The best way to handle new technology being introduced to the education world is to investigate the tools for ourselves, with an open mind, rather than getting caught up in fear and overwhelm. I know this is hard to do, believe me, I'm a fairly neurotic, anxious...
Now that students have easy access to artificial intelligence chatbots like Chat GPT, teachers are pondering how to prevent students from using these tools to do their work for them. Cheating seems to be easier than ever these days. English language arts teachers are...
In the last few weeks I've been playing with, talking to teacher friends, reading articles, and thinking about one thing... Chat GPT. I learned about this new AI tool in early December through a Facebook Group post that had 100+comments. The comments scared me, so I...
In the last three years Google Classroom has definitely transformed my teaching practices. It is such a simple system to use. At first I used it in obvious ways, create a Google Doc, type directions in that Doc and post it as a class assignment. But as time went on I...
Publishing student writing is the cornerstone of a successful writing workshop program. At the beginning of each of my writing units I tell students they will write many different drafts within a writing genre and pick one to revise intensely and then to publish.
PowToon is a fun and fairly easy video creation tool for teachers and students. The company already has an excellent blog post about how teachers can utilize this tool in their classrooms here. This blog post is about how students can use PowToon for ten writing and...
Ever spend hours looking for YouTube videos to teach writing? Youtube channels for writing teachers are hard to find! YouTube is an incredible resource bank for writing teachers...but sometimes it can be annoying to sift through all the junk to get to the good stuff....
Okay, let's be honest here. Everyone Googles everything. Am I right? Hence, the need to teach students how to "Google" properly. Googling has taken over past research practices such as going to the library or using an encyclopedia. It is so easy to find what...
Student E-Portfolios are an easy and engaging way to demonstrate growth and learning. But, what exactly are they and how do you make them happen in your classroom? E-Portfolios are websites that contain pages which show student learning throughout the course of a...
Charts for workshop can be incredible tools and well...a giant pain. Come on admit it, how many times have you scribbled down student ideas only to stare sideways at the mess before you. And half the class shouts you forgot the "n" in when. Your response is to calmly...