Sunday, 31 May 2009
Blogger and the Chinese Firewall
Haven't been able to post for a while as Blogger seems to have been hit by the Great Chinese Firewall. Basically I haven't been able to read or post anything on my blog or any of the others that I follow. Took a couple of weeks but I have finally found a proxy server that will allow me to read and post. Let's hope this works.
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Introducing wikis at Rego
A little while since I posted, time flies so quickly. I have been working on an Award Winning Books topic with my Year 5 students and decided to really liven things up. We are discussing what makes books good, why they win awards and trying to critically evaluate those that have won awards. The wonderful parents are in the process of creating another excellent display, (I'll add some pics when I get a chance), and I have separated out all the award winning books I can find on our shelves.
The last Scholastic order brought a great selection of Newbery Medal and Honor books so there should be enough for the 50 or so students in Year 5. I told them I was going to expect them to do a book review and sure enough there were a few groans...do we have to write it, etc etc.....I decided that a wiki would be the answer. Can't access PBwiki here in China as it is blocked but wikispaces works reasonably well so this week we are off.
So far all the students have done is create their own page using a template I made. For the next few weeks they will be expected to complete a review and start to comment of their class and year mates reviews. One of the Year 5 teachers has really got on board and has started another wiki for his class to record their work, spelling sentences etc..... The kids, of course, are having a ball, adding in profile pics, fancy fonts whatever takes their fancy. I have asked them to be as creative as possible so we'll see what transpires.
The Y5 wiki can be viewed at http://srisprimarylibrary.wikispaces.com/
As the Y5s were so enthusiastic, I decided to try another one with Y6. I have an old wiki that I set up when I was in Hong Kong and decided to adapt it for a Web Research exercise. I have shown the class a video form Answers.com call "Mission Impossible" a guide to safe online seraching. Whilst it is quite American and definately biased towards Answer.com, it does have some valid points, especially about different types of websites which students will encounter, e.g. subjective, commerical etc. There is an exercise where the students research a topic and try to find all the different types of websites so this seems ideal for incorporating into a wiki.
My Y6 class this afternoon were very enthusiastic and can't wait to get started. Like the 5s they have only added a page so far but next week we will look at an example page I have created and get them to choose topics to research. As they are coming up to SATs at the moment, the teacher and I have decided they can have free choice in their topic, less pressure and should make it more interesting. This wiki can be viewed at http://searchingexercise.wikispaces.com/
This is certainly the most fun I have had in the last few weeks. Getting the students interested in reading and research and actually having some new books to offer them makes all the difference.
The last Scholastic order brought a great selection of Newbery Medal and Honor books so there should be enough for the 50 or so students in Year 5. I told them I was going to expect them to do a book review and sure enough there were a few groans...do we have to write it, etc etc.....I decided that a wiki would be the answer. Can't access PBwiki here in China as it is blocked but wikispaces works reasonably well so this week we are off.
So far all the students have done is create their own page using a template I made. For the next few weeks they will be expected to complete a review and start to comment of their class and year mates reviews. One of the Year 5 teachers has really got on board and has started another wiki for his class to record their work, spelling sentences etc..... The kids, of course, are having a ball, adding in profile pics, fancy fonts whatever takes their fancy. I have asked them to be as creative as possible so we'll see what transpires.
The Y5 wiki can be viewed at http://srisprimarylibrary.wikispaces.com/
As the Y5s were so enthusiastic, I decided to try another one with Y6. I have an old wiki that I set up when I was in Hong Kong and decided to adapt it for a Web Research exercise. I have shown the class a video form Answers.com call "Mission Impossible" a guide to safe online seraching. Whilst it is quite American and definately biased towards Answer.com, it does have some valid points, especially about different types of websites which students will encounter, e.g. subjective, commerical etc. There is an exercise where the students research a topic and try to find all the different types of websites so this seems ideal for incorporating into a wiki.
My Y6 class this afternoon were very enthusiastic and can't wait to get started. Like the 5s they have only added a page so far but next week we will look at an example page I have created and get them to choose topics to research. As they are coming up to SATs at the moment, the teacher and I have decided they can have free choice in their topic, less pressure and should make it more interesting. This wiki can be viewed at http://searchingexercise.wikispaces.com/
This is certainly the most fun I have had in the last few weeks. Getting the students interested in reading and research and actually having some new books to offer them makes all the difference.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
