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"Literacy is changing. It really is. Even in my grade one classroom as the students begin to learn their letters and sounds, as they start to put those letters and sounds together into words, and as they take their first hesitant steps to read and write. The change in our classroom was subtle at first. When my students began writing the word we with two i's, I smiled and talked about the more traditional spelling of the word. When students came to school with a clear understanding of what it meant to get to the next level or to have several lives, I took notice of the new vocabulary they had."

"Teachers have known forever that happy, engaged students are better learners - especially when it comes to tough material. And learning how to spell is so hard for many kids."

This morning I received an email from a reader who was looking for some recommendations for websites that her students can use to learn and practice new vocabulary words. I have made a couple of lists on this topic in the past but it's been a while since I updated them and a couple of the items in those lists have gone offline. Therefore, I put together a new list of the websites that I recommend.

An interesting poster for book choosing using a method called IPICK I choose my book (What do I want to read?) Purpose (Why do I want to read this book?) Interest (Does this book interest me?) Comprehend (Do I understand what I am reading?) Know (Do I know most of the words I read?) 

Music. Like good literature, it comforts the disturbed; disturbs the comfortable and gives voice to the secrets of the heart. Yet a single plaintive note, a whisper of a melody, goes where the boots of words can no longer tread.

The free version of Voki.com lets you create colorful characters who can replay your voice recordings or convert text to speech in a variety accents. These characters are easy to place on blogs and websites, and they each have their own unique URL. It's possible to save the characters you create as HTML code in a text editor like Notepad or Word, but it's easier and more convenient to save them directly on Voki.com using a free account. This could be a great shared literacy exercise.

Type in a short message with letters and numbers, and your students can plot the points to reveal it in the grid. You can make this message anything you like, for example, "TRAVIS LOVES GEOMETRY". The best plotting exercises seem to come from messages which are three to seven words in length.

Parental Controls, also known as Restrictions, allow you to set what your children can and can't access on an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. With Parental Controls, you can lock out Safari, Camera, FaceTime, Siri, AirDrop, CarPlay, the iTunes, iBooks, Podcasts, or App Stores (including in-app purchases), as well as content by age rating, and the ability to make changes to accounts and other app settings. In other words, they're a way to block your child's access to anything and everything you deem inappropriate for them based on their age and sensitivity, and your own best judgement. And they're part of what make Apple devices an ideal computing platform for kids!