4 AMAZING Common Core ELA Resources

Well, we have been back to school for nearly three weeks now! I can hardly believe it myself. The kids are working hard and stepping up in ways I never would have anticipated. I sense positive energy from each of my 5 classes and am looking forward to a great year. Does that sound like the Honeymoon or what? HA!

Anyway, I wanted to share some amazing resources with you that are transforming my classroom.

1. Interactive Grammar Notebook by Erin Cobb from I'm Lovin Lit. $13.00
 If you shop at TpT you probably already know about this one, but I get give a shout out anyway. Let me just say - OMG! This little grammar gem is transforming my classroom!!! It has got to be one of the best all time purchases I ever made for my students. Not only do I love it, my team now wants copies of it! I've offered to purchase them additional licenses so that we can all use it together. That's how powerful this little book is! If you don't have this one for your kids yet and you use Interactive Notebooks, it's worth its weight in gold.

2. NewsELA.com FREE
If you are in need of non-fiction text for your students this is an amazing find. It's all current events that is written for students to read. Each news article is written at multiple lexile levels so kids with various reading abilities can all access the same content! Some of the article even come with short videos for the kids to watch. The catch is that you will need to sign up (of course for free) and to stay within perimeters of the copyright, each student in your class will also need to sign up. Personally, I am not embedding an article a week for my students to read which will be part of their ISNs. Next week I will show you how I am using it in my ISN.

3.TeacherTube.com   FREE
I stumbled across this wonderful tool a couple of years ago and find that I turn to it more and more. This site is flagged in its metatags as educational and is often accessible even if your district blocks YouTube and similar video streaming sites. There's a LOT of great resources here for you to explore. One of my favorite is the Preposition Song, which is sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle. Is it common core? ABSOLUTELY! Kids are expected to view multimedia content and critique it as well as make presentation! The possibilities are truly endless here.

4. AchieveTheCore.org  FREE
If you are wondering how to make it all happen and connect content areas, then Achiever the Core may be a solution. Since I teach ELA & History, I'm forever looking for ways to bridge between both curriculum. There's some wonderful lessons here and ideas for how to teach thematically. It does take a bit of poking around, but it's worth the time when you find a really great lesson. Many of the resources are American History, which is wonderful! I found an excellent lesson on annotating the constitution that I will be using for Constitution Day next month.

Okay, so this one isn't exactly Common Core, but I wanted to share it anyway.

5. ClassDojo.com - FREE to Teachers
So, this is a treasure I had heard other teachers share about but bypassed until just this week. It's a behavior management and data tracking tool that allows teachers to capture and generate data on behavior that teachers can easily be shared with parents and administrators. Absolutely no data entry or calculations required on your part. Just touch or click and move on. All you need is a computer or tablet and an internet connection. It's super easy and engaging for the students. My kids love it and I'm noticing that it's helping with student motivation. I plan to pull the easy to find reports for IEP meetings and to set parents up to check on their students. COOL and FREE!

Okay, so there you have some great tools to investigate. I hope you check them out and make use of them this year. Look out for my post next week for more information on NewsELA.

Cori

Back to School Count Down

As I prepare to return to school on Monday after being off for what feels like ages, yet still not quite long enough, I find myself conflicted. I've been planning lots of new lessons and I can't wait to teach them, yet I still want to be home in my cozy bed. I suppose the same is true for most of us.Alas, much like the students, the calendar says we go back, so we go back - ready or not.

This year I must say, I am feeling more prepared than years past and there are several reasons.The first is that I stumbled across one of my oldie-but-goodie books by Harry and Rosemary Wong that I have used each year since I started teaching, How to Be an Effective Teacher, The First Days of School.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

If you haven't read it, it really is a must read, regardless of your experience level. I've been teaching for well over a decade and use it every year. The book is tabbed and dogeared and well loved. It's full of helpful ideas for how to start you year off right with your students at any grade level.I pulled mine out and started to refresh my mind about what I need to do to prepare to have students again - everything from how to ready the classroom to how to greet students.

Another reason I am feeling a bit more up to the task is that this is the first year in at least the last 5 that I will have three day of paid teacher prep, not just one (yes, ONE!) day to set up my room. Budget cuts hit our district hard and we are FINALLY having furloughs and pay restored. So, I don't have to spend as much time during my summer going in to prepare my room. To be fair, one of those three days will be spend in district wide meetings, but I am actually excited about doing that!!!

 

Finally, I made a commitment this year to not overspend on school supplies. I was fortunate to find composition books on sale at both Target and Staples this year. I've decided that this year rather than giving away my hard earned cash to the students in the form of supplies, I will have them for sale in my classroom store. Students who don't have supplies, such as the glorious comp book that I have my students use for their Interactive Student Notebooks can get them directly from me if they don't have them by the first Monday. I hear other teachers in my district do this and I think it's high time I tried it too. I will let you know how it goes.

While I may like to lie in bed and drink my diet coke until noon every day (ha-ha) while on summer break, I am finding that these few simple discoveries are helping me shift from the summertime mindset to preparation for "school days are here again". So, not matter when you start your year (some of you may already be back in school), when its time to shift into gear, consider checking out the book, The First Days of School, and thinking about what changes you need to make this year to make your year the best it can be.

Happy New School Year!

By the way, I just joined BlogLovin.com.