Thing #8

Do you think there may be a wiki in your future?

-I am fascinated with how easy it seems to build a basic wiki. I would love to integrate a wiki into my literature circle groups. I teach 4 sections of reading, but as it is right now the students can only collaborate and discuss with the students who are in their same class reading the same book. It would be awesome to open up the resources so that students could interact across the classes. I think this is something I could try with our last six weeks books just so I can get my feet wet and revamp the idea for next year to include for all of our book groups.

K Counting Book I love the simplicity of this wiki. I think this is a great example of how wikis can be used at any grade level. This is definitely as educational as any counting book. From what I can see, the pictures are collaborated by the entire class. I think it would be great for the teacher to require the students to group things by 10s in the picture to start showing the visualization of that concept. The only other thing the teacher could add is some support for parents; however, this might not be the purpose of her wiki. I love it.

Code Blue This is a great example of what I would expect from my students. The kids have reached out for a variety of resources to explore while studying the human body. This really puts the control in the students hands because they can pick a topic of interest. It is hard as a teacher because in research there are students who will look at too many sites and students who are helpless in finding anything. This allows the students to work off each other. I think the way different students find information on the web is also imperative because there is so much out there, we are always missing things by the words we choose to use in search engines. I don't like the look of the website because to me it is very plain and cold. I would as the teacher add pictures or something to separate the sections. This is a great resource to being research though.

Room 115 This is by far my favorite wiki that I came across. I love the idea of the one stop resource for parents and students. I have many parents that complain about lack of communication on events. This would be somewhere that is visually pleasing with a wealth of information. I spend so much of my time conferencing with individual parents about resources students can use to bring up grades or practice concepts. I also have lots of parents who would like better communication when it comes to homework. This would be a great way to maximize my time by only having to present the information one way. As a beginning teacher last year, I exhausted myself trying to please everyone. I think next year it would be great for me to start off with an informational wiki and set the expectation that the parents and students visit it and stay informed. Obviously, not every one of my students has the internet, but I think it would be helpful for those that do.

I am excited for Spring Break to get here so I can get my literature circle wiki under way!