If you’re a teacher, texting is the best way to comunicate with students and parents. There are many texting services out there, but my favorite is still SmashText.
SmashText is simple. If you have a Google Voice account, you can send texts to groups in your Google contacts for free.
Yes, I like SmashText — so much so, in fact, that Matthew Despain, its creator, recently added Iserotope to his website. Take a look!
See, I’m loyal! SmashText offers a lite version for free and a pro version (my recommendation) for $5.45. It’s one of the best investments that a teacher can make. If you have questions, let me know.
Check out what this elementary school is doing in Maryland (also in Iserotope Extras!):
What do you think? At the elementary school level, I think this is the way to go. Unless we carve out time to read — and to allow students to choose what to read — there won’t be enough reading.
But once students hit middle school, things get more complicated, and I value some non-reading homework, as long as it’s consistent, purposeful, and valuable. One of the biggest challenges my students face is unpredictable and scattered homework. Homework shouldn’t change every day and require different sets of academic skills.
What are your thoughts? If teachers shun conventional homework and substitute independent reading in its place, what do you think will happen? More real reading? Fake reading? Worse math skills?
Will the Common Core State Standards force English teachers to teach more nonfiction and less fiction? Will students learn less empathy because they cannot connect with characters from classic novels? Check out this report from www.npr.org.
I’m also testing the new (since Snip.it closed) Iserotope Extras, hosted by Scoop.it. (Yes, the names of these social curation sites are very similar!) Let me know what you think.
I am very excited to announce the arrival of three Kindles!
Pretty amazing, right?
Last week, I received an email from Toni of Cary, North Carolina, who filled out the Kindle donation form and who wanted to contribute her used Kindle 2 to the collection.
After a few emails back and forth, Toni wrote me to ask if it would be OK to donate a few more Kindles.
Sure! Why not?
And then, just two days later, the three new Kindles were on my stoop.
These Kindles look great.
Don’t you think?
Toni’s donation to the Kindle Classroom Project is the largest since DSW’s $1,000 contribution, and I am very, very appreciative. Thanks to Toni, there are now 28 Kindles in total, and growing!
Christmas and the holidays have come and gone, but that doesn’t mean that the momentum over at The Kindle Classroom Project is stopping anytime soon!
Here are some big updates:
1. The KCP receives its first-ever media mention. Go on over right now to Dr. Alisa Cooper’s blog FreshmanComp.com and see for yourself! I met Alisa (Twitter, Google+), an English professor and technologist in Arizona, a few years back after looking for ideas to make my classroom blog better. She’s always been helpful and patient with my questions. Now she is donating her Kindle and writing about it!
Even better: Her post has already generated 15 (update: 26) Facebook likes (more than mine ever seem to do!), and there are rumors that a few people people in her network may donate their Kindles, too. It’s pretty amazing what happens when kind people get the word out.
Interesting fact: Alisa’s Kindle will be the second #26acts donation that the KCP has received.
2. Two more Kindles this week, and there are more coming. Iris from San Diego teamed up with Donovan and Bethel, also from San Diego, to donate not one but two Kindles to the Project! That makes the total 25! Iris has been a long-time and very generous donor and an all-around wonderful friend. Thank you!
3. The Kindle library grows by three titles — now up to 183.
LeAnne from Fremont came through again this week with her second book donation from the Amazon Wishlist. This time, it’s A Girl Like Me, a very popular book among African American girls. I’m appreciative of LeAnne’s contributions because Kindles are only as good as the books that are on them. This year, I’m hopeful to make a bigger push to encourage more people to donate books to the cause so that students always have something they like to read.
4. The Kindle Classroom Project converts on Craigslist.
For the past few months, whenever someone on Craigslist has placed an ad to sell their Kindle, I have sent them an email back that reads something like this:
Hi there,
I see that you want to sell your Kindle. Would you like to donate it to my students instead?
After about 30 of these emails, and no takers, I was about to give up — until yesterday, when a kind woman from Oakland emailed me back and agreed. We’re going to be meeting in the next few days for the exchange. I think this is pretty neat.
As always: Thank you, loyal Iserotope readers and KCP promoters, for your enthusiasm and zest (one of my favorites). Let’s keep things going!
If you’re a teacher, texting is the best way to comunicate with students and parents. There are many texting services out there, but my favorite is still SmashText.
