Through the Teaching 2.0 course, I have gained a lot of web tool resources. I learned about delicious during a course last summer and have added many bookmarks to my account; these need to be organized, badly! Diigo seems to be the top pick of the two by the other teachers in my class, so I plan to look into that one to use with my students in the fall, along with Symbaloo. Symbaloo looks is a more visually attractive bookmarking tool to use also--I may lean this way, especially with middle school aged kids--the more visually appealing, the better!
I've decided, with the new position I've accepted as an 8th grade comm. arts teacher, to complete my project using the Good Reads web tool. Good Reads is a site in which the user builds their virtual bookshelves with books they have read or want to read. The readers have the ability to rate the book, as well as give the book a review. I can see this working really well within a middle school classroom; not only for students to find out what others are reading, but to also give the students the chance to practice critiquing and reviewing.
In addition to building this social reading network, I also want to begin student reading blogs. I envision these blogs to encompass many aspects of reading-character and plot analysis, predictions, themes, connections to the text, etc. With my newly enabled Twitter account, I can hopefully find another school/classroom that we can socially connect with to help build our networks (both blogging and book sharing!).
Anyone know of another 8th grade class that may want to become reading networking buddies with a Wisconsin classroom?
I really am excited to see how this works out. It could be an awesome project!
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