Collaboration within the Classroom

Student Collaboration:

This week, I created a lesson for my classroom using a wiki. Using the wiki, the students would think of a storyline for a digital rhyming book. The reason I chose rhyming as the focus is because this was an area where most of my students struggled last year. They constantly were using words that had the same beginning sound as a rhyming word. We worked very hard on this concept all year. So, the book is one more way I can work with the students on the rhyming words. The wiki would be nice for this because the students can go back at different time (like centers) and add new words they think of. The students would also be reading words that are at their level. It is not going to have big words that the students who are barely reading will have to figure out. The level will be at their independent or instructional reading level depending on who the other students are in their cooperative group.

The website, 50 Ways to Use Wikis for a More Collaborative Classroom (http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/) has some great ideas about ways to use wikis in the classroom. I really liked the idea of using a wiki for the classroom’s FAQ. This would be great not only for students but for parents as well. It would be one location for parents to go to and post their question or to see if other parents have the same question. This would especially be nice at the beginning of the year when the parents of my students have questions about being in school.

The Flat Stanley Project website (http://flatterworld.com/?nav=home) is a great resource if you do this with your students. I tried doing a Flat Stanley project with my students one year. We read the book right before Winter break. Over break, they were supposed to take their Flat self with them and then journal about what they did. I had perhaps 5 students complete the project. Since then, I haven’t tried it again. After looking through the website, I think it maybe something I can try again using the website this time to help get the students excited about it.

I was also intrigued by the Skype in the Classroom website (http://education.skype.com/). This is a great way for classrooms across the country (even world depending on time zones) to collaborate together. One idea I had was to compare and contrast the classrooms. I think this would be interesting for the students to see how our classroom is similar to other classrooms and how ours is different. Even just the diversity within the classroom would be interesting. The students could also interview the other students. This would allow the students to see how their interests are the same and how they are different.

Teacher Collaboration:

Teacher collaboration is so important to the education world. When looking at teacher collaboration, I would have to say my new favorite website is SMART Exchange (http://exchange.smarttech.com/#tab=0). There are so many wonderful ideas to use with SMART boards or SMART Notebook. There is a group of Kindergarten teachers in my district that do this very same thing via e-mail. Once we have created a SMART Notebook lesson, we e-mail it to the whole group so others can use it without having to take the time to create it themselves. There is so much we have to get done within the day and not enough time to do it. If others have already created it, we do not need to spend the time re-creating it. Scholastic is another great teacher resource (http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/connect.jsp). Many think Scholastic is just for ordering books. They have many great resources for both teachers and parents. This is one website I share with my parents not only for ordering books online but also for the resources.

Cost of Collaboration:

The nice thing about collaboration is that it is free, for the most part. I did find a couple of websites that you have to pay an annual fee ($50 was the average) to be a part of. Other websites do not have an annual fee. Knowing there are websites I can use for free, I would have to consider the pros and cons of the collaborative group before paying an annual fee. In the education world, free is a very good price! To use Skype, you would have to an account. I know there are accounts you can sign up for that are free. The price for a web camera starts at $29 and goes up from there depending on what brand you want.

I am excited about heading back to the classroom this fall and seeing what new activities I can have my students collaborate on. It is so important for students to learn the skills of getting along with others while completing projects because they will be doing it for the rest of their life. If they do not have a good foundation with the skills, they will have a difficult time as they get older and have to do more and more collaborative work.