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!

Grant Writing Tips #7 and #8

I've been a little under the weather this past week, but I thought I'd at least keep up with my weekly grant tips. Look for more goodies later this week!

#7 Follow the directions. Seriously.

One way grants are sifted through is by eliminating those who didn’t heed the instructions. Alway read and follow the fine print, down to font size and margins. Your grant application is like a job application. If you don’t follow the word limit, include the required information, or meet the deadline, it’s already over. You’ve shown you don’t really want the “job.” If you have questions about how to complete the grant, there is usually an e-mail or phone number listed for you to contact for information. Better to be safe than sorry in the end.

#8 Grammar and spelling count. Word choice does, too.

Whatever you do, check your work before you turn it in. Nobody likes to read through a paper that’s a minefield of mechanical errors (not even you, teacher). The appearance of your grant application is just another way of showing you do or don't care. Nobody really wants to read something that goes over his or her head, either. Don’t use “big words” in attempt to impress the reader. After all it’s a grant application, not a college essay. Just be your best self, and you may be surprised at the outcome.

APP Time: Nth Fusion Science Apps

So this time, I couldn't just pick one!

It's nice to have some "easy" apps available to students just to review information and reinforce vocabulary. Nth Fusion creates several apps that are engaging and "to-the-point," and my three favorite ones for science have become Landforms, Body Organs, and Life Cycle. They are science, pure and simple - no frills, no super cool interactive features, but for $0.99 each they are great ways to incorporate science and reading skills. Each of these three apps resembles an "e-book" with the way students turn the "page" to the next section. All of these apps have a voice (which sounds like your average teacher, not a computerized person) that reads and explains the information to the student. I love the idea of using my iPad as an e-reader, but not the cost of some of the books on iTunes. So the fact that these apps "read" to the student is a real plus.

Landforms covers every square inch of the earth, both land and water. It is excellent review for a geography and/or geology unit. The students learn definitions and different variations of landforms - I didn't even know there were that many variations of a waterfall (but I do now!). Each section has a quiz, or a "Think and Verify" part where the students can quiz themselves on what they have learned. Some of my students get confused and think the app is "broken" at this point because they want to touch the answer on the screen to see if they are correct. To see if they chose the correct answer, they have to go to the next page.

Body Organs explains the major organs and also includes a section on cells. Each section discusses the parts and purpose or the organ, location in the body, cool facts, and ways to keep that organ healthy. I like the research section on this app (it poses questions for the students to go on their own and find out), but I think the students like the "quiz" part of the Landforms app better. The diagrams of all the body organs are great!

Life Cycle is a bit deceiving in its name, because it includes much more than just, well, life cycles! In addition to the life cycles of a frog, ladybug, butterfly, and plants, there are also the phases of the moon, pollination, rock cycle, nitrogen and oxygen cycles, photosynthesis... whew! I think that's all of them. It's great review and has wonderful diagrams (the nitrogren and oxygen cycles are a bit of a snooze but oh, well). Each cycle just starts over from the beginning with no review or research section.

These apps could be used with primary and intermediate level students. The content and vocabulary may go over the head of primary grades, although higher level student would probably enjoy the challenge of it. If you have a VGA adapter for you iPad, these would be great to share with the class on an LCD projector to review before standardized testing - or any time you need a science break!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/landforms/id474104965?mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/body-organs-4-kids/id434151042?mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a-life-cycle-app/id394578286?mt=8

Grant Writing Tips #5 and #6

We're halfway there!

#5 Avoid using “filler words.”
I consider any word that can be left out and still maintain the flow of your writing a filler word. Fillers are fluff, the adult version of adding "I hope you liked my story" or "The end" to your essays in grade school. They are little, repetitive words that distract a reader from the purpose of your grant.

For example: the word “will” takes up a lot of space, especially if you have a word limit for your application. You will find yourself using "will" over and over and over...because your project hasn't happend yet. The solution: write your grant in the present tense and the reader can better visualize your project in action. Personally, I think it makes it sound like you have a better vision for your project. Another good word to leave out as much as possible: that. That takes up a lot of room, too. I'm also not too fond of "also."

#6 It’s all about the money. Budget wisely and sensibly.
Just because you can write a grant for up to $10,000 doesn’t mean you should. Those awarding grants want to spread their funds as much as possible. Think of your goals. While many projects do warrant great expenditures to make an idea a reality, keep in mind the materials you request should adequately and appropriately fulfill the intent of your project. Do your research so you can include the best prices for the requested materials. You need to be exact when you get to that all-important page where you need to list your materials and quantity. Remember to include any other extras that may be necessary to get your project off the ground, such as batteries or bulbs. Not that I know anything about having to make a last minute run to get a pack or two of Energizers (cough, cough).

Another good rule of thumb: break it up. Write grants for smaller amounts of money and fewer materials at a time to gradually build up to a large scale project. My personal opinion is that a well-written grant with a lower dollar figure stands a better chance than an over-the-top project that isn't clearly expressed - but that's just me.