Computer Lab Visual Lesson Plans W3

Hello! Check out my Visual Lesson Plans for the week below:)

Wonderful Websites - Common Core and So Much More, Science Stuff

Click the pic and the site will open in a new window:)

Computer Lab Visual Lesson Plans W2

Wonderful Websites - Nat Geo Young Explorer , Bozeman Science

National Geographic Young Explorer Student Magazine

This is kinda amazing- why didn't I know about this?!?! I found this site through Symbaloo, by accident!

You can read issues of the magazine from September 2009 through September 2014 - they also add new issues throughout the current school year. Kids can read themselves or click a little speaker button and have the page read to them! That's right, and each word is highlighted as it's read aloud. LOVE IT!

You can also print out copies of the teachers manual for each issue, complete with lesson plans and  printable worksheets. 

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Bozeman Science

This site is basically just a bajilloin science videos covering a ton of topics created by a very cool teacher. Check it out.

Computer Lab Visual Lesson Plans W1

It's the first week of school! I don't know how closely I'll be following these but I made them anyway:)

Computer Lab Bulletin Board Schedule

I decided I wanted to have a different bulletin board for every month next school year so I have started planning now!

Time goes SOOOOO fast once the school year starts. I want everything cut and ready for next years boards this summer. 

Ambitious? Yes, but I'm confident that if I devote a solid week to this during the summer it's doable. I just need to iron out some of the details. I created a guide for myself in Keynote after spending some quality time on Pinterest:)

Click on the images below to be taken to a pdf you can download to your computer. If you click on the images in the PDF it will take you to the source (be it a blog post, Pinterest, etc.) of the idea.

Have you started thinking about next year's bulletin boards yet?

Super Excited About This!

I LOVE Easy Tech from Learning.com. I was finally able to get it last year and thank goodness I had the chance to renew for next year.

Saw this today when I went to log in:) You can check out more info here
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Creating Visual Curriculum Maps

I became addicted to this style of planning after discovering it on a few blogs while I was searching for a blog template. I don't think I could do this every week (a la the Visual Lesson Plan) but I did know I wanted to sketch out my school year this way. I'm a visual person and this just makes me happy.  I can process everything that needs to be covered at a glance.

What the heck is a "visual lesson plan"? It's a "visual" representation of the weeks lessons. Take a look at the one in this blog post from the Queen of Visual Lesson plans, Mrs. Willis. Most of the ones you will find online feature the covers of products/books being used for the week as well as various clip art.

After I saw a few on Pinterest and discovered what they were called I Googled the term - WHOA! Some plans are amazingly complex and some super simple.  I was most interested in how people made them. They look like they are made in Microsoft Word but no, people use PowerPoint. I learned all about how it's done from this fab post on Mrs. Willis' Kindergarten blog.

I use Keynote to create my visual curriculum maps. I know a lot of people use PowerPoint but I don't have a copy of that. I also love how easy Keynote makes lining things up.

I have three pages per grade, per month for each quarter. Today I'm giving you a peek at August for 3rd Grade. First up is the "Lesson Focus" Page.

Lesson focus is all about the "Big Topics" I want to cover for the month. As you can see August is all about EasyTech and reviewing iPad basics.

As I create these I have been working on being comfortable with having "white space" on the page. Am I working on Word Processing in August with 3rd Grade? Nope. And I'm I okay with that.

Next up is the website page.

Here I'll place sites and games I want to be sure to have the kids work on. I put the graphic from the games they can use up on my ActivBoard. This way they have a choice but I still get to direct their selection. This way also makes them try lots of different games and not the same four.


 Last up is the App page.

I want to cover more apps as a group and start an "app review" board in my lab. I just have to figure out what I want it to look like and how it's going to work across grade levels.

Are you starting to map out next year? Do you use curriculum maps to see the big picture?

Welcome To My Blog!

Hello and welcome!

I am so glad you are here and I can't wait to share my tips and tricks for integrating technology into your curriculum:)

I'm still setting up shop so please come back to check the links at the top of the page - MUCH more info will be added to each.  There are also some sidebar "placeholders" that will lead to posts in the near future but for now just look pretty.

Please say hello and tell me about your blog if you have one, I'd love to drop by and visit.

Don't forget to save your work!

XOXOX,

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