Using Wikispaces in less than 30 minutes

02/19/201402/19/2014 Sonya terBorg

Do you have a wiki? Do you hear that work and kind of brush it off? Do you wish you had one but don’t have the time and are not sure you would even use it?

I was you!

My class are knee deep in their How We Express Ourselves unit and we are writing poetry like it is our job. They are loving it and so am I. But what to do with it all? We have writing folders for paperwork and we have computer folders for online documents but that just wasn’t enough. I wanted somewhere for the kids to publish their work in a way that worked for them, allowed them to see each others work and be inspired by it, comment on each others work and enter into a real community of poetic learners. Cue: THE WIKI.

I had never made one. But I found a really cool poetry wiki of a high school class and I knew that is what I wanted. This surprised me because as you will see, the wiki itself is not particularly beautiful – and I like beautiful things. But it was really, really functional (my husband would be so proud!) and so I knew this was it.

Here’s how simple it is to do:

1. Go to Wikispaces and in the “Join Now” box on the left-middle of the page, click “I’m a Teacher”.

2. Choose a username (this can be changed once every 30 days if you so choose), a password, and enter your email address.

3. Fill in some biographical information to prove you are using this for educational purposes and name your wiki (this can be changed later if you wish).

4. Your Wiki is ready!

5. Look to the far right/top of the screen for your information:

I am the Avocado Alligator and my one wiki is called “4Dpoetry”.

6. To add your students, click on your wiki, click on “Settings” (top right) and then click on “User Creator” on the left column:

7. Here is the thing I really love. After clicking on ‘User Creator’ you have the option of how you will add your students:

I chose the second option and a small box opens for you to type in names (one on each line). I made up names by putting together a color and an animal with the same initial letter and then the number 44 just in case someone else was as clever as me! After typing in the names of all your kids (or enough pen names to be able to match one to each child) hit ‘next’ and you get this screen:

You can see I added “PolkadotPanda44” to my list of usernames. I kept it all as one word. I then kept the first box checked ‘no’. The second box kept as ‘Column 1’, and the third box as ‘These users do not have email addresses’. I also had Wikispaces generate the passwords for me. Basically, get to the page and just click ‘continue’! You may find there is a warning if your name is a double-up, so be creative and add perhaps two or three more names than you will need so you can delete any that may not be suitable (already in use).

When you ‘continue’, you have the option of printing a list of usernames and passwords. We have a studybook with a section for usernames and passwords so these went in there. I allocated usernames with some input from the students.

Finally, create a page for each student by clicking on the + sign next to “Pages and Files”:

I made a page for each student and the home page explains the purpose of the Wiki. When you add a new page, you do have to put something on the page in order to create it (I just wrote on each page, “This is the poetry page of the Golden Gorilla” etc). The rule for us is that on the wiki, we are always referred to by our Wiki Name. I haven’t investigated the use of the ‘Projects’ feature but my initial look tells me you can create an assignment and assign different students groups to work on tasks together. It looks good but I don’t have a use for it just yet. Check out the Wikispaces Blog for more information on the Projects feature.

Here is what I like about this:

1. It is free

2. You don’t need email addresses for your kids

3. The editing interface is super simple

4. The speech bubbles let you start conversations with other users

5. The clock icon shows when edits have been made and by whom (in case work is “accidently” deleted!).

6. It is really easy to add screenshots, upload photos, or to import images via web addresses.

Most of all, I love that my kids love it! When we started, I had the homepage as my domain but not my own animal/color name or page. I changed my name to be like the kids and I created my own page. I started adding work to my page as a model for what they could add to their page. They were excited that I had gone from ‘sterborg’ to ‘AvocadoAlligator’ and used the message feature to get in touch. Here is what one student said:

“Welcome to our Community”. I didn’t need to tell them that this was their special place – they were telling me that it was ours. Perfect!

I saved the best for last, though! You can go to “settings” and click on “Exports/Backups” and from there, download a PDF of your Wiki. If you have set it up the way I have with a page for each child, these pages become “Chapters” and all their work (including formatting) will be stored in one document:

At the end of the unit, we can print a copy of our poetry anthology!

If you are more of a visual/auditory learner, check out this video explanation:

Internet, Tech, Writing

Guest Blogger: Sonya terBorg

09/03/2013 Sonya terBorg

Guest Blogger: Sonya terBorg.

Creativity, PYP, Writing

Sharing Your Story

03/11/201303/11/2013 Sonya terBorg

Recently, a friend sent me a link to Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling. I loved them – for a number of reasons, primarily that Pixar is clearly a company that knows how to tell a story, so when they share, I listen!

My first thought upon reading through them however, was not the application to ‘storytelling’ in the traditional sense of the word (telling a fairy story) but in the application of these rules to the journey my students are about to take as part of the PYP Exhibition.

The highlight of our exhibition evening last year was sitting and listening to student after student get up and tell their story. They shared their journey through the process: where they started, where they went, where they currently were at and where they were heading. Their stories were compelling, engaging, entertaining, interesting and a true reflection of their growth and development over the course of the Exhibition.

