Cortney Steffens recently earned her Ph.D. from Fordham University where she conducted research that compared the print and online comprehension strategies used by second graders. She taught first grade for ten years and has now “graduated” to third grade. She actively seeks out authentic ways to incorporate technology into her instruction while honoring the foundational skills all students need to be successful. Cortney is excited for the opportunity to be a part of the Sony Education Ambassador program and looks forward to beginning to collaborate with other innovative teachers.
Life just gets easier and easier the more I investigate what is available for teachers. Don’t get me wrong, life was good when all I had was my Xperia Z and the Easy Voice Recorder app. I was able to record my students while I conducted informal reading inventories and then send these files to Google Drive. Recently, I ran into a problem... More →
A few months ago, I was so excited to learn about the Chrome extension Movenote that is also available as an app on Google Play for my Xperia Z. If you have not seen Movenote before let me give you a brief introduction. Movenote is a screencasting tool that allows you to import documents, PDFs, presentations, and pictures. Teachers and students can create... More →
Early in the school year, my students had the great privilege of using a class set of Xperia Z tablets. It was amazing all that we could do in a 1:1 tablet classroom and you can see an overview in my previous post Imagine the Possibilities in a 1:1 Classroom. This post of Common Core Connections focuses on how I used the Xperia tablet and the Blogger app... More →
Let’s face it, we our classroom day is jam-packed and taking time out to teach your students how to use a tablet separate from the curriculum content is not feasible. This is the dilemma I faced in September when I got the great news that each of my students would be able to use an Xperia tablet for the month. ...; More →
During the month of September I had the absolute pleasure of providing each of my students with an Xperia Z tablet to use courtesty of Sony! Anyone who knows me, realizes what an opportunity this was for me. I try to be app savvy but it is frustrating when you have ideas for how tablets like the Sony Xperia Z can be used in the... More →
Imagine if you will, a third-grade class feverishly writing persuasive paragraphs for why readers should read a particular book the third graders enjoy. Everyone is actively engaged and trying their best to find specific details to include. This was not your ordinary writing assignment... they were writing this as a script for a video book recommendation made that much cooler by the Aurasma app. How did we... More →
Any one that is familiar with the Orton Gillingham approach to teaching reading would greatly question how using a tablet is at all relevant. Orton Gillingham is a multi-sensory, sequential approach to teaching reading, spelling, and writing for individuals that have difficulties often associated with dyslexia. The key part is that it is multi-sensory and combines visual, auditory, and kinesthetic approaches. When learning a letter and... More →
It is my ultimate dream to create a paperless classroom. I could take the stance that this goal is purely from an eco-conscious standpoint, but selfishly I am tired of dealing with broken-down printers and copy machines. Wouldn’t it be great to avoid them altogether? Why not have your students do all of the work on your Xperia tablets and then email them to you, export... More →
In my first “Common Core Connections: Time to Study” post I mention how the Xperia can help reinforce the concepts we are teaching to support the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This post focuses on another Web-based program that has a corresponding app, VocabularySpellingCity. This is a popular and versatile Web/app combo that like Study Stack/gflash+ (see my previous post) allows... More →
The school year is winding down and my students just completed the New York State Common Core assessments for English Language Arts and Math. The reality is that assessment has moved to the forefront of every educator’s mind as we raise the rigor and expectations of our students’ skills and knowledge. The use of flashcards as a study aid is definitely not new, but I have... More →
The titles of my blog posts usually begin with Common Core Connections. At first a post on homework planners for the Xperia table might not make sense. However, if you think about it, students will be better equipped to meet the CCSS if they are organized and actually do the reinforcement work and projects teachers assign. I taught first grade for 10 years and homework completion... More →
If you teach third-grade boys you know that in their independent reading bag they will at some point have a graphic novel like the books by Dav Pilkey in their independent reading bag. This is not to say that the girls do not appreciate this genre too. As third-grade teacher, I have observed first-hand how ears perk up whenever... More →
People of a certain age remember the days of diagramming sentences for parts of speech. Many bemoan that kids today just do not know how to write using correct grammar and perhaps we should go back to direct teaching of these important English concepts. Have no fear, the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) have it covered. Specifically, third graders are expected to “Explain the function... More →
If you are in the classroom like me, then you know that getting a one-to-one reading assessment completed without interruptions is a miracle. I have perfected the art of peripheral vision scanning of the other students as I conduct running records, and my frantic hand gestures to those that would interrupt are unmistakable. What I have not perfected is the art of completing the forms... More →
In my classroom I am constantly recording what my students are doing and putting it on my class Web site. Finding an easy way to accomplish this feat has been cumbersome at times because there have been too many steps such as loading video onto my laptop, editing the video, converting the video for the Web, and then uploading it to my site. Victory was... More →
It is here, the Common Core Learning Standards have officially taken over as THE focus. The writing is on the wall as many professional teaching books, pinterest pages, and professional development conferences have quickly switched their focus. With good reason. The standards are guiding all of our decisions as we educate our students to be college and career ready (not to mention that... More →
You did it! You made the wise decision to purchase a SONY Xperia tablet. Now what? As an educator it can be quite overwhelming to wade through the vast amount of information out there on the best Android apps to use. Let me help you by posting my findings on a Learnist board. This first post features Wave Recorder, Skitch Evernote, Quixey, and qPDF. These... More →
Well the SONY Xperia created quite a stir in this teacher’s classroom. “Did you get, did you get it?” and “Can we see it?” were repeated by many anxious voices as I unveiled the new classroom learning tool. The live wallpaper of swimming koi, complete with water ripples when you touch the screen, helped up the coolness factor. ... More →