GISD iCon...And I Had Some Work Done

Hey everyone! I intended on blogging this weekend, but got behind. I was a school shopping/crafting fool this weekend. The good news is I'm 95% done buying what I need. Did you notice my blog got a face lift?! I LOVE it! Tessa over at Tales from a Blog Designer did a great job.
This past Thursday my district held it's first ever iCon. It was professional development based on the EdCamp model meaning you were free to come and go to sessions as you pleased. It was exciting to have so many people from my school attend! If I'm not mistaken I think we had the largest number of people from one school in attendance.

Teacher techie friends <3

Professional development is always great when you're in the same space with other teacher friends who are just as excited and ready to learn as you are. Don't you agree? 

My coworker and I presented a session called Tech 4 Tots. You can find a link to our presentation here. 

My techie friend Darla was an excellent volunteer during Winning Words. I was having hot mess hair issues that day!

Winning Words is a free (who doesn't love that) group of apps that are excellent for vocabulary. 

Have your minis play independently or in a learning station and pick your level of difficulty. It's easy peasy and can be learned quickly.

During the session I showed the easy levels, but the medium and difficult levels are excellent introductions to higher level vocabulary words.

Chatterpix was my new favorite app of the day. I definitely can see this app being used for some readers theater or summarizing for a lesson or story. 

Start with any picture you choose. Upload from your camera roll when if you don't plan on taking a new picture.

Draw a line for the mouth

You'll have 30 seconds to record what you want.

Your picture does the talking, and provides some laughs at how silly the mouth can make the picture look.

You can add whatever borders, props, or text you would like. A quick heads up; some of the props may not be appropriate for your minis so monitor choices carefully.

Voila! Another easy peasy lemon squeezy app.

There was and still is so much being shared from iCon I couldn't possibly blog about it all. That plus the fact I get easily distracted while writing one post and it takes me forever. My blogging attention span is apparently the same as a goldfish. Follow the hashtag #gisdicon on Twitter to learn more. 

Monday Made It

Happy Monday everyone! I realized today my summer break is drawing to an end, eek! I have a little over 3 weeks before I go back to school for staff development. I don't know about you, but I always like going back a few days early to get a head start on my classroom.

I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for my first Monday Made It post! I've seen this linky pop up on my Bloglovin news feed, and decided it was time to participate.
Have you seen the super cute library paint sticks on Pinterest? Last year I had a system in place for students to remember which basket to return class books too but it didn't last long. My minis used numbered clothespins to clip onto baskets which worked great for a couple of weeks, then the clothespins were constantly breaking ugh!
Here's everything I used for the library paint sticks.

I got the paint sticks for free from Home Depot. The holes were drilled in the sticks by a sweet employee. Shout out to my local Home Depot for being so helpful to me! The cupcake numbers are a freebie from Twinkl Printable Resources on TPT that I laminated to make them last. I already had the spray paint.

I laid out the paint sticks outside and sprayed to even coats of paint on each side. Thankfully no spray paint got on me, clothes, or the sidewalk yay!

I kicked up my heels in the lovely ac while I waited for it all to dry. At first I was concerned the red would be too bright, but I was pleased with the end result. I love how the red pops. The cute polka dot ribbon I found at Hobby Lobby.

Side note: Some of the sticks I went back and sprayed again for a more even color.

Voila! This was an easy peasy affordable craft. I can't wait for these to get used! Don't forget to link up with your own Monday Made It and join the fun. 

July Currently

Happy July 1st teacher friends!! I've had a fabulous day today. It's time to link up with Farley again for June Currently.

Listening- Y'all know how much I love me some Bravo. The People's Couch is a hilarious show! The different people and opinions on this show crack me up. I missed the Real Housewives tonight because I was at dinner, but thank God for DVR right?

Loving- I'm house and pet sitting for a sweet teacher friend who just retired. She has a pool that I've started enjoying today!

I met up with a first grade teacher friend to start planning our presentation for a district iPad workshop later this month. Let me tell you I'm so easily entertained. We both were out on a school night, wearing shorts, and eating dinner! It may sound silly, but it's the little things that make summer special for teachers.

Thinking- My mind can go a mile a minute. I've always got a mental checklist going on. 

Wanting- I'd love some ice cream or frozen yogurt right now.

Needing- I need a blanket year round no matter the weather. There's nothing better than lounging on the sofa with the ac going and burrowing under a blanket.

4th plans- So far I have no set plans, but of course fireworks at night will be involved.

Wordless Wednesday

I'm linking up with Sugar and Spice for Wordless Wednesday again. 

I had my days mixed up and thought yesterday was Wednesday, bleh! See why calendar time is an important skill no matter how old you are? ;) 

I took a trip to two of my favorite stores today; Target and Dollar Tree! I got some things for me and things for next school year. Dollar Tree has moved to the #2 spot on my list of favorite stores for browsing aisles and teacher things. 

What stores are your favorites? Don't forget to link up and share!

Ignite 14-Wednesday

Happy Thursday everyone! I had every intention of blogging about the last day of Ignite when I came home yesterday, but the urge for a nap won that battle. I'd set the timer on my iPad for 45 minutes. I woke up TWO hours later, eeek!
I've got to take a few seconds to brag on my teacher friend Darla who attended the conference with me. Darla is an amazing Kinder teacher who blew me away with what she learned! I gave her a challenge of tweeting 3 times Wednesday, and she went above and beyond. Not only did she tweet, but I wake up to a text learning she created a blog! Way to go friend!
Ignite is a technology based conference, but the main idea of Wednesday was to build relationships. Technology will always be there, make that a second priority.

My favorite quote from the day, "Everyone deserves the opportunity to be a part of something great."

Remember what I said Tuesday about starting small? That's all it takes folks. Make it your goal next school year to try 1 or 2 new things.

Since this week has been all about the techie love I did discover one new app called Number Pieces Basic. It's simple and no fuss yet effective. Place value, addition, subtraction, skip counting, etc. So many ideas and uses for this app! The fact that it's free makes it even better. 

Ignite 14

Happy Tuesday, y'all! I have the privilege of attending the Texas ASCD's Ignite conference again this year! There were so many amazing things that happened and I learned today. I'll quickly share some highlights and thoughts from today.
1. Technology doesn't take the place of the teacher- Technology is meant to enhance teaching. No computer or device will ever beat face to face interaction. I know sometimes all the techie resources available can be overwhelming. Start small. Try 1 or 2 new techie resources in your classroom and build from there.
2.  The best quote I heard today came from this morning's discussion panel. "Positivity is a powerful character trait." Nobody likes to hang around with a Debbie Downer.

3. Hooray, I won a prize in one of the sessions today! 

4. I'd never heard of Kagan products until today. My first session of the day was AMAZING! Any session that gets teachers up and active gets a thumbs up from me. Movement in the classroom is just as important as curriculum.I wish there was a link I could share with you that included the handout we received. Visit Kagan Online to learn more. Carve out some time to explore everything the website has to offer, I promise it'll be time well spent. 

5. Lunch at The Cheesecake Factory-Need I say more?

6. If you aren't already on Twitter make an account and get connected. I got to see my teacher friend's eyes light up while creating an account today! Create a teacher account and stay active. 

Following a hashtag from a Twitter chat is a great way to make connections and learn something new. The Mac Daddy of list of all Twitter chat's can be found here.

Monday Meet Me

Happy Monday y'all! I'm home in the middle of the afternoon and so far it's great! I wrapped up some last minute things in my classroom this morning. While browsing my Bloglovin feed, I found another great linky from The Teaching Tribune.

Whether your already enjoying break or still counting down the days I hope you have a sunshine fun filled summer!

.