The First Week.

I wanted to reflect on my first week of my journey.  I had a plan in place and I just jumped right in and got started.  I knew it would be a rocky start with some twists and turns, and I was right.  It certainly was!  There were times when I felt like pulling my hair out.  I kept pressing on and now, the things that took so long and were so difficult for my students the first week is like second nature to them.

Here are a few things that I consider MUST HAVES:  Dropbox, a class blog, Notability (or another app that will let you annotate on PDF files), and Edmodo.  I will explain why I am finding these things useful.

Dropbox is a place where I can drop all of my files (think cloud storage) and then access them from anywhere.  I can get to them on my computer, on my iPad, on my iPhone.  Anywhere.  I set mine up so that I have a class Dropbox account.  The students all use the same account and I monitor their usage of it.  They all have an assigned folder that they "drop" their completed assignments in.

The best part?  No more packing papers back and forth to school for me to correct.  I just hop on Dropbox, correct them, and put them in their student folder for them to see.  AMAZING!

Class Blogs are important to have because they give the students all a "landing place" where I can post assignments, videos, and other important information for our math centers and literacy stations.  I also post links to other sites that host information and learning activities that tie to our fifth grade curriculum.  I can't imagine running my classroom without a class blog!

I use Blogger (aka Blogspot) for my class blog because I find it very user friendly; however, there are plenty of other blog hosting sites out there.

Notability is an app that allows the students to open their Dropbox files and annotate on them. This is how I do most of my assignments now.  No more spending time in the copy room, I just add the work to Dropbox, my students open it up in Notability and complete it.  They place their completed assignment in their Dropbox folder and I can go there to correct it. 

Edmodo has been a valuable tool because it helps me to communicate with my students after school if they are having problems with their homework assignments or if they have any questions or concerns.

The best way to describe Edmodo is it is like having a very private and secure Facebook page for your class to go to and post questions or comments.  You can also post assignments, birthdays, and other calendar items there. 



That's all for today!

Until next time. . .