Weebly Website

This week's Monday Media Minute is a double whammy!

I wanted to show you www.Weebly.com.  Named one of TIME's 50 Best Websites, Weebly gives everyone a surprisingly easy way to create a unique site for free.  The Simpson Media Center website was created using Weebly (FYI, Weebly works best with Google Chrome).  The tool is very user-friendly and offers many easy-to-use options that can really enhance your current site.  If you choose to use Weebly to create your website, you can simply link it to our school website.  Also, you can create a website for specific projects or events.  For example, I created a Book Fair website earlier this year and linked it to the media center site.

I also wanted to share another example with you...  I am currently working on a biography research project with 1st grade.  Students chose a person, researched them with books and PebbleGo, and now we are using Blabberize to present their findings.  I was looking for a good way to showcase their work for parents and each other to see.  So, I created a Weebly for the project.  Please click the link below to check out the Weebly.  This site is a work in progress as the students complete their projects.  Notice what a cute project the Blabberize is!!!  I have already shared Blabberize with you as a Monday Media Minute, but I thought you might want to see some projects from our own students!

http://1stgradeblabberize.weebly.com/

I would be thrilled to get to work with you and/or your class using Blabberize or Weebly.  Both are exciting tools that can really get your students motivated to learn and show off their learning!

Did you know???

There are so many Web 2.0 tools that will encourage your students to
research and write by giving them a creative way to share this writing.
The most recent tool I have discovered is called Blabberize.  On this site
(www.blabberize.com), you can upload a photograph to the site, add a mouth
to the picture, and record text so that the picture moves its mouth to the
words.  It's hard to describe, so take a look at these two samples:

http://blabberize.com/view/id/1049

http://blabberize.com/view/id/1001146

Can you imagine a student sharing their animal research by having a picture
of their animal share facts about itself?  Can you imagine a student
sharing their famous American facts by having a photograph of the famous
person telling information about him or herself?  The possibilities are
endless!