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.
Whether students choose to express themselves in the form of writing prose, poetry or creating a video, the choice belongs to the writer.
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…
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.
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.
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?
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!
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.
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.
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?
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 can make all the difference for digital writing and learning!
My time at the New York State English Council (NYSEC) Conference through snapshots!
Without a notebook, my great ideas are going unrecorded and, ultimately, forgotten.
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.
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…
The heart map is a great tool for helping students find personally meaningful topics, but used year after year, it might feel a little stale. Writing territory maps is another option!
Get started organizing your mentor texts with four digital tools.
You’ve got to practice writing to teach writing!
At last August’s Summer Institute, Cornelius Minor, teacher extraordinaire and staff developer at TC’s Writing and Reading Project, gave an unforgettable presentation on technology in the classroom which I wrote about on my… Continue reading
