Tried it Tuesday

This is my first time linking up for Tried it Tuesday even though I have been checking it out for a while.

Something I have tried this week is Goodreads.

I have known about it for quite some time but never took the time to go and do it. I just set up an account and added a bunch of middle grade books that I could think of as well as a few personal reads. I also added one of my teacher friends and browsed through her books to see some more that I had not thought of. I primarily was doing it with the iPad app. I searched some titles by name and others by author (if I knew I had read a few by them). I also used the scan option to add some from my summer reading pile.

I probably need to search around for some more teacher friends to get some other good suggestions but at least I started.


This past year I had my students using Biblionasium which I thought was great.

You create a class and add your students (with lexile levels if you want). At first I created two classes for my morning and afternoon. Once I got into it a bit I decided I would rather have one big group so they could interact with each other and so I didn't have to add everything twice.

Once in they can select their avatar and add their own books. They can rate books and recommend them to classmates. They can enter the books on a reading log and get "awards" for various things like different genres and number of books read. Students can also see each others shelves to get ideas without specific recommendations. I did add myself as a student as well as a teacher so I could set up a student shelf with the books I was reading.

As a teacher I could add required and/or suggested books to a class shelf for students to reference and add. I could also track all sorts of things like logs, awards, book levels, etc. I could also create specific challenges for the class, groups, and/or individuals.

I would highly suggest checking it out.

Fourth Grade Common Core Resources revisited

Fourth Grade Common Core Resources

So I had a chance to check out the Fourth Grade Common Core Workbook that I found out about yesterday when they sent it to through the giveaway. It is GREAT! It has the feel of a bunch of well done TpT lessons bundled in one collection. It is all organized by standard. In the English section there are mini posters, activities, organizers, and passages for each of the standards. They even used adorable clipart. I'm telling you this is good stuff. For the math it also has just what you need. It would definitely be worth the asking price but if you are fourth grade blogger I would absolutely participate in the giveaway before it expires on Sunday.

You should certainly check out the fabulous Fourth Grade Common Core Resources.

Fourth Grade Common Core Resources

It has been a continual struggle this year starting implementation of common core. Many of the resources we had in our classrooms have not lined up and our county and state could really use some work. Thank goodness that 44 other states are going through it too so many things are available for those ready to put in the search time. Of course it is nice when well prepared materials are found without a huge amount of time. I'm hoping the Fourth Grade Common Core Resources may be just the thing.

The write up states "This Fourth Grade Common Core Workbook is the largest collection of resources for teaching the Common Core State Standards. This workbook includes over 850 pages of Worksheets, Activity Centers, and Posters that teach all the Fourth Grade English Language Arts Common Core Standards and all the Fourth Grade Mathematics Common Core Standards!"

That sounds good to me.

If you would like to check it out free for limited time click here. Thanks to I love My Classroom for the tip.