Erin Connery joined the Wikispaces team recently as our Operations Manager. Be sure to tell him hello below and stay tuned for more thoughts from our new team members over the coming months. I studied social innovation at Babson College and much of my education focused on entrepreneurship and social responsibility. After graduating I worked at a corporate social responsibility consultancy for three years. Our team comprised of entrepreneurs and academics and served as one of many parts working to improve the business practices of a multinational corporation (generating multibillion-dollar annual revenue). The power in a large corporate checkbook was exciting to me; we’d tell them how to spend all that money and the world would become a better place! But I soon realized that while the corporate business leaders control a lot of money, and this money can purchase many things (our advice, branding, lobbying power) a large checkbook does not by itself create responsible leadership inside a corporation. Too often "corporate social responsibility" turns into branding and philanthropy. This idea that responsibility wasn’t simply for sale, and couldn’t be purchased, resulted in a more serious lesson: creating a strategy to actually improve responsibility inside a large and complex company required focus that was deliberate and relentless. It required concentrating attention on the target with the power to implement change, which in this case was the managers and leaders inside a company. When trying to figure out how to improve something without a clear definition of success, such as improve "responsibility" or "education" the business has to become much like a classroom. We spent much of the first year in conversation with their corporate team, listening and building personal relationships in order to discover how we might add value, trading role of teacher and student as we collaborated on ideas. This lesson about focus transfers to where I am today, at a company developing a digital classroom. A classroom is, by general definition, "any place where one learns or gains experience." So how do you create "any place"—a digital platform that was customizable for a wide range of users (i.e. K-12 classes)? Improving "education," like improving "responsibility," lacks a clear definition of success, and so requires the same rigorous focus. Unlike corporations, schools and teachers generally have very small budgets. The "education technology" field is full of companies designing technology to make these small budgets stretch farther. But great technology by itself cannot create a great education inside the classroom; it requires teachers. That’s what drew me to Wikispaces; this small company iterated its platform design based on the feedback it received from its users over the course of 10 years. This led to the simple and powerful objective it holds today: to help teachers help students. It seems when the goal is to improve areas as complex and personal as "responsibility" and "education" there is no easy solution. The solution must be created, and we must treat business as a classroom in order to find the focus with which we develop that solution.

This past school year, my mother retired after 25 years teaching in a K-8 school in New Hampshire. At her retirement party I found myself surrounded by her friends, most of them teachers who I’ve known for years. Several use Wikispaces, and one explained that a 2007 YouTube video called "Wikis in Plain English" was her first introduction into what a wiki could be used for. This four-minute video shows how a group of four friends prepare for a camping trip by collaborating on a wiki page. By listing the items they already have, and creating a list of what they still need to bring, they are able to decide who will bring what. The same teacher recalled: "When I watched that short video in 2007, it quickly made sense what a wiki was useful for: quick and easy collaboration!" She then recounted how she used Wikispaces to create an exercise for her students, and how (again, in 2007) she was advised by her school’s administration to cease using wikis altogether. As she put it, wikis at that time were considered "a low-class teaching tool." Over the past decade wikis have become powerful and commonplace tools, especially inside the classroom, so we all had a good laugh at that. But her story brought up a good point: what does the future hold for wikis and teachers? Even more than currently takes place, the near future will see teachers collaborating with teachers to become better teachers. The dictionary defines collaboration as: the action of working with someone to produce or create something. By definition, collaboration creates something. On the near horizon, there are at least three parts that will come together: When teachers collaborate on these platforms, what exactly is created? If you watched the 4-minute "Wikis in Plain English" video, you saw a very basic collaboration take place between four friends, and it was easy to see what was created: the camping group discussed the needs of the trip and created a list of needed items, then decided who would bring what. The discussions and lists eventually informed them: ‘we have everything we need; we’ll have a great trip.’ Similarly, teachers can collaborate to become informed about what content is the most relevant and effective. The syllabus provides teachers with a structure that helps them plan and execute their creative vision of education. Teachers from all over the world will share relevant content, rate the quality of content, and integrate new ideas into their classrooms. This collaboration, and the content being discussed, will help them build a story within the structure of their syllabus. The specific value that is created lies in the quality of content and the number of choices provided to the teacher to ‘create their story’ with. That is the real creation of teachers collaborating. What we’re seeing now and will see more of in the future is teachers collaborating, in a way, with the content itself. Teachers will only continue to have even better resources and methods to teach those resources. In the next post, we’ll look at teaching content that exists as a living document, continually edited and updated, and why this can be so valuable to students. What is your school currently doing to facilitate teacher collaboration? Teachers, how have you collaborated with other teachers in the past? Please share your insights below.

