Poetica Introduces Groups for Editing Online as if You Were Writing on Paper

Back in April I wrote about a neat service called Poetica that you can use to edit documents almost as if you were writing on paper. This month Poetica is introducing groups. Groups will allow you to share drafts of documents with reader that you invite to your group. You can register for access to groups by completing the form here.

Editing writing in Poetica is very similar to the manner in which we have written edits on papers for years. When you read a document in Poetica you can click on any word or space between words to insert a line drawn to the margin where you then write your comments. Clicking on a word or space also allows you to simply insert a suggested word above a line in the document you're editing. If you want to suggest a change for an entire sentence you can highlight it and insert a drawn line to the margins where you can write your suggestions. Your suggestions are written in blue while your corrections are written in red.

Applications for Education
Poetica supports importing Word files, PDFs, and Rich Text documents. If your school doesn't use Google Drive, Poetica could be a great tool for editing your students' written work. The visual connections between your markings and the comments could make it easier for your students to match your suggestions to specific portions of their documents.

MasteryConnect's State Core Apps Make It Easy to Identify Standards

Disclosure: MasteryConnect is an advertiser on this blog.

A couple of years ago MasteryConnect released a free iOS and Android app that made it easy for teachers to quickly identify and access Common Core standards. That app has been downloaded by more than one million people. But if you work in a state that hasn't adopted Common Core standards or is phasing them in slowly, MasteryConnect's Common Core app didn't do much for you. That has changed with the latest release from MasteryConnect.

This fall MasteryConnect launched State Core Reference Apps for every state. These apps are designed to help teachers identify the standards (and the language of the standards) for the grades and subjects that they teach. Each app is different for each of the 50 states. For example, if you work in a state that doesn't use Common Core standards, your states' standards are featured in the app. MasteryConnect's State Core Reference Apps are available for Android and iOS. Find your state on this map and you will be taken to the app that you need.

Applications for Education
MasteryConnect's State Core Reference Apps probably won't change the way that you teach, but they could save you time and frustration of looking up standards on a poorly-designed state website or booklet.