Wishlist Wednesday: Traditions, Laughter and Happily Ever After

This week's guest blogger is Vicky from Traditions, Laughter and Happily Ever After. You should definitely stop by and check out her creative ideas and all her awesome freebies and give-aways! Don't forget to become a follower and leave some comments while you're there :)

Hi there everyone ~ I'm Vicky from Traditions, Laughter and Happily Ever After. I was thrilled and honored when Lori asked me to do Wishlist Wednesday for her over here. I have been teaching for...gulp - 18 years and have seen a lot of changes in education over that time. I teach at a wonderful school in southern California just north of San Diego. I could come up with SEVERAL ideas for my wishlist but after doing a little research and talking to my principal I would have to say iPad(s) for the classroom. I found this photo/link from Pinterest - it has lots of great ideas on how to use iPads in the classroom.

.

We share our campus with a special needs preschool and each of the preschool teachers got 3 --- yes you read that correctly 3 iPads for their classrooms about a month ago with special ed funds. They came with these super cool, thick, spongy protectors so there would be no damage even if dropped. The possibilities are endless with an iPad as far as classroom use. But after researching about the use of them I discovered that there is strong evidence that digital technology in the classroom ( such as iPad's ) has been proven to have very positive effects on the learners. It has shown to
* improve confidence levels
* improve attitudes towards learning
* improve student engagement
and even improve student attendance
Now what teacher wouldn't want those benefits on top of just the fun and wonderful opportunity of having the iPads in the classroom...it would be so great! Well I appreciate the invitation to come on over and be a guest blogger. I do wish I had a magic genie or wealthy donor's choose benefactor here to help me out and grant me my wish -- LOL Thanks again Lori! ~~ Vicky

Wishlist Wednesday: Crazy for First Grade

Introducing, this week's guest blogger... With over 2000 followers and a Teachers Pay Teachers store you will adore, it's Anna from Crazy for First Grade. Make sure you stop by her blog to check out all her wonderful first grade ideas!

Hey there, I'm Anna Brantley over at Crazy for First Grade. I was SO excited when Lori contacted me to be a Wishlist Wednesday guest blogger here! I'm currently the mom to an almost 3 year old son and a public school first grade teacher to 21 amazing students in Watkinsville, Georgia! It didn't take me long at all to know what was #1 on my classroom wishlist. Earlier this year, I went to a technology fair and discovered the SMART Table. I'm talking love at first sight, y'all!! The SMART Table is the very first multiuser/multitouch technology tool that allows groups of students to interact and work simultaneously on one surface. With around a $7,000 price tag {OUCH!}, I knew it was a wishlist item right away, but was still just thrilled to be able to play around with it for a little while!!!

So, what does a SMART Table do & why do I want one?? 

• Multiple students can interact with the SMART Table at the same time on the table’s multitouch screen surface. That's right, more than one finger at a time to manipulate objects!! 
•  It's perfect for an engaging learning center or small group activity. 
• It comes with eight awesome applications – Multiple Choice, Hot Spots, Paint, Media, Addition, Puzzle and more. Using the tool kit, you can customize & create activities by changing backgrounds, questions, and images. For example, you can create themed activities for any of the applications to match them to any SMART Notebook lesson activity or Senteo/Response question set. 
• You can find tons of free & ready to use SMART Table activities on SMART Exchange! I love that many of the activities involve categorizing and sorting. 
• You can use a Document Camera with the table. 
• It's portable, but can also be locked in place. 
• Last but not least, it's super FUN and a fabulous way to incorporate technology to meet the needs of your students. 

 Check it out for yourself!!

   

 Thanks again, Lori, for letting me share my wishlist item!!! 

