The Wiki

I recently read the chapter on wikis in Will Richardson's book. I had no idea just how creative one could be when using a wiki. After reading the chapter, I automatically realized just how exciting it could be to use the wiki in a classroom.

Anytime I have had to write some kind of research paper for the past few years, I turned to wikipedia. Until last year, I wasn't even aware that real people create these informational wikis, and not all of these real people know what they're talking about.

Once I read the wiki chapter and met with my block one group, I realized just how creative you could be with wikis. You can edit anything you want on wikipedia, or add anything you choose to add. Our group decided to create our own wiki about our own topic. The wiki we have started creating is on "verbicide." People will be able to comment on whether or not they agree with what we have to say. Or they can erase anything one of us might say.

I realized that in creating this blog and working with my group to create our own wiki, that there is a great deal I do not know about technology. I am excited about learning new things that I visualize using in my classroom. Now, when I am asked the technology question during an interview I will be able to talk their ears off.

Priority of Education Questions

Priority of Education Questions (Warlick 17)
1. What should students learn?
2. How should students learn?
3. How well are students learning?

I think this is an interesting order of priority questions. What to teach is certainly a hard question to answer. But without knowing what exactly we're teaching students, and we have to rule out assumptive teaching, how do we know if their learning anything at all? I'm curious to see how Warlick answers these questions in his book Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century. Since we're talking about the 21st century I'm assuming he is going to tell us to teach things like blogging and wikis to our students.

I think the most important question ELA teachers are facing is: How do you incorporate current technology into your classroom?
This question is important because technology is ever changing. Our students will always be at least one step ahead of us when it comes to technology. Not only that but as Richardson discusses, we need to make sure our students are using technology and internet resources "safely." It is a huge risk for new teachers to take. That audible gasp from one student could bring in a great amount of parent phone calls and/or unhappy administrators. Technology is important to try to use in the classroom, but it's also important to make sure clear rules are set for students to use the technology safely.

Bloggin'

I learned an amazing amount about weblogs and using the internet just by reading Will Richardson's book. It seems as though this technology class could survive with just his book and website. Technology will be extremely useful in teaching literacy to students in today's classroom. What more could students ask for than to be assigned to do something they might enjoy. I like the idea of letting them choose a topic and research it and then go and blog about it. Students would also be interacting with each other on their blogs.

Another great idea was a paperless classroom. I could certainly see myself using this method of blogging. In this case, there would be a class blog and students would have to post all assignments. On this blog, peer review would occur as well as the teacher commenting on posted assignments and drafts. According to research, the majority of teens are blogging already. Now, what we need to do as teachers is to motivate our students to blog about things that can expand their minds and get them to think critically and creatively.

NCATE and NCTE Standards

After reading a few standards, I realize that I have not yet had to compose anything besides papers and essays and maybe a power point project. I know how to respond to different types of media but I do not have experience with creating my own "media." I have helped students with reading comprehension and writing of print texts, but I have not helped students with non-print texts.
I am excited to learn how to engage students in critical analysis of different media. But first I need to learn how to use these different types of media myself. I certainly would not want to teach something that I have not at least tried myself!

Welcome

Hello my name is Lauren. This is my first blog. So this should be interesting. This blog will discuss the 21st century English classroom. The English classroom most of us thought we could only dream of is here. All comments and incite are welcome!