Wiggio: Group Collaboration made easy

October 28, 2010Kelly Tenkely23 Comments6309 views

What it is: Yesterday as I was scanning through my Twitter stream when I came across this tweet from my friend @jasonshmidt123: “Holy buckets of love, this is cool! RT @plugusin: Checking out Wiggio: http://wiggio.com/ for collaborating.” Now, any time buckets of love are involved I am intrigued- I had to check it out. I must say, Wiggio is a way cool tool for collaboration. Wiggio is a completely free online toolkit that makes it easy to work and coordinate with groups. Wiggio is SO very simple to use and has a very straight forward interface that makes it easy for even those who are low-tech. Wiggio lets you share and manage files, manage a group calendar, poll your group, post links, set up conference calls (including voice, webcam, shared whiteboard space, and screen sharing), chat online, send out mass text messages, and send voice or email messages to the entire group. Wiggio has a lot of features that remind me of Google Groups but some additional features that truly make it a “holy buckets of love” experience. Everything is in one place, handy and easy to use!

How to integrate Wiggio into your curriculum: I can see a lot of possibilities of Wiggio in the classroom. Use it to create a class group with student families each year. Keep families up to date with the latest happenings in your classroom, volunteer opportunities, and class projects that will need some parent support. Share all important documents, videos, and resources that you use in your classroom for easy access from home. (I can’t tell you how many, “I’ve lost the permission slip could you please send a new one?” I get in a year!). Keep all those documents in your Wiggio group file and parents will never have to worry about lost paperwork again. Live meeting opportunities mean that you can hold a virtual parent university where you catch parents up on the new math/reading/science/writing curriculum. Teach your parents everything from reading strategies to use at home to working through math problems together. Parents would love a little support in this area! Offer virtual conference opportunities for parents who are unable to make it for a live conference due to long-term illness, job travel, or in multiple parent homes.

Use Wiggio to create student groups where you keep students up to date with classroom happenings and resources. Offer your students a study hour where they can meet with you virtually for a little extra support or mentoring. Remind your students of upcoming assignments by creating to-do’s. Collect digital assignments using Wiggio files.

Students can create study groups of their own for collaborative projects. As they work together they can meet virtually, share resources and links, and create a schedule to keep themselves on task.

Working with a class outside of your school? Maybe in another state or country? Wiggio is the perfect platform for connecting them, they can work together with shared space and chat live from your classroom.

Wiggio can be used with teaching staff to keep teaching teams organized and give them a place to share resources, ideas, and share a common calendar of events.

Have ambitious parents? They can use Wiggio to collaborate and work with other parents for fundraiser events, coordinating volunteers, and special days.

I am currently using Vyew as my virtual classroom meeting space but Wiggio offers so much more functionality all in one place, I think for the next round of virtual class I will be making the switch! To quote Jason again, “Holy buckets of love, this is cool!”

Tips: Wiggio has a demo area where you can play with all of the features yourself without registering or creating an account. Note to all web 2.0 companies…this is a really nice feature, I wish you all would do it 🙂

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Wiggio in your classroom!

Stories of Learning: Christopher Columbus Creates 21st Century Explorers

October 27, 2010Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2657 views

Yesterday, Silvia Tolisano of Langwitches Blog (The Magic of Learning) shared an incredible story of learning. After reading through her post I asked if I could share the story here and she graciously agreed. Siliva and the fifth grade teacher she worked with did an incredible job of letting her students take charge of their learning. It has been so successful that her students want to continue learning and connecting their knowledge about Christopher Columbus. I love that Silvia’s story of learning begins with a glimpse of what the planning for the learning looked like. Silvia lets us peek inside the intentional planning and organizing of the learning. Using an iPad and the iThoughtsHD app, Silvia and the fifth grade teacher planned a unit on Christopher Columbus that went beyond the textbook and exposed them to authentic research, multiple perspectives, and the opportunity to come up with their own conclusions about the “hero” status of Christopher Columbus in the United States. The results are truly incredible. You can read this awesome story of learning at my blog Stories of Learning or directly from Silvia’s blog.

