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Many special education teachers and reading teachers ask me about sites that have stories online where students can HEAR the book being read to them.  While there are several sites that do this, very few of them have the words or captions that go along with the passage.  These sites make good learning stations for students in your classroom.  Here are some of my favorites:

Storyline Online is a website sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild. There are several celebrities who offer their talents to read a best-loved children’s book on video.  Stream the video to watch the actor read the story complete with story book pictures and captions that you can turn on or off.  A few of my favorites on this site are: Stellaluna, Knots on a Counting Rope, and The Night I Followed the Dog.   This is a GREAT SITE!  This site is for elementary school students.

Loudlit.org is a site that boasts “literature for your eyes and ears”, and they’re right.  The website features novels, poetry, historical documents, children’s books, and short stories that you can read and follow along as someone reads it to you.  You can stream the audio or download it.  I especially like the poetry section since it helps students hear how poetry should be read with pauses and breaks.  Famous pieces that are featured (and here are just a FEW): The Highwayman, The Raven, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Tale of Two Cities.  This site primarily targets secondary students, but there are some selections for primary aged kids.

ByGosh.com is a good source for digital text online, although it doesn’t read the text to you.  However, many teachers have the use of text-to-speech software that allows them to copy and paste text into the program to read it to the student.  This site has items for elementary and secondary students.

At Childtopia, there are seven stories that you can hear read out loud to you.  This is definitely geared for elementary school students.

My favorite of these sites used to be Tumble Books - not featured here since they have recently turned their site into a paid site.  Previously their content had been completely free.  If your school is willing to pay for a subscription, this site would be worth your time and money.

RELATED POSTS:

Read, Write, Think Cartoon Generator

Site Words with Samson

MadLibs Online

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If you have an interactive whiteboard (Promethean, SMART, or Polyvision), it’s always nice to know where you can find websites that work especially well with your board.  A site that may not be suitable to use with your class in the computer lab could be very valuable once you use it with your interactive whiteboard in a whole group instructional setting.

As I was searching for interactive whiteboard links, I came across this site by ETTC (Educational Technology Training Center).  The site has tons of links suitable for your interactive whiteboard.  But the best part of the site is that the links are broken down by elementary sites, middle school sites, and high school sites.  ETTC also separates the links by subject area: math, language arts, science, social studies, music, PE, art, software, tutorials, and other.

It’s the best list I have seen to date.  I looked at about 70% of the sites under “elementary” and was astonished that the sites were of high quality.   There is nothing worse than a hotlist of sites that suck.

RELATED POSTS:

GAMES FOR THE INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD

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FotoViewr is a cool new site that I came across today that allows you to access your photos from your Flickr or SmugMug account, create a slideshow, and embed it into your blog or website.  Why do I like FotoViewr?

1. You don’t need to sign up or create an account to use the site.
2. Easily access your photos by entering your username and the “tag” of the photos you wish to view.
3. Pick a “gallery” tool to showcase your photos.
4. Embed the slideshow using the code Fotoviewr provides for you.

The transitions remind me of PicLens (otherwise known as Cool Iris), which is a new way to search for multimedia on the web.  The effects are very similar to what I see in FotoViewr. If you can’t see the slideshow below, try viewing this blog in Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.

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Welcome, Fall!  October is here! 

To get into the Halloween spirit, why not carve a pumpkin online?  There are two sites that I have found that are fun. 

 The first one located at theoworlds has the most options for your pumpkin.  It gives you to option to cut “freeform” or with straight lines only. When you connect the lines of your cut, then the piece automatically falls out of your pumpkin.  You can change the background picture, add your own message, print your pumpkin, save it to view later, or send it to your friends in an email.  Don’t forget you can turn on and off the spooky background music! As you can see from the picture above, the pumpkin is realistic instead of a cartoon.  I like it!

The second pumkpin site is called the “Pumpkin Simulator“.  You have a cartoon pumpkin to carve on, and when you are finished, you click, “done”.  At that time, a lit candle is added to your pumpkin and spooky music plays.  It doesn’t have any of the other options as the first pumpkin site, but it still provides entertainment!  Happy Halloween!

