As the din of children playing in neighborhood parks fade and cooler breezes move in, it becomes harder and harder to deny: Summer is over.  Ignore the astronomers and meteorologists who tell you that the first day of Autumn is September 22.  For most kids, Summer has a different end point: the peal of the school bell.  In honor of another carefree season gone by, I present a few of the best Tikatok books about Summer.  Here we have books about the season’s activities and special feelings that will carry you through another year at school.  Yes, school has its own joys (perhaps the subject of a future Tikatok Spotlight), but even the most studious child longs to throw off her bookbag and hit the pool! 

We’re proud to announce the release of Tikatok’s free Teacher Tools just in time for the new school semester.  As a teacher, the new tools make it much easier for you to register to the site, communicate with students, track the books they create, and invite parents to see the positive results of your instruction.

Here’s how it works:

One-step registration

All you need is your name and email address, the address of your school, and the number of students in your class.  When it comes time for your class to begin, each student will use a temporary username and password to sign in, then select their own permanent nicknames and passwords.

Private class forum

Every class also gets a private forum in our “Clubs” section, and every student is automatically joined.  In this forum, teachers can specify assignments, leave feedback, or lead discussions.  Students can share their books with the club when they are completed,  or arrange collaborations with their classmates.

Teacher dashboard

As each student signs up, you’ll see them added to your teacher dashboard.  You can send personal messages directly to their Tikatok inbox, or click on their nicknames to view their work-in-progress.  We also make it easy to invite parents by email to register and see their children’s work.  And if you want to use Tikatok for your next class, just add a new section.

Teacher notifications

Don’t worry about students running amok on the site.  You’ll get an email notification for every action a child takes that has implications for their privacy.  When a parent signs up, you can “hand off” the student and no longer receive those notifications.

When it comes to inspiring kids to read and write, and giving them the guidance they need to make great progress, teachers are so important.  I know we’re going to see some really amazing books come out of classroom projects.

Register your classroom now.

Let other teachers benefit from your experience.

If you’re a teacher, we’d love to hear what you think of the tools, and learn how you used them in your class.  Your feedback will help us improve the site, and your tips or lesson plans will inspire other teachers.  Leave a comment on the blog, or email neal@tikatok.com with your story.   We’ll feature exemplary projects on this blog, along with samples of student work.

And, if you’re a parent and would love for your child to create a book in class, please let his or her teacher know about our new educational program!

And here’s the link to the video from the WCVB-TV Channel 5 evening news last night. A great little segment featuring some amazing and outspoken (and cute) kids. Thank you Bianca de la Garza for highlighting our community and giving some of our child authors some time in the spotlight.

Watch the video!

If you live in the Boston area, or are otherwise in broadcast range of Boston’s ABC affiliate, WCVB TV-5, watch tonight from 5-6:30 for a new story about Tikatok and our joint book writing program with the Boston Public Library. Bianca de la Garza interviewed Tikatok authors, parents, and our own CEO Sharon Kan at the Charlestown Library event held on Tuesday morning. It was a fun event with some really talented kids and should make for a great story, although the TV crew almost stole the show with their “ginormous” microphones and cameras.

Set your watch and/or Tivo!

The Boston Public Library and Tikatok have started a series of creative writing workshops to take place over the next few weeks at each of the branch libraries.  Kids who participate in the event are in for an hour or two of writing and illustrating using Tikatok’s StorySparks system, and each child will receive a free copy of his or her finished book!  We’re already seeing some great examples coming in from workshops held at Adams St., Fields Corner, Grove Hall, Jamaica Plain, and Orient Heights.  If you missed the event nearest you, don’t worry!  There are still plenty upcoming, including one at the main library branch in Copley Square on Friday, August 1 at 2:30PM.  Here is the full slate:

Tuesday July 29, 3:00 PM - Dudley Branch, 65 Warren St., Roxbury

Wednesday July 30, 11:00 AM - West Roxbury Branch, 1961 Centre St.

Thursday July 31, 1:00 PM - Codman Square Branch, 690 Washington St., Dorchester

Friday August 1, 2:30 PM - Main Branch, Copley Sq., 700 Boylston St.

Monday August 4, 6:30 PM - Connolly Branch, 433 Centre St., Jamaica Plain

Tuesday August 5, 11:15 AM - Charlestown Branch, 179 Main St.

Thursday, August 7, 6:30 PM - Hyde Park Branch, 35 Harvard Ave.

Monday, August 11, 3:00 PM - Washington Village Branch, 1226 Columbia Rd., South Boston

Tuesday, August 12, 2:00 PM - South End Branch, 685 Tremont St.

Wednesday August 13, 10:30 AM - 27 Richmond St., Dorchester

Thursday August 14, 10:30 AM - Faneuil Branch, 419 Faneuil St., Brighton

Friday, August 15, 10:30 AM - Roslindale Branch, 4238 Washington St.

