Screenchomp!

I am currently working on stories of cells with a science teacher. We decided to use screenchomp http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/screenchomp/id442415881?mt=8 because of its simplicity and we have a cart of ipads. The students are going to use an image and then write on the pic and narrate their stories. I will share an example of the final product when we are done. Any other ideas of how you could use screenchomp or the similar jing http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html?gclid=CPzmmOfT5K0CFWnatgodExIzYQ as a storyteller?

Sssh! I am reading

It can be very difficult to motivate students to read. I am so excited about an event this week at my school. We use the Louisiana Young Readers Choice books http://www.state.lib.la.us/literacy-and-reading/louisiana-young-readers-choice for our summer reading. Every year students vote for their favorite book and the yearly winners are selected from student votes. This year we scheduled the election voting booths to come to our school for our voting purposes. We will have 4 booths for 2 hours for voting. We will be able to get our school data which the the math department will be using to create predictions and graphs. The fine arts classes are creating campaign posters so it has because more than just booths to vote. All month we have been encouraging our students to read some of the books before the booths show up. I checked out 5 of the books Friday so it has been so successful. I will share the results after this week.

What are you doing in your school to encourage reading?