Strengths Movement

READ THIS BOOK.
Whether you teach kids...have kids...or were a kid, you should read this.
It's not too late to do work and have fun in ways that make you feel energized, effective, and whole. This book describes ways we can discover our strengths through identifying what we're good at and enjoy doing. The author, Jenifer Fox, provides the reader with practical ways use our strengths in order to make the most of our everyday lives.

RePlayGround

RePlayGround was created by Tiffany Threadgould. After graduating from Pratt Institute with a masters in design, Threadgould started a company that uses trash as raw material for beautiful and functional designs. You can buy their products online, but the RePlayGrounders show people how we can transform trash into treasure.

Check out the DIY portion of their Web site for classroom project ideas:
RePlayground's DIY page
I thought the spinner made out of an old CD would be a great for kids to make. Then, they could use it to invent their own math game. RePlayground's BLOG

Wallwisher in the Classroom

            Wallwisher.com is an online bulletin board that is great for making announcements, posting notes, and responding to sentence starters and questions.

 Ways to use Wallwisher in your classroom:

• Display students’ responses to a story, poem, song, article, or presentation.
  
• Give students daily sentence starters to reply to with words and images.
  
• Create interactive KWL charts by asking students to write what they Know, Want to know, and Learned.
  
• Post research before a class field trip and then post students’ reflections after fieldtrip.

How to Get Started:

1. Go to http://www.wallwisher.com/.
   
2. Sign up for a Wallwisher account by clicking on login/register
   
3. Click on build a new wall.
   
4. On the top left side of page, write the title and subtitle of your choice.  You can also choose a color scheme.
   
5. Write a URL for your wall and set privacy settings.
   
6. To add text to the wall, double click the wall and sticky notes will appear. Add text and/or images to the sticky note and then click done.
   
7. When you’re finished, Wallwisher will send you an email with your wall’s information. You can send the URL to others, so they can add comments or questions to the wall. 
   

See my Wallwisher example below...

My Very First Blog

Hello and thank you for visiting my blog! I used to think that blogging was simply making an online journal public. I have kept journals on and off since I was first grader. I love journaling, but sharing my journals is another story. I recently realized that a blog is a great way for me to save and share information. I read and read about education, and its affect on children and our future. Education of all kinds leads to opportunities and opens minds. For these two reasons, I am PASSIONATE about education and giving every child the opportunity to find their strengths, so they can become productive, confident, and empathetic people. Please follow me on my blogging journey, and contact me with your own thoughts on education and its future. Thanks again!