Kistner's Kollection

I saw a Tweet today linked to a blog that gave a teacher 4 reasons how technology can help with classroom management. ( I'm trying to find it again to give credit). But I thought about how my students react to having the Chromebooks in their classrooms.  I have watched this happen in my own class, but when you hand a student a computer, iPad, or tech device, you send a message to this child. “You are worth it.” My campus is a title one district, some students deal with survival more than any student should.  But to some, by having their own device, it sends the message you believe in them. They know you want them to be successful, and you can help them learn needed skills for today's world.  It sends the message, you can be professional, you can learn, grow and we care. This is why students armed with technology are suddenly more engaged, they feel valued.  A valued child can then grow confident and safe making learning easier.  Less behavior problems happen when you have stud

 Break Out Your Reading Skills Challenge This challenge will ask our readers to READ a piece of non-fiction.  Then answer 5 questions to get a code.  If they get all 5 answers correct their code should unlock the snack box to BREAK out a snack for you and a friend.  If you get the first 4 answers correct you should have the code to BREAK out one snack for yourself.   So I have three cards of five questions each.  These questions are STAAR formatted to keep it familiar to students, and are based on 7th & 8th Grade reading TEKS. Each question tells you page numbers, so you really don't have to read the whole book but you can read parts of the articles or stories in it to answer the questions.  Like a short article, or quick story, no more than two or three pages each. Students try a story, to see if their code unlocks the lock.  I am using the following non-fiction books: The Queen's Shadow - A Story about How Animals See by Cybele Young Shark Life - by P