As I read Pixar’s rules, I can’t help but convert to advice for my current fifth grade students as they embark on their journey with the idea of telling their story.

Here are my 16 rules for my kids to guide them as they tell their learning stories:

We admire you for trying more than for your successes.
Once you reach the end of your story, look back and share the theme that has driven your learning.
Simplify
Focus
Tell us how you dealt with challenges.
Write your ending now, before we begin. Speak into existence what you want to be your reality!
Be ready to not be perfect.
When you get stuck, make a list of what you are NOT going to do next and hope the material to get you unstuck shows up.
Put your ideas in writing, all the time, even in the middle of the night.
Discount the obvious ideas. Keep thinking. Surprise yourself.
Share your opinions – be bold!
Ask yourself: “Why this passion?” Why MUST this be the thing for you. Build off this burning belief within you.
Be honest! We admire you for it!
No work is ever wasted. If it is not working, let it go and move on – it will come back around to be useful later.
Do your best.
What is the essence – the guts – of your story? Start there and go!

Planning for these stories can be done digitally. Digital storytelling simply means using computer based tools to tell stories. Click on the image below to check out five digital storytelling tools for kids. Three of them (Voicethread, Show Me, and Toontastic) are familiar to me. The other two, Sock Puppets and Puppet Pals are new to me. All look like great tools for encouraging students to get their ideas down.

Which have you used? Which are you willing to try?

These rules were originally tweeted by Emma Coats, Pixar’s Story Artist.

Source: pbjpublishing.com via Sonya on Pinterest

Brain Research, Inspiration, Tech, Writing

A Traffic Light, A Band-Aid, and A Passport: 3 Back-to-School Essentials

08/26/2012 Sonya terBorg

Traffic Light

We started the year with two days of writing training. Among other strategies, we looked at Step Up To Writing. This method utilizes a color coding system and a traffic light analogy to guide children through the process of writing a topic sentence and expanding on that idea with enough detail and information to engage their audience. It is also a way of helping organize thoughts orally when used to guide students as they share their ideas. Once a main idea has been shared, having that student elaborate is a great way for them to continue to think and share their ideas with the class. As a school, we have agreed to implement this strategy pre-K through 5th. I am looking forward to seeing how this works – and how my students do at self-initiating this thinking process as the year progresses.

Band Aid

This morning, I was on Pinterest and my friend and fellow teacher, Kim, had pinned an interesting post from a first grade teacher’s blog about differentiation. Her story goes that on the first day or during the first week of school, the teacher asks her students to pretend they have a “boo-boo”. She asks each one in turn to describe where they are hurt (cut my finger, scraped my knee, stubbed my toe etc). Regardless of what the child says, the teacher places a band aid on their upper arm. Despite cries of “But I don’t need it there!” everyone gets a band aid on their upper arm. She explains she is treating all her students fairly by giving everyone the same thing. At least one child will exclaim that they don’t all need the band-aid there – they all need it in different spots – at which point she shares the moral of her story: that fair does not mean equal.

I love this analogy – especially as I head into a new year with new students who each have unique needs. Some kids I may spend time with taking dictation from what they say while others write out their own ideas. Equal? No. Fair? Absolutely.

Digital Passport

Earlier this week, I came across an online Digital Passport curriculum for Grades 3-5. Created by CommonSense Media, the passport program can be customized for your students to guide them through responsible use of the internet. A brief overview of the curriculum offered includes the topics of communication, privacy, cyberbullying, searching and giving credit where it is due. This is a solid, basic foundation of skills regarding appropriate digital use. I can see the need to add to and customize as the year progresses or if a particular issue arises but for a pre-packaged, FREE program, this looks pretty impressive. Students can pace themselves through the activities, work independently or collaboratively and the responses to the questions can be completed online in game form and offline via discussions, drawings, writing and even role-playing.

If you are looking for a dynamic solution to kick off your connected year, I think this looks like a pretty good place to start.

Educator Guide PDF

Creativity, Innovation, Writing

Invent Yourself As A Writer

06/11/201206/11/2012 Sonya terBorg

A few days ago, I posted about reading. Today, writing. I was reminded of wanting to post about writing when I saw this, three minutes ago:

An adaptation of his own work “Steal Like an Artist” by Austin Kleon

I read this post by a teacher named Jenn, who shared her struggles with teaching writing and I felt like I could have written it (the first part anyway) about myself as a teacher of writing. What hit me was when she described her routine:

I gave a writing assignment and expected my students to complete it. They would complete it, sure, but with errors galore. I would instruct students to proofread their rough draft, and they would read through it, say, “It’s good!” and turn it in. Then (just like my teachers had done for me) I would spend hours correcting all of their mistakes, which they would then copy for their final draft. It was exhausting doing their work for them, and my students weren’t becoming better writers.

Exactly!

