Creation Crate Review - Let's Get to Building!

Hey there! 

Recently, I was contacted by a new sub-based company and they offered me a free Creation Crate box in exchange for a review of their product. I heard the words creation and elementary and knew that it was a perfect collaboration!

So, what is Creation Crate? Creation Crate is a beginner friendly, technology driven subscription box that's perfect for kids in upper elementary school. According to their website: 

"We started Creation Crate to give people a more practical way to learn - in a subject that's not getting nearly enough attention in traditional schooling. When most people think about careers in technology, the first thing that comes to mind is programmng. Not many people think about the hardware side of tech."

How true is that? I loved the idea and had to try it out. Here's what came in my box!

The box was pretty simple in its design and I was excited to open it up. When I opened it, I found all of the hardware components to build and program a lamp. How cool!!!

I love the tech inspired stickers. I would definitely save these to hand out to kids when they successfully build the design. The booklet on the left is the instruction manual.

The instructions are pretty simple. I appreciate that they're not super wordy. That makes it very helpful for younger kids. I also like the pictures that match up with each material in the box.

So, of course, I had to test out the instructions and I got right to building! I found that the instructions were simple enough to use and I was able to figure it all out and get everything put together. 

So, all-in-all, this product was super fun! I would totally bring this into my classroom and allow students to build and program. This is a great incentive for early finishers or class rewards. I loved putting this together and I have no doubt that other students would too! 

I think that I am going to get a few more of these and keep them in plastic bins to pass out as needed for activities!

Want to try out Creation Crate? Head on over to the website to get started!

#TPTDIGITALSALE on TeachersPayTeachers

Ready to get super techy next year?! We're here to make it SUPER easy for you!!! Don't miss out on this amazing one day, TpT sale for Tech Day! It's happening on Monday, July 25, 2016! 

Just search #TPTDIGITALSALE and you'll be hooked up with great resources for a great price!

Want to see products and blog posts from the sellers involved in this sale? Check out the links below!!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Tackle The Tech Monster: Google Drive for Elementary Education

Can I be honest for a minute? I hope you're saying yes...because I'm bringing some honesty either way!

I always start the year with loads of goals and intentions to start 100 different "totally amazing" and "super cool" and "most creative" ideas ever. Care to take a guess about how many of those things I actually carry through during the year? If you guessed between one and two, then you're correct.

This year...I want to focus on just ONE thing. One intention. One change .

This year's focus is on adding more digital instruction to my school day. 

Now we all know about good goal setting, right? Goals should be SMART.

Specific

Measurable 

Achievable

Realistic 

Time Bound

Here's my plan for making this happen! 

Why am I so insistent on getting this whole train rolling anyway? FIRST, my whole school is going 1:1 next year. I am so excited because we will have a SmartBoard, 1:1 Chromebooks and Apple TV. I also own a few iPads of my own to add to the mix. Why would I let this great technology go to waste?

Also, I believe that integrating technology purposefully is the perfect way to boost students' career and college readiness skills. You may not know but I also teach at the local community college. I hate to say it but I feel as though a lot of these students were not prepared to use technology as college-level students. I hope to instill a love of technology for learning in my students and support them in learning HOW to use technology to purposefully. 

So what's the big deal? It can be HARD to change the way you do things. And...TIME. Right??

Along with all other things worth doing, it takes WORK to make it happen. Besides modifying my curriculum to be technology-driven, I have to change my routines. My procedures. My current practices in grading, editing, etc. There's so much to think through!

That's why I'm starting with only ONE area. Let's check in on some SMART goals for getting started with using Chromebooks or other technology in your classroom.

Specific

If you're anything like me, you're going to try to jump right in and implement technology in all subject areas. I've tried that. I failed. I've now refocused my energy. I will implement my Chromebooks specifically in my independent reading time (or Daily 5). I'm going to rework my current independent work to fit in with technology.

Close Reads?

Does your school use a digital reading service (MackinVia)? Ask your librarian if there's a way that students can annotate text in the reader and send it to you via Google Docs or another platform. I found out that we have that capability and my paper/pencil close reads will be decreased. Alternatively, you could use NewsELA for free to work through close reads.

Reading Response?