Often teachers come to me and ask for a way to resize their pictures at school.  Luckily teachers have access to Image Blender, a photo editor by Tech4learning that allows them to do this, but they only have access to it in the computer lab.  If teachers want to resize or edit digital pictures from the comfort of their own home or classroom, Pixlr is a great option for them.

There are several online photo editors. What makes Pixlr so special?  It’s one of the only free photo editors that allows you to resize pictures in pixels. This is incredibly handy if you are trying to find a picture to fix exact pixel sizes for avatars or icons on websites.  Pixlr was created for non-professionals and has many features including: resizing, cropping, layers, filters, etc.  When you are finished with your picture, you have the option to save in JPG or PNG format.

Kitzu is my newest find!  I mentioned it briefly in an earlier post, but I finally had a chance to look at it this weekend.  Kitzu offers free, copyright-friendly, and educational media packages for teachers and students to use in multimedia projects.  Most packages include about six pieces of media around an educational theme from the 21st century that can include images, documents, audio clips, video clips, and illustrations.  As a teacher, download one of these kits to use with your whole class.  You will be amazed that each student uses the media differently to create a unique project.  For teachers who do not know where to start, Kitzu is the perfect first step for integrating with PowerPoint, Photo Story, Movie Maker, or Adobe Premier Elements.

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Do you like to personalize pictures to make them look real but don’t have time to dabble in Photoshop?  Have no fear!  Check out says-it.com. They have many different generators where you can personalize the information printed on them.  Personalize a church sign, a McDonald’s sign, or a Danger sign.  Add a little spice to your webpage or your blog.  I’m easily amused, but if you’re reading this blog, you probably are, too.

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Yet another cool website can be found through the GirlsGoTech.org page.  It’s a mandala maker that allows you to create a symmetrical design using basic shapes and colors, and can be used in the classroom to reinforce geometric concepts in math.  As kids work on their design, they can preview the finished design to see if they want to go back and make changes. Here is the design that I created below:

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So far you have seen me write post after post about academic websites.  What about artistic websites?  I have to admit I am the one person in my family who is not artistic.  My brothers and sisters were born artists.  I popped out a teacher.  How did that happen?  Anyway.  There are several art websites that are worth checking out.  Several of these websites have the capability to share the art once it is created.  Isn’t that the best part about the Read/Write/Share web?  Students want to feel like they are part of a larger community.  They want to have a voice among their peers by contributing to the content of the web.  There are several ways to do so in writing, and now you can by drawing and painting.

Mr. Picasso Head

Appropriately named – instead of building a Potato, you build a Picasso.

Art Pad

It’s like an online canvas! Paint away, my friends, paint away.

Tate Britain: Create Your Own Collection

You are in charge!  Pick your favorite masterpieces and create a collection. Share with friends!

MoMA: The Museum of Modern Art

Go on an art safari with your class!  Explore art and discuss the questions along the way.

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Wow, teachers and parents!  Have you seen Spellingcity.com? This is the best free spelling site I have seen in a long time.  Basically, the teacher or student can enter a list of spelling words and the site will provide you with interactive practice.  First, the site will say the word to you (in a very natural voice, I might add) and you type the word.  The site will speak a sentence with the spelling word in correct context as well.  Press the button to check your answers and the site corrects your work.  If you get one wrong, you have the option of completing extra practice with the word.

Here is what Spellingcity.com boasts on their website:

“SpellingCity is a fun new educational site that can help children improve their spelling skills:
-  contains over 25,000 words, including plurals, contractions, future and past tenses
-  uses a REAL human voice that says both the word and the word in a sentence
-  a ‘Teach Me’ function that spells out the word using both visual and auditory input to improve retention
-  teachers and parents can enter and save their own spelling lists for their students/children
-  students can play games with their words or any saved lists
-  teachers and parents can save and share their lists.
-  the forum allows teachers and parents to share lists and ideas”