EdTech by Emily

No More Red Ink is an online practice platform that focuses on grammar. Students pick topics that interest them. All of their practice materials are customized to their interests. Teachers can assign diagnostic materials or specific lessons to all students or differentiate by student need. Students are also able to work through the practice modules independently. Students are given immediate and adaptive feedback based on their responses. No More Red Ink is geared toward students 4th grade and up. As with any freemium product, there are certain features that are gained with a paid subscription . If you decide to try No More Red Ink , give me a shout! I'd love to help you get started or hear how it goes for you. Student Interest page: View of teacher data page:

As illustrated in the image above, Grammarly checks your text, as you type, for hundreds of common and advanced writing issues. The checks include grammatical errors, contextual spelling mistakes, phonetic spelling mistakes, and others. Grammarly also provides synonym suggestions to make your writing more readable and precise. To use Grammarly, click this link and then click the green Add to Chrome button in the upper right-hand corner. (Note: you will want to be signed into Chrome to make full use of your extensions and bookmarks. 😊)

Language Is A Virus-But in a good way!!! I made the above image with a visual poetry tool on languageisavirus.com . That tool alone is pretty cool but it’s not all that Language Is a Virus has to offer. It also has daily writing prompts, writing games, exercises, techniques, text generators and text manipulators. Here is what Language Is a Virus has to say about their purpose: “Languageisavirus.com exists to cure writer's block and inspire creativity. You can choose from a multitude of writing games, gizmos, generators, writing prompts and exercises, tips, experiments and manifestos from infamous avant garde writers and how-to articles on fiction writing and poetry.” Language is a Virus is a tool I think every language arts teacher would love to have in their collection.

Imagine Forest is a free, online resource that makes writing stories easy and fun. They have created a collection of inspirational creative writing resources for kids. They also have a creative writing community where students can publish their work. You can read more about Imagine Forest on their blog . One caveat: kids under 12 need an account under an adult. ( Read here for the specifics.) Don’t let that scare you away. Contact me and we can discuss the best way to set it up for you and your students!

DID YOU KNOW… You can do MORE with BrainPop/BrainPopJr. than just watch videos! You have probably seen that each video has accompanying activities. You can also assign these activities to your students through BrainPop/BrainPopJr. To find out more, check out BrainPop’s FAQ here ! I’d love to partner with you on getting the most out of BrainPop!

Image credit: here If you use any of the Google apps with your students, you will want to check out this resource ! It is a collection of ready-made templates for you to use in your lessons. It is even divided by grade level! I particularly like the newspaper templates on the front page. Check out this resource today!

Do you ever see things for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers and think to yourself, “I could make that myself and not have to pay anyone.” I’m not saying I did that, but here are some directions you could use with your students to do a little virtual jack-o-lantern decorating and writing. Happy October! (A little note…these directions assume your students have used Google Docs and are working on a Chromebook. Also, this activity would be a PERFECT one to share out via Google Classroom.) To view the directions CLICK HERE! Example of student work:

Book Creator...on a Chromebook! Book Creator is a versatile tool that can be used to create books or projects in any subject area. Book Creator was formerly only available as an app on iPads but now is available for use on Chromebooks! To find out more about using Book Creator with your students you can check out this Google Slide .