Chapter Six: Summarizing and Note Taking

I think this chapter offered many wonderful suggestions for discussions and projects in Middle and High school discussions. I can not see me using these in my classroom; however, I know I can use them in my career for committee and grade level projects.

I could have used google.docs this past year several times. Our campus committee had to evaluate our hospitality guidelines and work on our Campus Improvement Plan. All 10 committee members were supposed to evaluate the current guidelines and make changes to them. As usual, it was difficult getting all of the committee members together at the same time to work and make changes. We all took copies of the guidelines and made changes, then collaborated, then change the document, and collaborate again. This would have been much easier using google.docs or even a wiki.

We also had to work on our Campus Improvement Plan. The process was similar to the above, so I know it would have been accomplished easier if had used google.doc or a wiki. I created a Wiki this last week after watching the videos from my other technology class. I need to upload documents that we will use this coming year, add committee names, and hopefully be able to show people how we can use this to facilitate our committee meetings. I am hopeful that this will increase our productivity and decrease meeting times.

Another use for google.doc or a wiki would be in developing units of study. Our district adopted new books for English/ Language Arts. When new textbooks are adopted, teachers usually spend a lot of time developing units and pulling together useful resources to correlate to the new textbooks. A wiki could help facilitate this process: teachers could add resources (worksheets, videos, games) they each find to the same document to be shared. This could save time and effort all everyone's part, plus create one document that can be easily shared.