Advanced Writing Institute

It has been a week since I have been able to post, but I was busy with the Advanced Writing Institute.  Two summers ago I was fortunate to be a part of the Coastal Savannah Writing Project. It was an amazing experience and this year I was able to be a part of the Advanced Writing Institute. It was an advance course for previous participants incorporating a digital technology to our writing. The opportunity to collaborate with other teachers who have the same passion was worth all the hard work. Each teacher shared a piece of technology they had used in their classroom and we turned one of our writings into a digital piece. Some ideas I was familiar with while others were new. These were some of the ideas teachers shared.

• Piclits.com - PicLits.com is a creative writing site that matches beautiful images with carefully selected keywords in order to inspire you. The object is to put the right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture.
• Blabberize.com - On this site you can make a picture talk by recording sound. (I did a previous post on this)
• iBooks - This is an amazing app that allows anyone to create any kind of book- for iPad. You can create it on a Mac and preview on an iPad.
• iMovie - Allows you to create your own movies. This is great for book trailers.
• Animoto- This is another site that allows you to create and share videos. Also great for Book trailers.
• comiclife.com - Lets you create comic.
• docsteach.org - This is a wonderful site where you can create lessons using historical documents. It has a bunch of resources for teachers.
• Photo Story 3 - Photo presentation for Windows. Another good site for book trailers if you do not have a Mac.
• Goanimate.com- You can create animated lessons for your class or a viral video.

One of the biggest things that I have learned from my experience at the Institute is that as a teacher of writing, I consider writing to be one of the most important things I can do with them. I need to put myself in their place on a continual basis so that I more fully understand what I am asking them to do.

This is very important in all that we plan for them to do. Create your teacher model. How can I know what difficulties they face if I don't face them, too? How will I know what strategies to suggest if I have not tried them first? How will I know the joy that they experience when they are genuinely pleased if I have not felt the same joy?

Professional Development is so important in being the best that we can be no matter how many years experience we have. Whether you attend a workshop, conference,  institute, or read professionally it helps in energizing your profession. We all need to be energized!

What Professional Development have you enjoyed?