A Collaborative Wiki

While reading chapter four "Fostering Collaborative Writing" by Beach, I was thinking of how I might incorporate collaborative writing in the work I do. I teach a class called Culturally Responsive Teaching. It is attended by teachers in my school district. Each month teachers bring student work samples to class and share strategies that they used during the past month that they felt taught to diversity in their classroom. A wiki or website by the class would be a great way to create resources for others on-line and provide a form of staff development. Teachers could access the wiki for teaching ideas. I'm intrigued with the idea because it would also create rich conversations about teaching and learning in the classroom. These dialogs would be more than just attending class and showing ideas. Pictures could be taken and posted to illustrate what is happening in the classroom with the strategy. Others could try the strategy and add more details or ideas to the entry on the wiki. Through the National Writing Project website I read how the state of Alaska engages teachers in collaborative writing projects. "A vital component of this work is the sharing of student work; another important aspect is the opportunity teachers have to synthesize their own reflections and scholarship."