April over at The Idea Backpack is having a technology tip linky party! You might be thinking, you already linked up and you're right. BUT I was looking through my blog feed and saw that she had posted a 2nd time. When I visited her blog I found out that she was so excited about what she had been learning that she wanted to extend the party! This made me super excited for a few reasons. One reason is because she is the type of teacher that I hope to inspire whether it be in my building or across the country! Sometimes as I am blogging I wonder if anyone is really *out there* reading or taking anything away from my blog so this was awesome to read! Another reason is because she highlighted my blog as one of her favorite technology blogs! I think her enthusiasm also "proves" the point of technology and the impact that it can make. She was looking for tips and became so excited about what she was learning that she didn't want to stop, isn't that powerful in the field of education?
I think it is so easy to become overwhelmed with technology... there is just so much out there! You can never know it all or be totally up to date, it is just impossible BUT one thing that helps is organization which she highlighted as a goal in her post! Whether you choose to pin, bookmark, print, write down, put in a Google Doc, etc. I think this is a helpful way to stay on top of technology. It is also easy to "forget" all of the different resources and what they can be used for if you don't have them stored somewhere!
One thing I also want to remind you about technology is that it doesn't always have to be bells and whistles sometimes an awesome interactive website is tech enough and since I am not feeling well that is just what I have for you. ABCYA.com is an awesome site for K-5.
There are three categories of games "Letters", "Numbers" and "More". Letters is language arts related, numbers is math focused and more has either or with a holiday theme. ABCya does a great job of reinforcing concepts through fun and interactive games. The student may be asked to work hard but there is always a built in break/game that they work towards.
Students work to answer 5 math fact problems and then they are able to make 5 foul shots. Look fun? Don't ask how many shots I made! Basketball apparently is NOT my thing but I had fun trying!
My 1st graders really enjoyed many of the games last year! ABCYA has some iPad apps which were equally awesome!
Math BINGO was one of their favorite games last year and what a great way to practice math fact fluency! Math BINGO is also an app that can be downloaded for your iThing (pad/pod).
Sight Word BINGO was also a big hit during center time! Word BINGO is also an app.
There are TONS of other fun games too (lots of BINGO ones- money, base ten, number, etc.) !
I just linked each grade level up with the computer lab website! I hope you check out abcya.com and find something that you can use with your students.
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