Evernote

I grew up with grocery lists dictated by my mother. Once I was on my own, it was paper slips plunged into a pocket--any pocket--and it often remained there until the garment's next washing. With the advent of mobile phones, I had a built-in memo pad and this was much more helpful because I took care not to wash my phone. But I still relied on sticky notes if I was working on my computer (phones out in class is frowned upon) and these have a way of becoming lost as well.

But this month I found the answer to going paperless. It's Evernote and it's free. The ability for Evernote to automatically sync to a computer or cell without prompting makes it a wonderful digital tool. I can spontaneously make notes whenever I need, wherever I am, and I can also capture website pages.So, when I consider how much Evernote will keep me on track, my thoughts automatically turn to my students. 

The kids that always forget the assignment, reading, note from home? Make them use Evernote. In fact, since all my students have computers/mobiles outside of school and I teach my language class on the lab computers, Evernote is the perfect exchange for assignment books. We're giving it a whirl this fall and I'll get back to you on its acceptance. I'm pretty sure it will be a winner.

Language Arts Educators Balance Text-Only Tactics with Multimedia Skills

How can we adjust our traditional language classroom to create authentic digital literacy? Take a look at this article in Education Week..

To give you a brief synopsis, multiple educators around the U.S. are featured by explaining and analyzing how they transform their traditional teachings in language towards a digital environment. It's an environment triggering images and sounds; one that students craft through their imaginations using tools that are engaging and familiar to them. Some of the teachers add multimedia to their traditional research-writing process, and most all promote publishing for an online audience. Read the article, examine their varied methods, and learn how you might do the same in your classroom.

The Digital Writing Workshop

My best reading so far this summer is a book of the above title by Troy Hicks. Many of us may be familiar with The Writing Workshop, but Mr. Hicks takes the techniques and applies them to the digital landscape, which is the territory of our students. One of my favorite Kindle-highlighted quotes is that we should first "Teach the writer and then the writing." I know that seems confusing, but he further elaborates throughout the book about ways we can have students use digital tools to find their voices as instruments rather than only using the tool to publish. He showcases many free tools---wiki, blog, web publisher, podcast, screencast, digital storytelling, student anthology and portfolio tools--and how they can best be used; not in the traditional sense either, but as project-based, constructive resources that take students beyond the traditional writing process they've come to know. Through these types of activities, they can become much more engaged within the boundaries we create with hopes that they will continue to explore writing. 

The great priority of this book reiterates through Mr. Hick's viewpoint that "...if we engage students in real writing tasks and we use technology in such a way that it complements their innate need to find purposes and audiences for their work, we can have them engaged in a digital writing process that focuses first on the writer, then on the writing, and lastly on the technology." This is best promoted by encouraging students to use RSS feeds to isolate their real interests. The teacher does not tell them what to write about, but rather gives them the model, such as a persuasive or a research essay, and then the student uses their RSS feed to explore possible topics while using the mode assigned by the teacher.  Through this method, the student is instantly engaged and uses high-level cognitive order thinking for the process. You can view these cognitive processes at Andrew Churches' digital update of  Bloom's Taxonomy at http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/file/view/bloom%27s+Digital+taxomomy+v3.01.pdf

Mr. Hicks further promotes these cognitive level processes by promoting current digital tools students can use, such as a classroom wiki. He explores many tools and offers suggestions ways we can use them effectively. To quote the introductory text, "In Troy's book we have not just words, but a companion website. Not just the latest tools and projects that show what students can do with them, but the layers of thinking beneath the surface of flash, the foundation of principles in a solid writing workshop. Troy delivers the fine details and the big vision. He understands the theory we know in our hearts."

I recommend this book to teachers already using The Writing Workshop techniques, knowing that it's time to move forward with 21st Century applications of these techniques. The examples given are not specific but broad, which further promotes exploration and creativity by the user--another activity that teachers should embrace for authentic student learning.