Five on Friday

1.  The IPEVO Interactive whiteboard that I have been demo-ing has been a hit whether or not it was with little people or bigger ones.  Yesterday, while at Monelison, I had some middle school kids come in who even thought it was cool!  You all know how hard it is to impress a middle schooler with technology.

IPEVO is an amazing company which strives to keep technology affordable.  They have set up a Wishpool site for teachers.  Each month they give away one of their products for free to teachers just for the asking.  Well, they use to give it to every teacher just for the asking.  They still try to give away as many as possible.  All you have to do is register on the site and then watch each month to see what they are giving away.  If you see something that you think can be used in your classroom, just submit a paragraph explaining what you want and how it wil be used.  Hopefully, you will be one of the lucky ones!  

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2.  Google Classroom just got better!  As of this week, Classroom makes it a lot easier for teachers to assign work to individual students and groups based on their unique needs. As they’re creating an assignment, post or question, teachers can choose whether to share it with the entire class or just with a subset of students.  You can check out Google's blog to read more about these updates.

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3.  Google slides is a perfect tool to use for a pixel art project!  Linked here is a Google Slide show that reinforces place value.  Students first solve the problems and then shade those numbers in on the table on the following slide.  These can be created for just about any content.  If you want to work on some together, please let me know!

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4.  National Parks and Services offers a free tour of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's birth home.  Your class can ​read about family life for insight into Dr. King's childhood and the influences he had as a child.

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5.  Friday At the Movies - ​How an Igloo Keeps You Warm is a new video from It's Okay To Be Smart. The video does a great job of explaining how an igloo provides insulation and stays relatively warm when people are inside it. The video also explains the engineering concepts used in the creation of a strong and warm igloo.  Too, here is a site that provides the instructions for creating an igloo out of milk jugs. This would make an great STEAM activity for those early finishers and when it is all done, it makes the perfect reading nook!