Are your students bored with word processors designed for businesses such as Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect? PrimaryPad is a web-based word processor designed for UK primary schools that allows students and teachers to work together in real-time. The best thing about this site is the fact that there is no sign-up required. All your students need to do is to press on the big green button and start typing. The features are very limited compared to a full word processor application and include text formatting such as bold, underline, italics and strikethrough as well as bullets and indent. That way, students can really concentrate on writing rather than formatting. Text is not locked-in to this website. Students can export their work in popular format such as Word, PDF, HTML and Open Document. Now the best part about this word processor is the collaboration tools. A student can invite other students to join by providing them with a URL or an <iframe> tag. When they join, each student has a colour assigned to their text. As they type, you can see which student has written each part of the text because it is all in different colour. It is perfect for a teacher who wants to evaluate collaborative work and know what part was done by each student. Finally, there is a time slider to go back in time and see changes that occurred on the document. I strongly recommend this tool for any teacher doing collaborative writing with his or her students.

Here is a great use of a Wiki for students and teachers: a compilation of videos about grammar. The concept is really simple : contributors to the wiki add embeds of videos from YouTube about grammar concepts. Videos currently included on the wiki include the passive voice, negative forms of “must” and “have to”, prepositions of place (at, on, in), who vs. whom, I vs. me, which vs. that, personal pronouns and many more. When visiting the wiki, you can either take advantage of this great collection of resources for teachers, or you can contribute by adding your own resources (videos from YouTube).

“10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling” is a great resource to put on the wall in your classroom. It includes ten words that are commonly misspelled by students (and adults too!) It is presented in the form of signs that are very cartoony. Each word is a separate picture file. It includes “loose vs. lose”, “weird”, “definitely”, “a lot” and many more. On a side note, you may want to leave out the one about the word “definitely” or modify it before you put it in your classroom.