from the site:
“Reading Rockets is a national multimedia project offering information and resources on how young kids learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help.”
This site is jam-packed with resources. Some of my favorite pages: Meet the Author Podcasts; Watch and Learn (video streams that show effective teaching techniques); and the Blogs about Reading page.
Writer: The Internet Typewriter
“Less is more” with this bare-bones “word processor.” There are no distracting options or buttons to compete for your students’ attention. They can just get down to the writing!
Being web based, you can create an account and access your work from any computer with an Internet connection.
Students will love the Matrix-green-glow!
Posted under Tools, Writing by sprankle
Having a hard time coming up with a strong password… that you can actually remember?
Let Password Bird help! It will ask you a few simple questions and whip together your new password in seconds. If you don’t like it, just click and it will give you a new one.
Examples:
Thanks to Cheryl for pointing out this great resource of Early Literacy Resources. It’s all free and has so many resources that Florida has adopted this as their early reading program. (!)
Lesson Plans, Word Cards, Word List Generator, Listening Vocabulary Activities… you name it, they have it!
Because it’s a “wiki”, you too can contribute and make this resource even stronger.
Did I mention that it’s free?
Posted under K-4, Literacy by sprankle
Many options here for voices and ways to enter text. You can either type (or paste) text directly into the form provided, upload a Microsoft Word or PDF document, or provide a URL of a website. You can even enter an RSS feed! It takes less than a minute to convert over an hour of text.
You can embed the file into your own website (as you see above) or download the file for students to listen to on the computer. Load up an iPod with stories!
Posted under Literacy, Tools by sprankle
Big Universe: A World of Online Children’s Books
At last count, the site holds 316 books — both fiction and nonfiction. Students can even create their own books there. There’s a “Connect” section where you can connect with some of the authors and there’s even a “Shop” to buy the books.
Teachers can sign up for an account in order to get benefits such as saving to “Wish Lists”, but kids don’t need one to read the books.
Each week Education World brings you a news article that you can use with your students. Lesson ideas are included along with “more facts” and links. The archive dates back to 2005.
Essential reading about the ideas behind SCRATCH
We’ve recently started using the incredible program SCRATCH in the Computer Lab at my school. Here are some great resources compiled from Sunraysia Mallee Schools Network to understand how the MIT program helps teach 21st Century Literacy:
NOTE: You will need to create an account to access these files, but it is free.
Learning with Scratch
Creating with Scratch
Programming with Scratch
Learning by Design
Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age
Scratch and 21st Century Skills
Scratch and Technological Fluency
Here’s an excellent, free tool to share with students for when they’re searching their next book to read. You just put in the author or title of the book you’ve just finished, and it will recommend other titles that you would enjoy.
You can register (optional) and save your reading lists as well. 
Everyday Math Site for Parents
Here’s an excellent resource from the Auburn School District in Washington to send home for parents to access a guide to Everyday Mathematics that clearly explains many components of the program.
A Glossary is provided and games are grouped by grade and correlated to skills and concepts with rules included.
An excellent resource to help bridge the home/school connection.
Discovery School Education Lesson Plans
Plenty of lessons here K-12 that relate to content from Discovery, but can also stand on their own. Lessons are written by teachers, organized by subject, and broken into Lesson Plan Sections: Objectives, Materials, Procedures, Evaluation, Vocabulary, and Academic Standards.
Lessons can be downloaded in PDF format.
 |
Sheboygan Falls Everyday Math Site
Thanks to Celeste Beaulieu for recommending this great site to augment the Everyday Math Program. It provides great information about the program and has a special section called, “Things that may be New to You,” which is a great resource for parents (to share in the common terms and methods used by Everyday). Instructions for GAMES are included and a plethora of Math Activity Sites are included and organized by concept.
Scholastic News Online: Election 2008
Plenty to do and read here: games, quizzes, lesson plans, printables…
Students can learn about the candidates, the issues, and how the election process works.They’re able to join in on Discussions and answer the “Question of the Week”.
A good place to start for young reporters, politicians, and all of our young citizens!
This site is a great way to get your classroom newsletters out quickly and easily. Other uses include: invitations, magazines, photo collages, catalogues, announcements, etc. Easy to use with “drag-and-drop” features, as well as being able to email the pages to recipients. Set at different tiers of pricing, the free account is a great place to start with 10 published newsletters sent to 25 recipients, up to 10 times a year.
The Amoeba Multiplication Game
Excellent for what we call “Multiplication Wrestling”. Helps students see how “splitting” up the place values makes multi-digit multiplication easier.
Here’s one of the “mother loads” for great links to integrate technology into all subject areas.
Easily create free quizzes online.
Features:
You’re able to randomise quiz questions
You can have quiz results emailed to you and saved in ClassMarker.
Create multiple choice, true false, free text, short answer, fill in the blank and punctuation quizzes
Add your own images to quizzes
Here’s a great site for Elementary students to practice their facts. There’s plenty of games here, but the two that will really engage kids are the Multiplayer Games (for multiplication and division), where they get to actually play other students from somewhere else (think Webkinz for Math).
There’s no login or personal information query. Kids just pick a name, paint their car, and race. Their car is fueled (and accelerated) by getting the correct answer.
Posted under K-4, Math by sprankleThis is a “break-out” blog from “Seedlings @ Bit by Bit” —from Alice Barr, Cheryl Oakes, and Bob Sprankle. We’ve created it in order to collect great tools for the teachers in our schools, as well as share with everyone else. The name “Geek of the Week” comes from the our podcast shows, where we collect links we find useful for educators.
Enjoy!
Posted under Thoughts by sprankle
Password Bird
Free-Reading.net
