I recently stumbled on this great site for writing that I thought I would share with you in case you haven’t seen it yet. It is Scholastic’s Story Starters, and I think it would be a great site to use in your classrooms as a writing center or it could be a good computer lab activity. The tool generates funny story starters for students based on their grade level, and then takes them to a place where they decide on the format for their stories and create them right there on the computer. It looks like a lot of fun, and I think it would attract even the reluctant writers in your classrooms. Let me know what you think of it!
Here is a VoiceThread project I did in the LMC with Mrs. Sheets’ and Mrs. Vejraska’s classes during flexible time. The students made their own Field Guide based on the Spiderwick series. Check it out! If you would like to try a VoiceThread project, just let me know. I will also be teaching a workhsop on VoiceThread on April 24th.
Okay, I realize I’m sharing yet another online tool that really isn’t school related, but it’s too cool not to share. My son has gotten me addicted to an online radio site called Pandora. The neat thing about this site is that you select an artist that you like (for example – Sting – I know, I’m dating myself), and Pandora will play songs by Sting and create the “Sting” channel for you. In addition to songs by that particular artist, it will also play songs that are similar in style to songs by Sting. It gives you the option to give those songs the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” as to whether you think they belong on your Sting channel. It is so awesome! You get to listen to the songs and artists you like, and you don’t have to listen to commercials. All types of music are included, which has been great for my son who loves contemporary Christian artists like Skillet and Reliant K. Anyway, give it a try and create your own custom radio stations!
Last week, one of my eMINTS sessions was on the topic of visual literacy (the ability to understand and use images to communicate). As an opening activity, I used a great online tool called VoiceThread to have my eMINTS teachers interact with images. You can see this example at http://voicethread.com/share/44327/ or click below.
I think there are so many possibilities for using this tool in the classroom. You could have your students create online digital stories, have them respond to a photograph, share research information, and so much more. For example, DeAnna, one of my 3rd grade eMINTS teachers, created a VoiceThread to have her students respond to some images about Martin Luther King, Jr. Here are some examples of what you can do with VoiceThread:
I signed our building up for a free trial of Scholastic’s Book Flix. Here is the description of the site:
Scholastic BookFlix is a new online literacy resource that pairs classic video storybooks from Weston Woods with related nonfiction eBooks from Scholastic to build a love of reading and learning. The engaging way to link fact and fiction, BookFlix reinforces early reading skills and introduces children to a world of knowledge and exploration.
You can access the free trial at http://bookflix.scholastic.com/freetrial. I will send you the username and password in an email message. I hope you enjoy this service. I think it is pretty great. We have the trial through December, so take advantage of it! Once you have used it with your students, please give me some feedback on what you think of it by commenting on this blog post. I want to know what you think about it before I would invest money in the service.
There is a great project called One Laptop Per Child that tries to provide technology to children in developing countries. They have created an amazingly inexpensive, highly durable laptop that gives these children access to Internet resources and great computer tools to use for learning. For a brief time, starting November 12th, you can purchase two laptops – one that will be donated to one of these developing countries, and one that will be sent to you. Here is the info from their website:
Starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child will be offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time in North America. For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home.
If you would like to participate in their program, sign up for the reminder email now at http://www.xogiving.org/.
The K-12 Online Conference begins today! I encourage you to check this out during the next two weeks. I participated in the conference last year, and I learned a lot of great things about education technology. Here is the description from the website:
“The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2007 conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries”. This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 8, 2007. The following two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog (this website) for participants to download and view. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” and a culminating “When Night Falls” event will be announced. Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during the conference as well as asynchronous conversations.”
Be sure to take advantage of this free professional development opportunity!
Well, here is my first “tech tip” for you this year. There is a great new online tool called Animoto (http://www.animoto.com/). It allows you to create very cool videos by simply uploading photos, selecting music, and pressing the create button. I created this video of summer library pics in less than five minutes. It’s very easy and a lot of fun. Create one with your own photos and impress your friends and family. Let me know what you think!
