Tag: iPod

Tar Heel Reader

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Tar Heel Reader3483 views

What it is: Tar Heel Reader is an excellent website that is “a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces (i.e. switches, alternative keyboards, touch screens, and dedicated AAC devices). The books may be downloaded as slide shows in PowerPoint, Impress, or Flash format.”  There are hundreds of books on a variety of topics.  In addition to the ready-made books, you and your students can create your own Tar Heel Readers.  Students can add pictures to their readers from Flickr or by uploading their own images.  Each of the stories can be read silently, or read to students with a child, male, or female voice (computer).

How to integrate Tar Heel Reader into the classroom:  Tar Heel Reader is a great place for beginning or struggling readers and English language learners.  Each of the stories has the option to be read silently or read aloud.  Use Tar Heel Reader to create custom stories to motivate your struggling readers.  You can include pictures of people they know, subjects they love, and make them a character in the story.  The stories can be read online or downloaded in multiple formats.  Because the stories can be downloaded as PowerPoint presentations, they can be opened in Apple’s Keynote and put on an iPod (Nano, Classic, or Touch) for mobile reading.  Students will love searching the Flickr collection and creating their own stories on Tar Heel Reader.  Older students can create books for younger grades describing science concepts (think weather, food chain, plant cycle, etc.).  This is also a great site for students to use during National Poetry month (April) to create poetry.  Use Tar Heel Readers as a ‘big book’ that your class can read together using an interactive whiteboard or a projector.  Set up a reading listening center during silent reading time with Tar Heel Reader on your classroom computers.  

 

Tips: Create a favorites page for your students.  Although the site has been created for beginning readers, some books may be inappropriate for your students.  There is a section of books for teens that are beginning readers.  Note: to create a book of your own you will need to register for free.  You will need an invitation code.  I requested a code in the comment section and got a response within 10 minutes of my comment.  You can send me a request Tweet http://twitter.com/ktenkely and I will send you an invitation code.

 

I learned about this site from Larry Ferazzlo’s excellent blog.  Thanks for highlighting this great site Larry!

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Tar Heel Reader in your classroom.

Pinky Dinky Doo

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Pinky Dinky Doo2459 views

What it is:   Pinky Dinky Doo is a site I was destined to review, I saw the show advertising the website while channel surfing one day, and on the very same day, Kevin Jarrett Tweeted about it.  Needless to say, I checked it out and was immediately hooked.  This is a great website for pre-k through first grade students.  The site is based on a PBS show of the same name.  The website has fun activities for kids to take part in including word games, story podcasts, videos, and a place for students to create their own story podcast.  Pinky Dinky Doo loves making up stories and teaches students that every story has a beginning, middle, and end.  The stories are often full of metaphores and similes and often have a great message for kids too.  Every story also has one giant fancy word like “collaborate” or “gracious” teaching students rich vocabulary as well.  I love the way that this site expands student vocabulary!

How to integrate Pinky Dinky Doo into the classroom:  Put your students listening skills to work, listen as a class to a podcast story and discuss parts of a story together afterward.  Every story has a distinct beginning, middle, and end.  Students can draw and visualize the story while they listen to it.  The podcast stories would also make an excellent listening center in the classroom.  Pinky Dinky Doo is a great way to teach students new vocabulary, each story has a ‘fancy word’ that will expand your student vocabulary.  It would be fun to use the ‘fancy word’ from the story as  the classroom word of the day.  See how many times your students can use the ‘fancy word’ correctly during the day.  I love the section where students can create their own story podcasts.  Set up a story station in the one or two computer classroom where partners can create a story and listen to a classmates story.  Students in a computer lab setting could create story podcasts of their own and play the word games independently.  The site is easy enough for students to work independently.  

 

Tips:  Check out the grownups section on Pinky Dinky Doo for some great offline activities.  They even have directions for creating a Fancy Word box of your own and directions for playing the circle story game. 

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Pinky Dinky Doo in your classroom.

