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A wonderful story site for younger children where the readers play a platform game with Rex the dinosaur to follow the storyline. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English

The edublog award nominations are open. This award meant a lot to me when it helped me find so many great blogs for my RSS reader and then, somehow people found me too. Take time to make your nominations of your favorites. Here's how.

I was recording a session with Sue Waters tonight about the Edublog Awards and she mentioned this post from Joyce Seitzinger about why the edublog awards matter and I wanted to share it. While many pundits and critics arise and say negative things any time an awards program happens, I think that the Edublog Awards matters because it helps find new voices. Voting will open soon but realize that if anyone nominates you -- it is an honor. Take the time to go through the finalists, add them to your RSS reader and your Twitter account. Take a read at this great post to know why the edublog awards do matter... thank you Joyce for a lovely, compelling post (and some great nominations.)

Mia MacMeekin makes amazing infographics and so much more. She's worth following on Twitter and you definitely want to add her to your RSS Reader -- she's been making infographics for a while and some of her recent ones are awesome (and some older ones - admittedly, I need to go through all of them.) Thought you'd want to know about her to follow her - she's @MiaMacMeekin on Twitter.

I noticed that Wikispaces included Dogo books under a new "Education" category in the widget menu. (This looks like a television on the edit bar when you click to Edit a wiki.) So, Dogobooks is a place where kids ar writing book reviews about everything. Very cool. You can see the most popular books and ti also has book clubs and other ways for kids to connect. This is a very cool site for helping kids love learning and may also augment Accelerated Reader programs nicely.

This looks like a very cool English game that uses all kinds of shows to teach. Thinking that ESL teachers will want to test this one out. Mau Butler send me this message about this new site: Hello Vicki, I've been an ESL teacher for 20 years, in several countries, and a reader of your coolcatteacher blog for a while. Congratulations. You do excellent work. :) For the past 3 years, I've been building a very innovative approach to teaching and learning English, which is now ready to use. Considering your work, I thought you'd be interested in trying it out. It's called Tripppin and I strongly recommend you see it for yourself on www.tripppin.com but this is us in a nutshell: "Tripppin is an English practice platform, which blends offline and online learning experiences into a game, a music channel, cooking shows, animation, entertaining videos shot around the world, and excellent support for English teachers everywhere." Hope you can have a look :) Thank you.

A letter which attempts to persuade the reader to write their own persuasive letter, and which highlights some of the main points to include.

Online books separated into genres and then age groups

Developed by James Patterson, this useful site helps the reluctant reader find the next best read.

Right now, the iPad is being hailed as the best mobile device for the blind because it has voice enabled navigation. This article discusses the iPad, the Kindle and accessibility issues and information on both.

Hi Vicki thanks I've been really thinking about these readers for aged in nurse homes say with cams so they can speak to each other in own rooms and across dining tables etc there's a huge need for easy use large print readers easy browse easy communicate tool for elderly I cannot understand why this isn't discussed more?! Studies show 50% aged in care depressed. I worked in that area and can say huge needs there.....

Great article that every parent should read. Good practical thinking and tips. Love the parallel to the ball field.

What is your life as a reader like? Do you read for work, pleasure, instructions or emails? What is your favorite author and/or genre? What is your favorite reading spot? What did you like to read when you were the age of your students?

Featured Post Scholastic's The First Thanksgiving What it is: Scholastic has amazing resources all year long but the interactive on The First Thanksgiving is topnotch!  Students learn about how the Pilgrims reached America, and what daily life was before the First Thanksgiving.  Students can take a tour of the Mayflower, take the virtual journey to America, compare and contrast modern life with when the Pilgrims lived (housing, clothes, food, chores, school, games), and the Thanksgiving feast.  There is a great slideshow and play a webquest feature where kids can learn more about the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag and the famous harvest feast.  The site includes audio for every page and activity.  This is great for younger students. How to integrate Scholastic's The First Thanksgiving into the classroom: The First Thanksgiving is a collection of great activities for students to learn about Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims.  Students can use this site independently as young as first grade because of the audio features on The First Thanksgiving.  The site can be used as a center activity that a few students can explore together, independently in the computer lab setting, or as a whole class with a projector or interactive whiteboard.  The webquest at the end of the activity checks for student understanding with a quiz.  Increase students participation further with some The First Thanksgiving bonus features and extras.  Print out a Thanksgiving Readers theater, door signs, a fact hunt, a vocabulary quiz, and some letters from historical figures.  There are also research and historical fiction journals that students can continue learning with.  These range from a Plymoth Colony research starter to Our America: Colonial period. Tips: Check out Scholastic's Teaching resources for The First Thanksgiving as well as the literature connections that are available. Leave a comment and share how you are using The First Thanksgiving  in your classroom. Read More

Participants in today's Parent Coffee Talk will create a Google Account and sign into Google Reader. A great school blog. Also see: Grade 2 video blog tutorial for parents http://www.mjgds.org/21stcenturylearning/?p=445

Place to share and look at education news

It is called "mathetude" - however, this digg-like aggregator for technology and education is fascinating with readers giving "apples" to the news stories. I've enjoyed browsing through what they have in this repository of current news.

Fascinating way to create virtual servers.

This software lets you take one host PC server and this lets you virtualize servers. In Walton County - have 100 servers and 60 are virtual. All independent and have their own IP address and appear completely independent -- they have 6 blade servers. This does cost money. This would let me move the Accelerated Reader and Accounting system to separate "virtual servers" and if one needed to reboot, I could reboot a "virtual server" and not the physical server. This is from an expert IT - Jack Higgins, Network Analyst - Walton County schools in Atlanta, GA -- met by accident in the Atlanta airport. A lot of these bookmarks are from him!

Mobile Apps to replace Jott's functionality.

A reader named Liesl send in this great article from LifeHacker about the alternatives to Jott. Actually, after reading this, there really isn't an alternative to Jott without a lot of elbow grease. I may be coughing up the $3.95 a month. I just really use it. However, I'm going to email them. I NEED A FAMILY PLAN! I have my children using Jott on their cell phones but they use it very infrequently. I should be able to have some sort of family plan for our situation.

Congress has authorized a new federal research center that will be charged with helping to develop innovative ways to use digital technology at schools and in universities. The National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies was included as part of the latest reauthorization Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader of the Higher Education Act, approved last month. President Bush signed the law on Aug. 14. The center will be charged with supporting research and development of new education technologies, including internet-based technologies. It will also help adapt techniques already widely used in other sectors, such as advertising and the military, to classroom instruction.

Using technology to enliven books and rejuvenate readers