I have been working a Grade 5 class from Crozet, Virginia for the past few weeks. 

Paula White is the innovative Grade 5 teacher that has been helping along the way.  She is an individual that is making technology a large part of her students educational experiences.  Her grade 5 students wiki’s have been visited and commented from people all over the world!  I asked Paula how she monitors the wikis since they are viewed by numerous people and she showed me her blog post where she talks about wiki safety.  I have been interacting with the Grade 5 students on their personal wiki’s asking questions, sharing cool tools, and supporting them in their educational endeavors.  It is interesting for them to see how things up here are different than things down there.  For example, we talked about how the weather up here is a whole lot worse than the weather down there. 

They are interested in learning about Lit circles and since Paula is unsure about how to proceed with them, Danielle and I are making a video to post to their wikis about Lit circles.  (I will post that up when we finish it on Wednesday!).  Something that I am finding a little tough though is getting the students to interact back with me.  I have been asking questions to further their thinking and have been offering my help, but sometimes I get no response.

It is a really insightful experience to learn with students halfway across the continent.  To see the grade 5 students take an active role in their own learning is so amazing and I know that when I am an educator, creating classroom wikis would be something I know that my students would benefit from!