It is my goal to update this blog once a week during the school year. Sometimes I feel like Jean Ann and I are overflowing with information. Other weeks...crickets...*chirp chirp chirp*. That is how I felt last week. So, I didn't do an update, and planned on an AWESOME one for this week to make up for it. Then, at a board meeting this weekend for the Illinois Reading Council, author Seymour Simon and his wife Liz Nealon spoke to us about their new project StarWalk Kids Media.
Now, Seymour is a noted non-fiction Children's author. His books are beautiful, filled with outstanding pictures, rich text, and even make me excited about topics I would normally force myself to read or teach. His wife is a former producer of Sesame Street and MTV (back when it was cool). Seymour joked that she was way over qualified to help out with this project so the only way he could get her involved was to marry her! So, when you put them together with other greats in the education world you get a great website.
Now, Seymour is a noted non-fiction Children's author. His books are beautiful, filled with outstanding pictures, rich text, and even make me excited about topics I would normally force myself to read or teach. His wife is a former producer of Sesame Street and MTV (back when it was cool). Seymour joked that she was way over qualified to help out with this project so the only way he could get her involved was to marry her! So, when you put them together with other greats in the education world you get a great website.
StarWalk Kids Media is a website which allows teachers to access to interactive ebooks based on topic and reading level.
For each book the site also offers lesson plans, linked to common core developed by guru's in the field like Linda Hoyt. (If you've done any reading coursework in the last decade you will have a book written by her in your stack)
Liz gave us a demo of how the site works, it seemed simple to navigate and easy to implement into a classroom. She answered questions and continued to take suggestions.
So, check out the website, http://www.starwalkkids.com/index.php, sign up for the free trial, and have some fun with StarWalk Kids!
Dear Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for making StarWalk Kids Media eBook platform the subject of your blog post this week!
We were very pleased to be able to demonstrate our StarWalk Reader software, which is designed with lots of features for educators, but is completely intuitive for kids to use (as you saw in the little video demo from Meriden!). We publish exclusive eBooks by many great authors - starting with more than 50 books by Seymour Simon, but also Johanna Hurwitz, Kathryn Lasky, Doreen Rappaport, Hudson Talbott, Jim Arnosky, Caroline Arnold, Jennifer Owings Dewey, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, Caldecott winner Emily Arnold McCully, and more.
As you noted, we also provide rich Common Core support for all our books via a "Teaching Links" format designed by Linda Hoyt.
I hope you don't mind if I post a link where people can sign up for a free, 30-day trial: http://www.starwalkkids.com/about-us/contact-us.html
Our aim is to provide an affordable collection of digital content of the highest quality, supporting all of you in building 21st century literacy skills.
Thanks again for hosting us this weekend - it was a pleasure to spend a day with the leaders of the IRC!
Liz Nealon
Publisher, StarWalk Kids Media
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!
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