Wednesday, April 2, 2014

The Living Well Classroom


Teachers Website Search
When researching practicing teacher’s websites for ideas on arranging the classroom, providing structure, finding activities and organizing the area I found these four website to be very helpful
                                                      My Website picks are:
1.      Pre K-Pages
Classroom Arrangement

This website is a resource for parents and educators of young children. The creator Venessa Levin uses this website to share ideas and educational information to early education teachers from all over the world. Your have the opportunity to give and get wonderful idea mailed to your in box.

When you click on the classroom management page you will find many strategies to help
 you arrange and manage your classroom. Circle time in the management tab show pictures and gives tips on the best way to structure circle time along with rules and expectations. This website really helps the educator with what I think is the most important part of the day “Circle Time”!

I also loved the Easter hands on game that was given to help preschool students visually discriminate the letters of the alphabet. We will use these ideas for our spring event this year.

2.      Mrs. Lawrence Website
Structure

In this website Elizabeth Lawrence shares in her classroom management section that lay out and structure are two very important parts of classroom structure. This particular page of her website entitled ‘Classroom Structure Ideas” will help you find resources and also guide you to other websites, pictures and articles. It is not a complicated site and very direct. The Classroom management area is also very helpful when it comes to finding the right classroom procedures, talking with your student’s families, discipline and behavioral strategies.

3.      Teacher’s Corner
Activities

This website provides resources, lesson plans, worksheets and activities. And is said to be world famous with their puzzle and worksheet maker. The online collaborations projects allow two or more classrooms from differ parts of the world to work on similar topics together

I really like the Pals/Pen Pals sections which is a free service enabling your students to pick a pal according to their grade level from a virtual map. When the students click on the part of the country they would like to see pictures will come up of various students and schools that participate in the pen pal service. I would suggest that this be a handwriting assignment, because these pen pals are not screened. However it is a fun way to write to someone from another country.

Everything a teacher would need as far as activities are on this website. Teachers also have the opportunity to chat with each other and submit lesson plans for publishing.

4.      Getting Organized
Organization

 Every teacher’s challenge especially new teachers is becoming organized this website gives power point presentations and handouts and is one of the best websites that I have seen on getting organized.

Mrs. McDonald Covers everything from materials you will need to get your classroom organized (and where to get them) to organizing your classroom library. I have found that even the most effective classrooms after a while look messy and unorganized. This website gives you tips on how to purge unused materials, organizing the teacher’s desk, setting up files, managing date and events and even organizing students supplies. “I would love for my future classroom to be this organized”!

                                         Chart: Analysis of Websites

 Website
Grade
Categories
Features
What I did not like.

Pre-k and kindergarten
Classroom arrangement
Great colors, good logo, easy navigation, give a ways.
Great Welcome page.

No complaints

Any grade
structure
Simple, easy navigation and very informative
Lacks color in some areas and has not been updated since 2011.

Any Grade
Activities
Colorful, easy to navigate, holds interest, nice colors.
At first glance may seem to be a little busy.

Any Grade
Organization
Very organized, holds interest and very informative
Needs more color and eye catching symbols.




















References
Getting Organized (n.d.) Retrieved, 4-2-2014 from,
Mrs. Lawrence Website (n.d.) Retrieved, 4-1-2014 from,
Pre-K Pages (n.d.) Retrieved, 4-1-2014 from, http://www.pre-kpages.com/
Teachers Corner (n.d.) Retrieved, 4-2-2014 from, http://www.theteacherscorner.net/

3 comments:

  1. Hi Theresa! I reviewed your page and I found your resources to very useful. The websites offer sources to the teacher as well as the parents. I think these sources have great merit and can be used by all teachers and others. Thanks!

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  2. Hi Theresa, your websites offer resources that both teachers and parents can use. I love the Pre-Kpages and used that as one of my websites also. Great work!

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  3. Hi Theresa,
    Your page is set up great and is very well organized. I found you page to have a lot of useful information when setting up a classroom environment. There are many useful tips that I would use in my class and I really enjoyed looking at some of the sites you posted as references.

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