Monday, June 27, 2005

Catching Up

I wish I was as dedicated about posting to this blog as I would like. It isn’t that I don’t have the time, it is just that there is so much else to do...

As I get ready to blog from NECC in Philadelphia, I remembered a post that I meant to do after the National School Board’s Technology, Leadership and Learning conference in Denver last October.

At that conference, which was outstanding, the thing that I was most excited to bring back to my district was an Internet reading site calledStarfall.com – http ://www.starfall.com/

This is a free site for schools and parents, and it introduces reading in a fun and interesting manner. There are printed materials that can be downloaded in PDF format or ordered online.

It is one of those sites that you need to see to believe, and then wonder how in the world it can be supported when it is available for free.

My granddaughter, who just turned three, can navigate around the ABCs part of the program. She also likes to go through some of the “extras” such as the Snowman (Ten Little Snowmen Learning to Read) and the Turkey.

Other parts of the site are “Learn to Read,” “It’s Fun to Read” and “I’m Reading.” These are applicable through the second or third grade.

This is taken from the information page on the site.
The Polis-Schutz family is dedicated to education. The Polis-Schutz family is pursuing their educational goals by proudly presenting www.starfall.com as a free on-line service to help children learn to read.
Dr. Stephen Schutz turned to the Internet and conceived a program that would be available on-line across the world for free to all children who are learning to read.
The Starfall Method promises to improve reading acquisition by using the Internet to help make it fun for the children and easy for the educators.

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