Easy!! Create a template, share it with students, or teach them how to build it themselves. Have students respond and share it to you at the end of the day/week/etc.

Word Work?

Think of how you can use Google Slides to create interactive vocabulary work. Can students add pictures from the internet to define the word? Can they edit colors and manipulate text to demonstrate understanding? What can they do with the words to show that they understand the context?

Writing?

Writing can be so rich in a digital environment. You can create templates. You can share photos IN COLOR. You can teach digital revising. You can even share text and mark it up together on the screen. Of course, there's always free writes too!

Measurable

How will I measure my success in achieving this goal? Well...I will set a goal that for the first month, one of my activities is digital. The second month, three of them will be digital. The third month, all 5 of my activities will be digital. The step-by-step increase will help me not feel so overwhelmed. If you picked an activity to implement first, which one would it be? Start there.

Achievable

Is this achievable? For me, yes. However, it's not for everyone. If you don't feel comfortable creating digital projects yourself, seek out sellers who produce digital products for the classroom. There are some amazing sellers out there who have awesome digital projects. Some of them are linked here for you and you can check out there projects in the link up!

Realistic

What's realistic for my classroom may not be realistic for you. Maybe the whole Daily 5 block is too much for you. Can you implement something smaller? One read aloud? One read and respond? One math project? Morning quick writes? What makes sense for you?

Time-Bound

My time frame here is to be done implementing digital activities in my Daily 5 block by the end of the first trimester. This is going to keep me on track. What would be an appropriate amount of time for you? 

So, I hope this helped you figure out ways to think through tackling the technology overwhelm! Do you have plans to integrate more technology next year? I'd love to chat about your plans! 

Want more tips and advice?! Head on over to read tips and tricks from other great techy bloggers!!

An InLinkz Link-up

What are digital lessons? Explain this to me!!!

Are you confused by all of the digital lessons that are coming out on TpT? There's even a new category dedicated to Google Drive and Microsoft One Drive. 

I'll let you in on a little secret. I am obsessed with these lessons. 

I'm not in a 1:1 classroom right now but I have a computer lab available for use with my class. That's all you need to get digital! You just need access to some kind of device. It doesn't necessarily even have to be a full class set of devices. You can make it work.

I have this short little video that will give you a little clue about what the heck these lessons are! 

If you have any questions about using Google Drive, please let me know!!

The Best Teacher PD...for FREE!

If there's one thing that I believe in wholeheartedly, it's that teachers know what they're talking about! 

I want to learn from teachers...teachers who are in the classroom right now! I want to learn from teachers who are retired and have learned the hard way so that they can save me from some hardship that I don't need to test out myself. I want to hear from those who are deep in the trenches with me and those who have shared the experiences that I'm experiencing! 

This is what inspires me. This is what makes me get up in the morning and feel like I can handle all challenges as they're thrown at me. Until recently, it was very hard for me to have these kinds of connections. It's hard to reach out and learn from other teachers...especially outside of your own building. Heck...it's even hard sometimes to learn from teachers IN your own building.

Enter Periscope. Periscope is a game changer!!

If you love teacher blogs, you're going to adore Periscope. Periscope is a free app that let's you watch live videos from your phone, iPad, or a web browser (if you follow the person on Twitter). You will need a Twitter account to sign up but those are free and easy to create. There are tons of amazing teachers on Periscope and I can't get enough of it.

It's true. Periscope changed my teaching while curling my hair. I bet you're wondering how. I guess this is where living on the West Coast works to my favor. By the time that I wake up and start getting ready for the day, all of my East Coast counterparts are already bright eyed and ready to take on the day. That gives me some great learning opportunities while I'm getting ready for work.

I love catching scopes from Jen Jones in the morning. You can find here on Twitter here. Make sure you follow her on Periscope RIGHT AWAY. Seriously. Her morning scopes are like a full-blown professional development session. She pours so much content into her scopes. I watch and listen while I do my makeup and hair and then, by the time that I leave for work, I have a solid, easy-to-implement instructional technique ready to use that day! Talk about the ultimate inspiration!

