A fun reading site: Storyline Online

 I have written before about extensive reading, in which you read as much as you can about something out of interest but at a level that is easy for you to read: there should only be two or three words out of 100 words on a page that you don't know the meaning of. If you have to use a dictionary for too many words, the text is too hard and it isn't extensive reading. Later I will write in the next blog about a website from the ER Foundation that offers free text online.

However, today I want to share about a site where someone will read texts to you! These are texts originally written for children, but they are fun stories that are fun to read along with. The website is called Storyline Online and it can be accessed here.

There are lots of fun stories, but the one that caught my eye today is called, The Busy Life of Ernestine Buckmeister and it is read by Connie Britton. The direct link for the story is here.

Enjoy!

An Introduction to Adobe Creative Express

 There are a number of software packages and websites that enable people to produce very creative and interesting video media, among them Canva and Adobe Creative Express (ACE). These two are extremely similar but different enough that some professionals choose one or the other to do particular tasks. Both are free and both have free apps for the iPhone and Android. Readers are encouraged to look at both to see which fits their needs, but in this short blog post I'm going to focus on Adobe Creative Express.

Here is a video in Japanese on how to create an Adobe Creative Express account, but using the prompts in English. Click here to view the presentation. 

And here is a link to a Loom video on creating a new account, but using an Iorad step-by-step tutorial.

Here is a video showing how to create a slideshow using a video.

And here is a sample video I created using Adobe Creative Express. It wasn't meant to be the greatest presentation but was just a way to show the possibilities.

I created a Loom video in English on making a presentation using Adobe Spark (now Adobe Creative Express). Click here to see the video.

Finally, here is a Adobe Webpage I created to become an Adobe Creative Educator.