Check Out These "Riveting" Free Leveled Readers from Google's Area 120

Rivet is a new product in experimentation-phase from Google and its Area 120. It comes in app form or it can be utilized just through a web browser.

Mind you, while the whole site is being built on the fly by engineers at Google, the web-cased interface is in beta, so it might have even more glitches. Oh well, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks as this is a great tool for putting just the right reading level material into kids' hands when they could be doing far worse with devices.

Personally, I like that there are no log-ins needed and that on any type of device there is instant access. There also seems to be a wide range of interesting subject matter, both fiction and non-fiction.

The interface seems pretty easy to navigate and I like also how the presentation of text changes at different levels.

Thanks to Jen Giffen for sharing this cool new resource.

Each level's bookshelf offers a wide variety of choices.

Sample page from Level 7

Sample page from Level 3

Find Amazing Royalty-Free Video Clips at Coverr.co

If you are not listening to the Shukes and Giff Podcast, you are missing out on really corny jokes, witty banter, and incredible resources to use in the classroom immediately. In their most recent episode, Canadian educators Kim Pollishuke and Jen Giffen shared that a treasure trove of royalty-free stock video footage can be found at Coverr.co. Both Unsplash and Pixabay are great for still stock photos, but this now adds a great repository of video for creative student projects.

All clips are completely free and all that is required to download one is a one-time email subscription to the site's updates. There's no verification required so enter your mother-in-law's Hotmail account. Seriously though, this is a great site providing great footage, so give them the courtesy of a follow.

One search for "Beach" turned up 127 videos. What a great way to assemble a relaxation video montage to chase away the winter blues.

When you download, you receive a .ZIP file that contains the clip in .MP4 format and a still .jpg. I ran my beach clip through Keynote and turned it into a "Spring Break is Coming" .gif.

Coverr.co opens a world of possibilities when it comes to student video production. My mind immediately goes to digital story-telling, where students could use these video clips as the story's setting. Conversely, teachers can stimulate analog story-telling by using a clip as a writing prompt.