This past school year, my mother retired after 25 years teaching in a K-8 school in New Hampshire. At her retirement party I found myself surrounded by her friends, most of them teachers who I’ve known for years. Several use Wikispaces, and one explained that a 2007 YouTube video called "Wikis in Plain English" was her first introduction into what a wiki could be used for. This four-minute video shows how a group of four friends prepare for a camping trip by collaborating on a wiki page. By listing the items they already have, and creating a list of what they still need to bring, they are able to decide who will bring what. The same teacher recalled: "When I watched that short video in 2007, it quickly made sense what a wiki was useful for: quick and easy collaboration!" She then recounted how she used Wikispaces to create an exercise for her students, and how (again, in 2007) she was advised by her school’s administration to cease using wikis altogether. As she put it, wikis at that time were considered "a low-class teaching tool." Over the past decade wikis have become powerful and commonplace tools, especially inside the classroom, so we all had a good laugh at that. But her story brought up a good point: what does the future hold for wikis and teachers? Even more than currently takes place, the near future will see teachers collaborating with teachers to become better teachers. The dictionary defines collaboration as: the action of working with someone to produce or create something. By definition, collaboration creates something. On the near horizon, there are at least three parts that will come together: When teachers collaborate on these platforms, what exactly is created? If you watched the 4-minute "Wikis in Plain English" video, you saw a very basic collaboration take place between four friends, and it was easy to see what was created: the camping group discussed the needs of the trip and created a list of needed items, then decided who would bring what. The discussions and lists eventually informed them: ‘we have everything we need; we’ll have a great trip.’ Similarly, teachers can collaborate to become informed about what content is the most relevant and effective. The syllabus provides teachers with a structure that helps them plan and execute their creative vision of education. Teachers from all over the world will share relevant content, rate the quality of content, and integrate new ideas into their classrooms. This collaboration, and the content being discussed, will help them build a story within the structure of their syllabus. The specific value that is created lies in the quality of content and the number of choices provided to the teacher to ‘create their story’ with. That is the real creation of teachers collaborating. What we’re seeing now and will see more of in the future is teachers collaborating, in a way, with the content itself. Teachers will only continue to have even better resources and methods to teach those resources. In the next post, we’ll look at teaching content that exists as a living document, continually edited and updated, and why this can be so valuable to students. What is your school currently doing to facilitate teacher collaboration? Teachers, how have you collaborated with other teachers in the past? Please share your insights below.

