any number, the app will randomly select groups based on those that are there that day.

This app could be very useful in the classroom, especially on days that there are multiple students absent, or when groups of more than two are desired.

Ex:

 

Appointment Clock

An appointment clock is used to have students pick partners quickly. Students pick a different partner for each time on the clock during the beginning of the school year. Then, when a teacher wants students to get in partners he/she can say "Go meet with your 2:00" and they know what partner they are supposed to meet with.
The easiest way to pick partners is by having students line up in two lines and "speed date." (Write down name and move to next)

Ex:

Polleverywhere.com

This is a way to take polls in the classroom or vote on subjects with students. It could also be used as an assessment tool; students can type in the answer to a question and it will anonomously post on the poll for everyone to see. The website is free, and can be accessed by texting in a vote.
Ex:

Choice 2 Resources

Multi-cultural books:

• Amazing Grace
• Wonder- A boy with facial deficiencies, and is homeschooled until 5th grade. The story is about the boy's journey going to school and making friends
• Thank you, Mr. Falker- Girl with borderline learning disability with reading, gets bullied.
• Ragged Dick- Life in NY during the Industrial Revolution
• Chanda's Secrets- little girl in made up village in Africa- talks about how she's shunned for having HIV/AIDS (has movie called life above all)
• Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy- Poem from the perspective of a girl during the Holocaust
• Henry's Freedom Box- Slave and entire family was sold, main character tired of it so he got in a box and was literally shipped to freedom-land.
• Freak the Mighty- Two disabled students become friends and use each other's strengths to benefit 
• A Monster Calls- Mother has cancer- child's journey
• Tru Confessions- Girl's brother has a developmental delay and her dream is to cure it; journal of her life
• Mommy, Mama, and Me & Daddy, Papa, and Me
• Perks of Being a Wallflower- GLBTQ Book
• Brokeback Mountain- GLBTQ Book
• Sing You Home- GLBTQ Book
• Maniac Magee- Civil Rights and Segregation from a middle school student's point of view
• House on Mango Street- Spanish girl in Chicago that doesn't have a steady home; it's her dream to have a permanent home (Poetry-like style) Talks about being raped, and the drunk guy on the street talking to her and her friend- (short book, but for older students)
• The Seasons and Someone- About Alaskan Natives- In a "What If" format from an Eskimo girl's perspective; easy book, but critical thinking is important when reading
• American Born Chinese- Comic book form - 3 stories in one- stories discuss stereotypes of Chinese people
• The Diary of Anne Frank

Technology/Texts:

• Animoto- Videos
• Spicy Nodes-Interactive Slides
• Glogster-PinBoard
• Dipity-Online Timeline
• Flocabulary- Hip-Hop in the Classroom
• RAFT
• SPAWN
• MindMeister-Interactive Slides
• Prezi-Interactive Slides
• Tiki-Toki- Interactive Timeline
• Weebly- online blog/website
• Pixton- online comic strip (one for teachers)
• Linoit- online bulletin board with sticky notes
• Stormboard- online bulletin board with sticky notes