I have learned a lot about the use and benefits of a wiki while working on this project. I started off having trouble designing a wiki and linking it to PB works and my blog. I was going to learn how to do this one way or another and I did through my strong desire to succeed. I can't believe how comfortable I am today when compared to the rough start I had in the beginning. Using wiki's and blog's will be programs that I share with my future students in upper elementary and middle school and even high school if that is where I end up teaching.
Faye and I decided to do our wiki project on the Japanese Era and Plagiarism. She works for Clarkston Community Schools and has an amazing media specialist, Denise Lovse, who did a great job creating the PowerPoint on Plagiarism. I went to her school's website and found all types of good ideas to use with classroom teachers when I get back to being a media center teacher. There are also great links for students to use in the district. The website is at Clarkston Junior High, http://ww2.clarkston.k12.mi.us/education/school/school.php?sectionid=6. If you click on the Media Center link you will be taken to the site that has invaluable information for students and teachers. I am glad that Faye will be able to use this wiki project with her students for years to come and to be able to improve upon it from the great suggestions that we received from our classmates.
While working with classroom teachers in the future will be easier because we will be able to talk to one another in person; collaborating through blog's, email accounts, and the wiki just showed how easy it can be to collaborate when you can't meet face to face. Sometimes a media specialist will be in another building in the district and a classroom teacher will need help; learning these invaluable collaborative methods will help me and the teachers in the future when we run into this situation.
The one thing that I would like to know how to do with regards to collaboration is how can this be done in a district that has fixed-schedules for media specialists? Would the teacher and media specialist work separately? When would they be able to meet and discuss units? Would Faye's media center website be the way to go in a fixed-schedule environment?
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Brenda,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found this assignment useful to your future career. The issue of collaboration within a fixed scheduling is something that would probably occur in a more regimented format. That is, the school librarian may have to assert a more vocal role in attending grade level planning meetings and professional development days to plant the seeds of teacher/librarian collaboration.
Best of luck in all that you do!
Prof. K.