Three Free Apps You Can Use in Your Classroom Today: Writing

The writing process has three key steps: prewriting, drafting, and reviewing. Educators can check out PUWW resources in our content area sections for tips on instructional practices. To help students practice all aspects of writing, check out these apps:

• Red Stamp: Let students practice writing letters by sending creative greeting cards! Writing for an audience can be a great way to motivate struggling writers. (iPad, iPhone, iPod, Android)
• Puppet Pals: Students can create videos by choosing characters, audio, animation, and more to tell a virtual story. (iPad)
• Moleskine: Like its namesake notebook, it allows users to write and draw in four different types of notebooks, including a ruled composition and a storyboard notebook. The app includes various tools to add colored text along with images, as well as a feature to export notebooks via email, Evernote, Facebook, and Twitter! 
• Tip: After students have drafted and reviewed a story, have them create a final “book” with the storyboard complete with images, and export for grading! (iPad, iPhone, iPod, Windows Phone 7.5/8, Samsung Galaxy Note)

Need more free writing apps? Try Lino to take notes, including videos and pictures (iPad or smartphone). Have writers block? Try Name Dice if students need assistance in creating character names in the early stages of writing (iPhone, iPad, iPod) or try WordDot: a random name and phrase generator to get those creative juices flowing.

Professional Development in 140 Characters: Getting Started with Twitter for PD

When it comes to professional development, sometimes the best approach is a collaborative one; teachers and administrators sharing what works and helping each other succeed. PowerUp WHAT WORKS can help you work together and plan with other educators in your building as you PowerUp your school and classrooms.

Social media is a great way to engage with other educators – whether right next door or around the world – and get ideas, inspiration, and support as you integrate technology into your classrooms. Many school administrators and teachers have turned to Twitter as a way to interact with other educators interested in teaching with technology. Twitter is easy to use, and there are tons of great tutorials out there that cover the basics. So how do you get started using Twitter for PD?

One great first step is to find Twitter users who are already using the service to improve their teaching. Once you do, you can follow the people they follow, or use an app like ShadowMe (for iPhone and iPad), which allows you to “shadow” a Twitter user and see what they’re tweeting, who they follow, and how they use Twitter. If an educator is engaged in an online discussion on elearning for example, you can follow along and see what’s happening.

Twitter also makes use of keywords or “hashtags” to help you find what people are talking about. Searching for #edtech will show you all the resources and conversations about educational technology. Hashtags can be a great tool for finding users and resources aligned with your interests.

Each week we’ll suggest more great educators to follow on Twitter as well as suggestions for making the most out of social media tools for PD. Here are a few to get you started:

• https://twitter.com/NMHS_Principal
• https://twitter.com/cti_powerup
• https://twitter.com/gcouros
• https://twitter.com/OfficeofEdTech
• https://twitter.com/iPodsibilities