Audible Kids

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Audible Kids4741 views

What it is:  Audible Kids was a really exciting find for me today because I am writing an article for the upcoming issue of iLearn magazine about iPods in education.  Audible Kids is a website that engages kids in storytelling through audiobooks.  Kids can download books, read and post reviews for each book, and share their favorites with others.  Kids can discover books searching by keyword, age group, category, award winners, and more.  Students can listen to samples of the stories before they download them with a handy in-browser play feature.  While Audible Kids is not a totally free site, they do have some excellent audiobooks that are free to download.  Roscoe Orman (of Sesame Street) is one of the cheif storytellers on Audible Kids.  Enhanced Audible Kids audiobooks have pictures with the story, perfect for the iPod Touch or a computer center.  For free downloads click here.  Other books range in price from about $0.99 to $20.00. 

 

How to integrate Audible Kids into the classroom:  Because free products for the classroom excited me the most, I will focus on how you can use the free downloads in your classroom.  Use Audible Kids downloads for an iPod listening center, or classroom computer listening center.  Students can register for free Audible Kids accounts and discuss the stories in an online environment with their own classmates as well as children around the world.  Use the stories as a place for students to discover rich storytelling.  Encourage them to listen for voice, emphasis, tone, rhythm as the story is read to them.  Students who learn to listen for these and are exposed to excellent storytellers, will become more expressive readers themselves.  Students could listen to the audiobooks and use a computer drawing program (or just paper and crayon) to draw their own pictures to go along with the story.  This is a great way for kids to learn visualization reading strategies.  If you want to take it a step further, pictures could be gathered into iPhoto or a slideshow accompanied by the audio.  Students will be the illustrator for the audiobooks!  

 

Tips:  If you are in a Mac environment, download Skitch.  Your sudents can draw their pictures on the computer as they listen and they can easily be uploaded to the Skitch website or into iPhoto, Keynote, or Garage Band to create their own illustrated audiobook.  So neat!  Audible Kids has the option of giving the gift of audiobooks.  If this is something you are serious about making a part of your classroom, consider asking parents to donate audiobooks to your classroom library. 

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Audible Kids in your classroom.

Lit2Go

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Lit2Go3901 views

What it is: Lit2Go is a FREE online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format from Florida’s Educational Technology Clearinghouse.  With Lit2Go teachers and students can download files to an iPod or Mp3 player, listen to the Mp3 files on the computer, view the text on a webpage and read along with the audio, and print out the stories and poems to create a customized book.  Lit2Go can be searched by author, tiltle, or searched via the database (by authro, keywords, title, or reading level).  Each reading passage can be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or supplemental reading material for your classroom.  Many of the selections can be downloaded directly to your iTuens library making it a simple transfer to one or many iPods.  

 

How to integrate Lit2Go into the classroom:  Lit2Go is a fabulous resource for all readers, but is especially valuable for struggling readers.  Set up a Lit2Go listening center in your classroom.  You can either download the audio to a Mp3 player or let the students listen from the computer.  Each audio file has a PDF text version that can be downloaded and printed out as a read along.  If students are listening from the computer they can also view the text online.  Lit2Go would be a great help for a reading buddy program.  Send your struggling readers home with a Mp3 player loaded with level appropriate stories or poems and the PDF print out.  Students can practice reading anywhere, even if a parent or sibling isn’t available to read with them.  Reading levels range from .10 to 53.  You are sure to find something for every student!  This is an easy way to help differentiate instruction.

 

Tips: Search Lit2Go in the iTunes store or visit the Lit2Go website to get started.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Lit2Go in your classroom.

App Shopper

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on App Shopper2069 views

 

What it is:  The iPod Touch has opened up a whole world of portable education to schools.  Several of the Applications in the iTunes Application store are free!  App Shopper is a website that makes it simple to find free education applications for the iPod Touch (or iPhone).  Select your category, free, and enjoy browsing through great, free applications for your students!  