Netsmartz Kids: Router’s Birthday Surprise (Internet Safety)

October 21, 2010Kelly Tenkely5 Comments7614 views

What it is: NetSmartz Kids is an incredible Internet safety site for kids. I have reviewed this site in the past here, and use it every year with my students to teach and reinforce Internet safety. Router’s Birthday Surprise is a new feature of NetSmartz. It is an interactive video where students are drawn into the story, playing a contestant on a game show to learn online safety rules. Clicky, the robot star of NetSmartz, is planning a surprise birthday party for his robo dog Router. As they follow Clicky through his hectic day, students play games, help Clicky put the Webville Outlaws back in jail, and decide who is a trusted adult. When students complete the video and games, they become certified NetSmartz Kids complete with an official certificate. Students have to complete all sections correctly before they can be certified. The complete video and game play runs for about 45 min, but NetSmartz has broken the video and game into manageable pieces so that it can fit in any schedule. Students can watch a portion of the video and play the associated game and save their progress for the next time they are able to login. Games include Make-a-Match where students think about the fun things they do online (history, music, jokes); What Rule is it Anyway where students play a contestant on a game show to learn about the rules of online safety; Get Clicky to Webville where students choose an Internet tube to get Clicky to his destination, Outlaw Roundup where Clicky captures the Webville outlaws and students match the outlaw to their crime; Who Can You Trust where students define a trusted adult; Router’s Gift Grab where students choose a gift for Router; and a NetSmartz song about the four rules of real-world safety where students drag words to complete the lyrics of the song.

How to integrate NetSmartz Kids: Router’s Birthday Surprise into your curriculum: I truly didn’t think that NetSmartz Kids could get any better. They have outstanding videos and songs about Internet safety that my students love year after year, they have fantastic educational resources (lesson ideas and downloads), and the games get requested by my students frequently. Router’s Birthday Surprise manages to make it even better! This interactive video is an excellent way for students to learn about Internet Safety and has the added bonus of tracking their understanding of the concepts being learned. Regardless of what subject you teach, Internet Safety is something that we all need to teach and reinforce in our classrooms. In the past, I have used NetSmartz in addition to the sites listed here to help my students learn proper use of the Internet. The rule that I love that NetSmartz includes is the “Tell a trusted parent or adult if there is anything online that makes you scared, uncomfortable, or confused.” I cannot tell you how many students see inappropriate content but fail to tell an adult about it because they think they will be in trouble. This is a rule I make sure that my students know and a rule that I pass on to parents so that they can handle inappropriate web content appropriately (without banning use).

Router’s Birthday Surprise is such a nice addition because it invites students to be part of a story. It breaks the learning down into manageable pieces so that it can be used in any class situation. In the computer lab setting, students can each create an account and save their progress as they go. In a classroom setting, the video can be played for the whole class on an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer. Poll students to find out how they would respond to each question and invite students to take turns coming to the whiteboard or the computer to interact with a game. If you have a student response system (clickers) students can respond to the game show questions using them. In the one or two computer classroom, Router’s Birthday Surprise can be played as a center activity over several weeks. Each week students can complete another video portion and game.

In my class, after students had learned the Internet safety rules (which we came up with as a class), we would have an Internet safety quiz. This was similar to a drivers permit test. I made a big deal about how using the Internet is a privilege just like driving a car. Just like driving there are rules to learn and follow that will keep them and others safe. Just like driving they would have to prove that they knew the rules in order to get their license. And just like driving, they could lose their license if they weren’t following the rules. When students passed the test, I handed out Internet Licenses. Most years I used their previous yearbook picture and created the license myself, but a few years before I had the pictures, I used the NetSmartz UYN club cards, these are great because they list the UYN rules on the back.

Tips: Mike Hill, a creative producer with NetSmartz, generously sent me some DVD copies of Router’s Birthday Surprise to share with my readers. If you don’t have Internet access in your classroom, or don’t have reliable Internet access, let me know in the comment section and I will be happy to send you a DVD version-free! If you need a DVD let me know why, and be sure to leave your correct email address when filling out the comment form.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using NetSmartz Kids in your classroom!

Flixtime: Video slideshow creator

October 19, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3004 views

What it is: Flixtime is an online tool that lets students create 60 second video slideshows. Slideshows can contain videos, pictures, text and music. The interface of Flixtime is easy to use; it looks a lot like the timelines used in iMovie and would be a great way to introduce students to the idea of video timelines and a separate sound track. With Flixtime, students can adjust the screen resolution of their video and choose a speed for their slideshow to play. As I used Flixtime, I couldn’t get over how much like Animoto it is. If you need an alternative to Animoto, this is your tool!

