As you know I am at the Illinois Computing Educator's Conference in St. Charles, IL Tuesday through Friday. I will be presenting with Rob and Julie on our collaboration around The Dot.
In preparing for our presentation this Friday, we came across a quote that we think encapsulates much of what we as teachers believe deep in our being.
“When technology become invisible in a school, learning becomes the focus. That should always be our goal, regardless of the tools we use to get there.”
-Chris Lehman
It is with this in mind that I want to recommend a couple of excellent resources that I hope will be valuable to you:
Technology is great-especialy when it works and helps us. I have written about The Scholastic Book Wizard and What Should I Read Next, but I would like to refresh my instructions about The Book Wizard.
Two phenomenal resources are available for helping you and your children choose great books. One of the most reliable is the Scholastic Book Wizard. It allows you to search for books by reading level and by similar titles. Simply put in a book you love and it will give you several choices of other books that are similar in reading level and content.
The second source is Your Next Read This site is geared towards slightly older readers, but works exactly the same. Put in a book you love and it will give you a myriad of suggestions that are similar in difficulty and style. The thing I really like about this site is that it gives you a grid of similar books. If you sign in, you can save your selections to your own lists, share in a variety of ways, etc.
Here is a link to the site:
http://www.yournextread.com/us/#
These two links are terrific for both students and parents to use to find that ‘next’ amazing book! Give these two sites a try today!
As always, if you have any suggestions to share with your colleagues, please feel free to share them with me!
