Congratulations once again to Genoa Middle School teachers Deanna McDaniel, Carly Young, Emily Minney, Tracy Jados and their students, who were extremely busy during the month of November, creating their own novels for NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month). Last year they wrote 1,211,471words. This year they broke that record, writing 1,483,652 words in 30 days! That is 272,181 more words than they wrote last year. All students who met their goal will receive a code from FastPencil, an online publishing site, to get their books published and receive one free copy.
Students experienced authentic learning as they created their own novels. They wrote by hand, on computers, and on their devices. Some even used the voice typing feature available in Google Docs. They also took advantage of the district’s Google Drive, which enabled them to access their stories and keep writing from multiple devices like phones and tablets. Pupils used Web 2.0 tools to communicate with other student writers and their teachers, received email from authors participating in NANOWRIMO, and had virtual word wars with different classes.