missing this

There are of course many things that I miss from my teaching career.  I’m sure that you can guess that I miss the students, my teacher friends, the way the morning air smells at 6 am, pulling into the lot and getting my spot, my computer, and cranking up KLove as loud as I can get it.  Of course I miss Buddy day in the cafe…the whoa clap and getting chances to model and coach in classroom.  I miss the Literacy district meetings…and even the frustration of how slow some things seem to roll at that level.  But one of the things I miss that comes as a close second to the kids is research.  

What does a teacher research, you may be asking.  I’m always looking for a new website that will possibly help teachers learn and teach…things that are researched ‘best practice’.  And no don’t worry, I don’t think all things that have ‘aligned to CCSS’ on the cover necessarily fit the bill.

I do love searching and going on rabbit trails after things.  Luckily two of my best friends and I recently had the opportunity to write curriculum for our district this winter.  We presented to every elementary grade level in February.  I love to share new things with my friends.

So I want to share 3 of the new websites that I found recently.  I am always in search of free well-written short articles and things phonic related (because as a reading specialist, that is really what I spent a bit of time working on with my young students.

http://www.readingbear.org/  –  I love .org….I know that there are some .com sites that are also good, however, on a .org you know that it is safe and there won’t be a sales pitch or pop-ups.  Some of these sites start out as a .org but become a .com

http://textproject.org/   – Can’t say enough about this one…multilevel , beautiful photographs and interesting articles…warning:  have enough colored ink in your printer and a laminator is on hand also…I love the beginning reads because of the repetition of my favorite words to teach (Dolch)…can I tell you how much I liked teaching that aspect of early reading??? NOT!  I much prefer Tier 2. vocabulary myself, but if this can help me teach ‘the, their, there, where’… sure…I’ll take it!

http://perspectives.tolerance.org/  – This is a new find…like a today find.  I believe in social justice and the importance of teaching tolerance.  I love the research that went into creating this site…the amazing amount of free read aloud material about this topic

Okay, I know I said only free and for teachers.  This is my favorite for the littlest I-pad users.  It won a Cybil and Sammie (my grand daughter)  loves loves it!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrgrpBGb2Tc  –  This is called Endless Alphabet.  I also love it when kinders come into kindergarten knowing their sounds!!!

I would love it if everyone would share their personal favorites!  Let’s get it in a Slice before we are done on Day 31. xo