Writers Workshop The Bonsai Story Tree Generator takes coherent text and turns it into... well, I'm not sure what. It's not GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) -- it's more like QIGO (Quality In, Garbage Out). Only, the garbage often makes a sort of strange, surreal sense... Judge for yourself. :-) Why is it called the Bonsai Story Tree Generator? At each December holiday party of the Northern Colorado Writers' Workshop, members exchange gag gifts; the more unique the better (and nothing costing more than $13.13). (In January 2005, Bonsai'd text was published as chapter 34 of the hoax book, Atlanta Nights, ostensibly the worst book ever written.) I put up this web interface so others can create their own Bonsai Story Trees. --Andrew Burt
Teacher Resources There’s an app for that! Now you can engage your students in literacy learning using tablet devices with apps from ReadWriteThink.org. Students can download a mobile app and use it anywhere, anytime. No Internet connection is required once the apps are downloaded. Word Mover (Grades 3 – 12) Word Mover allows children and teens to create “found poetry” by choosing from word banks and existing famous works; additionally, users can add new words to create a piece of poetry by moving/manipulating the text. Trading Cards (Grades 3 – 8) Invigorate students' writing with an interactive tool that allows them to demonstrate their comprehension using a mobile app. Acrostic Poems (Grades K – 12) Learn about and write acrostic poems, a poetry form that uses the letters in a word to begin each line of the poem. Alphabet Organizer (Grades K – 5) The Alphabet Organizer lets users create a calendar-style ABC chart or letter pages for an alphabet book. Diamante Poems (Grades K – 12)
Short Stories: 10 Tips for Creative Writers Jerz's Literacy Weblog AdLit.org Project Gutenberg - free ebooks LESSON PLANS Video “I think everyone should have wings, just like the birds. But since we don’t have wings, we fly kites.” High above Rio de Janeiro’s crowded favelas, kites soar and dive — and attack. In this short documentary, we learn how kite fighting is more than just a simple pastime for the young people holding the strings. Read more… In anticipation of our third annual Student Editorial Contest (to be announced on Feb. 25), we’ve done the math, and below you’ll find the 100 most-commented-upon questions we’ve ever asked that call for persuasive writing. Many of them are, of course, on topics teenagers care about — technology, video games, sports and gender issues. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, the broad topic that seems to engage students the most? So skim the list and pick issues that interest you. Read more… In this short documentary, a talented teenager in the Mojave Desert is torn between her goal of attending art school and wanting to help support her family. Read more… Read more… Read more…
Free books: 100 legal sites to download literature The Classics Browse works by Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad and other famous authors here. Classic Bookshelf: This site has put classic novels online, from Charles Dickens to Charlotte Bronte.The Online Books Page: The University of Pennsylvania hosts this book search and database.Project Gutenberg: This famous site has over 27,000 free books online.Page by Page Books: Find books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Textbooks If you don’t absolutely need to pay for your textbooks, save yourself a few hundred dollars by reviewing these sites. Math and Science Turn to this list to find books about math, science, engineering and technology. Children’s Books Even children’s books are now available online. Philosophy and Religion For books about philosophy and religion, check out these websites. Plays From Shakespeare to George Bernard Shaw to more contemporary playwrights, visit these sites. Modern Fiction, Fantasy and Romance Foreign Language History and Culture Rare Books Look for rare books online here.
TeAch-nology.com 9 best sites with free ebooks for Google Play In this post you’ll learn about best websites with free ebooks that you will be able to add to your Google Play Books library. In June 2012 Google revealed that Gmail had over 400 million active users worldwide. If you own Gmail account, you don’t have to sign up to any other site to start collecting your own library of ebooks. These books will be stored “in the cloud”. That means you will be able to access them from any device, not only from your own computer. When we add ease of use and simplicity, Google Play Books may the a first choice for anyone who gets interested in ebooks. Obviously, there are enough free books in Google Play, and in this post you’ll find tips and tricks to effectively browse for them. However, Google Play Books is a pretty closed ecosystem, very much relying on Google’s scan book project. That’s why this list will be the opportunity to find other sources of free ebooks compatible with Google Play, including the ones from contemporary authors. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 1.
Common Core Curriculum Maps | Digital Resources These digital resources and tools for creating, collaborating, researching, and sharing can be found in the Common Core Curriculum Maps. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list, as the technologies are constantly evolving. Consider it a beginning! Free Online Resources Bookmarking These programs allow teachers to store bookmarks in one place, and allow others to access them. Edmodo Edmodo is an easy and engaging way to manage assignments, provide a way for students to communicate and create an online classroom. Edmodo Glogster Students can easily create and share interactive posters. Glogster Google Docs Google Docs is “storage in the clouds” — a place that allows many students to collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms. Google Docs Google Earth Google Earth lets students view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, canyons of the ocean, and other features and physical locations from their computers. Google Earth Jing Jing Open Educational Resources Picasa Picasa