ZooBurst (Create an Online Pop-up Book)

Have you tried Zooburst? If not, try it out! I think your students will love this tool! ZooBurst is a digital storytelling tool that lets anyone easily create his or her own 3D pop-up books.
Below is a sample book that I created in about 10 minutes to show what I did this summer. You can search for graphics to include in your book, which really helps save time. Each page can have text and you can make the characters (or clipart) have text on the free account or record your voice for a character (or clipart) on the paid account
There is a premium account, but the free account allows you to create 10 free books with 10 pages each, upload your own artwork or jpgs,  and more. For $50 a year, you can create student accounts (you create their user name and password, so it doesn't look like the students need an email address to use this site if you purchase the upgrade.) Check out the features for all account types here. A school license is coming soon that is $30 with a minimum of 5 accounts purchased.
Check out ZooBurst and see if you can create a book to introduce a unit, a story, or tell students all about you! The possibilities are endless! You can even sign up for the free account and let your students create a book using your login. If you create one, feel free to post the link to it in the comment section below.
One more plus, you can control if the book is public or private and they can easily be embedded into a class website or blog!
Happy ZooBursting!

Free Online Conference-Jan. 8th

		Just wanted to let everyone know of an online conference  on January 8th that you may be interested in checking out. It's the Reform Symposium.  http://reformsymposium.com/ Here is a description: This year the conference will focus on interactive presentations that help teachers with creating engaging classrooms and lessons, building relationships with students, improving literacy, working with interactive whiteboards, and much more!  We look forward to 2 keynote speakers, 18 presentations, an open discussion on classroom management, a panel discussion on parental engagement, a mentor program, and an open lab for hands-on support in helping you continue your professional development in online educator communities. Here is the schedule (choose your time zone): http://reformsymposium.com/january-8th-schedule-of-presenters/ Lots of the sessions look great! If you have some time Saturday, check it out! Have a great weekend!

Great blog post with MLK Sites

I saw this on twitter and wanted to post it in case anyone was looking for sites for Martin Luther King day. This is a blog post by Larry Ferlazzo. It has a lot of sites that you may want to look at to use for studying about Dr. King and his life.

Calendar Activities

This is a neat site I ran across today with calendar activities for classroom use.

It's by ReadWriteThink, which it you haven't checked out their site, I recommend giving it some time!

Here is the description from the calendar activities site:
Not your everyday calendar, here you can find important events in literary history, authors' birthdays, and a variety of holidays, all with related activities and resources that make them more relevant to students. View by day, by week, or by month.

This could be used to share a fact each day with your students or have a student research the site on interesting things that happened during the week in history to "report" back to the class. Students could also research things that happen on their birthday.

Have other ideas on using this site? Post a comment so everyone can benefit! :)

A Smilebox Card for Christmas?

This year (for the 3rd year in a row), we are going green and emailing our Christmas card to our friends and family. You may ask Why? Well, several reasons...first, most Christmas cards are hung up for the holiday season, then thrown out. So, we're helping the environment. Second, saving on money. Rather than pay for the cost of printing a card and postage, we are sending it by email or Facebook to everyone we want to share it with, rather than limiting it to a number of friends and family due to budgeting costs.
So, help the environment, save some $$, and send your Christmas (or any other season for that matter) using Smilebox. If you are an educator, you can request a free premium account that will remove any ads. It's good for one year and you just have to renew it for free each year.
Smilebox also has invitations, scrapbook pages, thank yous, announcements, newsletters, calendars, and more!!!
Here is our card for this year if you are wondering what Smilebox is all about...

Create your own free digital ecard

Christmas Activities Including Technology

I've been collecting ideas over Twitter and saving them to my Diigo account for the Christmas holiday. Today's blog post is to share just a few of those sites to you to use with your students this holiday season. Click the word Diigo above to see more than what is listed below.

The first is Pleasant Grove's Christmas Around the World site. This site has Scavenger Hunts for students to complete with their computers. It really is a great way for kids to learn more about the holiday season in different parts of the world. 


Another site is an Interactive Christmas card that students may enjoy on the SmartBoard.  Thanks to @ambercoggin for sharing this site!!! Amber also has a post on Rudolph is Missing that is great for the SmartBoard.

Here is a blog post from Lauren Grossberg showcasing 4 sites for kids with holiday cheer! 


Here's a blog post on Great Websites for Christmas Activities by Kevin Cummins.


Those should be a great start! Have fun and I know your students will love the interaction and holiday cheer!!

Spelling and Vocabulary Site

This FREE site by Houghton Mifflin is a great one even if you use another resource for Spelling and Vocabulary. Students can choose their grade level ranging from 1st-6th grades. There are various activities for students to participate in to review spelling, proof-reading, and vocabulary.

The activities use Flash and allow students to play online. Activities include a crossword game, word find, word builder, word sort, proofreading, web tales, and more.

Students choose their grade level then select a unit for most activities. There are a ton to choose from so your students can visit this site often and still have new information to study and review!

I would add this bookmark to your site or student laptops/computers and also send it home to inform parents of a great site to help their child review spelling and vocabulary. Your students will have fun and won't even realize how much they are learning! :)