As a future English teacher, the title of this blog grabbed me right away. The blog post is written by Robert Morris, who is an online tutor and freelance writer. Most students aren’t exactly excited about the idea of writing an essay. However, there are certain things you can do as a teacher to make the experience better than the imagined or better than there experiences with writing have been in the past.

The first tip is to utilize  Writing Roadmap. This is an online tool that helps students develop their organization and writing skills. Sometimes students are more excited about the idea of completing their assignment with the use of technology instead of the traditional paper and pencil method. This is a good way to utilize technology while improving the writing of students.

Another resource mentioned in the article is Essay Punch. This website gives students thousands of prompts to write about. Additionally, it guides the student through each step of the writing process. The teacher is also able to monitor the student’s progress as they work on their writing.

Another really neat app is StoryBuilder. This app helps students with paragraph formation. Students can save work they work on here and record narrative.

I think it is really important to use these technology applications with writing. Students are more likely to be open to working on their writing if there are new and innovative tools to help them with it. They are also likely to be more responsive to feedback and helping each other if they can use technology. These websites and apps are also very useful in the classroom. They will add to the writing, not detract from it. Also, they are very easily incorporated into lessons without having to change much around in the regular lesson plan.

The blog I read this week dealt with assessment and technology. The positive aspect of this strategy is that it is more efficient for the teacher to grade. The technology grades the assessment for the teacher sometimes, so the teacher does not have to sit down and grade each assessment themselves.

One tool, the Answer Pad, lets students draw their answers to questions. This could make questions that could be answered with a graphic organizer much more user friendly. Graphic organizers are very helpful for some students, so this option of a question on an assessment is helpful to these students.

AudioBoom is another tool that is very effective. This tool lets the student record audio on a device. Students who would rather explain their answer could use this tool to answer a question and the teacher could listen and then assign them a grade based on their spoken answer.

Kahoot! turns an assessment into a game show, and also allows the teacher to utilize a spreadsheet to view questions that have low scores. Not only can teachers create a game to use for assessment, but students can also create their own game. Teachers could use this to let students create questions for an assessment and give them input on what they should be tested over.

Overall, these tools can be very useful in my future classroom when trying to make learning and assessment easier for students who need special accommodations. Students who are not as successful on paper and pencil exams could be more successful if they can answer with a drawing, graphic organizer, or recorded audio. Additionally, tools like the game show can save time on grading by grading the answer itself and then providing the results as a whole. 

This week’s blog dealt with technology in the classroom and increasing test scores. Kristi Meeuwse’s classroom began to use iPads in their classroom. After thirteen months of iPad use, Meeuwse reports that all thirty of her students finished the school year reading at or above their grade level. However, the results did not come just because of the iPads. The iPads, or whatever the technology choice is, has to be combined with good teaching.

I found this blog very interesting because I have been concerned with using technology in classrooms and teachers using it to simply replace effort. Teachers sometimes unfortunately replace actual teaching with technology. However, this blog made me realize that technology really can be used to enhance learning.

Another issue I have with the technology use is the cost. I would like to see more studies that prove the enhancement of learning through technology use. With the current budget cuts in education funding, the way we spend money becomes even more important. However, if it can be proven that this technology furthers, enhances, and facilitates learning, I think this is a good use of money.

Additionally, since we are preparing our students for the world after school, technology is an important integration that must be made in our classrooms. Our students are going to use technology everyday in their jobs and personal lives. Therefore, I believe it is important to give students all the practice with technology we can while they are in school and learning.