Class wiki helps increase parent involvement

One thing that I meant to write about last week: When we had parent conferences this fall, I had only one "no-show". This parent did not call to cancel, and did not respond to my later phone call suggesting that we reschedule. There have been some other indications that maybe this parent is not as involved in her child's school experience (for example, by signing reading logs, etc.) as we as teachers might wish. Anyway, a week or two after I introduced the class wiki, this student still had not posted anything on it. I checked with him that he had internet access at home, and he said he did. I asked if he felt comfortable with the process of accessing the wiki and posting on it, and he said he didn't. So, I showed him again and made sure he had the instructions taped inside his planner. That night, he went onto the wiki from home and posted both his own assignment (we were recording "engaging leads" from books) and several comments to other people's posts. Yay! Better yet, though, he came in the next day and said that he had shown his mother the pictures of our marionettes spinning in the "picture cube", and his group's associated myth script which is also posted on the wiki. His mom had really enjoyed seeing these glimpses into what we're doing in the classroom, and clearly he had enjoyed sharing them with her. Double yay! ! :-)