How to integrate Flixtime into your curriculum: Flixtime is a great tool for telling a story. Students can use Flixtime to tell a story about their learning, to illustrate a science experiment, to create a video timeline of a historical event, to illustrate vocabulary, to create an auto-bio poem, or to create a custom public service announcement. Flixtime is an easy way for students to create something new and demonstrate understanding on any topic. My students have used video slideshows to create math story problems for a buddy to solve, they turn out great and sure beat the dry story problems from math textbooks! Flixtime videos can be saved on the student Flixtime account, embedded in a class blog/wiki/website, emailed, and even downloaded!

Tips: Flixtime requires an email account for sign up. The email account doesn’t need to be verified which means that students can sign up with a temporary email account from tempinbox or mailinator. If you teach elementary students, create a class Flixtime account where students can create and save videos. This ensures that you know what is being posted and puts the videos all in one place for easy viewing.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Flixtime in your classroom!

Create your own virtual classroom: Edu 2.0 and Vyew

October 18, 2010Kelly Tenkely15 Comments13537 views

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What it is: Tomorrow I launch my virtual classroom and honestly, I am a little nervous! It is like the first day of school; everything is carefully planned, all the resources are ready to go, and the students are enrolled and have received their welcome packet. But, there is still that anticipation and sense of dread that all that careful planning won’t be enough…that something unexpected will happen that will force me to think on my feet. Really, isn’t that what teaching (and learning) ends up being every day? 🙂 I am using two tools to host my virtual classroom that I wanted to share here. Even if you teach in a traditional classroom, these tools offer the ability to expand your school day and provide your students more of a hybrid learning model.

Edu 2.0 is the first tool. I first wrote about and started using Edu 2.0 in 2007. The tool has only gotten better with time! Edu 2.0 is an outstanding alternative to Moodle or Blackboard as an online Learning Management System (LMS). It is completely free to use, multilingual (it auto translates messages!), allows you to teach public or private classes, gives each student an online portfolio, includes a full gradebook, allows you to create curricula and track proficiencies, transcripts of all student grades, tracks attendance, includes forums and wikis, online quizzes, create and track to-do lists, completely web-based, mobile with a free iPhone app, tracks analytics, teach multiple sessions of the same class, upload and access over 15,000+ online resources, parent involvement, define and measure proficiencies, integration with popular web widgets, real-time chat, custom RSS feeds for your class, Calendars, private (designed with students in mind), create and share lessons, provide conditional pathways in lessons (you have to pass one assignment or class before moving onto the next), rubrics, groups, debates, messaging, public and private blogs, surveys, multimedia, and pdf integration. That is a long list but it really doesn’t even scratch the surface of what Edu 2.0 can do. This is your one stop shop for a LMS whether you are in need of one for a district, a school, or for your individual classroom. It is relatively easy to learn and has fantastic tutorials, guides, and support. The biggest challenge that I have with Edu 2.0 is navigation, not because it is difficult, but because it is so comprehensive!

Vyew is the second tool I am using for my virtual classroom. Vyew is an online meeting room that is simple to use. The free version is the one I am using, premium versions are well priced and offer increased options and capacity. Vyew allows up to 10 students to participate in a room at a time. Teachers can create and upload course content for real-time and anytime collaborative learning. Vyew is a lot like Elluminate but doesn’t require any downloads, it runs completely inside the web browser. This makes it a really easy virtual meeting option for students as they aren’t required to do a lot of extra prep. The authoring area of Vyew is easy to use, it is a lot like creating a PowerPoint presentation with slides. Vyew allows for external publishing which means that you can embed the finished presentation on your Edu 2.0 site for those who couldn’t attend the live Vyew session. Vyew supports a HUGE amount of files including video, pdf, PowerPoint, swf, and many more. It also allows for real-time desktop sharing which means that all of your students can see what you are doing on your computer as if you were sitting side by side! There is a built-in screen capture tool for making step by step tutorials. Both students and teacher have whiteboard drawing tools for on-screen collaboration. Embedded comments let you include information on the page to be expanded. Vyew lets you communicate with VOIP (voice over IP), webcam (all 10 can use the webcam!), free tele-conferencing with a unique phone number provided, and voice notes (voice recording embedded in on-screen sticky notes). This is such a simple to use virtual meeting room and it’s features are among the best.

