Last month Night Zookeeper launched a fantastic creative writing platform called Writing Sparks. Writing Sparks offers timed writing prompts to share with your elementary school students. Students can respond to the prompts by writing on paper, in a word processing document like MS Word, or by writing on the Writing Sparks website. The Writing Sparks website provides students with templates to complete as they respond to each writing prompt.
In the video that is embedded below I provide a demonstration of how to use the free Writing Sparks service.
Just to clarify, Writing Sparks does not require you or your students to register in order to use the site. If your students use the Writing Sparks writing tool, they will have to download their work as PDFs in order to save it and share it.
Sunday, September 3, 2017
Get to Know Free Technology for Teachers
On a fairly regular basis I get comments on the Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page and in my email that read something like this, "do you guys have anything about X?" or "can someone on your team help me with X?" My answer is usually, "yes, I can help you." You see, the Free Technology for Teachers "team" is just me and one college student who helps me out for a few hours a week (and she's a relatively recent addition to my team).
I started this blog ten years ago this November. It was started with one simple purpose. That purpose was and still is to help teachers find and use free technology tools. When I started this blog in 2007 I was focused mostly on open source software and emerging Web 2.0 tools. iPads, Android tablets, and Chromebooks were still a few years away. Netbooks running stripped-down versions of XP, Vista, or some custom Linux installation were everywhere! As new hardware and new operating systems emerged, I started to include blog posts about free apps that ran on those platforms. Many of those free apps and websites have come and gone, but there are some that have lasted all ten years that I have been blogging. I'll be featuring all of those in new series called Built to Last.
Somewhere along the way this little hobby blog became a part-time job and then a full-time job. That happened thanks to so many of you who shared my blog posts, subscribed to the blog in various ways, invited me to speak at your conferences, and invited me into your schools. Advertisements on the blog help to keep it running, (my costs just for email management are more than my car payment) but it is the workshops and webinars that make it possible for me bring quality resource to you every day of the year. So as you think about your professional development needs, please keep me in mind and I will be happy to help you. My speaking page has more details about my keynotes, workshops, and webinars.
I started this blog ten years ago this November. It was started with one simple purpose. That purpose was and still is to help teachers find and use free technology tools. When I started this blog in 2007 I was focused mostly on open source software and emerging Web 2.0 tools. iPads, Android tablets, and Chromebooks were still a few years away. Netbooks running stripped-down versions of XP, Vista, or some custom Linux installation were everywhere! As new hardware and new operating systems emerged, I started to include blog posts about free apps that ran on those platforms. Many of those free apps and websites have come and gone, but there are some that have lasted all ten years that I have been blogging. I'll be featuring all of those in new series called Built to Last.
Somewhere along the way this little hobby blog became a part-time job and then a full-time job. That happened thanks to so many of you who shared my blog posts, subscribed to the blog in various ways, invited me to speak at your conferences, and invited me into your schools. Advertisements on the blog help to keep it running, (my costs just for email management are more than my car payment) but it is the workshops and webinars that make it possible for me bring quality resource to you every day of the year. So as you think about your professional development needs, please keep me in mind and I will be happy to help you. My speaking page has more details about my keynotes, workshops, and webinars.
SeeSaw 101 - How to Get Started Making SeeSaw Digital Portfolios
For the last couple of years SeeSaw has been my first choice for a digital portfolio tool. It works well on all platforms and it's equally easy to use on all platforms. But if you need a little help getting started on SeeSaw, SeeSaw 101 is there for you.
SeeSaw 101 is a set of self-guided tutorials on using the SeeSaw platform to create digital portfolios. SeeSaw 101 includes text, slides, and videos throughout each course.
SeeSaw can be used on all grade levels. However, a third grade teacher and a tenth grade teacher will use it in different ways. That's why SeeSaw 101 is divided into four sections. There's a section for pre-K through second grade, a section for third through fifth grade, a section for sixth through eighth grade, and a section for high school use.
Disclosure: SeeSaw is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com
SeeSaw 101 is a set of self-guided tutorials on using the SeeSaw platform to create digital portfolios. SeeSaw 101 includes text, slides, and videos throughout each course.
SeeSaw can be used on all grade levels. However, a third grade teacher and a tenth grade teacher will use it in different ways. That's why SeeSaw 101 is divided into four sections. There's a section for pre-K through second grade, a section for third through fifth grade, a section for sixth through eighth grade, and a section for high school use.
Disclosure: SeeSaw is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
I spend a good deal of time talking to myself. I often do this while riding my bike. Sometimes I do it to motivate myself to get over a hill...
-
Over the last decade I'm made more than eighty Google Slides video tutorials. Some of them are a bit outdated now, the rest are still re...
-
Upon the publication of my latest video about how to add Google Drive videos to Google Earth Pro my playlist of tutorials on using Google E...
-
Update September 2022: Vanilla Forums still exists, but it appears they no longer offer a free version. Vanilla Forums is free, open sourc...