Wikabulary

Thanks to a recent post from Bud Hunt, I've been experimenting with wikis in my classroom over the past week and a half.

My students have been creating their own vocabulary lists from in and out of classroom reading. I ask them to make some predictions about what the word means before looking it up.

Using the wiki, they're now sharing these words with each other. There is some overlap; since we're reading Night in class, a few students are finding the same words, but able to add to each other's definitions and use.

Once we all have our first week of words posted, I'm going to ask students to find five words they think they could use more frequently in their writing and speaking. Instead of a test, I'll ask them to try to use the words in their Writer's Notebooks and maybe some sort of form their parents can sign when they use the word in conversations at home . . . I don't know, it's still under development . . .

Anyway, here's my first attempt at a classroom wiki.

Text Messaging in the Classroom?

I spoke with a parent yesterday afternoon who has discontinued her child's cell phone service after her grades dropped.

My first reaction was "thank goodness!" This student is a chronic text messager, and to many of my students text messaging is the ultimate form of note passing: digital, so there's no detection (so they assume).

But I think back to a lesson I taught last week where I let them write and pass notes to their friends to show differences in audience. Everyone had a lot of fun, and I think everyone "got it."

I was speaking to a group of teachers a few weeks ago, and many of them wished for the day when parents could control the hours of the day text messaging services are available.

But is there someway this new technology could be integrated in our instruction? One thought is that AOL Instant Messanger allows students to send messages between computers and cell phones without any additional software needed on the phones, allowing students without cell phones or text messaging to still participate. A downside is making sure the class sanctioned messaging won't rack up parents' bills.

Any ideas?

WebQuests Are So Cool!

It's been almost a year since Terry Deniston, one of the coolest educators I will ever know, told our class how great WebQuests were.

I tried them once in my 450 High School practicum, but with little success. Many of my links were a little lame, and some of the essays I sent them too were a little more advanced than what they were prepaired for.

Friday, I finally understood what Terry was trying to tell us.

My students are starting on Night by Elie Weisel. Surprisingly, many of them don't know about the holocaust (world history is next year). So I put together a WebQuest, or page of previewed links, so that students can spend one quick period on research rather than sifting through the credible and uncredible information on Google.

Going in on Friday morning I was contemplating how I was going to keep my eyes on the screens of the whole class when half my desks face the other half. I was sure partners would have trouble staying on task.

Instead, I hardly did any classroom management. In what is normally my craziest class, the students who normally do nothing were finishing their worksheet before some of my brightest students.

I knew technology increased student interest and introduced relevancy. But I hadn't truely seen it in action until this week. It was amazing. I wish I had a video camera.