Planbookedu

Welcome to Day 2 in my new online lesson planning series.  Today its all about Planbookedu.

Planbookedu and planbook have a lot of similar features. However, there are some notable differences as well.

COST:  You can sign up for a free 14-day trial to see how you like the program. After that it is $25 per year!  Discounted rates are available per school/district. There is also a free version but you are missing out on a lot of what makes the program great. This is about the same cost as your average planner so there really isn’t any built in savings here. Then again, you aren’t spending a lot more either.

FEATURES: Share your plans with anyone. Color coding is available but its complicated…  I love the fact that you can invite people to collaborate with you on your lesson plans. This is a great feature for teams, student teachers, cooperating teachers, etc… I love the calendar feature that allows you to easily select any day of the year and start planning. The cubby is a cute touch for storing items you wish to copy again and again. I also really like the drop and drag feature for moving around lesson plans.

EASE OF USE: I have an intermediate-to-advance level skill in the use of computers and software. For me, I found this cumbersome and difficult to use.

TIME: I gave up after playing with it for 3 hours. I still don’t have things how I would like them visual. To me aesthetics are important. Its one of the big reasons why a traditional planner is not working for me. I do like the option of being able to change where my days/classes show. It was very simple…  just like they said to set up your school year. Its the details that are the issue.

ORGANIZATION: You can attach  Links, PowerPoints, Worksheets, Videos, Smartboard Files, etc… to each of your lessons.

CLOUD INTEGRATION:  Included in both levels.

IPAD/IPHONE COMPATIABILITY: Yes it says so on their site but I have not been able to locate it in the Apple Store.

SEARCHABLE STANDARDS: Yes! This is one of my favorite features of this program but is only included for premium members. I also love this report showing me how many times I have taught each standard and how many more standards I still need to teach. Such a help report!

CUSTOMER SERVICE: Honestly, I have been so frustrated with this program that I have not contacted their customer service so I have no idea on how well they are or aren’t.

ISSUES:  I sooooo wanted to love this program. I read an amazing review by Teach it With Class that made me want to fall in love with this program. I really tried but it just didn’t fit my needs and personality.

This is what my planbookedu ended up looking like.  I have to scroll up and down left to right to see things. The color coding helps but you either set it as a template for color or for what you want in it. Not both. Which means I would have to use the cute cubby a lot!

PLUS… see that white strip, I was trying out the standards. So it pops up in the middle of a section in white and then when I try to color code the entire section it leaves a white bar at the bottom. Its driving me batty! See why I have spent 3 hours trying to make it look pretty and I can’t. Oh… and the color options are sorely lacking. Sigh….

Have you used planbook edu? What are your thoughts?

Planbookedu

Lesson Planning Online

I have been working on getting stuff ready for student teaching in the fall. I know that to be successful, I have to be organized. So I finally unpacked my boxes full of teaching stuff (not all of it! I am not crazy!). And set up a place for me to throw things put things away at the end of the day. 

That was one thing off of my long lists of to-dos!

Next, I wanted to tackle HOW I was going to plan out my lessons. I thought about using a plan book… I had an awesome Erin Condren Planner that I won last year. I wanted to love this so much. I tried and tried to love it but I am a perfectionist. I admit it all the scribbles and scratches and arrows to a new day were driving me CRAZY.

I started hating my beautiful planner. I even tried cutting down post-its to fit into the squares of the planner but it was still so messy. So aggravating that I finally shoved it in a drawer somewhere… don’t ask where I forgot where. I am sure it will turn up eventually. Lately I have been using a pad of post-its but I keep losing them. At least those I can wad up and throw away when they are messy.

I needed a better way. I started looking around online and found…

Online Lesson Planning

in a cloud!

There were two programs I found of interest… Planbook and Planbook.edu. I promise they are different programs. I didn’t know which looked better so I signed up for the free trial for each of them. This was EXACTLY the solution I was looking for.

Stop in on Thursday to read my review about Planbookedu and on Friday to read about Planbook.

Lesson Planning Online

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mothers out there….

Happy Mother’s Day!!

 

and a funny one…

Happy Mother's Day!

$1 Binders

It’s Saturday! Have you been keeping up with all of my dollar dreams? Each Saturday, I place one of my products on sale for $1!

Today, I put on sale my quarterly and seasonal binder set.  This set includes 8 binder covers. Each one includes the front cover, back cover, and spine and is designed to fit on a 1.5 inch or 2 inch view binder. Set includes covers for Quarter 1, Quarter 2, Quarter 3, Quarter 3, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.

Remember…

this special offer is only available in my store.

I created this set to match my portfolio perfectly! This way when I have them all sitting on a shelf it is not distracting. Since it matches my classroom decor, it just blends right into my classroom but provides all the storage I need.

$1 Binders

NASA and a Tippy Top Award

Wanna hear some amazing news??

If you follow me on any of the social media sites, you probably saw a really random, frantically excited post about being accepted to the Pre-Service Teacher Institute this summer at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Yes… I am headed to NASA for a week!! Can you believe it??

I am over-the-moon excited!
I can’t wait!

My children are threatening to pack themselves in my suit case. One son is asking for me to bring him a robot and another wants the moon. Not a moon rock.. the entire moon. Oh! And they want a light saber… a real one not a toy.

I also won the Tippy Top Blog Award!

I knew Technology-Adventures was passing out the award this week but I did not know Tippy was planning in including me! I thought I would be excluded as being part of the staff. However, I love that I can now pass this on to 7 of you!

