Share A Story 2011

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

New and Useful websites for educators and students

I attended a webinar this week and I found these websites to be my favorites from the session. There are so many GREAT resources out there, it is sorting out the bad ones that takes so long. So, I hope this list helps you find some great stuff to do with your students!

prezi.com

Create astonishing presentations live and on the web

Wordle.net

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

animoto.com

This website allows you to make your own videos online. It is FREE and user friendly. Teachers and students can use this to create fun videos for their class. I made one from our Family Literacy Events, it is really the fastest and easiest way to make a video!

schooltube.com and Vimeo.com

Similar to YouTube but showcase videos appropriate for learning, both are very easy to use.

voki.com

This website allows students to make an avatar, it has proven to be very beneficial for English language learners because they are able to type what they want to say and the avatar will say it back.

picnik.com

This website allows you to edit your pictures online for FREE.

Zamzar.com

This website allows you to convert your personal files for free.

http://edu.glogster.com/

This website allows teachers and students to create a poster wall, and it allows individuals to be as creative and innovative as they choose.

Blabberize.com

This allows students and teachers to upload pictures and use them to talk. It is a fun way to keep kids engaged.


Slideshare.com

This is a website that allows people to share slideshows via PowerPoint or other slide presentations.

Ipadio.com

ipadio combines the telephone with the blog to create an audio “phonecast” which is streamed Live to the Internet. You can phonecast from any phone, anywhere in the world - no need for a computer or even access to the Internet. This could be used if teachers have an announcement they want to share with all of the parents or if they want to make their own phonecasts for students.

http://www.go2web20.net/

This is a onestop shop with many valuable resources that are available via the web. It organizes the categories so people can seek specific kinds of websites.

Family Literacy Events 2011

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

New Developments

There are so many resources out there for teachers and parents to help kids grow. Our goal at Prairie Public is to help teachers and parents find these resources easily to help our kids succeed socially, emotionally, and academically.

There are many new developments at PBS and Prairie Public plans to adapt these programs to help our kids locally. These developments include the Raising Readers initiative which involves Library Corners, Martha Speaks Reading Buddies, and Super Why! Reading Camps.

Library Corners
A Library Corner is designed to go in public libraries or public school libraries to help build literacy skills in children. Prairie Public supplies the Library Corner with materials including a DVD with video clip content, a data CD with activities, activity books, website resources, and packets for providers to help their children develop literacy skills. We hope to start this project soon!


Martha Speaks Reading Buddies
This program can be implemented by kindergarten and fourth grade teachers. It is a terrific program to help the students build vocabulary and comprehension skills. The idea is to have fourth grade students buddy up with a kindergarten student to teach and learn with one another. The program not only helps fourth grade students feel empowered with leadership capabilities but it also has a positive impact on fluency, vocabulary development, and students overall enthusiasm for reading.
For the entire curriculum:
http://pbskids.org/martha/parentsteachers/readingbuddies/index.html

Super Why! Reading Camps
This Reading Camp was developed for 4-6 year old children as a 5 day camp to help build literacy skills. The success of the program was vast with results showing participants gaining in word decoding, encoding, reading words, and determining letter sounds. The 5-day camp curriculum is now available for teachers and daycare providers to use as a classroom resource. The curriculum will be available through Library Corners and teachers can check out and implement in their classroom!
For more information:
http://www.wgbh.org/articles/Whats-So-Super-about-Super-Why-Reading-Camps-2838