Another scoper that I have to feature is Kristen from Eat. Pray. Travel. Teach. You can find her on Twitter here. I have to be completely honest with everyone, Kristen is one of my real-life BFF's. Kristen and I have been friends since 2010 and we've done all kinds of crazy stuff and traveling together. Now, with that said, I love her scopes because she scopes about all kinds of great multicultural education topics. She keeps it super real with you and helps you learn how to bring multicultural education into your teaching in a simple and easy-to-implement way...even for kinders! Follow her! You will not be disappointed!

Next up, is a techy favorite of mine...Tony Vincent. I love technology. I love using computers, teaching with computers, incorporating cool apps...everything. Now, it can be hard to look into and evaluate all of the new sites, apps, games, etc. There's new stuff popping up all the time. However, if you want to be kept in the technology cool-kids loop, Tony Vincent is the man to follow. Plus, his scopes are always super professional and you'll leave the scope feeling like you should have just paid a good chunk of money for all of that great learning! You can find Tony on Twitter here. 

Next up on the list is the fabulous Sheila Jane. I know that it's hard to talk about teacher burnout. Nobody wants to discuss it. However, teacher burn out is real! If you're feeling run down and you need some support, come see Sheila. She knows just what the teacher world needs to bring happy smiles back into the classroom.  She started a website specifically to end teacher burnout called Sheila Jane Teaching. It's incredible. She's great at linking teachers up with similar interests and she's always so real and so honest. You can find her on twitter here!

The next one up is a 5th grade teacher favorite of mine, Jessica from The Whimsical Teacher. Her morning joke scopes are so funny! I love having some comedy brought in to each and every morning. Plus, if you need some good jokes to fall back on with your class, she's got you covered. Aside from being hilarious, she has amazing teaching ideas and she shares them with you so openly on her scopes. Sometimes, I'm jealous of her amazing teaching ideas. For real. I get so inspired to change things that I'm doing in my classroom just by listening to her. You can find her on Twitter here. 

Now...let me tell you a little secret. You can find tons of great Periscopers in ONE place. Yes, there's a secret little teacher professional development portal out there and I'll let you know where to find it! You can find it by going to iTeachTVNetwork. It's a network dedicated to the best teacher professional development all day every day. Can you believe it?! All of these teachers are sharing their love, knowledge and expertise...for free. For the love of teaching, for the love of teachers everywhere. You must follow iTeachTVNetwork right away!! You can find them on Twitter here!

Yes, you can find me on Periscope too! You can find my Katch feed here and my Twitter page here! Katch is a special site that saves the Periscope broadcasts for you! Periscope only keeps your broadcasts for 24 hours. Without Katch, you'd never be able to watch a scope again after those 24 hours are up. Luckily, most scopers are using Katch and you can keep up with all of the great learning whenever you're ready. I don't make tons of professional development but I do talk a lot about the teacher lifestyle. You'll find me scoping on things like simple meal prep, getting back into fitness, beauty, and things that are happening with my class.  You can check out one of my scopes below.

 

So...have I convinced you yet? Are you getting a Periscope account? Do you already use Periscope? Do you love it? Let us know!!

Now, after you go create your Periscope account, check out these other blog posts by Teacher scopers! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Digital Learning Day Blog Hop!

Digital Learning Day 2016

Why Should You Try Something New? Because Your Students Will Thank You. 

My students thank me all the time for the new “stuff” we are doing this year. Go ahead--take the plunge! Believe me, if you have access to any sort of technology (even one device), then do it. That one tablet or laptop can open up a window to a universe of instructional opportunities. Your students will want to get to that tech center.  

Digital Learning Day, February 17, 2016, is ultimately about bringing equal opportunity to our classrooms, regardless of location or socioeconomic status. It is about the importance of having access to Wi-Fi and up-to-date technology in our schools. Many schools have technology that is not working or that is out-of-date. State and local governments are now focusing on getting it all fixed so that our school children can succeed in the 21^st century.

Here's the challenge--On February 17, 2016, try a new lesson that focuses on discovery, analysis, and exploration. Give your students the gift of a new opportunity by using Google Classroom, MS OneDrive, or an App. And don’t forget to share what you are doing in your classroom on social media to celebrate Digital Learning Day with #futureready. To help you get started, we’ve teamed up to share an amazing selection of blog posts and classroom activities that are designed to propel you and your students into your digital learning adventure.