Class Dojo

Hey, I thought you might like this cool new education website!

Check it out at http://www.classdojo.com/

 I use Class Dojo in my classroom to help with tracking IEP goals and behavior in my classroom.  I love the easy to setup and once you use a computer to setup your account you can keep your data using any device.  The reports and comments work best on a computer but students and parents can track data in real time with you.

What are the Most Important Skills for Low Level Students to have?

As I go through this year I am struggling with the skills that I should be working on with students.  I teach at a high school level with students who are severe/profound to mild.   I have lots of thoughts but I'm looking for more than just my opinion.

As I work with my PLC groups, we are looking at some different programs and assessments to help us identify what skills our students have but that only tells me what they know.  How do I know what to teach them next?  

I am looking for suggestions and ideas of what you do in your classroom with your students.

Donor's Choose

I am a faithful follower and user of Donor's Choose.  I have had 3 projects funded from wonderful followers and community members who are trying to help out a great classroom.

I am looking for some more people to help us out.  We have a new project going called Learning Organizational Skills.   We only have 34 days left and need another 614 dollars donated.   Please consider helping us!!!

Check out my Google Presentation

So part of our Summer Tech Challenge was to create a Google Presentation.  I decided that I would take this challenge and use it to create more material for my classroom.  I have embed the presentation below.

Google Presentation is fairly simple to use.  It does not have all the features that powerpoint does but it gets the job done.  I like the fact that it searches for pictures that has copyrights attached although this does limit the pictures that you can use.

I wish that there were more options for slides, transitions, and animations.

23 Roles of The 21st Century Educator ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

23 Roles of The 21st Century Educator ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

I think that this is an interesting article. It's short but I believe that we need to start seeing ourselves as these instead of just a teacher.

Go Animate

I have started skipping around in the Summer Tech Challenge.  I was pretty sure that I was done because I didn't see the rest of the challenges working in my classroom.  So I decided that the Google Presentation would be my last one.  As I started working on it I thought oh didn't I see something in the #npsstc that I could use.  That thing was Go Animate.

I started by using the full video maker.  I wanted to make instructional videos on how to do jobs in the classroom.  This didn't work as I can't control the characters enough to really show what needs to be done.  I stopped using Go Animate and went to work on another challenge.  I made a new video using the quick video maker.  To preset this video, students in my room will be starting a classroom economy.  Since it is new it requires us to do some training.  Stay tuned for more about it as it's also part of my google presentation.  Here is the Go Animate video I made to go along with my presentation.

Classroom Economy by Rebecca Topp on GoAnimate


I really like the ease of this program.  I can see students using it for creating book reports and presentations. This program is especially great for those students who have trouble speaking.  If they can type or use pictures to put together sentences the words can be transferred to the program and then the student has full control over the rest of the options.  Great find Mickie!!

Pinterest Addiction

So I was one of those people who went I don't need another thing to keep up and worry about when Pinterest came out. Then my staff said you need to check out Pinterest for this or that.  So I set up an account and started pinning some different recipes to use at school. 

I have really been just pinning things for home and then slowly started pinning things for school. I am now a pinaholic.  I check Pinterest every night before going to bed.  I even heard myself say I wished this app let me pin this.  I like having a place that has several things all in one place and if I need something more than likely I will find it will a little looking. 

I have really enjoyed being a Panther Pinner (pinning for the school district).  I get to see all the things that my colleagues pin and add to the collection.  We have a great group of educators that really care and love their jobs.