My Top 5 (Common Core) Technology Resources and Tools

Is your school pushing to incorporate technology, too? Are you searching for lessons that align with the Common Core Standards like everyone else? These are some of the websites I have found to be extremely helpful.

1.   - LearnZillion is organized based on the Common Core Standards. You can filter the grade levels and search by the standard or the domain. After selecting the Common Core Standard, you can choose from a variety of lessons (and they seem to add more each time I go on). Each lesson has an interactive video which is a good reference for the teacher, as well as a great way to assist students. The best part about this website -- it's free! 
2.  - I use Reading A-Z every week for guided reading. This reading resource provides a plethora of leveled literature. The levels correlate with Fountas and Pinnell, Reading Recovery, DRA, and Lexile. If you do not use these assessments, there are also age and grade level correlations for each piece of text. There are leveled books, mixed ability reader's theaters, fluency assessments, and (Common Core) reading activities to go along with each! You can get a 7-day free trail to test it out, but it is well worth the >$100 per year. 
3.  - KidBlog is a collaborative tool for students that can be incorporated across all subject areas. It doesn't have as many features as Edmodo, but students learn how to maneuver around the website instantly. There is less room for misspelled logins and passwords, and less time spent troubleshooting. I'm all about jumping right in! Teachers can modify each post and comment, and it's just easy. Another perk -- it's free! 
4.  - Into the Book is a great way for students to independently practice the eight reading comprehension strategies (Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating, and Synthesizing). There is a teacher section, which is a great reference, as well as a student practice page. Also, it's FREE! 
5.  - The BBC "Maths" section provides math games that look like video games! These help reinforce Common Core math concepts! And...drumroll......it's FREE! 

After trying out some of these resources, please share how you have used them! If you have any other ones that you feel are "Top Five" worthy, I'd love to hear about them! 

Wonder Woman!

I hope everyone survived Halloween! This year the staff decided our theme would be Super Heroes. I wasn't very inspired by the theme originally, but after brainstorming with some coworkers, I came up with a costume that my students got a kick out of, and I wanted to be sure to share!

I am coming across as the most Wonder-Obsessed teacher on the face of the earth, but my class loves the story, so I'm really running with it this year!

I'm posing in front of my "WONDERful" student bulletin board outside the classroom! Although it kind of looks like I have a black eye, I still think it turned out pretty well. Any chance I can sneak in how cool reading is, I take it! :) 

I loved seeing the other costumes of our staff, too! Everyone got really creative, and I especially enjoyed Super Janitor (top right).