Thing 21

Terri says it best for both of us on this "thing". I was one of her collaborating companions on our "Spice it Up a Notch" wiki. We were very excited to work on this project with many of our fourth grade students across the district reading different Nutmeg nominee books. It was a little tricky at first getting started. We needed permission from administration and the parents of students participating in the wiki project. We created a letter explaining what a wiki was and told about the "Spice it Up a Notch" wiki created by teachers at RESC. Once permission was granted, we obtained usernames and passwords for our students and explained that they could only post to the wiki AFTER they had conferenced with at least one peer AND had their work approved by a teacher. This helped us tremendously. The quality of the work our students were posting was excellent in comparison to many of the other wiki users. Unfortunately this was a bit of a downfall at first. Our students were a little disappointed with some of the posting that they came across. On the other hand, they were made to feel pretty proud of their "stand out" work. One way to combat this problem may be to try and set up a wiki and invite users to contribute. This way you know everyone who is participating and they would all have to meet your wiki posting expectations. This is something that could be really fun as a teacher who works throughout the district. It would give students across the district opportunities to collaborate with one another on common topics. Great possibilities!