I was fortunate this year to have a teaching partner who has many strengths – one of which is teaching writing. By watching him and by doing in my own classroom, I felt like I was beginning to morph from the teacher described above to one more able to evoke a love of writing. But I still have a long ways to go! I know that I need to:

write when my kids write
be more explicit in talking about writing
share my own struggles, frustrations and triumphs in writing
make sure I am providing authentic audiences for their writing
draw upon real life experiences for writing

One of my biggest ‘breakthrough’ moments as a teacher was with a student who is a really good writer. She was ‘well-schooled’ in how writing works: She writes, the teacher approves her writing, she moves on to write something else. I felt a little stifled by this routine and wanted to break it – but didn’t know how. After almost a year of slowly working away at the idea that revising work is not a punishment, that the feedback from others can improve the work and that success as a writer isn’t determined by wether or not I, as the teacher, “like” your work, we made a breakthrough. One day, out of the blue, I noticed that our conversations about her writing had become a real conversation. She would share her work, ask for ideas, and when I gave suggestions, she would weigh in, ultimately making edits that suited her artistic inclinations.

My other writing epiphany came as I watch the writing of another student go from good to amazing in a really short period of time. I have been with some of my kids for two years having followed them from fourth to fifth grade and when I saw the change in this student’s writing, I was blown away. How did it happen? There were a number of factors and none of them had anything to do with me! Firstly, she read – a lot. Different genre, current books, all the time. Secondly, she was not at school, she was on a 77 day sabbatical in Barcelona. She wrote without pressure of the hamster wheel pace of school life and with the experience of a reader, traveler and explorer and it showed. Big time.

My question to myself is

“How do I make sure I help all children get to the same place these girls arrived at without leaving it to chance? ”

I did some research and came across a great post titled How Do Kids Really Learn To Write, 2.0 by Patricia Zaballos. It is an excellent read. I am highlighting points from it below but do yourself a huge favor and go read it in it’s entirety. It begins by outlining:

What Kids DON’T Need In Order To Become Writers:

Kids don’t need to master the mechanical skills of writing before developing voices as writers.
Kids don’t need daily, or even weekly writing practice.
Kids don’t need to practice writing in various formats.
Kids don’t need to write to develop as writers.

All these points would describe 99% of what goes on in a regular, grade-school writing class. But if this is being touted as what kids don’t need, what do they need? The blog post goes on to describe what you can do:

How Can You Help Kids Develop Into Writers:

Raise them in a literature-rich, word-loving home.
Talk about what interests them.
Make the distinction between getting-words-on-the-paper skills and written expression.
Let them write about what interests them, and in genres that they enjoy.
Explore intriguing nonfiction
Help them find meaningful, authentic reasons to write.

Although not explicitly said, my thinking is that if you focus on how you can help kids develop into writers, they naturally may start to do some of the things that they “don’t need”. They will want to learn to type or write faster/more neatly in order to be heard as an author. They will want to know the mechanics of spelling, punctuation and grammer in order to develop their writers voice. They will write daily or weekly without prompting because they have something to say. They will write in a variety of formats because they will realize that writing is everywhere and writing is for a purpose and those purposes are endless! They will develop as writers with each piece that they write, but also by each experience, discussion, reading, discovery, encounter and adventure that they undertake.

In reading the comments of other readers of this post, there is discussion of the use of dictation tools to facilitate the writing process. I hadn’t thought of doing this but I have previously allowed the kids to make audio or video recordings as reflections on their work. Doing this has meant I have gotten a much richer picture of their true thoughts on the topic. Kids are naturally going to be more fluent as speakers rather than writers and what better way to build confidence as a writer than by dictating your work? No longer does it have to be about how fast you can type or how quickly you can write, the focus can be on the richness of the content of your work. And isn’t that the real point?

Take another look at Austin Kleon’s 10 Ways to Steal Like A Writer:

I don’t know exactly what he was thinking when he wrote this, but here is my interpretation:

Slap things together from all parts of your life, moving things around, rearranging them and ultimately piecing it all together.
Be prepared to write anytime, anyplace, low-tech.
READ!!!
When you see something you consider “killer writing” copy it, rip it out, photograph it, keep it. Read it again and again. And again.
Write first, think later. Just do it – then refine, or not.
Experience 3D life so that you will have something to write about.
Do something each day to further your role as a writer: read, write, discuss, explore, create, do…
Entertain yourself with your writing – you will always be your number one fan.
Make people laugh/cry/give you stuff/root for you/want more.
Share your art.

Notice the correlation between Kleon’s list and Zaballos’ second set of bullet points? What does this tell me? This is just another reason why we need to keep explaining to the parents of the kids we teach, the WHY behind why we do what we do.

I am also reminded that Kleon’s message in Steal Like An Artist – and therefore presumably Steal Like A Writer – is not ‘be yourself’ and all will be fine. According to Kleon, this is the “last advice” he would give anyone. The idea is to invent yourself as an artist, a writer. Consciously move yourself forward in your quest to better yourself artistically, linguistically. This is great advice and implies a call to action on the part of the artist, the writer. It is this advice that I want to carry into the new school year as I actively guide my kids as they invent themselves as writers.

Spread the word:

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Traffic Light

Band Aid

Digital Passport

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What Kids DON’T Need In Order To Become Writers:

How Can You Help Kids Develop Into Writers:

Spread the word:

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