Pre K Penmanship Activities Digital and Print

As the weather turns cooler and the holidays (and possible snow days) approach you may have some little ones around. Why not create a few penmanship papers for them to doodle with or demonstrate their newly learned skills while they are on holiday or snowed in during the winter weather days?.

I have to give some credit to +Kimberly Geswein  for sharing the KG Primary Penmanship Fonts  . Read the comments. If you use editing tools in your text document tools, you may want to turn them off when you create a document with the KG Primary Fonts with lines. Of course, always review the product in the print preview mode before you print. Now if we can get that font in Google Docs, that would be great.

I also have to give some credit to Donna Young and her home school site (+DonnaYoung.org). If you are snowed in with little ones, Donna's site has something you can use for all learning levels.

I also used some free fonts from Educational Fontware. 

These are just a couple of tools that family and friends may want to incorporate with the little ones around who want to show you what they have learned or some fun activities to refresh your old school learning with those who will replace us. I created a few worksheets so the GBaby can practice and showcase her penmanship over the holidays and possible snow days.

Gone digital?

I have to give props to +Richard Byrne who blogs at Free Technology for Teachers (and is present in so many social media streams) for sharing this blog post in December 2011, 123s ABCs - A Handwriting Practice App for Android Devices. Hat tip to +Richard Byrne and his +Free Technology for Teachers blog. I look to his blog for many reasons but particularly regarding learning, whether for myself, friends, family, wounded warriors or people who need to expand their perspective.

Whatever your mobile device there are apps for babies and toddlers to enhance learning. Check the source, analyze the permissions, and ruggedize your device before putting the device in the little one's hands. Whether you search Google Play , iTunes , or Amazon Apps, or Windows Phone Apps there are apps for everyone. Enjoy your shared teachable and learning moments throughout the year.

It is hard to believe that a year ago I wrote, Turned the old smart phone into a child friendly device for the GBaby, November 3, 2013.

While going through this learning adventure with the GBaby, I am reminded how my penmanship has regressed over the last 20 years while integrating technology into my own life.

Thanks to +PBS KIDS and +Sesame Street for providing many activities for the family to do throughout the year too.

So what apps and activities are you integrating to keep the youngsters' gray matter active during the holidays and snow days?

Paper Rater

I came across Paper Rater after one of Richard Byrne's posts on plagiarism tools from August 2010. He recently ran an updated post on eight resources for detecting and preventing plagiarism in June 2012 and Paper Rater is still on his list.

From Paper Rater's About page:

PaperRater.com is a free resource, developed and maintained by linguistics professionals and graduate students. PaperRater.com is used by schools and universities in over 46 countries to help students improve their writing. PaperRater.com combines the power of natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, information retrieval (IR), computational linguistics, data mining, and advanced pattern matching (APM). We offer the most powerful writing tool available on the internet today.

Since I am taking a short course and creating Lab Reports in APAv6 I thought I would give Paper Rater a try. Enter the title of your paper, copy and paste the text of your paper in the text box, copy and paste your references, bibliography, and works cited in the Reference box. Then select the education level of this paper's author, the type of paper you are submitting, originality detection (optional), and read and agree to the terms of service.

Depending on the amount of text inserted, report type selected, and your network connection the results will display. You have the option to print a summary of your results or step through the recommendations.

Paper Rater will check your submission for plagiarism, spelling, grammar, style, vocabulary and give you an opportunity to like them on Facebook. I would put them in a circle if they were on Google+. Depending on the type of paper you submit there is an option to view a grade. Selecting Lab Reports does not produce a grade but I can select Research Paper and the Grade option is available.

The additional components that I like about Paper Rater are:
Bad Phrase Score which is based on the number and quality of trite or inappropriate words, phrases, and cliches found in your paper.

The Style section includes the transitional words score, sentence length, and word usage.
Transitional Words Score based on quality of transitional phrases used within your paper.

The Sentence Length section provides a summary that includes sentence info includes character count, number of words, average length, characters=syllables, number of sentences, average length, percent and number of short sentences, percent and number of long sentences, number of paragraphs, average sentence length, number of questions, and percent and number of passive sentences, and the number of the words in the longest and shortest sentence.

The Word Usage section provides a summary of verb types which include: to be and auxiliary then calculates the percentage of conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, and nominalizations and sentence beginnings which include the number of pronouns, interrogative pronouns, articles, subordinating conjunctions, conjunctions, and prepositions.

The Vocabulary Score section provides a vocabulary score, vocabulary word count, percentage of vocabulary words, and a list of vocabulary words used. They recommend their vocabulary builder to improve just one word a day in your vocabulary to encourage you to improve your vocabulary score to 60, which will make your paper stand out.

So if you have a paper that you want analyzed, give Paper Rater a try. The site provides a different perspective of your writing. 

Paper Rater has a user suggestion improvement site, a blog and a Facebook page. I would like to add Paper Rater to a Google+ circle if they were there.

What is your favorite part of Paper Rater? Are you using it with thesis/dissertation assignments, blog posts, biography, correspondence, book reports, movie or book reviews? Comments, recommendations, reaction box checks, and +1s are always welcome.

Essay Contest - Being an American

The Question: What civic value do you believe is most essential to being an American? Trace the enduring importance of this value throughout the American story by discussing: a Founding document that reflects this value; a figure from American history who embodies this value; and ways you can personally put this value into practice.

The Prizes: 180 prizes will be awarded totaling nearly $200,000. Top prize winners will win $5,000 cash and a trip to Washington, D.C. for an Awards Gala and Weekend! The two schools with the greatest percentage of eligible students participating will receive a full set of Bill of Rights Institute curriculum. This prize will be based upon the number of eligible student participants per school as noted during the essay submission process. The retail value of this prize will not exceed $450.

Submitting an Essay: Our teacher-only submission of high school student essays began on September 2, and ends December 1, 2008. For detailed rules, click here. Essays are limited to 750 words and a sponsoring teacher is required to submit the student’s essay for him or her.

Eligibility: The Contest is open to all United States citizens or legal residents who are students (1) in Grades 9-12 attending public, private, religious, and charter schools but who are no older than 19 as of the end of the Contest Period (December 1, 2008), (2) enrolled in a GED or correspondence school program but who are no older than 19 as of the end of the Contest Period, or (3) attending a home school program who are no younger than 12 as of the beginning of the contest period and no older than 19 as of the end of the Contest Period.

I give a participative scholarship workshop at the local library and encourage our students (young and adult) to write outside of course assignments which allows them to build what we refer to as their "Me Folio". I encourage them to build a collection documenting every positive accomplishment from the best reader in 3rd grade, years selected to honor rolls, student council positions to community services. The workshop requires students to use the computers to create, share, and modify Google Docs, share knowledge on scholarship search engines, and explore opportunities from corporations, local agencies, and personal networking.


Keeping these documents available through Google Docs allows the students to quickly access information if they are completing applications for extra-curricular activities, college, and job applications. Reviewing their personal writing styles allows the students to see how they improve, how to self assess, and with Google Docs sharing capability an opportunity to have mentors and community leaders to provide assistance.


Being An American Essay Contest Rules and Regulations