Voki

*Ations by Shel Silverstein

I have really enjoyed creating different Vokis.  I have made a few of them that all look as close to myself as possible, but I think it would be fun to create one using some of the other character options that are there.
I currently have one on my teacher website that introduces myself and welcomes the students and their families to a new school year.
The one above I created tonight and had it read a poem by Shel Silverstein, one of my favorite authors.

The possibilities for using this site with students are endless.  I like the idea of having students create them to present projects or talk about what they have been learning.  You could have the Voki do the presentation instead of a real, live person.  This would also be a great "getting to know you" tool to use within the first couple of weeks of school.  You could create an assignment for your students that have them answering questions you have provided using the Voki, then either present them to the class, or send them to you, the teacher, so you can get to know them better.

Images with Tagxedo

                                

The two images above were created using Tagxedo. 
The one on top was created by first uploading a jpeg (picture file) of the Olympic rings.  Then I copied and pasted a lot of the text from the state and national Special Olympics website.  The words that are bigger are words that were repeated several times.  
The one on the bottom was created by first uploading a jpeg of the District 5 logo, then copying and pasting the text from my school's PBIS website along with some text from the national PBIS website.  Since Irmo Middle's motto for PBIS is I-Integrity, R-Respect, M-Motivation and O-Ownership, I typed those words in several times, along with Irmo, in order to make them bigger. 


I have used both of these tagxedo's on my teacher website.  They are eye catching, so they cause the person who is viewing the pages to stop and read what I have written instead of just skipping over it.   Students could use them in presentations and projects to highlight the vocabulary they are learning or the main points/characters in a story.