Resources

Resources for the students

There are many effective ways of integrating technology resources into the classroom, which can help ease and organize the writing process for our students.


Dictionary.com is an online dictionary and thesaurus. It also offers citation formats, many links to useful tools, a style guide, and formats for punctuation, capitalization, and abbreviations.

Encyclopedia.com allows students to access more than 100 dictionaries and reputable encyclopedias as well as many reference books.  

Google docs allows students to save a variety of documents, share them with their teacher or peers, and collaborate on projects from their own device. 

Outliner (app) allows students to outline writing ideas, move them easily with drag-and-drop, make notes, and order all their writing in many different ways.

StoryBuilder (app) is designed to teach story structure. In the process, students learn sentence structure, sequencing, and inferencing. 

Hemingway is a tool for editing. It highlights problems in writing. The student can paste their text and Hemingway highlights hard to read sentences, adverbs, complex phrases, and passive voice. 

iThoughts is online mind mapping for iOS. It can help students organize and keep track of their ideas in a variety of different map formats. The students can save many maps and add to them at any time. 



Screencasts: 
Technology has allowed for the classroom to be extended well beyond the walls of the school. To allow for more class time to be used for experiential-based learning activities, content can be delivered to students in a “flipped classroom” model via screencasts. Students can be assigned the task of watching a screencast video posted by a teacher to a blog or website and take notes in preparation for the next class. By doing so, students will be able to enter the classroom with background knowledge, or with an introduction to a topic, which can be applied in the activities in class. 

Youtube/Tedtalk Videos:
Tthe days of the teacher being the all-knowing keeper of all knowledge is long gone, and the students themselves know it! The internet has allowed our classrooms to reflect the globalized world in which we live. Integrating technology in the classroom allows for teachers to take advantage of the wealth of information which the internet has to offer. We can help extend a student’s knowledge and understanding of a topic by incorporating youtube videos, or tedtalks which can help students gain a different perspective or outlook on the content of the class. 

Blogs or Websites:
Having a class blog or website is a great way to optimize on communication between teachers, students, and parents. A blog or website can be used to upload screencasts, youtube or TedTalk videos, readings, links, calendars, or other various posts, as well as a way to communicate with students and parents regarding due dates, important announcements, updates, etc. 

Expanding on Resources: 
Technology can also be used to enhance the classroom experience because it opens the students to a world of resources which they otherwise may not have been able to experience. For example, in the English classroom, if you are teaching Shakespeare, you can take your students to see that Globe Theatre without leaving your seats!