EPIC for Educators

One of the things that I have found for my classroom that I strongly recommend to educators and especially new teachers who may have a limited classroom library is Epic for Educators. This is an online classroom library with an app that provides digital reading logs that keep track of books and minutes read by each student. You can create 36 individualized profiles. You can also provide students with an option of adding audio narration with hundreds of read to me titles. There is a vast selection of nonfiction and fiction categories. EPIC for Educators is FREE! Educator accounts can be used on multiple computers, Chromebooks, iPads, or tablets. This is a fabulous way to foster a love for reading, even amoung previously reluctant readers.  Getepic.com

QR Codes in Kindergarten

One of the latest technology crazes in Education is QR codes. One of the reasons that I love QR codes had to do with teaching Kindergarten students.  As I am sure you know, most often, my kindergartners do not come in reading and if they are it is usually in the very early stages.  QR codes essentially, do not require any reading! I can use many multiple free QR code generators on the web to create QR codes for my students.  It is very easy to teach the children to use the QR codes.  They simply need a qr reader on any tablet or device. There are also several different reasons why to use QR codes.  As you can imagine, it can be a nightmare to get 24 five year old students to type in a web address. Yikes! But they become quite efficient at opening the QR reader app and scanning a QR code.  I have used QR codes for many things like websites, links to podcasts, directions for a center or basically anything you can imagine or create!  I even use a QR code on the first day of school that allows parents to walk away from my classroom with all of my contact information that they will need for the year!  QR codes are an amazing tool no matter what grade you teach!

This year we used QR codes after creating how to videos on making Fried Apple Pies.  After visiting the Apple Orchard, we turned our goodies into a delicious pies from QR codes! Oh what fun and oh so yummy!