Explore the MTBoS – Mission #1 is in full swing now! We have had over 150 bloggers post this week! If you haven’t written your post yet, there is still time. One of the blog topics this week is about “rich tasks”. I am trying to incorporate more rich tasks into my classroom, so thank you to all of the great bloggers who posted about their rich tasks because this is very helpful to me! If you haven’t been over there to read the blogs, you should go and read some now!
For this weeks mission, I decided to blog about something that makes my classroom distinctly mine. One of the best things that I have my students do every year is to create their own math wiki page. Each students wiki page is an electronic portfolio of their math projects and a place for them to showcase anything math related that they find. Many students add funny math jokes and pictures to their pages. Some students also put on math quizzes and extra hard problems that they create for other students to solve. For many of them, it is their first exposure to “social media”. They love reading and commenting on other students pages. I give them class time to read other students pages, but they also read each others pages on the weekends and even over breaks. They love being able to create their own page, and I love that they are spending so much time exploring more “mathy” things. It is especially a big hit in 6th grade, when students are new to computers and technology and aren’t heavily into other social media sites yet.
My new students know about the math wiki pages from my older students and usually start asking when they will get to create their own math wiki page on the first day of school. I love that there is such a positive buzz about it. It’s great when students are really looking forward to an activity in math class. This week my new 6th graders will finally get to create their pages! We are all pretty excited and I can’t wait to see what my new student produce!
Check out some of the wiki pages my students have created in the past.
I Speak Math 
Thanks very much for sharing your experience. I would love to implement this idea for my pupils one day!
Thanks Jemma! I’m so glad that you started blogging and can’t wait to read more of your lessons.
Love!!!!! How do I do it? Do they all have their own passwords or something? Please provide a little more info! I want to start!
Hey Kristin,
Yes, they all have passwords as they have to be invited to the wiki. I’ve had many questions so I’m going to provide more info in this post. Hopefully tomorrow. 🙂
That’s a great idea…so they are viewable by anyone, but only students in their class can comment on them, right? Do you have a specific list of what they need to include, or is it just for fun/not a grade?
Yes Nicole, you are correct, everyone can view the wiki, but only members can comment on the wiki pages. It is fun for them, but I also have a list of things they need to include. They get graded on including the proper things, and following instructions correctly. I’m big into teaching 6th graders to follow a set of instructions! I’ll update this post with the list so you can see it. 🙂
This is a fantastic idea. I used PBWorks for literature discussions, back when I was an English teacher. I never thought about its applications in the math classroom. I want to try this!
I’m so glad you liked it! I’m going to update this post with more directions if you would like to try it out in math. 🙂
Very cool! I love that your students came in the first day of school wanting to know when they would get to start their own pages. You’ve got some great word of mouth going on among your students outside of class. I’ve never done anything like this before with my students. How time intensive was it for you to set up? Any glitches you can share so others can learn from them?
It’s actually pretty easy to set up once you have a class wiki. And that is very easy too with pbworks. All they need to do is request access and then I grant them membership. On my end, I typed up a page of directions (which I will include when I update this post). I also created a Google Doc for questions so students would have to go back an re-read my original directions. I’m going to update this post this weekend, so check back. And, thanks for tweeting it out. 🙂
I love this! I want to get a wiki up and running. My students blog now, but building their own page on a wiki sounds like an exciting activity. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Brandon! My students really love it and it’s so easy to do! Let me know if you have questions.
Pingback: How to Create a Math Class Wiki for Electronic Student Portfolios | I Speak Math
Thanks for the great questions! I blogged about how to create your math class wiki here. I think I answered all of your questions, but if not please ask again. 🙂 https://ispeakmath.org/2013/10/13/how-to-create-a-math-class-wiki-for-electronic-student-portfolios/