Bingo Number Generators

I teach Spanish and love to play Bingo to practice numbers--the students love it, too! But I am a traveling teacher and don't always have all my teacher stuff easily accessible. Instead of keeping a bucket of numbers or a Bingo set with me all the time, I have found 2 great ways to generate Bingo numbers with my devices.

The first is an iPad app called Bingo Number Generator. It is free and simple. It says the numbers out loud so for Spanish I just turn my sound off and call them myself.

One day I didn't have my iPad but did have my Chromebook, so I found a really clean and simple website called Online Bingo Caller and used that.

Both work great and I have less stuff to keep track of!

Culture Reading in Spanish Class

I first wrote about my Culture Reading in Spanish class a few years ago in this blog post. I haven't changed the overall idea, but have added to my book list and made a few other changes. You can see the entire book list and project menu below.

We use the Accelerated Reader program and my students are asked to complete the corresponding quiz and then a project from the project menu. Students do most of the work outside of class. As you can see, all of my projects are technology-based, just because that is my personal preference and I love incorporating technology however I can.

We are fortunate at my small school to have a strong culture of reading. Several teachers require reading outside of class and most students complete the requirement.

If you can think of any books I should add to my list, please comment below!

Remind vs. Google Voice

I first wrote about Remind in this blog post nearly 3 years ago, when it was still called Remind 101! I recently presented at an inservice for teachers about texting to communicate with students and/or parents. I compared and contrasted Remind and Google Voice. 

Texting is definitely the way to best engage with techie students and busy parents, but using our personal numbers is not appropriate. Included in the presentation are step-by-step instructions to help you get started.

I will say that that Remind has evolved so much since I first started using it a few years ago. I love that I can schedule text to be sent later, and include links and attachments. Students can also contact me via text, and neither one of us has each others' real cell numbers.

I still use Google Voice for speaking assessments for my Spanish students, but not as a texting communication tool.

How do you choose to communicate with your students and/or parents outside of class?