Technology in Education: Notes from the Closet

Update! Back in May 2013 I used  Teach Your Monster to Read  with a group of two kindergarten classrooms. The program was a success and I blogged about the ease of use for educators and the enjoyment of the students involved ( see original post ).  Since then I have relocated to a new school within my district and have had the opportunity to introduce the program to eight classrooms at the kindergarten and first grade levels.  The response has been overwhelmingly positive!  Many features of this program have remained the same as written in my post below but there have been some additional updates that have made the product even better. The Same (but still fantastic) Game 1: First Steps  is focused on helping students develop speed and accuracy of letter recognition. The game contains 8 islands each with 4 graphemes to focus on.  Students practice these sounds in different game settings and the islands of sounds must be completed in ...

Original Post (see my updated post here ) I’m always on the lookout for great sites to use with students, especially the little ones.  Our students have never had “formal” technology classes and the kindergarten students had never even entered the lab.  Finding sites that are age appropriate and educational can be challenging.  “ Teach Your Monster to Read ” is a site I stumbled upon one day here .  This site, based out of the U.K. teaches beginning readers about sound and letter matching as well as blending sounds together to form words.  It uses the context of monsters going on an adventure to different magical islands (eight islands in all).  On each island there are four mini lessons that works on accuracy and speed of letter recognition. Students must complete the game sequentially.  When logged off the next time they log back in the program remembers where they were previously so they don’t have to start over.  One of the best feat...