Showing posts with label Scholastic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scholastic. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Goodbye 2014

Well, somewhere, and I can't find that where after 15-20 minutes of rereading some of my posts - I wrote that College Girl had a goal to read 100 books this year. And I thought, why don't I try to do 100 blog posts?
 
Well, College Girl is upstairs reading - she said she's close to her goal.
 
I'm down here typing blog post 94. Didn't make it to 100. But I came a lot closer than I really thought I would as we got closer to the end of the year.
 
I was looking at my stats - and I had a couple of real winners. Not sure why. My blog is a little one - I usually have 30-50 people read a post. I had a couple posts, though, that got into the triple digits - really not sure why and how, but...
 
This one I did on beginning of the year lesson plans was viewed by lots of folks - and ha, it tells about trying to write 100 posts! Too funny!
 
Another one that was viewed quite a bit was one I wrote about Scholastic's Book Wizard. I want to add that the scanning feature on this app is wonderful - when it works {I told you that in the original post!} But Scholastic's own books - that they publish!!!! - they usually don't give any information when you scan the bar code. But if you take the time to type in the title, then you can see grade level, DRA level, Lexile level.
 
The highlights of this year - well, that has to be my professional growth. I've finished up the course work for my ESOL endorsement - just need to take the Praxis for that - fun times are coming for sure. And I've really taken to reading some "teacher" books - in hopes of becoming a better teacher - and with that hope, I've tried hard to let the ideas I've read influence me as a teacher - not just reading and lip service, but acting on them.
 
Even the low points of this year, those times I just want to vent, well, I've been blessed by this community of readers who often chime in with an "I hear you," or "It will get better."
 
And finally, I want to wish you a
 
 
 
However you are celebrating tonight, please be safe. And I hope tomorrow is the start of a wonderful year for you!



 

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Scholastic Book Wizard

I found a little jewel that I want to share with you:
 

I was looking for a book leveler - and last time I looked I had found one for $1.99 or something, but I'm such a cheapo, I decided to wait. Then I found this one from Scholastic called Book Wizard for free. 

I used it last week and I love it! 
So Kiddo A is reading a book like this during centers:


Well, I can tell right away that this is way too hard for Kiddo A and they need to find another book so they can make their teacher happy. LOL

I have this on my phone and what I do is scan the bar code on the back of the book and it will come up with all this information. You can decide if you want to look at the DRA level, or the Guided Reading level, or Grade Level Equivalent. 

The only frustrating/annoying thing is that I'll try to scan a book - that I've gotten from Scholastic! and it will say they don't have information on it. I've found this is happening with books that say they are printed by Scholastic - or something like that. {I mean, get it together, people - this is a free app I'm trying to use!} 

Anyway, it has been very helpful for the last week and a half when I'm trying to get my kiddos to read just right books!