// Langwitches Blog

Using visuals to create and support stories is a skill we should encourage and nurture in our students . It should be obvious by now that I consider storytelling an integral part of a teacher’s toolbox. You can read about the Need for Storytelling and Why Storytelling Can/Should Be Anywhere/Everywhere and will understand why storytelling [...]

After the success of Skyping in Author and illustrator Mike Artell (from Louisiana) into our sixth grade classes this past February, the fifth grade classes had the opportunity to visit with Jan and Phil Huling (from New Jersey).

The Hulings are the author and illustrator of “Puss in Cowboy Boots”, a remake of the traditional fairy [...]

I watched this recording from one of Alvin Trusty’s presentations and thought it was well worth sharing.
He gives great ideas and logistical how-to in order to create better PowerPoints. Here are some techniques and points I will want to experiment and consider further:

motion path
animation grow/shrink
graying out items on list
“fade smoothly” transition
cropping images within PowerPoint
contrast/repetition/alignment/proximity

At the [...]

I checked out PhotoPeach.
Our idea is to help users tell better stories online using photos. Our inspiration for this service came from enjoying sharing photos with friends in real life.
You can create a rich slideshow in seconds to engage your friends or family in a natural way. This is done by allowing two-way commenting right [...]

Piclits came to my attention via Kevin Jarrett’s amazing NCS-Tech blog.
PicLits.com is a creative writing site that matches beautiful images with carefully selected keywords in order to inspire you. The object is to put the right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence, story, [...]

My grandfather, Siegfried Rosenthal, never spoke to me about his experiences the night of November 9th, 1938, Kristallnacht. The night that the SS came to his door and arrested him in front of his seven year old son and pregnant wife for simply being a Jew and taken to a Concentration camp. He did write [...]

Today is 9-11, yes, the 9th of November, as the date is written in German (first the day, then the month).
Today, 70 years ago, is remembered as the Kristallnacht, or the night of the broken glass. It is the day  the Nazis orchestrated open attacks on Jewish individuals, property, and businesses. It was the night [...]

A picture is worth a thousand words… A thousand words can tell a story…
Using words as a visual give a different impression than text alone. Visuals can allow us to “see” a concept or, a relationship that text alone might not make apparent. It can tell a visual story of words, keywords, thoughts, text, and [...]

Fourth Graders in our school study the state of Florida and “Explorers”. Traditionally they would research and create a written book report.

THIS YEAR…
The social studies teachers assigned one explorer to a group of 3 students. They did their research in the Media Center from a wide variety of sources.

The teacher created an account with [...]

In the middle of the school day, I received the e-mail with the news that one of my favorite tools, VoiceThread , has added a new service:
The ability to download a VoiceThread
as a widescreen movie, this version of a VoiceThread will play offline, stored on your computer, iPod or other portable device and can be [...]