Robert Maloy started the Resources for History Teachers wiki in 2009. This is his Wikispaces story. 1. Briefly describe your group, your wiki, and what you use it to do: resourcesforhistoryteachers is a wiki designed for teachers and students, created by teachers and students. Robert Maloy, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, began resourcesforhistoryteachers in 2009 as part of a course designed to help college students prepare for the Massachusetts History Teacher Test. Since that time, resourcesforhistoryteachers has grown beyond its initial focus to become a multimedia/multicultural history learning resource for teachers, students and schools throughout the United States and around the world: The site now includes all of the Massachusetts history standards for grades K-12 as well as the national Advanced Placement (AP) World History, United States History and American Government standards. There are more than 600 pages in the site and the number is constantly growing as users contribute new information and create subpages off main pages. Users of the wiki come from a wide-ranging community of educators committed to developing interesting and engaging curriculum for students studying history, government, economics and geography. The site now features links to multicultural and multimedia resources as well as short summaries of historical events, making it an interactive and engaging experience for history learners. There are links to primary sources, video resources, learning games, resources for teaching the histories of diverse people, historical biographies and many more materials for use in school classrooms. The goal is for teachers and students to have multiple resources for covering, uncovering and discovering the past. 2. Besides the Edit button, which wiki feature is your favorite? Being able to create cross-links between pages is an exciting feature. Teachers and students can access information about an historical topic on one page and then explore more connections about that topic on related pages. Giving users the option to explore the pages in their own way makes this site a unique type of digital textbook for use in schools. Students can follow their own interests as explorers of the past through the lens of multiple types of learning resources. The option to add images to the pages is another favorite feature. Pictures, maps, and other visual resources serve to bring historical material alive for teachers and students while creating visually engaging pages within the wiki. We also like the idea of creating subpages off a main page so that teachers and students can explore a specific topic in more depth by leaving the main page to read and explore the subpage. 3. What is one way you’re using wikis and other web 2.0 tools in your projects? We have found that the resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki can be paired with other Web 2.0 tools to create engaging history learning experiences. One idea is what we call a Wikiquest. Like a WebQuest, students explore multiple online resources as part of a class assignment. But in a Wikiquest, students do their explorations within the resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki, both accessing existing materials and adding new ones so that the wiki becomes a regularly evolving digital text and learning resource. A second idea involves using the resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki in conjunction with social bookmarking sites like Delicious and Diigo. Teachers and students can assemble collections of web materials on their social bookmarking site and then link that material to wiki. This is enabled teachers and students to create stacks of resources about historical figures (historical biography stacks) or events (historical event stacks). Students in classrooms can follow each other social bookmarks while all the wiki users can also access the material. 4. Tell us about a particular moment that made you say, "Aha! THIS is why I use wikis!" Wikis create ongoing opportunities for interaction and collaboration that result in powerful learning for teachers and students. Instead of a teacher lecturing about historical material or telling students to read online sources by themselves, wikis invite students to construct knowledge together by actively exploring existing resources and adding new ones to a public site that everyone can access and use. 5. If you could ask it, what do you think your wiki would say about you? Active learning, critical thinking, and collaborative interaction are the hallmarks of how the resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki functions as a transformative technology for history learning by teachers and students. Wikis make historical knowledge visible and accessible to teachers and students who are both the creators and the receivers of that knowledge.

