Frog Street SPLASH, Houston - Dr. Jean and the Polka Dots!

Erica, Dr. Jean, Cathy, and Heather

Frog Street Summer SPLASH, Houston was a blast! We have such a love for education and early childhood that it is an honor to be surrounded by hundreds of educators who share the same passion we do. At conferences such as SPLASH, we have the opportunity to learn from the best. 'The Frogs' never disappoint with the talented key note speakers and presenters that they bring in each year.  Thank you Frog Street!

Here we are pictured with Dr. Jean. During her session, she had hundreds of educators on their feet singing, dancing, laughing, crying... eating out of the palm of her hand! What an amazing gift she has to touch the lives of so many children by inspiring their teachers. After her session, we joined many others by waiting in line for the chance to meet her and snap a picture for our FB page, lol. It was during those few minutes, that she was interested in hearing about us, The Polka Dots. She read our shirt, listened to a few of our favorite classroom Cheers!, and even asked us to email her the above picture and our original cheers for her blog.

 Can I get a "Wicky, Wicky, WOW"!!!!

Free audio and video conversions - no downloads!

While at a professional development training I was introduced to a great site to convert my audio and video files to usable formats for my iPods and digital photo frame. I don't pretend to be an expert on converting files, many times I am searching the web for directions on how to get my files to do what I want them to do! 

Below is the easy step-by-step instructions on how to use this cool website:

1) Go to http://zamzar.com/
     - you will see several boxes in this screen.
       a) in the first box, hit browse and find the file you wish to convert
       b) in the second box, click on the down arrow and choose the format you wish to convert
           your file to.
       c) in the third box, enter your email address.
       d) Click on convert (your file appears below the green box, and it shows your file uploading)
2) Go to your email
       a) within 5 - 10 minutes, you will get an email from Zamzar
       b) click on the URL in this email
       c) now, click on the green Download Now button
       d) at the bottom of this screen, click on the down arrow by the Save and click Save As.
       e) name your file and save it to your desired location.

Your file, in your email, will only be available for 24 hours, and then it will automatically be deleted.

 I personally enjoy this site because I don't have to search for and download a questionable file converter to my computer. I hope post helps!

Follow us on Pinterest!

Great teachers collaborate and share ideas... we are no exception! Many of our ideas are from other amazing teachers and we simply modify them to suit our needs and the needs of our students. Pinterest is a wonderful teacher resources... follow us!

Cathy: cathyashcraft
Heather: hgilkerson
Erica: egirl1495

Happy Pinning!

Every student is digitally represented

Even though it's the middle of July, I know that you, like the Polka Dots, are gearing up for back to school. One of the first orders of business is sending home and trying to track down the mounds of paperwork your district and school has you send home, in addition to any classroom forms you may need to start the year right. While all those papers are important, I look for one form in particular to return to class more than the others. Can you guess what it is? Yep, the technology release form! If this isn't one of your most essential classroom forms, you need to come see us this year at Frog Street's SPLASH in Houston and San Antonio!

In regards to this list, I keep myself organized and create a quick spreadsheet with my student's names and simply check off what I am and am not allowed to use on my website and/or blog (student picture, student first name, last name, initial, etc.) I keep this posted all year by my computer so that I can refer to it when I blog or update. Here's a tip, leave a few blank lines for new students throughout the school year.

I can't stand to NOT have a student represented in my blog... it just seems cruel, lol! It has been my experience the last 6 years that if parent's don't want you to post images of their child, they also don't want to you post their name. Below are just a few ways that I ensure that ALL my students have the chance to view themselves and/or their work on our blog. This is a fabulous home-to-school connection... don't let a box marked NO prevent you from giving your students and their families the opportunity to have authentic conversations about their school day.

* Assign students a letter or number (could coincide with their classroom #) and use that in place of their name when blogging. Ex.  "I loved the spider exhibit on our field trip to River Bend the best", Student 5.

* Allow student to choose an alias for themselves.

* Save an image of the student's artwork and use this in place of their photograph. You could also post this image in place of their name.

It's important to let the parents know how you will be tagging their child online. Keep it the same way throughout the school year, so as not to confuse anyone, especially yourself!

If you have another idea, we'd love to hear it!

End of the year gift... Thank you Pinterest!

It is no great secret that good teachers beg, steal, and borrow their great ideas from anyone and anywhere they can. In case you didn't know... Pinterest is a teacher's best friend! I saw a picture similar to the ones posted below that a mother had done for the years of her daughter's life. I can hardly stand how simple, meaningful, and memorable a gift this made for my student's their parents on the last day of school.

The above image was taken using my digital camera. If you try this, take care to have a simple background that the writing will show up easily ( I made this mistake the first time and had to go back and retake the pictures). I used Photoshop, picture editing software that I personally own, to manipulate the color and contrast of the photo as well as add the text.
Location and school are blurred on purpose for this blog post.

I created the above image in Microsoft Power Point, a program that most teachers have on their school computers... Yay for free! I added the image to a blank slide and then inserted a text box to add the text. For time saving purposes, I used one text box for the entire text for this example. If this were the image that I were to give as gifts, I would have used separate text boxes for each line of text and played with the font a little bit more. But, you get the idea. Once satisfied with your image, click Save As and then choose 'JPEG' from the drop down format menu. Name your image and browse the folders drop down menu to ensure that you save your image to the correct place.

Happy Birthday Fanny Frog!

We celebrated Fanny Frog's birthday in style this year in Pre-K! All school year long, we worked hard at learning our letters with the help of all of Fanny's friends on Frog Street. We threw a party for Fanny in honor of her 20th birthday, and for the kids in honor of them learning all of their letters.
I spread the news to parents via email (all of my parent contacts are saved in one distribution folder... making it SUPER easy to get classroom news to them in a hurry). Parents were quick to ask what supplies were needed for the celebration and even offered up a few fabulous suggestions of their own.

Here we are using the letters we have learned to sign Fanny's birthday banner.

We proudly displayed the banner for all to see.

Fanny was lookin' good!

A parent offered to bring in alphabet balloons for an alphabet guessing game. The kids had SO MUCH FUN! They had to choose a letter, tell us the name of the letter, and what sound it makes. It's amazing to see how much they have learned during this school year!

Thanks to Elizabeth for making the balloons and providing Fanny's cake for the afternoon class. You rock!
Liam's letter L (red, or course).

Fanny and her FABULOUS cake.

Happy Birthday Fanny. Here's to 20 more!

The Digital Camera is your BFF!

If you don't already have a digital camera to use in your classroom, our advice to you is: GET ONE!

It should be your number one go-to-tool for both you and your students to use.

Keep it out, keep it handy, and KEEP IT CHARGED! You can't always predict what your students will do, but you can be prepared to snap away when you see learning happening or something funny take place. Don't forget to share with parents and colleagues.