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What it is: Technospud Projects are projects created by educator Jennifer Wagner that encourage the use of technology tools in the classroom. Projects can be adapted to fit your classrooms needs. They can last a class period, a school day, or be stretched into a unit. Projects change every couple of months. Currently, registration is open for a holiday card exchange. Past projects have included activities such as A Salute to Seuss where students learned to Wiki about their favorite Seuss characters and books, a Pumpkin Seed Count, and a O.R.E.O. activity to teach about tallying and averaging. The projects are wonderful and bring classrooms from all over the world to collaborate. How to integrate Technospud Projects into the classroom: Technospud Projects are a wonderful first step into technology use for any classroom teacher. Both novice and master technology users will enjoy these projects. Jennifer makes it easy for classrooms to collaborate with other classrooms. Choose a project from the Technospud Project page to “get your technology feet wet.” You will soon find yourself wanting more! Tips: Be sure to visit the Technospud blog. Jennifer always has fun insights into integrating technology into the classrooms and the joys and struggles that technology can bring. Please leave a comment and share how you are using Technospud Projects in your classroom.

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Create Your Own Storybook with Learn Direct

Posted by admin | Posted in Fun & Games, Interactive Whiteboard, Interactive book, Language Arts, Primary Elementary, Secondary Elementary, Teacher Resources, Websites | Posted on 04-11-2009

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What it is: Kids can be the star in these online storybooks with Learn Direct. Students can type in their name and be a character in the book.  On each page their are options for customizing the story.  Students can adjust pictures and certain sentences in throughout the story.   After students have customized the book it can be read online, saved as a pdf or printed out.  These fun interactive stories will make reading time fun for your beginning readers (kindergarten through 2nd grade).  Learn Direct also features a fun little virtual world where students can play word and reading games.  Students have to solve word puzzles to navigate through the world.

How to integrate Create Your Own Storybook with Learn Direct into the classroom: These online stories are a lot of fun.  The ability to customize them will make them a winner in the classroom.  Use the Storybook with an interactive whiteboard and have students take turns customizing the story.  Set up the Storybook on classroom computers as a center activity during literacy or reading time.  Students can save or print out the books to share with others or take home.  The word games in the virtual world would be fun to play and solve as a whole class with the interactive whiteboard or play in pairs on classroom computers as a center.

Tips: There are some great tips and resources for parents about reading with their kids on the Learn Direct site.  Check out the Scared of Words? page and then pass it on to your parents.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Create Your Own Storybook with Learn Direct  in your classroom.

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Comments (3)

November 6, 2009 Links | Footnotes of a Retired "Teckie Teacher" said on 05-11-2009

[...] iLearn Technology » Blog Archive » Create Your Own Storybook with Learn Direct [...]
Allison R. said on 06-11-2009

I immediately checked out this website. What a great tool to use in teaching adjectives and elaboration to young writers. My students would love to create their own personnel story book to read. The words in the stories are a little advanced for my first graders right now, however they would enjoy reading it at home with their families. The website is very user friendly and visually appealing to kids. Thank you for sharing!

Allison
Carrie Stare said on 08-11-2009

This software caught my eye because I recently had a colleague mention it in a class discussion. He had discussed how much of an improvement this technology made with his Spanish classes. After looking into the Learn Direct website, I think that it would have a great effect on creative writing in my language arts classes. I would also be interested to see how I could integrate it into other classes.

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