Project Evaluation

How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here?
This project was challenging for me but I’m really glad I did it. I floundered a bit a first when my searches did not turn up what I was looking for. One thing I would have done differently (if not for the perimeters of the course) we taken more time. Obviously, given the nature of the course, we had to keep ourselves moving along. If I were doing a project like this on my own I would be able to adjust my timeline a bit as I needed to. Another thing I would change is that I would seek out the advice of my colleagues and ask if they could provide me with resources. I was able to find a limited number of teachers who had wisdom to share on the subject of test taking strategies, but there may have been resources right in my building.
What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?
I learned that what you think you are looking for may not be the best answer to a problem. While I wanted an already existing program that my students could use to hone their test taking skills, what I ended up with was more suited to my particular class and the classes of my fellow third grade teachers. My wiki turned out to be material that was more suited to my need. While I like the idea of finding a program like Study Island and will continue to investigate it’s advantages and disadvantages, my wiki is helping my kids tackle a very specific problem in a setting which allows me to
In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?
I know that I will use wikis in the future. I got a lot of experience using wikis in this course and I now see them as a great resource for collecting and sharing information on a given topic. When I have my own classroom whether it is this fall or a year or two down the road, I will be incorporating wikis as well as blogs and a website into my classroom. I am happy with how fluid a wiki is and how easily I could add to and modify it. I can imagine using wikis in other subject areas as well as I build a classroom library of resources.