I decided to set up a wiki of my own to see how it works/how I like it. I must admit though that I have found wikispaces a tad confusing. I don't know HOW it could be confusing to me, but for some reason it is! I'm in the process of watching the tutorials again to make sure I didn't miss anything, and then I may just scratch what I've done and start over. I think I did something funky in the beginning and it's made the architecture of my wiki weird. Working on it...it can't be that hard! The whole idea is simplicity! I think it's me.
I concur with many of my fellow SLL2.0 participants whose blogs I've read, in that Joyce Valenza's blog post entitled Ten Reasons Why Your Next Pathfinder Should Be a Wiki really puts a practical face on wikis and why they're really a perfect tool for teachers and librarians. I'll have to periodically reread it as I get a little further into my year planning! I plan to introduce wikis to my older students as well, in the form of book reviews/discussion--especially in connection with our state reading program (Texas Bluebonnet Award) nominees.
I spent some time looking around a site that I'd read about in addition to the sites listed in SLL2.0: Curriki . Curriki calls itself the Global Education and Learning Community--it's a Curriculum Wiki. I found a couple of really useful things here and here in just a few moments' browsing, so I think this might be a site worth checking in on regularly as well & sharing with teachers.
To complete this Thing, a few other uses of a wiki in the school library setting:
- collaboration with teachers
- event planning (book fair, author visit, etc.) with both teachers and volunteers
- curriculum planning with fellow librarians at other schools
- book reviews by students/teachers
- pathfinders/resource lists
- any project necessitating collaboration!
2 comments:
I'm a few steps behind you on #14, but now I'm excited to get into the Wikis.
And, wow, you have a big elementary school! Are you the only librarian?
Yes--we have about 650 kids, PK-5th grade. 1 librarian and a full time aide, although the aide is really termed an "educational aide," so that it up to principal interpretation. My principal is pretty supportive, in that my aide only has a bit more than an hour's duty elsewhere per day. That is not the case in many of our libraries though. Some of the library aides spend more time (or close) doing other duties such as translating, clinic duty, subbing for other educational aides, school store, bus duty, lunch duty, etc. than they spend in the library.
In Texas, library standards are not mandated. They are "guidelines," so school districts don't have to meet them. Funding school libraries to meet the state staffing standards doesn't seem to exist anyway!
Some of our elementary schools this year are going to top 1200 students, and they will still have only 1 librarian and 1 aide. So I feel lucky, in comparison!
Tell me about your situation in WA!
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