Robert Maloy started the Resources for History Teachers wiki in 2009. This is his Wikispaces story. 1. Briefly describe your group, your wiki, and what you use it to do: resourcesforhistoryteachers is a wiki designed for teachers and students, created by teachers and students. Robert Maloy, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, began resourcesforhistoryteachers in 2009 as part of a course designed to help college students prepare for the Massachusetts History Teacher Test. Since that time, resourcesforhistoryteachers has grown beyond its initial focus to become a multimedia/multicultural history learning resource for teachers, students and schools throughout the United States and around the world: The site now includes all of the Massachusetts history standards for grades K-12 as well as the national Advanced Placement (AP) World History, United States History and American Government standards. There are more than 600 pages in the site and the number is constantly growing as users contribute new information and create subpages off main pages. Users of the wiki come from a wide-ranging community of educators committed to developing interesting and engaging curriculum for students studying history, government, economics and geography. The site now features links to multicultural and multimedia resources as well as short summaries of historical events, making it an interactive and engaging experience for history learners. There are links to primary sources, video resources, learning games, resources for teaching the histories of diverse people, historical biographies and many more materials for use in school classrooms. The goal is for teachers and students to have multiple resources for covering, uncovering and discovering the past. 2. Besides the Edit button, which wiki feature is your favorite? Being able to create cross-links between pages is an exciting feature. Teachers and students can access information about an historical topic on one page and then explore more connections about that topic on related pages. Giving users the option to explore the pages in their own way makes this site a unique type of digital textbook for use in schools. Students can follow their own interests as explorers of the past through the lens of multiple types of learning resources. The option to add images to the pages is another favorite feature. Pictures, maps, and other visual resources serve to bring historical material alive for teachers and students while creating visually engaging pages within the wiki. We also like the idea of creating subpages off a main page so that teachers and students can explore a specific topic in more depth by leaving the main page to read and explore the subpage. 3. What is one way you’re using wikis and other web 2.0 tools in your projects? We have found that the resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki can be paired with other Web 2.0 tools to create engaging history learning experiences. One idea is what we call a Wikiquest. Like a WebQuest, students explore multiple online resources as part of a class assignment. But in a Wikiquest, students do their explorations within the resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki, both accessing existing materials and adding new ones so that the wiki becomes a regularly evolving digital text and learning resource. A second idea involves using the resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki in conjunction with social bookmarking sites like Delicious and Diigo. Teachers and students can assemble collections of web materials on their social bookmarking site and then link that material to wiki. This is enabled teachers and students to create stacks of resources about historical figures (historical biography stacks) or events (historical event stacks). Students in classrooms can follow each other social bookmarks while all the wiki users can also access the material. 4. Tell us about a particular moment that made you say, "Aha! THIS is why I use wikis!" Wikis create ongoing opportunities for interaction and collaboration that result in powerful learning for teachers and students. Instead of a teacher lecturing about historical material or telling students to read online sources by themselves, wikis invite students to construct knowledge together by actively exploring existing resources and adding new ones to a public site that everyone can access and use. 5. If you could ask it, what do you think your wiki would say about you? Active learning, critical thinking, and collaborative interaction are the hallmarks of how the resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki functions as a transformative technology for history learning by teachers and students. Wikis make historical knowledge visible and accessible to teachers and students who are both the creators and the receivers of that knowledge.

We need your help! We’re currently working on an exciting new project to help educators find and use peer-developed teaching resources. We need feedback from teachers to make sure we’re on the right track. The link below leads to a brief survey, which should take about 10 minutes. Take the survey.  Please complete the survey before 5pm PST on Friday July 17, 2015. We can’t do what we do without your feedback. Thank you! The Wikispaces team

We need your help! We’re currently working on an exciting new project to help educators find and use peer-developed teaching resources. We need feedback from teachers to make sure we’re on the right track. The link below leads to a brief survey, which should take about 10 minutes. Take the survey.  Please complete the survey before 5pm PST on Friday July 17, 2015. We can’t do what we do without your feedback. Thank you! The Wikispaces team

We’re excited to invite you and all the teachers on Wikispaces to join TES, the largest online community of educators in the world. Create an account today to start uploading your original teaching materials. It’s easy to begin: Create a TES account Upload your resources Earn 100% royalty on every U.S. purchase Become an early member and you’ll: Get extra help organizing and marketing your materials Have the opportunity to provide feedback on our platform Later this summer, we’ll be opening up our marketplace to educators to browse, download, and purchase your resources on TES. We’ve been busy working on this new product and look forward to sharing it with you! If you have any questions, check out our FAQs, or contact us.

We’re excited to invite you and all the teachers on Wikispaces to join TES, the largest online community of educators in the world. Create an account today to start uploading your original teaching materials. It’s easy to begin: Create a TES account Upload your resources Earn 100% royalty on every U.S. purchase Become an early member and you’ll: Get extra help organizing and marketing your materials Have the opportunity to provide feedback on our platform Later this summer, we’ll be opening up our marketplace to educators to browse, download, and purchase your resources on TES. We’ve been busy working on this new product and look forward to sharing it with you! If you have any questions, check out our FAQs, or contact us.

In support of National Bullying Prevention Month this October, we plan to share wikis that help educators and students cultivate bully-free communities. Submit your wikis that provide anti-bullying and social-emotional learning resources by October 9th. We’ll select some to share on our blog and social media, as well as more broadly across the TES community. You can submit your wiki by either providing a link to it in the comments section of this post or tweeting it to us @wikispaces with hashtag #antibullying. Join us in putting an end to bullying!

