Smore

Are you ready for smore? No, I am not talking about the yummy campfire treat made of chocolate and melted marshmallow, sandwiched between two graham crackers (though I am now in the mood for them). I am talking about the website www.smore.com. This website promises to help users create aesthetically pleasing flyers in a short amount of time. I created the flyer below in 10 minutes but could have been much less if I had all my pictures together first.

 

Currently, the site is in beta so that means new backgrounds, fonts, and colors will available in the near future. ♥

The user has the ability to post this flyer in a variety of ways including: facebook, pintrest, twitter, and craigslist. You can use a link like this one https://smore.com/8q7r  or email it to others. And of course you can embed it like I have done above.

What is neat about this website is that you can add different types of media. You don't have to use just pictures, you can add video too! You can easily add more layouts or delete layouts that you don't want.

So how can this resource be used in the education world... Besides making flyers for events such as open house, awards night, or fundraisers, you can also use it in content areas. For instance, history teachers could have students write a RAFT advertising for the Freedom March, a math teacher could have students create a store that sells parts of geometric figures (example: with a circle it has a circumference, diameter, radius, area), a school counselor could have students do a flyer about their strengths, reading teachers might have students do a flyer about a book that they read.

Do you have any ideas on how you could use this resource in the classroom?

Poll Everywhere

Have you ever been incredibly frustrated when students have their cell phones out in class? Rather than constantly battling students about cell phones, why not use them as a learning resource. Classroom response systems can be expensive; with polleverywhere.com your students' cell phones are turned into a classroom response system. The free version allows users to write unlimited number of polls with up to 40 responses per poll. You can save the polls for use in multiple classes. The polls can be embed into PowerPoint slides, can be accessed on a link, or can be posted on blogs or websites like I have done below ☺.

So how can this be used in schools...  This resource can be used in a variety of ways since it can be set up to have multiple choice responses or free responses. It can be used for quizzes, check for understanding, to get students opinions, start a discussion, to get to know your students, attendance, or just for a little fun.

This video shows some great ways that poll everywhere can be used in the education field and basic instructions on how to get started.

If you have any other questions regarding the use of poll everywhere, the company has a you tube channel that is extremely helpful.

http://www.youtube.com/user/polleverywhere

MATH TEACHERS! Poll Everywhere now has the capability to insert pictures and math equations!


Enjoy polling!

Live Binders

I have this great website for you. It is called Live Binders. This resource is great for saving virtual sources in one convenient place, while putting them in the order that you want. Instead of just giving a link, the virtual notebook will pull up that webpage. You can combine PDF's and Word documents in one binder. And the best part is that you don't have to print everything out. Save trees ☺. If you want you can then share all your documents in an easy presentable format including with a SMART Board. You can add the notebooks to websites or blogs so that others can access the information you put together. 

Plus there is a library of binders already created that you can access!

Check it out!

http://www.livebinders.com/

Word Splash

Has anyone ever heard of a word splash? A word splash is a differentiated instruction strategy where a student lists all the different words associated with a topic. For instance if a History teacher was covering the Civil War students might list Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865, slavery, North & South, etc. A Geometry teacher may use it to go over the properties of a square. A Reading or English teach may use it after a student has read a novel. School Counselor use this strategy as well. Often in groups, school counselor will have students start a list of positive traits or characteristics of the other students.

Here is an AWESOME website that uses the word splash strategy in a creative way. www.tagxedo.com

These are some of the ways that I have used this website in the past few weeks.

This is a word splash that I used on my school's school counseling website. www.bit.ly/dhsschoolcounseling

I used this word splash on a poster I created for National School Counseling Week.

You can also use them for your personal life and even create t-shirts, bags, mouse pads, or even coffee mugs. The possibilities are endless.

So instead of just having your students write words on a piece of paper, have them go a step further and transform it into ART. You can then print them out and decorate your classroom or office or laminate them for students to keep as a memento.

The website itself is fairly easy to use.
Click "CREATE"
From there you will click "LOAD". This is where you list all the words associated with your topic.
"THEME" controls the colors of the graphic and "SHAPE" controls the shape. The program provides many shapes. If they don't have the shape you are looking for you can upload your own like I did with the paw print.

How will you use this site?

Welcome

Welcome to my BLOG! This is my very first blog, so please be patient as I navigate this new domain. Let me start by giving a little history about myself. I am a master's level school counseling student at Florida Gulf Coast University. I have the privilege of studying under Dr. Russ Sabella, who happens to be a foremost expert in school counseling and an advocate for the profession. I am also in a unique situation in that I am currently working full-time at Dunbar High School as a school counselor while also completing my final internship. Prior to this year, I taught math and psychology. I LOVE teaching and look at school counseling as an opportunity to continue teaching but in a different way. I am also a newly wed, celebrating a year of marriage. My husband is super supportive of me and all my endeavors and super cute I might add.

This year has been a year of transition. At times I have found it hard to give up being a math teacher and find myself intensely missing being in the classroom on a daily basis. I guess after 8 years of doing a job you love, these feelings are bound to pop up. Other times I feel that I have been thrown into the school counseling profession and have no clue what is going. Luckily, I have two incredible mentor counselors that I can go to for help. Regardless, I am counting down the days until I graduate so that grad school is one less thing on my plate. As of today, only 88 days until I walk across the stage. Yay!!!

I decided to start a blog because... I have to. This is an assignment for my Advance Counseling Methods class. While this is a requirement for graduate school, I do not intend to lackadaisically post in order to fulfill the basic requirements. My hope is that this blog will be a resource for students, teachers, administrators, and fellow school counselors. As I locate resources, I plan to share them with the blogging world.