My learning and my work as a literacy coach is significantly enhanced by the people of the web. Here are some of my favorite tools that allow me to connect with them. Where did I learn about them? Online, of course! My blog is a vehicle for communicating with those that I coach. Posts are often developed in response to their needs. For instance, this year we’ve begun building internal capacity for coaching in several…
Photo Credit: King Cloud Mike recently shared ways in which different educators are using Wordle. Jenn directed my attention to TextArc and TagCrowd Diana Dell shared WordSift. artViper is another option. Wondering if there are other tools out there and additional ways to use them?
I’m off to meet with several teachers today and this evening who are eager to begin classroom blogging. I’ve bookmarked some valuable resources for those who are interested in doing the same. What would you add to this list? Jennifer Carrier Dorman shares what I’ve found to be the most comprehensive set of resources for supporting educational blogging on her wiki. Joy Simpson shares different types of blog posts here. She’s also working through a…
Hats off to Lee and Sachi LeFever, who recently pulled together another gem of a video that I know many teachers and students will appreciate. If you like the engaging simplicity of this brief “how-to”, be sure to visit the Common Craft website, where the perplexing is made plain on a regular basis.
Tom Romano moved the hearts and minds of many writers and teachers with the release of his book Blending Genre, Altering Style nine years ago. As a teacher, I was drawn to multigenre writing because it challenged my students’ traditional notions around style, organization, voice, and theme. Multigenre writing is disruptive in nature, and as a result, it’s incredibly engaging to read. Creating multigenre pieces requires an appreciation of each genre’s effect on a reader…
Teachers often ask me what all this “21st Century” hype is all about, and while I agree that there is a sort of hype surrounding it all, and while I tend not to use that phraseology too often because of that, I definitely appreciate the need for some sort of distinction. I think it’s a good thing that people’s curiosities are peaked. I also think it’s a good thing that they recognize that something is…
You know the kid: the one who grows his bangs a little longer to hide the eyes beneath his glasses. This way, you’ll never know exactly where he’s looking…..up at you or his peers….or inside his desk, where the work that matters most to him awaits. We’ve all had students who are so immersed in a book that they struggle to put it away during class. Tell me your heart hasn’t broken a little when you’ve found…
The fellows of my learning community have been revisiting our commitment to disseminating the expertise that we share and cultivate within our group. This week, conversations have begun around the purpose of publication, the process itself, and whether or not the work that is shared within blog posts and in other online venues can be as credible as the stuff of peer-reviewed publications. In most cases, I’ll admit, I don’t think it can be. That…
Six-Word Memoir book preview from SMITHmag on Vimeo. My six words? Could work well for book-reporting!
Laura, Jenny Luca, and I have been really happy to see our membership growing at Working Together 2 Make a Difference. As a newbie to ning administration, I could use a bit of feedback from others though. We’re eager to encourage membership and make this space valuable to those who join, but I don’t think that any of us wants to have more of a presence in this space than any other member. We truly…