Bring Writing Alive Part 1: Storyjumper

Storyjumper is an engaging online storybook tool that is sure to inspire your students to get creative.  The Storyjumper site allows teachers to set up free accounts and enter their students into the class using unique screen names-which are randomly assigned by the program but can be changed by the teacher to something more meaningful to the student.

To get started, head to the Storyjumper home page and click on “classroom edition” in the upper right-hand corner. The screen you see below will appear-choose “FREE Sign Up” from the bottom menu options.  Follow the steps to create an account for your class. Give your class a name that is easily recognizable to your students. Note that this is also the screen seen by students when they log-in to StoryJumper using the class ID that will be assigned to you.

Once you have created your account and named your class(es), take the time to enter each student’s name into your class.  Real names will not be shown and student information is protected through the use of the numeric class ID and the random screen names assigned to each student (which, as mentioned previously, you can change if you wish).

After a student logs-in to Storyjumper and is ready to begin creating, they are able to choose from several types of story starters or to start from scratch.  The lay-out of the storyboard is very user friendly, even for younger students.

The storyboard (1) is presented in a timeline fashion at the top of the screen and easily allows students to toggle back and forth between pages.  The default layout places artwork on even-numbered pages and text on the odd.  However, text can be added to any page through the insertion of a text box.

Props (2) are selections of clipart found on the left menu bar.  Clicking on “more props” takes the student to a menu of categories from which they can choose additional props to add to their bar.  Students may also select different scenes to use as backgrounds and can upload their own photos.

For sure, there are quite a few online story creators with a variety of features….over the next several posts, I will explore some more of these.  Additional points can be given to Storyjumper for allowing students to access the site from home.  Using their child’s unique class ID and screen name, as well as an assigned password, parents can create accounts allowing them to access their child’s work and even order hardbound copies of the finished storybook.  NOW you know why your account is free!!

Student Gmail Sub-Accounts

One of the issues with having students use applications such as Animoto or Voice Thread is that an e-mail address is needed to create an account.  A Gmail (Google Mail) account is easily obtainable for each of your students….but do you really want this?

On the Google home page, click on the Gmail tab and setting up an account for yourself is a breeze. If you use Gmail as your regular account, I reccommend that you create a new account for school use.  And even though you COULD create an account for each student,  the management of 20+ e-mail accounts is not really something you want to burden yourself with-after all, the object here is NOT for your students to send e-mails, but to enable them to have accounts with some of the applications you want to use in your classroom.

One way I recently discovered to work around this is to set up a sub-account for each student within your own Gmail account.  I could explain this to you, but I think Tony Bollino does a fantastic job walking you through the process here in his blog.

To go a step further, once you’ve got those dummy accounts linked to yours, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to use the same set-up from year to year?  By avoiding student-specific information, you can make this happen.  As you are setting up the filters that will link each student account to your own, use a naming protocol that can easily be transferred to a new group of students.

If my Gmail account was       I might simply number my dummy accounts…

and so on…

This would work quite well for me since I already number my students every year for a variety of purposes.  Another alternative would be to assign each student an animal name or other easily remembered term.

I hope you are able to use this information to make your life easier. Please leave a comment if you have questions or suggestions.

Build Your Wild Self

I absolutely LOVE this website!  At buildyour wildself.com your students will first create a character that resembles themselves by choosing boy or girl, then making changes from a selections of hair, eye, clothing styles, etc…  Then, the FUN begins!  Body parts from a varied selection of animals can be added to make a WILD version of you.

Any doubters?  Your students will be so incredibly engaged-and now we get to the really cool part!  When you are finished creating this amazing new you, click “I’m done” and you’ll get a super-long critter name based on your “parts” and specific information about special or unique abilities provided by these additions to your anatomy.

You can SAVE, PRINT, and E-MAIL your creation.  Hopefully, you can think of some very useful applications of this website in your classroom.  I think elementary students of all ages will be able to use this as a starting place for some exciting writing exercises.

When I looked at my final creation, I was reminded of the story of The Little Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. In this story, the rabbit is constantly wishing for the characteristics of other animals….to be something he’s not.  This would be a great lead-in for students to create “wild selves” and explain why they have wished for each particular animal part.  The factual information provided when students have completed their creation would also allow students to write an informational piece.  I believe this would be particularly effective for younger students who are not yet ready to do full-fledged research. So give it a try and BE WILD!

If you’ve used Build Your Wild Self, please leave a comment to let others know what you did and how it worked.

Welcome!

Today I embark on what I hope will be an adventure in learning for myself as well as others who happen across this blog.  I really tried not to become a blogger…don’t we ALL have enough demands on our time without adding that “one more thing”?  I have lost the battle, however, and my goal here is to support the use of technology in the classroom through the sharing of ideas and information in an easy format-designed to bring out the inner “techie” in just about anyone.

         So, I thought, what better way to start a new blog than to show teachers an easy way to blog with their students.  Twiducate  is a private social network.  Yes-private!  You the teacher are totally in control of who can see and particiapte in your blog.  Sign up for  free  and enter  your students’ names by choosing  the +Students tab in your menu bar running across the top of the page.  Twiducate will automatically assign a numeric password to each student.  Now, if you teach kindergarten or first grade students and don’t want them to memorize a random number, allow them to choose something meaningful that  will be remembered more easily.  Simply erase the numeric passwords, make your changes, and save.  One of the many great things about this site is that students do not need to log-in with an e-mail address (and they will not see yours!)  During your log-in process, you will choose a class code.  Choose something that will be memorable for your students…perhaps something involving your school name, school mascot, etc….  Students will only need this code and their password to successfully log-in.

On your Home tab, you’ll be able to post questions and thoughts for your students to reflect on. Share log-in information with students and parents.  If you’d like to be notified when students have responded, go to your  Profile tab and select the option for that near the bottom of the page. You may also want to disable the chat feature in this section.  Twiducate has other features, such as adding links to websites, that you may want to explore.  Don’t be afraid!  Your students will catch on very quickly and blogging will be engaging for them.  You may get more thoughtful responses than you would in the classroom setting.  If you are fortunate enough to work in a district where most of your students have Internet access at home, consider assigning a question as part of their homework that will be the lead-in for a discussion in class the next day.  This will help you make better use of precious class time and will let you hear from more of your students!