NYSCATE 2010

As I attended NYSCATE this year I had a new focus. I searched for resources for primary reading of course. I attended sessions on iPod touches and iPads looking for ways to use them with my students. I don't have an iPad yet but I think that will be the item I"ll put on my budget for next year.
Here's what I found that I'm interested in purchasing for my classroom:
Puppet Pals for iPad also available for iPod Touch/Phone-Students could write a skit and then practice fluency when recording it on the iPod.
Doodle Buddy-free app for iPod Touch. Not too impressed yet.
Well, it's been a month since I attended NYSCATE and this post still isn't done. Let's see if get it done today.
Story Buddy-$2.99-this is an app for the iPad but I just searched and found there's Story Buddy Jr for the iPhone/iPod Touch. It looks very promising for young students to write, save and share stories via iBooks. I'll be purchasing this one to explore.
Flash Cards Deluxe $3.99-was mentioned as a great flash card app. Students are able to draw and record on the cards.
Comic Touch Lite-free-It looks like you can make comics out of photos by adding speech/thought bubbles and captions.

A few other links I found at the conference:
Dropbox-I have just recently started using Dropbox and love it for files I use at home and work. Many presenters mentioned that they use it for students to share files as well.

Fur.ly-shorten multilple urls into one.

New York State Reading Resource Center This website serves as a portal for up to date information on reading instruction. I need to spend some time here checking out all the resources!

DEVONThink -"designed to manage and keep in order all those disparate pieces of information so important to your work or studies." For me Dropbox and Evernote do a good job of organizing my information, but you might be interested in checking this out.

New Year New Position

A week before school started I was notified that I was being moved from the position of prek-5 tech teacher for both elementary schools to a RTI reading teacher K-2! I'm sure I had that deer in the head lights look for awhile. I am not a certified reading teacher but I have taught kindergarten, first, and second grade and language arts was always my strongest area. Now that the first marking period has come and gone and I'm feeling more comfortable in the position I decided I should start yet another blog. I'll leave behind my various tech blogs and move on to blogging about reading.

Our district adopted a basal series this year. When I first started in the district 25 years ago we had a basal but it was a resource. Over the years we moved to authentic literature and got rid of the basal. This time around the basal is not a resource it is the source for reading instruction. I'm thankful I'm out of the classroom. I would be pulling my hair out if I had to follow it! Fortunately, for the moment anyway, I get to plan my own lessons. I use the basal to see what skills are being covered for the week and then plan accordingly. I love technology and am incorporating that as much as possible into my lessons. I have 5 computers in my tiny room, 2 ipod touches and access to a SMART Board every other day in the lab and access to a SMART Table.

I will be writing about good resources I find for first and second graders, lessons that I'm trying and anything else that's on my mind regarding teaching. I'm looking for other reading teachers to connect with and learn from so if you have suggestions of blogs or wikis to check out please leave a comment and let me know!