Learn2earn.org

Hey all!!

It has been awhile since I have blogged. It has just been crazy like you all know. But, lets get to it.

So, my students have an option for reading homework each night. They can use our online reading program or they can read for 20 minutes and write a reading journal. I want to make sure the kids are reading and are getting something out of it but the paper was starting to pile up. I didn't feel like I ever had enough time to read it and all in all I just felt like I was having them write something so I could 'tell' they were reading. Heck, they could have written- Today I read yada, yada, yada, it was really great- and I probably wouldn't have really noticed. Well, then last week we started our first novel study. With this came a quiz. The kids didn't do so hot on the quiz. I could not believe it. We spent time talking about the reading and discussing it and answering questions about it, why did they not do well? I probably will never be 100% sure. Then I ran across this post on facebook about learn2earn.org. I decided to click on it because it looked cute. Well let me tell you the site looked AMAZING! I am a huge lover of owls so the fact that the kids avatars were owls made me super excited. What I really loved is that the site gives students different types of comprehension questions to answer. I thought this might just be the way to really get my kids thinking about their reading. It also has an option where you can add in your own questions (How great right?). So, I set up my kids accounts, showed them the site and told them we would be starting on Monday.

Today, they had to read 2 chapters for homework from our novel and I told them they had to answer one of my questions and one of their choosing. I have been checking the site every so often tonight and have been very happy with what I have seen. The kids are answering the questions, they are liking each others post, and they are responding to each others post. We are starting to have some discussion about what they are reading. I also am able to comment and give a score. I am loving it so far. I have passed it on to my admin team and offered to show it to other teachers how to use it. I am excited to see where this goes.

Below is a screen shot of one of my students responses. She has already got some cute things for her owl.

So, do you use learn2earn.org? What other cool teacher friendly websites have you found that you love. I always like learning about new things I can use in my room.

Talk to you all soon!
~*~Lena~*~