Photabulary with TypeDrawing

This morning's work email brought this gem from my Associate Principal who also happens to be a Writing Project Teacher Consultant.

Photabulary

I read it quickly and got ready for the day.  My freshmen students were struggling with some of the vocabulary in The Odyssey.  I realized that I should have preloaded some of the vocabulary that I take for granted.  My EL students definitely know the word BIRD but they may not know the word GULL.  I need to be more aware of this as a teacher.  I decided that I needed to read the test pulling out these sorts of words.

I remember the email.  Clicked the link and took a three buck plunge on the app called TypeDrawing.  During my prep, I sat down to figure out what I could do.

I figured out how to give my students some basics about boats so that they could picture some of the stuff Odysseus had to go through.  I did a quick Google image search for Odysseus and Sirens.  I remembered that there was a good ship pic from some pottery somewhere out there.  Grabbed it.  Used it as the background in the app and added the words.  You add words with your finger or a stylus.

The idea is clearly elementary, but the app is genius for making the process of creating this image so easy.  I'm positive that I can make one of these in less than 60 seconds now.  WOO!  

It gets better.  

How many words for wind does Homer happen to use?  Enough to confound many teens.  

Observe.  TypeDrawing + an Image of a Sky + a little experimenting:  

I cannot wait to show my students this.  It works so well with concrete nouns!  

TypeDrawing:  $2.99 and so worth it.  

I believe that there is a free version available for the iPhone as well, if you want to test drive it before you commit.