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 blog “A Teaching Life”. I left TC full of good intentions about infusing my sixth grade Writing Workshop with technology, and using… Continue reading In my writing workshop: it’s finally time for photographs and digital stories.
Category: digital writing
Keeping a writing blog: taking our writing workshop online
With the Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge just around the corner, perhaps some of you are thinking more than ever about starting a class blog just for writing. Over the past few years, we have taken our writer's notebook online in my classroom, not just for the month of March, but for the entire… Continue reading Keeping a writing blog: taking our writing workshop online
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Digital Tools Invite Writers to Compose – #NCTE13
Two of the sessions I attended at NCTE in Boston helped me think about ways two digital tools could be meaningfully integrated into early childhood and elementary school classrooms to engage young writers. The "Exploring Collaboration of Multimodal Literacies in Early Childhood: Digital Filmmaking, Designing, and Co-Authoring" panel discussed the way digital video cameras could enhance learning, while two of the presenters in "Writing Workshop Is for All Students: Using Visuals, Oral Language, and Digital Tools to Maximize Success and Independence for English Language Learners" suggested the incorporation of digital cameras.
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Beyond Classroom Walls
One of the fantastic sessions I attended at NCTE was called "Beyond Classroom Walls: Honoring Voices of Young Readers." It was led by Julie Johnson of Raising Readers and Writers, Katie Keier of Catching Readers, and Cathy Mere of Reflect and Refine. Let me start by saying that all three of these women are the… Continue reading Beyond Classroom Walls
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How do you know?
Often when I'm working with teachers, I get the question: How do you know? This can be in response to a number of things: minilesson ideas, conference teaching points, share sessions, anchor charts, unit planning, blogging, tweeting. Truthfully, the answer is often I don't know. I'm just trying things that make sense. I'm trying things that… Continue reading How do you know?
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Martha Horn!
Martha Horn is coming to NE Indiana on October 14, hosted by the All-Write Consortium. I'm super excited to hear her thoughts about teaching our youngest writers. If you are interested in attending, just click here for registration information. Do you know her book, Talking, Drawing, and Writing? She wrote it along with Mary Ellen… Continue reading Martha Horn!
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Processing My Learning (Ruth’s SOLS)
One of my favorite parts of my job is I am privileged to a lot of professional development. Often when I travel to conferences, I attend with our district reading coach, Deb Gaby. Over the years, Deb and I have developed a comfortable routine of traveling together. I know she likes some alone… Continue reading Processing My Learning (Ruth’s SOLS)
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It’s a Choice
This spoke to me from my Twitter feed today: As educators standing in this place in our field, we have a choice. We can look out and see problems and despair or possibility and promise. --- Lucy Calkins, quoted in Tweet by Katie Keier Katie wrote Catching Readers Before They Fall (Stenhouse, 2010) with Pat… Continue reading It’s a Choice
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“New” Kinds of Readers
We've been reading How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills (check out Tad's website) since its release last summer. It is one of my son's favorite books. He loves dogs and reading, so this book is a great match for him. A few weeks ago he said to my mom, "Mimi, let's Google Rocket… Continue reading “New” Kinds of Readers
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Twitter as PLN
I joined Twitter at the beginning of October. What began as an experiment in learning a new genre has become one of the best professional development experiences of my entire career. I've been envisioning a post about the professional development offered (free) on Twitter, when I came across "Making the Most of Twitter" by Franki… Continue reading Twitter as PLN
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Parent Communication
As we venture into teaching writing in authentic ways, it is important to communicate with parents our teaching decisions. When using technology in writing and reading workshops, communication with parents becomes imperative. When Christi began tweeting, she communicated this addition to their learning with parents. She also encouraged parents to follow their tweets and to… Continue reading Parent Communication
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Twitter in Classrooms
One of the first people I addressed in a tweet was @CAFirstGrade, Julie Simmons' first grade classroom in Ohio. They were using Twitter via an iPad during their independent writing time. Later in the week, they tweeted during shared writing using a SmartBoard. It was fun to tweet with them and gain insight into their… Continue reading Twitter in Classrooms
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 