Or, view the complete BPL calendar of events for more fun workshops and contact information.

Boston residents were introduced to Tikatok CEO Sharon Kan on the Fox 25 Morning News this week, July 7th.  Sharon talked a bit about her inspiration for creating the site, and shared some books from our child authors.  Watch the video.

The Boston Globe also alerted its readers to our Summer Reading event held outside the Boston Public Library on Tuesday afternoon.  It was a great event with several Tikatok authors sharing their stories with the public and emcee Adora Svitak, a young author and new member of the Tikatok Children’s Advisory Board.  Here is the notice.  Stay tuned for an update featuring pictures from the event!

Another Boston newspaper, the Herald, ran a story advising J.K. Rowling to “watch your back” because she’s got some new competition from child authors on Tikatok.  The original story is now behind the Herald subscription wall, but thankfully the Denver Post also picked up the story.

It was a busy week for our CEO indeed, as the Manic Mommies hosted a podcast with our intrepid leader as their special guest.

Wanted to share some more kind words about Tikatok from blogs during the last week or so.

Pixie Stix Kids Pix is an amazing blog covering the world of children’s books with tons of book reviews, author and illustrator profiles, and news about the latest trends.  In her review of Tikatok, editor Kristen McLean says, “there have been self-publishing projects for kids in the past, but never have they been so kid-centered, user-friendly, or so interactive.”  Thanks Kristen!

andStartup offers reviews of new startups every day and they do a really great job of breaking down the key information about each company fast while providing in-depth reviews for those who want more detail.  We couldn’t ask for better praise than their review of Tikatok, which calls the site “one of the best ideas for children that I have seen online for a long time.”

Thanks again to the blogging community that has been so generous in their support of our site!

Well I’ve just become addicted to Twitter for my own personal use and thought that Tikatok users might like the opportunity to get the most fast-breaking site updates, gain insight to even the most insignificant thoughts of the Tikatok team, and have a(nother) direct line of communication with us.  So if you have a Twitter account (and if you don’t, you know you want one), search for Tikatok and add us to your follow list.  Look forward to seeing you there.  And one of these days I’ll figure out how to add our tweets to the blog.

We were thrilled to see Tikatok featured in a pair of high profile blogs this week.

Wired’s Ken Denmead, co-editor of the ever popular GeekDad blog, shared Tikatok with readers on Saturday.  I’ve mentioned GeekDad before as a wonderful resource for parents who want to take very active roles in their children’s lives, especially when that means working on fun DIY-style projects together.  It has been an inspirational blog for a (very) soon-to-be father like myself.

Simply Stated, blog for the lifestyle magazine Real Simple, called Tikatok an “interactive and inspired website” in a detailed post, courtesy of “Manic Mommy” Erin.  It is clear that she spent some time with the site, and we appreciate her positive comments as well as her suggestions.  She asks at the end of the article, “I wonder whether I can skip the whole story part and just have all of my son’s artwork from the previous school year made into a hardcover book?”  In fact, Tikatok does make this possible.  Our members are invited to send us their original drawings and we will happily scan them, upload them to their account, and ship the originals back, all for free.  See detailed instructions in the FAQ.

Both blogs, and a few commenters, mentioned how Tikatok exploits a similar concept as other print-on-demand self-publishers like Blurb and Lulu.  And while we are happy to be associated with those excellent sites, I did want to point out some qualities that we think makes Tikatok distinct.  First, Tikatok provides added privacy protection and moderation, to make the site safe for children while still a place where they can meaningfully express themselves.  Second, we provide writing help and inspiration in the form of our StorySparks system, a database of interactive story prompts that can be a starting point for brainstorming.  Third, we make writing social by enabling collaboration between kids.  And finally, all of our free tools are entirely Web-based and designed to be very user-friendly, there is no software to download and install.  The book you create right on the Web is automatically formatted into something that can be printed as a real paperback or hardcover.  We think Tikatok offers the best bookmaking experience for kids (but of course we’re always open to your comments and suggestions).

Thanks again Ken and Erin!

At Tikatok, we’re always happy to see the creativity of kids being encouraged and celebrated, so I had to smile when I read about the Doodle 4 Google contest, and came across this interview with the winner. California 6th-grader Grace Moon beat out 16,000 other budding artists to have her take on Google’s iconic logo featured on the front page for a day, where it was viewed by over 100 million people.

While Tikatok can’t yet claim that our child authors receive that kind of traffic to their books and drawings, we do take pride in the fact that ALL of our users have the ability to share their work on our front page. And because competition does tend to inspire some kids to greatness, it is in this spirit that I chose what I consider to be the best illustrations in our community gallery (so far).