In support of National Bullying Prevention Month this October, we plan to share wikis that help educators and students cultivate bully-free communities. Submit your wikis that provide anti-bullying and social-emotional learning resources by October 9th. We’ll select some to share on our blog and social media, as well as more broadly across the TES community. You can submit your wiki by either providing a link to it in the comments section of this post or tweeting it to us @wikispaces with hashtag #antibullying. Join us in putting an end to bullying!

Each month, we’re introducing members of the TES family behind Wikispaces working in the San Francisco office. Please meet Emily from our marketing team! Emily Schickli Team: Marketing Bio: Emily has six years of experience working with K-12 and undergraduate students on their writing and study skills and four years of experience working in communications for nonprofits and publications. She was also the curriculum designer for lean, Chicago-based edtech startup PinkThink and helped create educational STEM games and products for pre-teen girls. High School: Palo Alto Senior High School in Palo Alto, CA College: Carleton College, B.A. in English Grad School: University of Chicago, M.A. in Humanities with an emphasis in English and curriculum design Favorite Teacher: Emily has had so many favorite teachers over the years, and so it’s hard for her to choose just one to highlight. Probably one of her most influential educators was Professor Susan Jaret McKinstry at Carleton, who first introduced her to the creativity behind crafting a critical argument and the world of literary theory.  

Each month, we’re introducing members of the TES family behind Wikispaces working in the San Francisco office. Please meet Emily from our marketing team! Emily Schickli Team: Marketing Bio: Emily has six years of experience working with K-12 and undergraduate students on their writing and study skills and four years of experience working in communications for nonprofits and publications. She was also the curriculum designer for lean, Chicago-based edtech startup PinkThink and helped create educational STEM games and products for pre-teen girls. High School: Palo Alto Senior High School in Palo Alto, CA College: Carleton College, B.A. in English Grad School: University of Chicago, M.A. in Humanities with an emphasis in English and curriculum design Favorite Teacher: Emily has had so many favorite teachers over the years, and so it’s hard for her to choose just one to highlight. Probably one of her most influential educators was Professor Susan Jaret McKinstry at Carleton, who first introduced her to the creativity behind crafting a critical argument and the world of literary theory.  

When a lot of editors contribute to a wiki, wonderful things can happen: knowledge can be built upon; resources and learning materials can be shared; information can be passed along. At the same time, adding lots of content can have a less-than-wonderful side effect: the wiki page can become lengthy and cumbersome. When you search for specific content, you may end up scrolling through pages of irrelevant information. You can always use the search tool, but the best option is to add a table of contents (TOC) widget to your page. A TOC will provide a succinct overview of all the topics on your page. A TOC widget uses heading formats to display a tidy summary of your page content conveniently placed in the top right corner of a page. The formatting presets (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) can be found on the editor (while editing a page), in the drop down menu: To embed the TOC widget: Click the Edit button and place your cursor at the top of any page. Click the Widget button. Select Table of Contents —  we love this widget so much, we put it at the top of our widgets list! Notice that this widget will always appear in the upper-right corner of the page. It will look like a grey block while in edit mode (like all widgets do). TOC can’t be moved to another area of the page because the top right corner is the perfect spot for maximum visibility (trust us). You can select portions of text and use the Heading 1, Heading 2 formats. Save the page and voilà! Those Headings now appear in the TOC menu. As an added bonus, when your users click one of these links in the TOC area, they’ll jump directly down to that portion of the page. This jump is called an "anchor link," and if you’d like to learn more about creating anchor links, have a look at our blog here.

