For our PLC meeting this month, we’ve all been encouraged to bring our “top ten” favorite resources for the Gifted Resource classroom. Here’s my list! (Okay, Okay… So it’s my “top sixteen”… oh well.) PDF Version
Favorite Books:
1. Favorite Children’s Literature Book: Andrew Henry’s Meadow by Doris Burn.
2. Favorite Gifted Resource Classroom Book: Imagitronics by Don Ambrose.
3. Favorite General Education Support Book: Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom by Sue Winebrenner.
Favorite Instructional Tools:
4. Favorite Differentiation Tool: The Differentiator website by Ian Byrd. Par of his website: Byrseed http://www.byrdseed.com/
5. Favorite Tried-and-True Morning Starter: The Opinion Continuum. (As presented at NAGC 1995 by Jim Deslile.) Opinion Continuum Explained
6. Favorite New SCAMPER Tool: Our class created the “iThink Pad” to help us learn about and plan to use our SCAMPER Skills.
7. Favorite Research Tool: Right/Left Side Note Taking.
8. Favorite New Thing in Our Classroom: Our class Photo Booth! Made in 2013-2014 by Miss Kelly’s 4th & 5th graders. We use it at the end of the day for video taping self-reflections!
Technology Favorites:
9. Favorite App: OSnap A stop-motion video making tool. I showed it to my niece (5th grader) and she created a simple sample project inside of 20 minutes. (The sample below took me longer.)
10. Favorite Online Program: PowToon Make video shorts for or with your students!
11. Favorite Everyday Student-Use of Technology: Class DJ, Class Photographer, & Class Blogger.
Having a blogger, a photographer, and a DJ as rotating class jobs has been a great way to use our technology. The blogger uses one of our student computers to write the blog in Word. We are lucky to have an OCPS iTouch, an old iPhone, an iTouch Miss Kelly won at an OCPS Technology training class! We also purchased an inexpensive Bluetooth speaker so that we can move our music to a comfortable location in the room and Miss Kelly set up a collection of playlists for different times of day/work needs.
12. Favorite Parent Communication Tool: Our classroom website
Games and Other Nice-ish Things
13. Favorite Game: In a Pickle Available through Mindware @ http://www.mindware.com/
14. Favorite Time Filler: Choices Available through Mindware @ http://www.mindware.com/
15. Favorite Classroom Energy Tool: Our Brain Break jar. Miss Kelly’s Brain Break website.
16. Favorite Classroom Playlists: “Cause my 5th grade boys can really jam some sound of Music…
Miss Kelly’s Playlists April 2014