My new love this year is task cards. They're so versatile, and give students an opportunity to practice the skills they need.
In our classroom, we use task cards in so many different ways:
* to review before a unit test
* as a reward for completed work
* as a learning station
* as part of math rotations
* for extra practice at home or in class (Parents love when these come home - especially with answers provided! I usually shrink them down to save paper.)
* as part of various cooperative learning structures (Quiz-Quiz-Trade, Fan n Pick, Inside-Outside Circle, etc.)
* to play Scoot or variations of Scott
* for test prep
* to print out and have students use in math journals
The list goes on. You get the idea.
My first introduction to task cards this year was through awesome teacher blogs, and I purchased several sets on TpT. I found so many fabulous sellers! Some of my favorites are Teaching with a Mountain View, Math Mojo, Jennifer Findley, Kristin Kennedy, and Rachel Lynette. If you haven't visited any of them, you're in for a treat!
My kids love the variety, and I love that they're aligned to Common Core!
Once I became a seller on TpT, I decided to start making task card sets of my own. While I love each set I've purchased, I always find I need to tweak something here or there. I've posted two sets that meet all of my own class's needs:
- self-checking (answer on each card)
- Common Core aligned to a specific standard
- adaptable for a variety of uses
- various sizes, so I can send them home, and use them in quite a few different ways
- a wide variety of concepts within one standard (so I can give repeated, varied practice to students who need it)
I don't want this to be a commercial for my task card sets, so I'm not posting a link here. If you want to find them, you can visit my TpT store easily enough. :) Here are two pictures, just to give you a taste.
I have big plans for my summer - lots and lots of task cards sets to be made. I hope next year's kids love them as much as this year's kids (and I) do.
I can't wait to see what everyone else has tried this week! If you haven't done it yet, go link up!
Design!
First of all, I have to thank Megan for the wonderful blog design! Please go visit her at A Bird in Hand Blog Design. Isn't it beautiful?! I told her some of my favorite things, and she had this done, lickety split! Easier than you could ever believe.
Thanks, Megan!
Dropbox
Next up - Dropbox. Have you used Dropbox? If you haven't, you must. It's a life-changer. Truly. Our server at school had a period of time where it was very unreliable, so I stopped using it. Flash drives filled too quickly, so I bought an external hard drive. I used to carry that thing back and forth between school and home. Every day. And then last summer, one of the connector pieces broke. I nearly died. Everything was on that little piece of storage, and I hadn't backed it up recently. Silly, I know. Fortunately, my boyfriend's wonderful dad helped recover all of my files, so all was not lost. However, I had a huge wake-up call. I needed something durable, reliable, and easy to use wherever I happened to be.
Enter Dropbox. I can access it from my school computers, home computer, iPad - and there's even an app for phones! It's reliable storage for my files. (Don't you just love The Cloud?!) I don't have to worry about having my hard drive with me. My files just exist in the right place. Always.
If you haven't signed up, you need to do it. There's nothing to lose. Give it a try. Paid subscriptions are available if you need a lot of storage, but free storage is plentiful (and able to expand with referrals).
If you'd like some bonus storage (500MB) and would like to help me out, too, please use this link to sign up. You won't regret it! Free Dropbox Account - just click here for bonus storage!
Tried it Tuesday Linky
Since Dropbox is something new I tried this year, I'm linking up with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for her first Tried it Tuesday linky party!
Go see what everyone else is trying this Tuesday!
