Let's Write!

Writing is always an important skill at all grade levels, and so one of my recommended web sites for beginning the 2010-2011 school year is The Writing Fix, sponsored since 2001 by the Northern Nevada Writing Project. This site is found at: http://www.writingfix.com/

According to the site, “If you explore our website's pages, you will find prompts, lessons, and resources that were created and shared--and then posted here--during workshops and in-service classes sponsored by the NNWP. The Nevada teachers who participate in these professional development opportunities discover ways to be passionate about teaching writing, and here we share the very best, hoping that our passion is contagious to the teachers across the globe who have discovered what we've proudly posted here.“

Some of the many resources you will find here are: the Daily Writing Prompt Generator, Picture Book Lesson Collection, Right-Brained Writing Prompts, Left-Brained Writing Prompts, Poetry Lesson Collection, and Constructed Response Homepage. Visit the site, try out the Daily Writing Prompt Generator, and then click over to visit the page with iPod and song lyric-inspired lessons which use music, video and podcasts to inspire writing in all content areas, and you’ll see why The Writing Fix has continued to grow in popularity – and quality of content - since 2001.

Fun--and Learning--with Friends at Podstock

I've been out and about lately to a lot of places and probably the best learning experience I've had this summer was at the Podstock Conference in Wichita on July 16-17. The reason? The emphasis on Learning - we're all in this together, there's more than one good way to use technology to improve our ability to learn and share at all ages. Thanks to my friends at ESSDACK and across the country for sharing with us and for allowing me to present as well as participate. It was a great experience.
Here's a picture of a couple of my friends from area schools and me, hamming it up in the Podstock Volkswagon Bus.