Saturday, July 3, 2010

MeeGenius - Great Tool for Elementary Teachers







I came across MeeGenius while surfing (is that still a proper term?) the Internet.  It is a collection of books meant for younger students, many of the books with titles we are all familiar with.  First thing I noticed is that you can personalize the books, meaning you can input other names for the main characters.  So like in the book "Jack and the Beanstalk" I was able to put my son's name in place of Jack and other members of my family in the place of other characters.

Right now there are 27 books available for your reading pleasure.  If you don't make any personalizations, the software will highlight each word and read the book aloud to the students in your classroom.  Could be a great way for reading comprehension.  I found the digital voice to be very easy to listen to...not the usual digitized computer voice we are used to hearing.

MeeGenius is also available as an iPhone and iPad app.  I could see me using this in the future with my children.  My son will probably have a laptop by the time he is 5 anyway!

Give MeeGenius a look.  I could see it being used in several Kindergarten and 1st Grade classrooms.  You could use it as a reward to have a certain students' names personalized in the books.