Wikis: To Be or Not To Be?

For years, I've used a wiki to share information with parents.  I've never opened it up for parents to discuss and contribute though.  And oddly enough, only one parent has ever tried to contribute.

During this course and our wiki assignment, I found that wikis can be used for collaborating with others.  It's a nice, convenient place for everyone to meet and chat, rather than sending emails back and forth.  When group projects and communication are necessary, I do believe that wikis are the way to go.  Thinking about using a wiki and actually using a wiki to collaborate has proven to be a different experience.  Prior to using the wiki, I thought, this will be great. Everyone can pop on, contribute and voila!  the assignment will be complete.  I didn't think about the time it takes for everyone to log on, contribute, read each other's posts and then come to a consensus.

So...wiki: to be or not to be?  I think using it for a group project with a bunch of people that are far away from each other would be the best means of communicating.  However, I've found that the communication and work didn't get done as quickly as I thought it would. What did I learn from this project?  Start early and hope that everyone else does too.  Plan.  Don't decide what you're going to do without collaborating with your group members.  Your time might as well be wasted if someone else researched the same thing as you.

RSS Feeds

I plan to use RSS to follow other first grade teachers to get ideas for enhancing my teaching.  Thus far, I’ve found math, reading, spelling, and special holiday activities to use with my students.  I’ve also subscribed to RSS feeds to keep up with the latest technology for the classroom.  I hope that this will not only keep me informed on what’s new and trending, but also give me ideas on how to integrate technology into my classroom.

Social Bookmarking Plan

For my social bookmarking plan, I decided to use social bookmarking as a tool for myself.

There are a couple different social bookmarking sites that I prefer, but for this post, I'm going to discuss Pinterest and Diigo.

I created a Pinterest account a few years ago and just recently began organizing it.  Originally, I had main topics, such as math, reading, writing and science.  Currently, I am working on breaking down those topics into smaller topics so that I can find my resources faster.  Under math I am organizing my boards according to state standards, which in turn, are the skills that are assessed for the report card.  I am breaking math down into things that I'll use for lessons and things that I'll use for centers.  I am doing a similar type of organization for reading.  For writing,  I am breaking down writing into narrative, informational and opinion writing.  I have many specific topics under that, including picture books to use as I'm teaching.  I also have a social skills category where I am organizing picture books to use when I teach specific social skills.  I'm hoping this way of organization will help me to access resources in a faster way when I need them.

Regarding Diigo, I have started to bookmark topics that I would like to learn more about, such as educational technology trends and integrating technology into the elementary classroom.  I hope to better organize these articles so that when discussions come up with my grade level or when I have a question about how to use something, I can quickly access the articles that I've bookmarked.

I have opened up both my Pinterest account and my Diigo account for my colleagues to access as well. Together, we've shared many things on Pinterest but few have gotten on board with Diigo.  My hope is that, as they find each bookmarking site useful, they will join me in using them for educational development and growth.

My Netvibes Resource Page

Here's a link to my Netvibes Resource Page.  It includes feeds about educational technology and first grade resources.

Click Here!

Link to Amelie's Animal Site

Click Here!

Post to Amelie

Hi Amelie!
My name is Mrs. Smith and I'm a first grade teacher in Hershey, PA.  For one of my graduate classes, I had to find a student blog which I found neat and useful!  I just love your blog about animals!  I'm impressed with how organized your blog is, the great information that you shared and the links to get to other sites!  I might have my first graders blog about animals!  Thanks for the great ideas!
Mrs. Smith :)

More info about the kid blog!

The blog that I chose for this assignment can be found here: http://ameliesanimals.edublogs.org/
When searching for a student blogging project, I wanted to find one created by a lower elementary school student so that I could see how I can use student blogging in my classroom.  This blog was created by a seven year old girl.  Her blog is all about animals, which I thought was really fun and informative for kids her age.  She writes about all types of animals, including jungle animals, exotic animals and pets.  I was impressed with how organized and informative her blog is.  Her topic is perfect for the students that I teach. First graders LOVE learning about and writing about animals!

Awesome Kid Blogging

Hi everyone!
Are you looking for a way to engage your kiddo/student in the latest technology?  Check out this kid blog: http://ameliesanimals.edublogs.org/  It's an informative blog about animals!
Mindy :)

Read-Write-Web

Have you ever checked out Read-Write-Web?  This is a great site to keep up with current technology.  Although I wouldn't use Read-Write-Web with my students (because they're only first graders) I would use it as a resource for myself.  I would use this site just to stay informed.  Did you ever wonder what the point of a hashtag is??  My daughter is always saying "#cheer", "#school" and it makes me crazy!  So... I checked out on Read-Write-Think and found out that it originated from a Google employee, who suggested that Twitter use hash tags as well.  Twitter began using hashtags as a way of searching and the rest is history!  

Curious how to integrate Twitter into your classroom? Check out Read-Write-Think!  Lots of great ideas on how to integrate technology into your classroom!  Read-Write-Think is a site that will "keep you in the loop" with what's going on with technology!