 

How to integrate App Shopper into the classroom:  Use App shopper to easily find free applications for your classroom iPod Touch(es).  I like the way that App Shopper shows an icon of the program and gives a description of the application.  Applications can be downloaded right from App Shopper or from iTunes…these are free to use, who doesn’t appreciate free classroom tools?!

 

Tips:  The second edition of the iLearn Ezine is coming soon with a great section on iPods in education and a review of the best free education apps.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using App Shopper in your classroom.

Speakaboos

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Speakaboos4226 views

 

What it is:  Some websites are so impressive that I immediately spam all teachers in my address book with them.  Speakaboos is one of these sites for me.  I learned about the site from the Free Technology for Teachers blog (I highly recommend it for middle and high school teachers).  Speakaboos is a collection of online children stories read by celebrities (although this is not what impresses me).  Each story is read aloud with flash illustrations and the words on each page for read-along.  The stories are captivating and include popular titles like Arthur and Curious George.  This highly engaging website has some other features that make this one of my favorite website finds of the year.  When you sign up for a free membership, Speakaboos offers a free story download.  The download is a swf (flash) file but can be converted with a site like Zamzar to make it iPod ready (aka mobile learning!).  They plan to add more free downloads throughout the year.  Parents can also purchase individual stories iTunes style for $0.99.  Speakaboos  has a feature coming for parents, students, grandparents, teachers, etc. to record their own stories!  Speakaboos offers several activities for students including a diary to write in, a place to create their own story, games, ecards, and printable coloring pages from their favorite stories.  Speakaboos is in beta version right now so some of the above features are not yet  active.  

 

How to integrate Speakaboos into the classroom:   Speakaboos stories and activities are a fun and engaging way to develop students reading, writing, and speaking abilities while learning basic computer skills.  The Record your own Story feature is a wonderful way for students to practice fluency, it is also a great feature for struggling readers who can listen for mistakes that they make during reading.  Older students could make recordings for their younger reading buddies to enjoy.  The ability to download select stories for free is amazing for an iPod reading lab.  Speakaboos is a great reading or writing center for students to visit in the one or two computer classroom.  It would also make a nice whole class read along using a projector.  Speakaboos offers free story guides for teachers to help lead discussions on each story.  The guides come complete with themes to help reinforce the story message and offer questions to check general comprehension, discussion, and personal extension.  There are also printables that you can use with your class in conjunction with the Speakaboos site.

 

Tips:   Membership on Speakaboos is free and provides access to the free downloads.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Speakaboos in your classroom.

Voice Thread Update

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on Voice Thread Update4473 views

 

What it is:   Voice Thread is an amazing site that just keeps getting better!  Voice Thread is the site that makes outstanding web 2.0 slide shows interactive and collaborative.  You can read my original posts about Voice Thread here.  Voice Thread came out with an outstanding new update yesterday, the ability to take your Voice Thread’s with you via an iPod!!!  Whenever you export a Voice Thread, you now have the option to download a full sized, high resolution movie version or one that has been formatted to go directly onto you iPod, or iPhone- how sweet is that?!  Additional new features include the ability to clone your Voice Thread so that you can have a backup copy or a copy of the same Thread to use with different audiences.  Voice Thread now supports Microsoft Office 2007 formats when uploading into your Voice Threads with Microsoft Photo Story 3 video supporting coming.  

 

How to integrate the Voice Thread Updates into the classroom:  So, why am I so excited about the new Voice Thread features?  The ability to save a Voice Thread onto an iPod or iPhone opens up a whole new realm of possibilities in the classroom.  Now you can create learning activities with Voice Thread that are portable for your students.  You can extend your students learning day with a Voice Thread based on your curriculum and the students needs using an iPod.  Math explinations,  sight words, phonics, and read alongs can all be created with Voice Thread and uploaded onto the iPod.  Create a reading buddies program with pictures and sound using Voice Thread.  To find out more about the Reading Buddies program click here.

 

Tips:   If you haven’t used Voice Thread in your classroom yet, now is the perfect time to sign up for a free account and start!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Voice Thread in your classroom.