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Writing Teacher Shannon Carey is teaching writing this year with an edge. Using the idea of "writing as resistance" she's helping kids find their voice on hard, tough topics and daring them to write great things. Read this blog post for ideas and to see some cool things you can do to challenge great writing.

You can use technology in your next read aloud. Here are some great ideas,

An awesome list of novels based upon the awards they have won and book lists they've made. LIterature teachers will find this fascinating.

Great explanation of all of the writing events in November - #AcWriMo, #DigiWriMo, #NaNoGenMo

Literature teachers will love these book openings.

Tackk is a quick, simple way to create a page (without really having a website.) This page links to all of the tackk's relating to education. This is a cool, unique idea and I haven't seen anything quite like it. Sort of pinterest/ glogster mixed together. Cool. Writing teachers or anyone who has students do quick projects might be interested in this.

Booktrack gives you a way to read a book while listening to a soundtrack. I mentioned the research study in a previous bookmark / link. This is something librarians and literacy leaders should test and try out for themselves as it is a fascinating tool and potential. There are a thousand questions I have about this but plan to try it for myself.

This is an awesome sliderocket about how to use Google Docs to facilitate a Writing Workshop created by Susan Oxnevad. Look for links to examples within the presentation so you can use everything she shares. This slide show shares not only best practices in running a writing workshop but also is a best practice itself in creating a stand alone presentation that instructions in a powerful way. Writing teachers everywhere should take 10 minutes to work through this slide show this week.

If you want students to draft work in Google Docs, you have to teach them about the Research pane. It lets you search for the appropriate license (click the down arrow) and set the citation method. You can insert photos, search Google Scholar and a dictionary, your own files, and even the web. When you mouse over the item, you have the option to cite the source or insert a link. Very cool and handy for writers. This is an older feature that hasn't gotten the press it deserves in classrooms. If you have Google Apps for education this is a BIG DEAL because it simplifies finding pictures and does many other things that online citation generators do all within Google Docs.

I always like to watch people who are very productive and am deleting apps that don't add to my life. As a writer, I'm always looking for new cool apps and have been loving IndexCard for a while when drafting and writing books. Here's a new app called Editorial that has me intrigued along with one of the best posts on any app I've ever seen from the Mac Drifter. It has increased support for text versions in Dropbox, which intrigues me the most.

Jen Roberts gives tips on how to add voice comments to Google Docs. If you're writing in Google Docs, this is a great technique as voice always gives you a closer connection, particularly for struggling readers. They can also hear your voice and know the intent of your words.

The Great Books Foundation is a nonprofit educational organization based in Chicago, IL. 

Prezi meeting is a tool that students are using in the brainstorming and planning phase of a project. This presentation shares how this works.

There continues to be a problem that not all books in the Amazon kindle store have real page numbers. If students are expected to cite sources and not allowed to use location numbers, then Amazon can expect the pushback seen on this forum post. Meanwhile, a helpful person on the forum has noted how you can know what to read on the Kindle if your professor or teacher says "read page 80-92" - you can dive into the table of contents on the website and save a copy. This is the only solution. It is time for Amazon to get their act together and have all Kindle ebooks display page numbers if there is a printed copy of the book. If there is not a printed copy of the book, there needs to be a consistent reference point or "page" that all can use for sourcing and citing content. "1. Look up the book in the in the Amazon Kindle store (where you purchased it). 2. Click on the book where it says "Look Inside." You want to look at the table of contents, which will have the pages numbers for each chapter. 3. It defaults to the "kindle edition," which does not have the page numbers in the table of contents. However, there is a tab above that says "Print Book." Click on that. 4. Once you're on the "Print Book" display, it shows the page numbers in the TOC. By doing the above, I was able to determine that "the first 26 pages" = Chapters 1 & 2. I used Evernote to take a screen capture of the entire TOC, which I'll refer back to."