EssayPop is a web-based platform that assists students in creating exceptional essays. Through EssayPop, teachers can create their own writing assignments or use the prompt library, which includes writing prompts written by fellow educators. Many of the writing prompts include scoring rubrics, resources and ideas for teaching the lesson. Once you find a prompt that you like, you can edit it to meet your needs and then assign it to students in your group.
Once a prompt is assigned to students, EssayPop provides color-coded writing frames to assist students in writing a variety of essay types. EssayPop also features a built-in collaborative writing community with their Writing Hive feature. Here, students can get feedback from other students and teachers within a school district.
EssayPop also features an awesome blog that provides educator friendly resources such as style guides and writing tips. The blog also features the infamous Mixtapes that provide teachers and students with music playlists to listen to as they compose. Some of my favorite Mixtapes are “Meditate” and “La Luna.”
If you are an English or English Language Arts teacher, EssayPop is definitely worth checking out!
The Digital Storytelling Association defines digital storytelling as “the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling. Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and visible color to characters, situations, experiences, and insights” (Rule, 2018, 1). There are numerous benefits to having students create digital stories within the classroom, including engaging students in work around the 4 C’s: Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, and Communication. And, in eight easy steps, your students can create the next Gone With the Wind; ok, maybe not, but they will be super engaged in their learning and want to persevere until they have a great product. EdTech Teacher explains the 8 steps here.
Digital Storytelling in the Classroom
Digital storytelling takes your traditional project and gives it wings. Want students to write a narrative? Why not instead have them use multi-media to tell their story? Turn your typical boring book report into a digital review and ask you multimedia specialists to share student products on the library website so that other students can preview digital book reviews. Have students practice their world language skills by asking them to create a digital tour of a famous foreign city. Throw away your poster board and glitter glue and have students take the place of a character in a story they are reading via the digital world. Have your students use technology to interview grandparents or war veterans or their favorite animal. Take the time machine and your technology back to Verona and have students write digital love letters from Romeo to Juliet. The ideas are as endless as your imagination. Looking for some other great ideas, check out iSpring for using digital storytelling across several different content areas.
Where do you find digital storytelling tools?
There are numerous tools you can use within your classroom and more and more tools continue to be added. My favorite, very easy to use tools, are Animoto and PowToon. Both permit students to add graphics, sound, narration, video, and other effects. Lucky for you, I have gathered a list of even more web tools and apps that you can use in your classroom here.
Sometimes as you are browsing the internet you come across something that makes you say, “Ain’t that the truth!” Well, today’s post is about that something. The reality of teaching graphic shown below from @thethriftyteacherlady speaks about the unseen work that teachers do everyday. The work that usually goes unnoticed. But, it’s work that should not be left in the dark; it’s work that should be shouted from the mountain tops. Teachers everywhere need to be advocates for their profession.
Advocacy is something I preach to my preservice teachers, beginning when they are freshman. In Foundations of Education, an introductory course at my College, I compare a teacher’s job to that of a surgeon in an Emergency Room. I ask students, “Which job do you think is more difficult? Which job comes with more stress? More accountability?” Most say the job of the surgeon because s/he is responsible for life and death situations. I do not disagree that the job of a surgeon is important. But, the point I make is that the job of a teacher is just as critical, but has less support.
For example, while the surgeon is diagnosing one patient, the teacher is diagnosing 25 or more children, each with different learning needs, backgrounds, and personalities. While the surgeon is providing care with the best technology, tools, and staff (nurses, specialists, etc.), the teacher is providing care with limited resources and technology and most likely they are doing this all by themselves. The surgeon’s work is supported by a network of medical professionals who give advice about what works best while the teachers get advice from politicians and community members who lack expertise in child development and educational research. I could go on and on, but you get the point. The sad part of the tale is that the surgeon is revered and but the teacher is not. Both are saving lives, both are changing the world, but one is respected and valued above the other.
Advocacy is about changing “what is” into “what should be” and it begins with one educator at a time. We need to embrace the power we all have and do something to change the perception of education as an “easy” job with “summers off.” We need to live the words of Lilly Tomlin: “I always wondered why somebody doesn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was that somebody.”
At the Campaign for America’s Future Awards Gala in October 2015, National Education Association president, Lily Eskelsen García, sums up the work of educators when she speaks about “What Teachers Do.” Teachers “Do” so very much….more than they are given credit for by the general public. It is our duty to advocate for our professional every chance we get. I will leave you with this.
