[kde-edu]: Spelling Program Help Request

[Mark Stuckless]

Here is some information about me and the idea/app:

I am an elementary teacher in a small town north of Waterloo, Ontario. As
such, I have striven to use computer technology to assist my students in
their learning and to assist me in my role as a teacher. One area in
particular that has interested me has been in the acquisition of literacy
skills- specifically the ability to spell well.

A few years ago, after having done lots of research on the topic of spelling
instruction, I worked with a friend to create a spelling computer program
that was based on sound pedagogical principles. The program was created for
the Mac- which has always had a big presence in schools- and we sold a few
copies. The original program had its limitations namely because of our
personal limitations in terms of programming skills and the fact that it was
written in Hypercard. I consider the program we made to essentially be a
prototype, but the underlying idea and principles behind the program are
sound. I still use program today to create activities and to teach students
in my grade five class. I would like the program to live again so to speak
and be open source. The activities it includes could be done on the computer
and and also printed for later student use. In a nutshell, the program
represents the best idea I have ever had in terms of helping students
acquire spelling skills. It could help both children and adults learn to
improve their spelling skills in English and potentially other languages as
well.
** <http://sourceforge.net/projects/spellinator>The program allows teachers
to select words (from predetermined word lists based on prefixes, suffixes,
vowel patterns etc.) or choose their own words.  The program with teacher
input (depending on the activity) then creates about 4-6 activities that
could be done on the computer or printed for later practice/seatwork.
Samples pictures of some of the printable activities can be found here:

http://spellinator.wiki.sourceforge.net/space/filelist

 Original program was created for the Mac using Hypercard but it is really
just a prototype (It was called the Word Family Spelling Planner- or just
Spelling Planner for short).   I need your help to make this idea run on
linux based computers.  I'm toying with the name of Spellinator- but am open
to other suggestions.  My main desire is to see the idea updated and be open
source so that I can create new spelling units to use with my students
instead of relying on old one made with the original program which only ran
on old macs.

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Mr. Mark Stuckless
(aka Dante123)


-- 
Mildmay-Carrick Public School
school: 519-367-5548
home: 519-367-5228
website: http://reason2learn.ca
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