Preferred Partner Highlight: Night Zookeeper
The Vision
Hello! I’m Josh, one of the co-founders of the literacy website Nightzookeeper.com. Four years ago, when we started Night Zookeeper, we really had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for. Starting an education technology company has been trickier than caring for a Time-Travelling Elephant or Purple Octocow. However, I have to say, I have loved every second of it.
We started with the simple idea of using technology to encourage children to draw pictures of magical animals, and then write stories about them. However, this initial idea has since grown into an entire online world, where children’s drawings can come alive and inspire them to learn about anything that sparks their imagination.
The Product
The website is based on a story called Night Zookeeper and the Spying Giraffes, which introduces children to a magical Night Zoo. We use this story to inspire creativity in children and, in turn, to nurture a love of reading and writing. I hope you will find that even the most reluctant of writers is transformed by Night Zookeeper’s creative approach.
Night Zookeeper is always growing. We have a packed calendar of events, which include a story relay, the International Writing Cup and World Creative Writing Month. Our latest feature is called Lesson Hive. It is a library of interactive lessons, which include drawing, writing and quiz tasks. These can be sent directly to the children in your class and is an absolutely amazing resource, which can save you hours of planning time (as well as quite a few trees!).
This year we are adding more auto-assess features. With more teachers joining our community, we are confident that we will soon make assessing students English work much, much quicker and easier.
The Testimonial
We connected with Sheri Capper a classroom teacher from Peculiar, Missouri, about her experience with using Night Zookeeper in her classroom.
How did you find out about Night Zookeeper? I heard about Night Zookeeper a couple of years ago on social media. I was intrigued by the magical characters and world that I had discovered… I knew my students would be too. Once we got started on Night Zookeeper for the first time, we didn’t look back and it has become a very important part of life at Peculiar Elementary.
What impact has it had on your students? Night Zookeeper has been a truly wonderful addition to my classroom. My students are now excited to write on a daily basis. Over the years, I have watched reluctant writers grow into authors with a voice that they want others to hear. It has engaged my entire class and inspired a love of creative writing.
How often do you use it with your class? We use Night Zookeeper every day and across all curriculum subjects. It is really easy to set challenges and lessons from my account, which the students receive and then complete on their own accounts. I am then able to review all submissions from my students and give them feedback straight from my teacher account.
Do your students enjoy using the website? There is so much for my students on Night Zookeeper, whether they are completing a teacher challenge set by me, or taking a challenge set by one of their Night Zoo animals. They love collecting their friend’s creations and writing stories about them too! They really do enjoy being part of the writing community that we create through Night Zookeeper.
Have you been able to use it across your curriculum areas? We have been able to use the Night Zookeeper website for cross curricular activities such as Social Studies, Science, and Math along with Reading and Writing of course. I find it is a great place for students to consolidate their knowledge by submitting assignments on different subject areas.
Does it help with your writing assessment? I use the assessment features to give students descriptive feedback for revising and editing their writing in addition to assessing their final draft. Also, I get some help from the Night Zookeeper community, as students are always excited to see the comments that have been written by students, Night Zookeepers, and teachers across the world.
Do you think it adapts well into the US curriculum? Due to it’s flexibility as an online tool, Night Zookeeper fits easily into the US Curriculum. I find that I can tick off a lot of Language Arts Core Standards through my work with Night Zookeeper. However, it also can help students to achieve broader standards as well. I love everything about Night Zookeeper and can't wait to introduce a new group of students to the magic of the zoo!
If you have any questions, email us at info@pledgecents.com.