1. Teaching in Paradise – I love this site. It is so peaceful and calming. I always want to go to the beach after a visit. 


2. Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher – Amber was one of my first bloggy friends and I don’t know what I would do without her. Now that I am teaching 3rd grade in the fall, I will have to stalk her more!




3. Dandelions and Dragonflies – I love Jessica! I want her to come decorate my classroom or just move into hers as its already perfectly decorated. She has so many amazing ideas.




4. Heather’s Heart – There could not possibly be a sweeter teacher than Heather! I love the way she looks at life. Her classroom truly is another home to her students.




5. Teacher Idea Factory – This has to be one of the best designs I have ever seen! It is so easy to find things and is full of great resources.




6. Going Nutty! – Miss Squirrels always makes me laugh. She has videos, links, and pictures galore on her site. It makes it super easy to read and plus you know your gonna laugh.




7. Melonheadz Illustrating –  Nikki is amazing! She has a heart of gold and is always giving away free clipart. Her blog is gorgeous (I know I am biased… its an HBBD blog design) and its easy to navigate.

Congrats Everyone!

I can’t wait to see which 7 people you pick!!

NASA and a Tippy Top Award

Math is a Language

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I am so excited about the Numbers Talk book study in a few weeks!! I started to tell you on Tuesday my philosophy of math but then I figured I needed an entire post to share my thoughts.

A few weeks ago I was working with the curriculum coach and he made the comment that “math is its own language. Just as one has to be taught how to speak English; one must also be taught how to speak math.”

I never thought of math this way before. I also never saw myself as a math teacher but here I am. I finally decided that the problem with math isn’t math but how we teach it!

With Language Arts, we don’t tell a student to do language arts. We break it down into tiny pieces for them: reading, writing, handwriting, phonics, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar. Why do we do this? Because its easier to practice a single component than do everything at once.

Why do math?

Now that is the question. Why do students do math but not language arts? What would happen if we broken up math into the same tiny components we do with language arts? Would students become more successful? I think they would! How would we even begin?

Phonics:  In order to read, you must know your letter sounds and names. In order to do math, you must know the names of the letters and their values.

Vocabulary: We teach vocabulary in Language Arts so students can understand what they are reading and to be able to better explain themselves in speaking and writing. In math, we need to teach vocabulary again so the students can find the details within the subtleties of the text. We ask a student to define, write a sentence, draw a picture, and find the synonym and antonym. Students need to do the same thing for mathematics.   What is a synonym for add? (all together, sum, etc..) What is the antonym? (subtract, take away, etc..)

Spelling: We teach a student to spell words so they can understand how to use in them in reading and writing. To me this is similar to mastering place value. We must first understand the values and how a number is written in order to be able to manipulate it.

Writing: To respond to what we read or to communicate an idea, we write. In math, we write to solve a problem or demonstrate a solution or idea.

Reading: To understand a story we must first be able to read the words. To solve a problem we must first be able to read it. To help students become better readers, we focus on sight words. To helps students become better mathematicians we focus on basic operations. To help a student become better readers. To help student become better mathematicians, we teach them strategies.

Grammar:  We categorize letters by vowels and consonants or by the parts of speech. We must be able to classify numbers as well. Odd or even. Prime or composite. Greater than or Less than. Multiples of and in fact families.

Now we obviously don’t want to use the same terms as language arts but if you look closely I was able to break math up into time building blocks in which students can learn. I also did not include all aspects of math. There is still so much more to explore!

I am so excited about putting this new theory into action in my classroom.

I have taken my math time and broken it down into various components. Instead of doing math, my students will practice basic operations (3 minute timed review) and using dictation record a number of the day, write the name of the number in multiple ways, identify place values, and classify the number (5 minutes).

Every math unit will include vocabulary. Student will define, find antonyms and synonyms, write a sentence, and draw a picture. They will also have a math vocabulary test. This is exactly the same thing they do in language arts when learning a new word. I know that this would help so many of my students better understand!

I am planning on using an interactive notebook to record all of our math adventures including our daily review of the various language components of math. I will post more about how this works for us throughout the upcoming year.

Math is a Language

Upcoming Book Study: Number Talks

I am so excited about my upcoming book study this summer! I discovered this great resource courtesy of a cooperating teacher I had back in August 2012! I thought about writing a review about Number Talks but new it needed more. So I waited and planned and plotted to share it all with you this summer.

I never visualized myself as a math teacher but when I met with the Dean of Education at my school and we began to talk, she instantly recognized my unique ability to teach math. I hated math in high school. I just couldn’t speak the language no matter how hard I tried but in college I finally figured it out.

You see… that is what so many people fail to realize. Math is a language! Just like English, Spanish, French, or any other 6,000+ languages in our world today.

I believe that the best way to teach math is the same as we teach Language Arts. For Language Arts, we break it down into reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, handwriting, phonics, etc… We do not just teach our students Language Arts as a whole, we break it down into small chunks.

To be success in math, we have to do the same thing!

In Language Arts, we teach students reading and comprehension strategies. These strategies make students better readers. Have you ever thought about strategies for making your students better mathematicians?

That is what Number Talks is all about!!

This book is written for grades 1-5 and is all about teaching strategies to help your students speak the language of math. We will be going through a chapter a week beginning May 27th! I hope you will join me as we explore this amazing resource!

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Grab the button below, a copy of the book, and get ready for a lot of Ah-ha! moments this summer. Each week, I will have a new linky party set up so that we can all learn from one another. I can’t wait!!

Visit my original post at: Upcoming Book Study: Number Talks