When a lot of editors contribute to a wiki, wonderful things can happen: knowledge can be built upon; resources and learning materials can be shared; information can be passed along. At the same time, adding lots of content can have a less-than-wonderful side effect: the wiki page can become lengthy and cumbersome. When you search for specific content, you may end up scrolling through pages of irrelevant information. You can always use the search tool, but the best option is to add a table of contents (TOC) widget to your page. A TOC will provide a succinct overview of all the topics on your page. A TOC widget uses heading formats to display a tidy summary of your page content conveniently placed in the top right corner of a page. The formatting presets (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) can be found on the editor (while editing a page), in the drop down menu: To embed the TOC widget: Click the Edit button and place your cursor at the top of any page. Click the Widget button. Select Table of Contents —  we love this widget so much, we put it at the top of our widgets list! Notice that this widget will always appear in the upper-right corner of the page. It will look like a grey block while in edit mode (like all widgets do). TOC can’t be moved to another area of the page because the top right corner is the perfect spot for maximum visibility (trust us). You can select portions of text and use the Heading 1, Heading 2 formats. Save the page and voilà! Those Headings now appear in the TOC menu. As an added bonus, when your users click one of these links in the TOC area, they’ll jump directly down to that portion of the page. This jump is called an "anchor link," and if you’d like to learn more about creating anchor links, have a look at our blog here.

Thanks to everyone who responded to our previous post for anti-bullying resources in support of National Bullying Prevention Month! We’ve assembled what you submitted and other useful content in our new anti-bullying Pinterest board. There are over 40 resources from videos, crafts to games and more that educators and students can use to promote safe and socially thriving communities. Feel free to share the board with others and pin away! We also received personal accounts about being bullied and appreciate your willingness to share your story. This only underscores the necessity of bullying prevention. Thank you for joining us in supporting such an important cause!

Thanks to everyone who responded to our previous post for anti-bullying resources in support of National Bullying Prevention Month! We’ve assembled what you submitted and other useful content in our new anti-bullying Pinterest board. There are over 40 resources from videos, crafts to games and more that educators and students can use to promote safe and socially thriving communities. Feel free to share the board with others and pin away! We also received personal accounts about being bullied and appreciate your willingness to share your story. This only underscores the necessity of bullying prevention. Thank you for joining us in supporting such an important cause!

We recently caught up with Clemencia Acevedo, who is a teacher at MS325 Urban Science Academy, Bronx, NY. She presented at Fordham Graduate School of Education’s Digital Literacies Conference about using wikis to help students write informational essays more effectively (her presentation slides). Check out our Q&A with her below. 1. Briefly describe your wiki, and what you use it for: I created two wikis for my science 7th grade classes for the school year 2014-2015 with one for English Language Learners (ELLs). My goal was to provide a platform for my students to easily access engaging, difficult and grade level readings and scaffold them by providing additional visuals, images and videos. I also wanted to give my students an online space to answer questions based on readings done in class and at home. This provided additional scaffolding since students viewed each other’s responses. Students also referred to wikis for major assignment directions in case they lost the printed handouts. However, I realized over the school year that wikis were a great platform for students to post their finished products, such as PowerPoint Presentations, digital posters and essays. In the spring, my students used Wikispaces to share their essays and digital posters on body systems. At the end of our journey, they were able to review and admire each other’s work. 2. Besides the Edit button, which wiki feature is your favorite? I love the homepage discussion feature because it allows me to write brief messages about homework with links, reminders and clarification about a task or assignment. This feature offers the option to send messages to student’s emails. Some parents are members of my wikis and receive messages. This gives them the opportunity to interact with their children through homework and projects at home. 3. Tell us about a particular moment that made you say, "Aha! THIS is why I use wikis!" When I first started teaching, it concerned me that many of our middle school students didn’t organize their reading and task handouts, often misplacing or losing them altogether. After I started posting readings and assignments on wikis, these students began to review the wikis in order to understand the assignments. This saved me time and energy from re-explaining. Those were the moments when I said, "Aha, this is why I use wikis." 4. How do you plan to use wikis in the future, whether your current wiki or a brand new wiki? A few months ago, I learned that I could create public wikis accessible by anyone, not just wiki members. I created a public 7th grade Math wiki and two public 8th grade science wikis featuring readings, videos, visuals and other resources for my students and those in other classes to access easily. Students can use the wikis to play interactive math games or work on science activities. 5. If you could ask it, what do you think your wiki would say about you? It would say that I’m trying to ensure that each student receives an education no matter the obstacles they face in and outside the classroom. It would also say that I teach 21st century skills students can use later in their careers as jobs increasingly require computer skills.          

