Summer Superheroes

Summer Superheroes is a “Parent & After School Resource” on ReadWriteThink.  It offers an interesting twist to the concept of creating your own superhero by challenging the author to invent a superhero whose powers are somehow dependent on the warmest season of the year.  The detailed instructions for motivating the child and for helping him … Read more

Scribble Press

Scribble Press is a free app for the iPad that allows the user to create ebooks.  There are over 50 story templates (If I Were a Superhero, for example), or you can create your own.  Illustrating the stories is easy and fun with the use of markers, stamps, and stickers.  Once a book is created, … Read more

Thanks for Teaching Us

Thanks for Teaching Us is a site that allows students to publicly thank their teachers.  With Random Acts of Kindness Week just around the corner (Feb. 13-19), this might be a great activity to offer your students.  Talk about the qualities they have liked in past teachers. Ask them to choose a teacher and to … Read more

My Favorite Online Writing Tools

Many schools are out for the next two weeks, which gives teachers the opportunity to catch up on their personal lives.  Sometimes, though, teachers like to use this time for planning.  As the number of subscribers to this blog climbs, I am aware that many of you may not have had time to read all … Read more

Storybird

As a teacher, do you ever have a moment when no one needs your help, and you are standing in the middle of your classroom wondering what you should be doing?  In my twenty years of teaching, I think that’s happened twice:  when I was student teaching and had no idea what I was supposed … Read more

Six-Word Memoirs

A couple of years ago, a fellow Gifted and Talented teacher, Michelle A., introduced me to these brief biographies by showing me the book Not Quite What I Was Planning.  I was immediately intrigued, and went out to buy my own copy.  There is something deeply moving about the power of six words to tell … Read more