One of the most interesting parts of my job is trying out new technology and resources for my teachers. I love experimenting with different tools and finding ways to use them in lessons. I also enjoy watching my students use a new resource and make it their own.
One of the surprise hit picks this year was StoryJumper. StoryJumper is a digital storytelling website that allows you to write, illustrate and create a digital book. The site provides prompts and illustrations or allows you to create your own from scratch.
According to the website: "StoryJumper is a site that gives teachers, students, parents, and authors a fun set of intuitive tools for writing and illustrating stories. Our goal is to inspire anyone that's ever wanted to write an illustrated story to get started!"
In our cross-curricular project with ILA, Art, Media Center & Technology, 6th grade students created a retelling of the classic fairy tales. They rewrote a chosen fairy tale and illustrated each page, then scanned each illustration as a .JPG file so they could upload the pictures into StoryJumper.
Once completed, StoryJumper compiles the text and pictures into a story book, which can then be viewed or shared digitally as well as ordered in various options of paperback, hardcover or digital versions.
The kids did a fantastic job with the project - and their final books were awesome. They learned that writing and editing went hand in hand - even if it was hard work - it was well worth the end result.
Our school ordered a copy of each book for our library and we had a book signing with the students when they were delivered.
I'm sure there are a multitude of ideas and uses for this website - our students were truly engaged for this. Teachers can sign up and use it for free.