I am using both edu 2.0 and Vyew together for my virtual classroom. I felt I needed an online meeting room where I could create meetings on the fly because this class is being held completely online. I am working with students in third through eighth grade and teaching a 5 week digital storytelling class. We will be working together to discover the power of story, and how to use different digital mediums to tell a great story. I am offering this class to everyone but advertised specifically to the students I used to teach for the first virtual classroom. I did this for a few reasons: parent requests, as a way to stay connected to my students, and I knew what technology skills they had already learned.

How to integrate Edu 2.0 and Vyew Virtual Classrooms into your classroom: Creating a hybrid classroom is an incredible gift to your students. It offers them the ability to connect with you outside the hours of the school day, and on their own terms. It gives students time to review content, interact with other students, and learn at their own pace. Virtual options provide a whole new dimension to learning. Use a virtual classroom to: extend your classroom and teaching, tutor students individually, offer courses to home school families, connect your students with other classrooms, record in-class learning for students who are absent or have a long-term illness. There are hundreds of ways that taking your classroom online can benefit your students. Taking your classroom online gives parents an additional way to be involved in their child’s education and goes one step better, allows them to learn along side their child. Have a tough new math curriculum that parents are lamenting? Offer a virtual parent university where parents can learn more about how to help their child with the new learning. Have teachers that need professional development but can’t find the time? Use Edu 2.0 for learning on demand. Edu 2.0 can be utilized as a classroom online learning solution, or as a school or district wide learning management system. Use Vyew for live meetings with your students. Make yourself available in a Vyew room at the same time every day for additional academic help.

Tips: You can offer your virtual classes for free or charge depending on their purpose. I wouldn’t charge for a virtual classroom that was an extension to my regular classroom, but you might charge for tutoring or specialized classes. I am charging for my class and treating it as an after school club. Edu 2.0 allows you to charge for a class with checkout support using Paypal or credit cards.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Edu 2.0 and Vyew Virtual Classrooms in your classroom!

K12 Online Conference 2010: Free professional development!

October 12, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3517 views

What it is: K12 Online Conference is a completely FREE online conference for educators around the world. The conference focuses on innovative ways that web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. The conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. This year the theme of the conference is “Cultivating the Future”. Yesterday was the kick off to the conference with a pre-conference keynote by Dean Shareski. In the next two weeks (October 18 and October 25), 40 presentations will be posted online for participants to view, download and discuss. Live events happen in the form of “Fireside Chats”, there are three live events this year. The first Fireside Chat is scheduled for October 15 and will be hosted by Dean Shareski. I have attended the k12 Online Conference every year since it started (2006) and each year I am inspired, and fueled with new ideas. I am excited to see so many student voices and presenters this year, there is just nothing like hearing about education from the student perspective! I am also excited to see so many familiar names from my PLN…there just isn’t anyone I would rather learn from!

How to integrate K12 Online Conference 2010 into your classroom: Check out the 2010 Schedule now and choose some sessions that you are most interested in. Commit to viewing 2 or 3 (or if you are OCD like me, all of them!). Take charge of your professional development and be inspired by fellow educators and students. Make it fun and invite a friend to view some sessions with you. Play sessions in the teacher’s lounge during lunch, take over a classroom with a projector and provide snacks, or invite a colleague over for PD and cocktails (for the record, that is the option I would choose!). Don’t keep all of this great learning to yourself! In the past, I have found the student presentations to be inspiring not only for me, but also for my students. Last year there was a presentation about applications called Wizard of Apps or Will they have an app for that or What we are loading (and learning) along the road presented by Joyce Kasman Valenza and students. The presentation was a fun Wizard of Oz type play about different web 2.0 applications that they were using and learning with. My students loved the idea of students putting together a play and teaching teachers. If you are an administrator, be sure to let your staff know about this truly amazing professional development opportunity. The line up of presenters is fantastic! Then, encourage your staff to start building up a PLN (personal learning network) on Twitter. They can start with the k12 Online presenters!

Tips: You can view the archives of past k12 Online Conferences for 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using k12 online conference 2010 in your classroom!

31 of My Favorite Digital Storytelling Sites

October 11, 2010Kelly Tenkely33 Comments18955 views

I am working on starting a virtual classroom…actually when it is all said and done, it will look more like a virtual club. I have opened up my virtual classroom to students in 3rd-8th grade. My first offering is going to be digital storytelling. In honor of that, I thought I would share the sites I am going to use with the students, as well as some other favorites for digital storytelling.