Anna Brantley

Wishlist Wednesday: Teachy Marie

This week's guest blogger, Katie, is very new to blogging, but has wonderful ideas! Please support her by becoming a follower on her blog and leaving some comments! You can check out Teachy Marie by clicking below:

Hello there!! I am the proud author of the new teaching blog Teachy Marie!  I’m just getting started with my blogging and was so surprised and excited to be asked to write a guest post for Cachey Mama’s Classroom!  I feel so very honored to help Lori out!  I love her ideas and she is such a great “sharer” with all her lessons!

I am new this year to PreKinders, so I have a very extensive wish list for my seemingly bare classroom!  Our school has Smart Boards on rollers that we can check out from the Library, however we don’t have enough projectors or laptops to hook up to them.  So most of our Smart Boards are collecting dust in the storage room.  Even when we can check one out, we have at least four cords that are up to 30 feet long, 25 kids ducked down on the floor so the projector that’s sitting on a desk can project over their heads to the smart board.  Heaven forbid someone accidentally knock the desk or Smart Board and require reformatting!

So now that you know where I’m coming from, I can tell you what my number one item is on my classroom wish list!

You guessed it… the new iPad 2.  I would love to be able to show my kiddos interactive stories and videos, on a screen big enough for everyone to see, while still able to hold it in my hand during our circle time!  My kids love watching/listening to songs/nursery rhymes on my computer, however my computer is about 10 years out of date, and usually cannot run very long without shutting itself down.  I think the iPad would help improve all aspects of my lessons as well as allowing me to teach in the 21^st century!  The possibilities are truly endless!

Huge thanks to Lori for asking me to be her guest for today!  I’m always looking for new followers, so please stop by for some center ideas at Teachy Marie!

Wishlist Wednesday: Patience, Puppsters, and Pre-K

This week's guest post is from Jessica who is a beginner Pre-K blogger. Please take a moment to click on her blog and become a follower. She has some awesome photos of her classroom. Jessica also shares a lot of experiences with her first year of teaching Pre-K including some great tips. Enjoy!


Hi, this is Jessica Cobb from Patience, Pupsters, and Pre-K. Thank you so much to Cachey Mama for letting me be a guest blogger. I am a third year teacher, but a first year pre-k teacher. If you happen to make your way over to my blog please excuse the lack of updates. Pre-K has ended up being more challenging than I expected, and blogging, which is also new for me, has taken a bit of a back seat. I’ll try to do better!

Now, here are the things that I am DYING to have for my classroom. Anybody out there may feel free to donate. HA!

1. I desperately want an iPad 2 for my room. Honestly, it would be completely used for work. I already have a slew of my own Mac products to use for personal stuff. I can just think of SO many fabulous things I could do with one of those beauties in my room. The apps! The music! The centers! Portfolios! The possibilities are endless…

 

2. A guinea pig. In Georgia, we are required to have "something living for the children to care for" in the room. Initially I was completely opposed to the idea of a classroom pet other than fish, and my peace lily currently fulfils our “something living” requirement quite nicely. However, I discovered Petsmart’s Pets in the Classroom teacher grant that gives the money for a pet and habitat. Your choices, should you be approved, are for a guinea pig, hamsters, reptiles, or fish. Well reptiles are gross and they freak me out. Last year my second grade class had a bad experience with fish. I also had hamsters as a kid. Guinea pigs are new and exciting, and according to many other teachers online, they make excellent class pets. Just look at how adorable they are! I want. I want. I want. However, we are afraid that my beagle would also want, want, want. Obviously our guinea friend would have to come live at my house over long breaks and summer, and I'm not so sure it would survive in our house. So alas, we will continue to be a peace lily classroom :(

 

3. A reading loft. My classroom is quite limited on space, and we are required to have a lot of stuff. I wish I could have a reading loft to simply provide more space! I also think it would really encourage the kids to go to the reading and listening centers more often. I remember having a reading loft when I was in kindergarten, and we all thought that it was pretty much the greatest thing we’d ever seen.

There are obviously several other things that I could add, but for now those are the three biggies. What are some things you want for your classroom?