My Three Remote Teacher Survival Tips
As we all venture into another week of instruction, no matter what that may look like, I have three tips for surviving and thriving in these times.
Inviting Voices from the Community
As the 2020-2021 school year sets to start, we recognize that educators need each other more than ever. We need to hold onto our beliefs about the teaching of writing … Continue Reading Inviting Voices from the Community
Seen, Valued, Heard: Name Studies to Establish Community
There is importance in a name. Our names are entry ways into our identities and they can have great impact in cultivating classroom communities where students can thrive and grow.
Back to School Themes and Reflections
What are the themes that you come back to each school year? Today I explore the topics that I come back to each new year and share links from previous posts. Please share your ideas in the comments!
(Writing) Life Imitates Art: Finding Inspiration in Ralph Fletcher’s Instagram
The creative lives we maintain outside of writing fill us up as humans with stories to tell. When we bring this life into the writing workshop, it builds community, and it lays the foundation for lifelong writers who have strategies for sustaining their own writing lives.
Respecting Student Creativity: Teaching Writing With A Social Justice Lens
Whether students choose to express themselves in the form of writing prose, poetry or creating a video, the choice belongs to the writer.
Digging Into Digital Storytelling
I found myself thinking about my classroom experiences, wondering how I might be able to help teachers get started and just as I started feeling overwhelmed… I heard these words…
Yes &… with Digital Tools We Can
As we set off to create writers who write in tandem with the printed world and the digital world there are a few we need to consider.
Quick Tip: Twitter Digital Notebook
Do you wish you can save all the bits of inspiration and ideas you read on Twitter? Now you can! Read on for an easy way to never lose those tweets again.
Make Writing Better. Start With The Writer.
Think about the writer and making the writer better. What are the needs of a writer? What opportunities does technology offer to make the writer better?
Write at the Start: No More Morning Worksheets
How can we let writing be part of a “soft start” for students instead of making them complete joyless worksheets? How do your students start the day or class period? Please join the conversation!
Branding Student Blogs
As an instructional technology coach, I have the privilege of working alongside teachers as they bring their students into the world of blogging. Many of the teachers I work with are new to blogging. They rely on me to steer them into an experience that will engage the student, lift student writing, and fit within the already packed school day. I guide these teachers to create branded blogs.
Using Digital Tools to Meet the Needs of Developing Writers
When writing with digital tools, students have the opportunity to design and share writing in a variety of ways that not only add a new aesthetic to writing but more importantly they offer teachers the ability to skillfully and intentionally scaffold writing development.
Teaching Digital Tools in Writing Workshop: Plan, Purpose, EXPLORE
Digital tools add opportunities to our writing, opportunities that can motivate and inspire writers. The reach of digital tools allows writers to receive and give feedback, share beyond their classroom, publish to an authentic audience, and build a writing community. So how do we make sure our writers are ready?
Past the Flash of Technology
Technology gives us all choices and decisions to make. Big decisions. How can we welcome technology in our classrooms? Technology can be a new way of doing the same thing. Will we seek apps that allow our students to make choices in creating and sharing with others, or will we seek apps that do the same old thing in a different way?
A Class Hub To The Rescue!
A class hub can make all the difference for digital writing and learning!
Snapshots From the NYSEC Conference
My time at the New York State English Council (NYSEC) Conference through snapshots!
Thinking About My Writer’s Notebook in a Digital Age
Without a notebook, my great ideas are going unrecorded and, ultimately, forgotten.
Go-To Digital Tools for Writing Workshop
Digital tools can transform your teaching by allowing students to have a writing community beyond the classroom walls, be innovative, make meaningful connections to other writers and students, have more resources readily available, and have true, authentic reasons for writing.
How to Assess Students’ Digital Writing – Ideas from Troy Hicks’ New Book
In Assessing Students’ Digital Writing:Protocols For Looking Closely, Troy Hicks and a team of forward looking educators have given us lenses through which to appreciate and evaluate the type of digital creativity that students seem adept at…
