Booktrack Classroom

• Explore excerpt of “The Great Gatsby”. 
• Edit the ‘heartbeat’ and ‘kiss’- illustrating the ease of the program.
• Create one in front of the class based on a prompt that we work on together. 
• “As I sat on the old wooden bench I noticed much around me.” 
• Use concrete detail to describe the setting here. 
• What do you hear? What do you see? What do you smell? 
• What does it feel like? 
• Booktrack Classroom could be used in the classroom in the following ways: 
• Reading Books From the Booktrack Library: 
• Students who have a hard time “tuning out” outside noise would be able to fully engage in the reading process without distractions. 
• While reading and listening to the sounds and music the student would become part of the story, assisting in reading comprehension. 
• Student will become user friendly with technology and digital tools. 
• Creating a Booktrack audio book: 
• Student will connect with the storyline in an intimate way. Encouraging reading comprehension. 
• Student will learn and recognize the multiple literary devices. 
• Student will utilize knowledge of the following literary devices to enhance the richness of the story by adding sounds and music. 
• Plot: It is the logical sequence of events that develops a story. 
• Setting: It refers to the time and place in which a story takes place. 
• Protagonist: It is the main character of story, novel or a play e.g. Hamlet in the play Hamlet 
• Antagonist: It is the character in conflict with the Protagonist e.g. Claudius in the play Hamlet 
• Narrator: A person who tells the story. 
• Narrative method: The manner in which a narrative is presented comprising plot and setting. 
• Dialogue: Where characters of a narrative speak to one another. 
• Conflict. It is an issue in a narrative around which the whole story revolves. 
• Mood: A general atmosphere of a narrative. 
• Theme: It is central idea or concept of a story. 

(http://literarydevices.net/)

• Creating a Booktrack audio book with students own story. 
• Student will practice previous skills learned to create a their own Booktrack from their story, This will encourage: 
• confidence 
• communication skills 
• presentation skills 
• digital literacy skills 
• and much more. 

This easy to use technology is on point by keeping up with the needs of today's classroom and students. Booktrack classroom is available for: teacher, student, and parent. This allows us, the educator, to connect with the student on a different level. By having this technology available to so many different platforms it is virtually available at most times. The student on summer vacation could read along to “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” while the student who has to babysit their younger siblings could read along to “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” while enjoying a snack. The availability of Booktrack allows the student a different level of engaging with a story as well as their own imagination.

Google Goodness!

        I'm not sure where on the list of my overdue blog posts this would fit into BUT I must give a HUGE shout-out to everything Google. I've been without my Chromebook for the past week and I've felt unattached and lost without it. I depend on my laptop for everything: homework, research, correspondence with very important people (really it's just my dad), and crock-pot recipes. The later really has nothing to do with school but it does provide me nourishment which feeds my brain. :)  When my 3 month old Chromebook "baby" died I immediately went in to PANIC MODE. "What about all the documents I had saved on there for school?!" I was sick to my stomach and ready to abandon all hope of being able to finish this semester.  All these thoughts and more swirled within my manic brain and did so within a millisecond before I recalled the power of Google Drive. 
        Lucky for me, I had saved my homework (and much more) to Google Drive prior to my computer crashing.There are so many pro's to entrusting Google with all my media: photos, videos, music, documents, and more. In this situation it would be Google Drive that would come to my rescue and save the day. Retrieving my data was simple, all I had to do was log into my Google Drive account and "Voila!" I was back up and running. Everything that I had feared was gone, never to be seen again was neatly stored within the confines of my Google Drive.

According to the Google Drive website Drive allows you to:

• Store any file.

• Drive starts you with 15 GB of free Google storage, so you can keep pictures, stories, designs, drawings, recordings, videos – anything,

• See your stuff anywhere.

• Your files in Drive can be reached from any smartphone, tablet, or computer. So wherever you go, your files follow.

• Share files and folders.

• You can quickly invite others to view, download, and collaborate on all the files you want–no email attachment needed.

If you aren't already familiarized with Google Drive I highly suggest visiting the Google Drive website. Give it a try, ya never know you just may like it.  

LibriVox- Audiobook

      A few years ago, I noticed that whenever I would attempt to read a book I would become distracted. I was distracted by my boys, my furkids, the cars driving by my house, the neighbor weedeating, or the sound of my washing machine on spin cycle.  Almost anything and everything would cause me to lose my focus.  I've always been the girl who had a book in hand and not being able to concentrate was becoming increasingly frustrating.  I took to the internet in search of help and was happy when I stumbled across this little gem:  "LibriVox- Free public domain audiobooks."
      LibriVox is a totally free website which offers a variety of audiobooks from Walt Whitman to Hans Christian Anderson.  My first experience with LibriVox was with Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel, "The Jungle".  I was amazed how much easier it was to tune out the distractions around me and become engrossed with the story.  I also found it extremely helpful when I began my first ever reading of Shakespeare.  I soon as I was assigned to read Hamlet I could feel my anxiety take over. I had no idea how to pronounce half of the words on the page.  Thankfully I was able to utilize LibriVox as an educational tool.  I read through Hamlet the first time with the use of LibriVox and became familiar with the language of Shakespeare.  I was able to read through it a second time by reading it aloud to myself without the use of LibriVox.
      Although I am content reading aloud to myself the more daring reader can add to the audiobook library by reading for LibriVox. As it is purely by the voices of volunteers that LibriVox is powered.
       I know there are a lot of audiobook sites out there but I think LibriVox's mission objective
"to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet" makes them stand out from the crowd. I hope you'll give LibriVox a try and that you'll enjoy it as much as I have.

The following is taken directly from the LibriVox "About" section of their website.

Our Fundamental Principles

• Librivox is a non-commercial, non-profit and ad-free project
• Librivox donates its recordings to the public domain
• Librivox is powered by volunteers
• Librivox maintains a loose and open structure
• Librivox welcomes all volunteers from across the globe, in all languages