1. Google Search Stories Video Creator– This is a YouTube site that lets you create a digital story out of a series of Google Searches, you really have to check it out to get the full effect!

2. PicLits– This is an all time favorite of mine, PicLits lets students choose a picture and then draw from a word bank to create a sentence or story to accompany the picture.

3. Domo Animate- This is my favorite story animation tool. It gives students so much flexibility and freedom in telling their story, the results are amazing!

4. StoryBird- This site lets students create stories based on beautiful illustrations by real artists; better yet, it lets students create stories collaboratively!

5. Animoto– The free version of Animoto lets students create 30 second videos that combine images, songs, and text. It combines them all for an impressive presentation without a lot of fuss.

6. ZooBurst- ZooBurst is one that I haven’t used with students yet but I am excited to. ZooBurst is a new site that lets students create virtual 3D popup books. Even better, it lets students print out a special marker and view their popup book augmented reality style as it comes to life using a webcam!

I couldn’t fit in all of my favorite digital storytelling tools into a 5 week class, here are some more favorites:

7. Myths and Legends

8. Shidonni– One of my students very favorite websites of all time, this one gets requested a lot!

9. Smile Box

10. Kerpoof– another student favorite!

11. Glogster

12. Creaza

13. Voice Thread

14. Graphic Novel Creator- Comic Master

15. Stage’d

16. ePub Bud– publish ebooks for ebook readers like the iPad

17. Virsona– a different kind of digital storytelling but neat none the less!

18. Zimmer Twins– one of my students very favorite ways to tell a story!

19. Fotobabble

20. Picture Book Maker

21. Nota– collaborative workspace

22. My Story Maker

23. Xtranormal

24. Do Ink

25. Piki Kids Comic Creator

26. Bubblr!

Sites to get students writing:

27. Lightening Bug

28. What-if questions for stories

29. The Story Starter Jr. -Created by my friend Joel Heffner!

30. The Story Starter- Also created by Joel!

31. PinBall-bounce ideas around

EdTech UNconference- Win a year of professional development!

October 1, 2010Kelly Tenkely22 Comments16317 views

What it is: Recently I received a free year long pass to the EdTech UNconference from Simple K12 to review. Not only did they offer me a free pass, they offered me a free pass to give away to a lucky reader, very generous! After spending a few days learning and playing around in the EdTech UNconference, I am impressed! The EdTech UN conference is a year long, 100% online all-inclusive resource to help educators learn about and use technology in an “UNintimidating” way. It is professional development that works the way you need it to. Teachers are some of the busiest people I know. We constantly work, think about our students, and strive to make ourselves and our classrooms better. The problem: because we are so busy, professional development can be an after thought or put off all together. It isn’t convenient to leave your family and travel across the country for a 4 day conference…not to mention the expense. The EdTech UNConference has a low admission fee $199.99 (or free for a lucky iLearn Technology reader), lasts 365 days, has a recording of ALL sessions, is online and on demand which means no travel, no sub plans, and no rearranging your schedule. In addition to the great sessions, EdTech UnConference will send regular email updates, twitter updates, offers a private social networking site, 500+ hours of learning programs, and online support. That is a lot of professional development for your school $$. Learn about Internet safety, technology integration through podcasting, wikis, interactive whiteboards, Microsoft Office (for both Mac and Windows), iMovie, monthly live edtech sessions, live follow-up Q&A, ongoing collaboration with other educators from around the world, your own blog (so easy it is already set up!), 2 min. edtech talks (professional development in those spare 2 min!), and printable reports of training time that you can share with your supervisor. And that is just the beginning 🙂 Presentations come from some of the best in education including Steven Anderson, Kyle Pace, Richard Byrne, Shervette Miller, Cory Plough, Adam Bellow, Kim Munoz, Steven Katz and more! If some of those names seem familiar, they probably are, a few are members of the iLearn Technology Edublogger Alliance. The kickoff session for the conference starts today, October 1. Online Professional development is amazing, it is there when you need it, available any time, and in a manner that works for your schedule. What can you learn in 365 days?

How to integrate EdTech UNconference into your classroom: The EdTech UNconference is sure to launch your classroom into the 21st century with practical professional development that you can implement into your classroom right away. One of the difficulties of a regular conference, is hearing a new idea, getting excited about it, only to have it fizzle out when you try to implement it because there is no one to talk to, no ongoing support when you hit a roadblock. Not so with the EdTech UNconference. This is professional development that you can really use. The recorded sessions mean that you can review a topic as many times as you need to. Still need some help, head over to the forum and get on demand help from other educators from around the world. How cool is that?!