We recently caught up with Clemencia Acevedo, who is a teacher at MS325 Urban Science Academy, Bronx, NY. She presented at Fordham Graduate School of Education’s Digital Literacies Conference about using wikis to help students write informational essays more effectively (her presentation slides). Check out our Q&A with her below. 1. Briefly describe your wiki, and what you use it for: I created two wikis for my science 7th grade classes for the school year 2014-2015 with one for English Language Learners (ELLs). My goal was to provide a platform for my students to easily access engaging, difficult and grade level readings and scaffold them by providing additional visuals, images and videos. I also wanted to give my students an online space to answer questions based on readings done in class and at home. This provided additional scaffolding since students viewed each other’s responses. Students also referred to wikis for major assignment directions in case they lost the printed handouts. However, I realized over the school year that wikis were a great platform for students to post their finished products, such as PowerPoint Presentations, digital posters and essays. In the spring, my students used Wikispaces to share their essays and digital posters on body systems. At the end of our journey, they were able to review and admire each other’s work. 2. Besides the Edit button, which wiki feature is your favorite? I love the homepage discussion feature because it allows me to write brief messages about homework with links, reminders and clarification about a task or assignment. This feature offers the option to send messages to student’s emails. Some parents are members of my wikis and receive messages. This gives them the opportunity to interact with their children through homework and projects at home. 3. Tell us about a particular moment that made you say, "Aha! THIS is why I use wikis!" When I first started teaching, it concerned me that many of our middle school students didn’t organize their reading and task handouts, often misplacing or losing them altogether. After I started posting readings and assignments on wikis, these students began to review the wikis in order to understand the assignments. This saved me time and energy from re-explaining. Those were the moments when I said, "Aha, this is why I use wikis." 4. How do you plan to use wikis in the future, whether your current wiki or a brand new wiki? A few months ago, I learned that I could create public wikis accessible by anyone, not just wiki members. I created a public 7th grade Math wiki and two public 8th grade science wikis featuring readings, videos, visuals and other resources for my students and those in other classes to access easily. Students can use the wikis to play interactive math games or work on science activities. 5. If you could ask it, what do you think your wiki would say about you? It would say that I’m trying to ensure that each student receives an education no matter the obstacles they face in and outside the classroom. It would also say that I teach 21st century skills students can use later in their careers as jobs increasingly require computer skills.          

We recently caught up with Clemencia Acevedo, who is a teacher at MS325 Urban Science Academy, Bronx, NY. She presented at Fordham Graduate School of Education’s Digital Literacies Conference about using wikis to help students write informational essays (her presentation slides). Check out our Q&A with her below. 1. Briefly describe your wiki, and what you use it for: I created a wiki for my science 7th grade students for the school year 2014-2015, as well as one for English Language Learners (ELLs). My goal was to provide a platform for my students to easily access engaging, difficult and grade level readings and scaffold them with additional visuals, images and videos. I also wanted to give my students an online space to answer questions based on readings done in class and at home. This served as additional scaffolding since students viewed each other’s responses. Students also referred to wikis for major assignment directions in case they lost the printed handouts. However, I realized over the school year that wikis were a great platform for students to post their finished products, such as PowerPoint Presentations, digital posters and essays. In the spring, my students used Wikispaces to share their essays and digital posters on body systems. At the end of our journey, they were able to review and admire each other’s work. 2. Tell us about a particular moment that made you say, "Aha! THIS is why I use wikis!" When I first started teaching, I was concerned that many of our middle school students didn’t organize their reading and task handouts, often misplacing or losing them altogether. After I started posting readings and assignments on wikis, these students began to review the wikis in order to understand the assignments. This saved me time and energy from re-explaining. Those were the moments when I said, "Aha, this is why I use wikis." 3. Besides the Edit button, which wiki feature is your favorite? I love the homepage discussion feature because it allows me to write brief messages about homework with links, reminders and clarification about a task or assignment. This feature offers the option to send messages to student’s emails. Some parents are members of my wikis and receive messages. This gives them the opportunity to interact with their children through homework and projects at home. 4. If you could ask it, what do you think your wiki would say about you? It would say that I’m trying to ensure that each student receives an education no matter the obstacles they face in and outside the classroom. It would also say that I teach 21st century skills students can use later in their careers as jobs increasingly require computer skills.    

