RAZ Kids, Study Island...

?

Depends on how much. I'd prioritize, based on that knowledge.

I'm thinking Spelling City, the paid part, to record scores. I've heard great things about Study Island - I'll have to check that out

Kymberli_M, I don't know how much yet, so I'm just brainstorming for now. You know, spending other people's money...

Don't jump on the Study Island bandwagon... depending on what your population's state testing results are... Our kids do very well, mostly.

But I will say that the targeted kids who "needed" it, HATED it. Very text-heavy, almost no graphics or interactive lessons apart from the

GAMES. And the kids only do well on the games if they understand the concept. So... what's the point?

We paid for a year, and will never do so again. Four grade levels gave it a thumbs-down at our middle school.

kmulford: Completely agree about Study Island. Great for review but does very little for those students who are struggling.

Do you really want to spend you "extra $" on drill and kill? I wouldn't. I'd buy something much more engaging. Anything from a year of

www.iknowthat.com to --- (bigger bucks, but so worth it) a year of Discovery Streaming.

sorry for the suggestion of Study Island. It's something we are trying at our grade school this year, so that's what I thought of.

miss_w: Please don't apologize! Isn't this kind of like a brainstorming place, where we all throw out ideas? I was just sharing our own

disappointment in the product.

miss_w: Study Island isn't bad by any means. It works GREAT for review and some kids absolutely LOVE it and it works for them.

Top to bottom though through an entire group of students I think it misses its mark.

nkrahn: We've been using VPL and thought this would be a good alternative to it.

miss_w: What is VPL. I tried googling it but its a slang term for something else. I don't think thats what your students are studying...

I don't remember what it stands for, but it's kind of ridiculous and the kids hate it.

you take a pre-test on a skill, if you pass it, you have mastered the skill.

if you fail, you have to go through a study, take a practice test, then re-test in order to master it.

they get apples for passing tests.

the pre-assessment at the very beginning is really long and take forever to get through.

we thought it would be good for state assessment stuff, but it has a lot of stuff the kids aren't tested on.

they can't get through it and then it becomes a hassle.

That would be a pain, I do think that Study Island would be better than that from what you say about it.

You can at least choose which subjects and areas you want the students to cover and then have them recover at various times.

Our group really did do a pretty good job of knowing what their weaknesses were and trying to stick to those areas.

Agreeing with nkrahn. Our group already had a good handle on the very few weaknesses our kids had. (97.7% Meets/Exceeds... kinda scary...

how do you IMPROVE upon that?) And so the hoops that Study Island made kids jump through were superfluous and, well, annoying.

kmulford: yeah, our kids aren't doing that well...

I would of course, get the home/school BrainPop, the educator voicethread, and I saw an awesome presentation at NECC a couple of years ago

by these people. www.clevelandart.org/lea...

they send you the materials and do a live distance learning lesson. Tied to standards of course, and they send you a packet ahead of time

honeymic: Wow! Coolness!

with all the hands-on materials you need.

clickers!!!!

I have a Promethean system, VoiceThread, and BrainPop so far. Anything for podcasting? That's one of my goals this year.

Some flip cams could be great for video podcasting

that's kind of what I'm thinking, too.

tecno gadget adf.ly/3p5W