How to register to win the iLearn Technology EdTech UNconference pass: There are two ways to enter to win the iLearn Technology EdTech UNconference year-long pass. 1. Tweet about why you need free professional development using the hash tag #iltUNcon or 2. Leave a comment below about how much you would love some free professional development. You have until Oct. 4, 2010. On Monday, I will put all of the entries into a Google Doc and use a random number generator to choose the winner. Good luck!

Please leave a comment to enter the EdTech UNconference contest!

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Read Me

September 27, 2010Kelly Tenkely6 Comments3300 views

What it is: Do you want your students to become deep thinkers? Read Me is an incredible set of engaging resources that will have your students thinking deeply about who they are and how learning and thinking is vital to their life. The resources have been designed to reach 11 to 14-year-old boys, to excite them about reading in and out of the classroom. I can tell you that as a girl, I am enjoying these resources just as much, I think that would be true of girls in the 11 to 14 age range as well. Read Me (by the National Schools Partnership) has created six modules that connect with students at their interest level and teach them how to be reflective, deep thinkers and learners.

This is me- covers an understanding of autobiographical texts in traditional (diary) and modern (blog) contexts. This is me includes teachers notes and presentations that will help students to explore autobiographical texts and self-expression through blogging.

Sport & me- asks students to explore sports websites and media texts by analyzing their structure and presentation. Students take on the role of a persuasive sports person and ultimately create their own report or website.

Love 4 me- helps students explore different types of love by using texts from a variety of time periods and genres (including images, short extracts, music, lyrics) as well as in Romeo and Juliet. Students engage with a range of texts that are thematically linked by love. The culminating activity here is for students to create their own chat show and to create a collage based on love. (I’m not sure if 11-14 year old boys would be into this topic…but this one will hook the girls for sure!)

Film + me- students use film trailers and titles to develop an understanding of how meaning is created through a combination of words, images, and sounds. After students have analyzed film trailers and titles, they are asked to present a novel as a trailer.

Graphics 4 me- this one is my favorite because it comes with an awesome graphic novel tool (learn about it here) Here students explore how graphic novels work and become familiar with the medium and its complexity. Students can create their own graphic novel online using this tool.

Music in me- students explore songs, their lyrics, and the impact they have on their audience. As a result, students understand how society is presented through music and the media and stereotypes and attitudes it can help to perpetuate.

How to integrate Read Me into your curriculum: There is so much learning that will happen as a result of these six modules, but at the heart of Read Me is a goal to excite kids about reading. Read Me has incredible ideas and resources for the language arts/literature/literacy classroom. Use these resources to connect your students with story, passion, and understanding of how language is used. There is something for every kid to connect with here. Each module contains teachers notes, resources, links, and tips. This is a truly incredible resource and collection for this age group. Read Me encourages students to understand, analyze, evaluate, apply, and create.

Tips: This site includes a graphic novel creator. I am writing about it separately because it deserves its own post. You can find it here.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Read Me in your classroom!

The Write-n-ator

September 15, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments12170 views

What it is: New Hampshire Public Television has created a great site based on the PBS Word Girl show. I learned about the site from a blog that I look forward to in my Google Reader every day, The Book Chook. The Write-n-ator site features video clips about words and vocabulary for students to watch; after completing the clip, students are offered a related writing challenge. The clips and challenges are all related to writing, word recognition, and vocabulary development.

How to integrate The Write-n-ator into your curriculum: The Write-n-ator highlights words and vocabulary through fun videos and writing challenges starring the PBS character Word Girl. Offer these challenges to your students as a class using a projector or interactive whiteboard. Watch the video clip and create a class response to add to the challenge. Alternately, each student can take the challenge in a writing journal. These videos and challenges make for a fun introductory activity to use as a writing warm up. They have the added benefit of introducing new words and vocabulary. There are 20 videos and challenges total, so these could be a regular feature in your class. If you have access to a computer for every student, students can complete the writing challenges online and view other students responses to the challenge.

Tips: Click on the “For Teacher” tab next to each mission for the correlated standards that each challenge meets.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using the The Write-n-ator in your classroom!