One Minute Reader is a favorite in the AES reading room. Kids use this program to self monitor their fluency. Students can choose from a variety of passages, and then complete a "cold" and "hot" read cycle. A cold read is known as the first read a student completes of a passage. It's new, and they have never seen it before. A "hot" or "warm" read is the second or third time a passage is read. With One Minute Reader, kids begin with a cold read, then listen to the story read aloud through the Ipad, then finish with a warm read. Then a cute little temperature monitor shows their difference between the hot and cold read and then collects all the information in pretty little bar graphs to show progress across the week. One Minute Reader is available at all grade levels but it will cost you. Something this great is never free.  It's $19.99 per level, but it's a one time fee and you have it forever. Kids love it and it's a great way for them to set and reach their own fluency goals. Learn more about it here. ​

After all, their motto is, "Create digital lessons in 5 minutes." I can deal with that.  Blendspace is a platform for dragging and dropping resources in one spot. It's simple and easy to start using. Go to Blendspace.com and sign up. Then their easy to use platform allows you to create a new Blendspace and then use the side search options to pull up files from your own computes, videos, research articles, images, etc. The possibilities are endless. Then simply drag and drop the resource into the cell you'd like and your Blendspace is complete! You can make them as big or small as you'd like by adding rows below your Blendspace. I've compiled a few different ways to use this resources below, but really, the possibilities are endless. 

Working on the westward explansion in 4th grade? Colorado History? The web can be a big place and students can get lost in YouTube videos or reading through website after website spinning wheels trying to gather information. You can create a Blendspace on any topic of choice to support their learning. Then post your Blendspace on your Google Classroom or class website and students can refer to it as they research. Younger grades can benefit from this too! 

Use Blendspace as a way to showcase your top moments for the week in pictures/videos. Link it in your newsletter very easily with their share option, or add it to your website. If the week's too much, do one montlhy, or just try for the EOY. 

My new obsession! More to come as I explore all it's parts, but for now, what a great way to practice making words. Kindergartners are using Osmo's program "Words" to make CVC words. A really fun way to interact with the Ipad and manipulatives. We've used it for initial, final and medial sounds, CVCe words, vowel pairs, diagraphs and even multisyllabic words for the older grades. Osmo has more than just "Words" though. They have math, art and geometry programs too! I'm not getting paid for this, but I'm telling you, go get one right now!