A Collection of Bright Ideas

Early on this year, a group of bloggers that I admire tossed around the idea of doing a monthly link up of “bright ideas” with no strings attached. No freebies. No products. Just great, often simple, ideas that make a difference in our classrooms. I’ve been so excited to participate in it often throughout this year, sharing ideas that work for me and my students.

This year, I showcased a variety of posts from management to kinesthetic ideas and technology tips. Here’s a round-up of my posts from this year. To go to any of the posts, just click on the corresponding image.

My kids are squirrely (Is that how you spell it? I saw squirly but now I’m thinking that’s it’s squirrely like a squirrel being frantic. I’ve never tried to spell it I guess) and I’m always looking for ways to keep them engaged and to keep our energy level at a point where they’re involved but things aren’t getting out of control. These 4 ideas help me intertwine some movement into our day.

I add some morphology topics into my word wall to help solidify some of the skills we work on (suffixes, prefixes, etc) but also to help get students to transfer their knowledge of one word with an unknown word. I use a tree to help me showcase the skill, but then I use our word wall to remind students of each new word part we’ve learned.

I’ve showed a couple ways Google Docs can be utilized in the classroom…

and

If you’re looking for ways to use board games in your classroom, here are some ideas.

If you haven’t discovered the amazing ClassDojo website, come see how I use a token economy in conjunction with ClassDojo.

This year I also started using Powerpoint to completely manage my centers boards and rotations-including the timing! Come watch this video to see how simple it is to set up!

Use Powerppint to manage your centers rotation in your classroom.

I love going through all of the Bright Ideas posts each month. They’re seriously some of the best posts I’ve ever found. To check out other round ups, check out the link-up below.

An InLinkz Link-up

One Comment

Sra. Carro November 15, 2014

Love your games post! I have all those games, but I just need to take the time to transform them into something educational. Thanks for the great tips, Tessa!
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Hi! I’m Tessa!

I’ve spent the last 15 years teaching in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades, and working beside elementary classrooms as an instructional coach and resource support. I’m passionate about math, literacy, and finding ways to make teachers’ days easier. I share from my experiences both in and out of the elementary classroom. Read more About Me.