We recently caught up with Clemencia Acevedo, who is a teacher at MS325 Urban Science Academy, Bronx, NY. She presented at Fordham Graduate School of Education’s Digital Literacies Conference about using wikis to help students write informational essays (her presentation slides). Check out our Q&A with her below. 1. Briefly describe your wiki, and what you use it for: I created a wiki for my science 7th grade students for the school year 2014-2015, as well as one for English Language Learners (ELLs). My goal was to provide a platform for my students to easily access engaging, difficult and grade level readings and scaffold them with additional visuals, images and videos. I also wanted to give my students an online space to answer questions based on readings done in class and at home. This served as additional scaffolding since students viewed each other’s responses. Students also referred to wikis for major assignment directions in case they lost the printed handouts. However, I realized over the school year that wikis were a great platform for students to post their finished products, such as PowerPoint Presentations, digital posters and essays. In the spring, my students used Wikispaces to share their essays and digital posters on body systems. At the end of our journey, they were able to review and admire each other’s work. 2. Tell us about a particular moment that made you say, "Aha! THIS is why I use wikis!" When I first started teaching, I was concerned that many of our middle school students didn’t organize their reading and task handouts, often misplacing or losing them altogether. After I started posting readings and assignments on wikis, these students began to review the wikis in order to understand the assignments. This saved me time and energy from re-explaining. Those were the moments when I said, "Aha, this is why I use wikis." 3. Besides the Edit button, which wiki feature is your favorite? I love the homepage discussion feature because it allows me to write brief messages about homework with links, reminders and clarification about a task or assignment. This feature offers the option to send messages to student’s emails. Some parents are members of my wikis and receive messages. This gives them the opportunity to interact with their children through homework and projects at home. 4. If you could ask it, what do you think your wiki would say about you? It would say that I’m trying to ensure that each student receives an education no matter the obstacles they face in and outside the classroom. It would also say that I teach 21st century skills students can use later in their careers as jobs increasingly require computer skills.    

Have a student who’s often distracted, or worse yet, several who are always acting up? Build positive learning communities and address misbehavior with our collection of classroom management resources featuring wikis, behavior T-charts, choice boards, and more. We have a special bundle of resources tailored for elementary school educators. Do you have classroom management resources that worked particularly well with your students? Share them on in the comments section of this post, and we’ll feature them in social media. You all submitted awesome anti-bullying resources last month!

Have a student who’s often distracted, or worse yet, several who are always acting up? Build positive learning communities and address misbehavior with our collection of classroom management resources featuring wikis, behavior T-charts, choice boards, and more. We have a special bundle of resources tailored for elementary school educators. Do you have classroom management resources that worked particularly well with your students? Share them on in the comments section of this post, and we’ll feature them in social media. You all submitted awesome anti-bullying resources last month!

We’re currently conducting a survey with preK-12 teachers in the US to get a better understanding of their experiences with professional development, especially for re-licensing and salary advancement. We’d be grateful if you could take no more than 10-15 minutes to fill out our survey by Friday November 13, 2015. As a token of our appreciation, we’re giving away five $500 Apple store gift cards. We’ll use the information in an aggregated, anonymous format for internal purposes only. At the end of the survey, provide your email address to be entered in a random drawing to receive one of five $500 Apple gift cards. Only respondents who work in US preK-12 education and have completed the survey in full by November 13, 2015 will be entered.