Voki

March is not my favorite month.

I'm tired. The kids are tired. And this year, Old Man Winter decided to have a sunny disposition. No snow days. Not one. So, to make the sprint to Spring Break a little more...I don't know, fun maybe - here's a way to incorporate technology with langugae skills.

Meet Voki.

Voki is a way for you and your students to make a speaking avatar. An avatar is an animated online character. You can customize the way your avatar looks and what it says - and use your own voice to make him, her, or it come to life. Using Voki (which is free, unless you choose to sign up for a Voki Classroom account) you can embed your creations into your classroom website or wiki to showcase your students' creations or to add a friendly message or directions for an online activity.

Which leads me to how you can use Voki to add a punch to your instruction. Kids LOVE to "play" with Voki to make characters that resemble themselves or other crazy critters. They can also record a 60 second message for their avatar to say. Why not make an assignment out of this? Students can create an avatar for a book character and write a short script for their person to "say." They could introduce themselves by turning themselves into an avatar to post to your classroom website or wiki - or have their avatars recite poetry they have written in class! Students could research a person in history and create a Voki to share what they learned. While the fun factor is sky-high on Voki, the opportunity to improve writing and speaking skills is through the stratosphere. My students start to quickly see the correlation between the written and spoken word when they go to create their Voki critters. It's also good for applying summarizing skills, as 60 seconds isn't long to get your point across! The Voki website also has a lesson plan section that can be accessed by teachers for more ideas on how to "embed" avatars into the classroom.

Tip: You can create one account for your students to use if you don't want to subscribe to Voki Classroom (I don't). That way, you can still save their avatars if you want. Or, just have students log on to the Voki site, create their avatar, and embed it to a wiki or other online space you use in your classroom. It won't be "saved," but it will be viewable.

Try playing around with Voki yourself! Maybe you will find a way to add it to one of your assignments before the end of the year!

http://www.voki.com/

Grant Writing Tips #11 and #12

Whoo-hoo! You now have twelve terriffic tips to write a stand-out grant!

#11 Follow through – or don’t bother.
If you write a grant, it’s your “baby.” You can’t pass the buck and expect someone else to complete it for you because you get busy or frustrated. When you are awarded funds, you are developing a business partnership. How you conduct yourself will influence if you or others receive funding in the future. So order your materials, write your thank you letters (sending pictures of your grant in action is also a nice touch), complete the project, and send in the final report (if one is required). In other words, be a professional.

#12 If at first you don’t succeed…
Sometimes the path to having an idea funded is like a long, winding road. It’s not the end of the world. Many times it just comes down to too many people applying for too few funds. Take a look at what you wrote. There may be a better funding source for your grant, or maybe you need to revise how you presented your project. Everything gets better with time and practice – if you want it enough!

Grant Writing Tips #9 and #10

We are nearing the end of my grant writing tip series! Only two more to go after today! Don't worry, I've got another "set" of Sunday posts that I will start in a few weeks. Until then...

# 9 Negatives are your positives!

Securing funding isn't just about getting "stuff;" it's about making improvements. Don’t forget about your demographics and test data. Many grants request the demographic information for your school and/or classroom. Emphasize in your application how a particular demographic
benefits through your project (example: low socio-economic, status high special education population, etc.). If there is the potential to bring up a weak academic area as evidenced through test scores, include that, too. Make your statistics work for you!

#10 Measure up.
Even if it doesn’t ask for it, you should express in your grant application how you are going to monitor student progress. It shows your commitment to your project and its potential effectiveness. In the long run, it will help you write future grants and utilize resources in your classroom if you have the mindset that you will observe for the effectiveness of your project. What specifically are the desired outcomes? How will you know that your project was successful? State how you will know your goals have been met through your project.

Digital Wish: Flip Video Camera for $24.95

This is the mother of all good deals.

Flip Camcorders are fabulous little devices, are they not? Easy to record with, nice built-in software to put clips together to make a little movie, and completely kid-friendly. I can always hand my Flip over to one of my students to record a project with (almost) complete confidence there will not be any snafus. WHY ON EARTH they decided to stop making these gizmos is beyond me, because they are a teacher's dream to use for capturing your classroom moments and producing student projects. I'm all about the iPad/iPod-mania, but those are going to be expensive and sought after for quite a while. Taking pictures and video is a great skill for students to develop and utilize to show what they have learned, and it's nice when there's a economical way of making it happen.

However, for a very short time (because, like I said this is the mother of all good deals) teachers can get a Flip Video Camcorder through Digital Wish for $24.95! Yes, Digital Wish is touting this as a FREE Flip Cam, but there is a processing fee of $24.95 so I am calling it as I see it. It's a chance to get a video camera for your classroom really cheap. If you want to secure a easy to use piece of technology for your classroom, now is the time to jump on this deal. Even though they are going to stop making Flips, you can still record with them and use the installed software for movie making. Totally worth it and the price is definately right. There is a limit of one Flip per classroom for this offer.

And yes, this offer is completely legit. Digital Wish is a fantastic organziation that I have received grants and special offers through in the past. In fact, check out their website for what's coming down the pike in the way of grants and contests, because there are several things with a deadline of March 15th! Their products and software are made for the classroom. Usually their grants involve writing a lesson or unit plan stating how you plan to you the technology you are applying for in your classroom. In order to purchase the Flip Camcorder, apply for grants, or set up a wish list, you will need to register an account (it's free, no worries) to "prove" that you are indeed a savvy, technology seeking teacher.

Hope this added some zip to the end of your week! And since this isn't what I was planning on posting (I just HAD to share this though), come back for more techKNOW very soon!

http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/product?id=112550

http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/home

UPDATE: My (HD even!) Flip Cam arrived exactly one week after I ordered it! Can't wait to get it charged and put it to good use!