Top Techy Tools for Terrific Teachers

I’ve just got to share this. I was working in a school this week and I had to switch to a plan B, then a plan C. I won’t bore you with the details but plan C was to do some writing using Storybird.com .

It’s one of those things I’be been meaning to use for ages and just never got round to doing. Sometimes it’s the times when something goes wrong and you have to change a lesson when you have areal gem of an experience. This was one of those occasions. If you’ve never heard of it Storybird is a free, online tool that allows you to create professional looking picture books using artwork supplied by the site. You can even buy the finished book if you want to.

The class I was working with had themed their work around pirates so I decided to get them to write short stories around this topic.

It was so easy to set up and the children could start to create story books that looed really professuional. The site worked without any hitches or hiccups. The children had never used it before. Within a few minutes they were creating some great stories, focussing totally on the quality of their writing and not on learning new technology. It was clear their teacher, Miss Wood, had done a brilliant job of teaching them how to write a story. Iwas astounded by how focussed they were. A hour passed, hardly anyone even looked up. This class was definietly in ‘the zone.’ At the end of the session the teacher finished the activity. This was when some boys asked if they could carry on writing.

You can set up a storybird for your class giving each pupil their own unique login, or try to water first with a generic class username and password and take it from there. Give it a go, your pupils will love it, so will you.