Found in my travels this week: VocabGrabber enables users to see how words are used in context. Confusing Words highlights the biggies that so many of us misuse. Save the Words is kinda beautiful, although I’m struggling a bit with its utility. IdiomSite.Com may become a quick favorite of some teachers I know….. RhymeZone is a rhyming dictionary and thesaurus Visuwords is an online dictionary that graphs word relationships
Just sharing what I’ve found in my travels….. I know that I may be a bit late to the table here, but I’m loving this tool. Lately, I’ve been teaching with StoryCorps almost as often as I’ve been teaching with TED. So much potential for the classroom…… Been playing with Firefox add-ons—simple ways to download YouTube videos here. Had the chance to create a few new Sir Ken Robinson fans last week. The Future of…
I spent the better portion of last week on Long Island, introducing Studio to junior and senior high school teachers and exploring writing instruction and practice with them in a variety of settings. Part of our work unfolded in workshop sessions, there were several conversations with diverse groups, and we spent extended time coaching in both buildings. I learned a great deal from this experience and will probably devote most of this week’s posts to…
Some of the middle and high school writers I’m working with this year have just begun researching what digital storytelling is and how they might begin crafting their own stories. There are so many different ways to approach this and an abundance of fantastic resources available online for those interested in doing so. Rather than presenting students with one definition of what digital storytelling is or leading them through a distinct set of steps in…
Teaching writing can be scary, difficult stuff. The word teacher implies an awful lot, after all. For some, it suggests that they should “know all” before proceeding. But that’s impossible, isn’t it? I can’t imagine knowing everything about writing or writing instruction. Or teaching. Or literacy coaching. Or anything for that matter. I don’t recall who said it online or where, but I remember nodding my head when I stumbled upon this bit of wisdom:…
This fall, I had the opportunity to talk with over 100 writing teachers about the instructional practices that made the most difference for their students. All of these teachers identified and articulated clear learning targets for their students, based upon their previous assessment of student needs. All of them documented what they did as teachers to support their students as they worked together to meet these objectives as well, and during our conversations together, they…
I don’t think it has stopped snowing here for at least a week. When I left the house this morning, I had no idea what awaited me, and by the time I hit the thruway, I realized that any time I had set aside for blogging here would be devoted to expanding my drive time in an effort to ensure that my car didn’t careen off the road. But I made promise in this new…
…for my kids to get home from school …for the laundry load to finish spinning out …for the teachers that I am working with to return from their lunch break …for the next episode of my favorite television program to begin …for my materials to finish printing …for the next item to appear on my never-ending “to do” list This is what I’ve learned as a participant in National Novel Writing Month this year: if…
…….especially if you haven’t had the opportunity to do it in the past. I’m working with quite a few teachers in different places this year who feel very much out of their element when they are asked to teach kids how to write. Sure, “all teachers are teachers of writing,” and I know that most elementary teachers were certified to do precisely this, but when did pre-service learning ever perfectly prepare any of us to…
Just a quick post on the fly this morning, really–but one that I’ve been formulating in my head for some time now. I’ve spent a good portion of this fall working with over 150 teachers of grades 3-12 who have been capturing formative assessment data about their students as writers during guided and independent practice. They have also been gathering information and reflecting on their instructional practices as teachers of writing. Just this week, they’ve…