Writing Re_Launched: Teaching with Digital Tools

This article was so fitting with some conversations I had with parents during conferences this week. Students have so many great ideas and creativity that pen and paper are not always sufficient. Today we live in a time that they don't have to be restricted with pencil and paper. We have technology, but as teachers we are still restricted by the pressures of testing. Until testing changes, I will still have to teach the conventions and rules of the friendly letter to all 4th grade students because it will be on the test. Students are being tested on how to write a friendly letter on paper when in reality they will use e-mail and text to communicate as adults.When is the last time you wrote a friendly letter on a notepad...really!

 As the article states even college applications and entrance essays are digital. I had a parent tell me at parent-teacher conferences that he was concerned about his child's spelling. My response was, "Adam's spelling is close enough, spell check will catch it so I wouldn't be worried." I have hard bound dictionaries in my classroom, but only the students who publish writing on paper with pencil use them. Students using computers never touch them.

Finally, I like the part of the article with teachers giving 1:1 instruction as students write on Google Docs. This is ultimate differentiation! Why  teach the whole class a mini-lesson when you can write and make instant comments to individual students about their needs. I would totally implement this if all my students had computers or ipads. Unfortunately  with 5 laptops in the room and a laptop cart for 1/2 day once a week this is not something that would be time efficiently used since I would still have to teach a traditional mini lesson to my non-technology using students.

Cool article!

Pintrest in the Classroom

I have been using Pintrest to expose my students to videos that require inference making. This allows my students to view media and apply critical thinking skills. My students then make comments on the blog to share their thinking. These have been amazingly powerful mini lessons. I would have never been able to find all these videos so easily if it was not for pintrest! Check out these video I found on pintrest. My students were able to watch these simple animated film and infer so much about the story! Video From Pintrest

I have also used Pintrest to use in my math centers. I created a Pintrest board that students are going to during their computer center time. I linked the Pintrest board to my blog. Pintrest Board-Math Games

Exciting BLOG Connection

So my students watched a video during an inference lesson and made comments. Then the author of the book that the video was based on found our blog and wrote to us! My students got to see how far their learning/blogging could reach! Such an awesome experience! Check out the blog post and the comments left by the author! Bigger Than Alexander