Journal features Cullman Middle School

Collaborative book project deemed model for other teachers

Teachers at Cullman Middle School harnessed a Web tool to tempt students into practicing their writing skills voluntarily. They used an easy-to-update Web site called a wiki for a collaborative book project. Because of this innovation, the school is featured in the latest issue of the Working Toward Excellence journal.

Working Toward Excellence, the journal of the Alabama Best Practices Center, is published in print and online formats to help professional educators adopt the best ways to teach. The latest edition, "Alabama's 21st Century Schools Are Blazing Trails Through Cyberspace," focuses on Alabama teachers who are changing the way they teach to better prepare their students to succeed in life and the digital economy.

Find the online version of "Alabama's 21st Century Schools Are Blazing Trails Through Cyberspace" at www.abpc21.org.

Cullman Middle School is one of 40 schools that participated in the Alabama Best Practices Center’s 21st Century Learning Project, underwritten by Microsoft Corp. and the Wachovia Foundation. This project does two things for teachers: helps them understand what students need to know to be successful in our ever-changing world, and provides them with the skills and tools to effectively engage their students.

Cullman Middle School, a Cullman City school, won notice for an extracurricular online project that drew students to write poetry and various genres of fiction together on their own time. The collaborative books (http://cullmancollaborativebooks.wikispaces.com/) took advantage of a free wiki site that allowed students to edit and build on each other's writing. The project was a collaboration of teachers Aimee Smith, Lea Scott, Phil Parris, Teresa Boozer and Tasha Vass.

"Cullman Middle School is a pacesetter in this work. Team members have worked hard to expand their use of effective teaching strategies that not only help students learn more, but also get excited about what they are learning!  This project is about finding a creative way to boost writing skills and literacy, and students voluntarily wrote volumes," said Gassenheimer. "In this Digital Age, in addition to the basics, children will need a broad range of skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving and how to effectively collaborate with others."

The A+ Education Foundation in Montgomery is home of the Alabama Best Practices Center, which receives major support from Microsoft Corp. and the Wachovia Foundation. Since 1991, A+ has advanced policies, programs and initiatives that result in high achievement by every child in Alabama's K-12 education system. A+ believes Alabama's economic future depends on strong public schools.

KEY LINKS

Cullman Collaborative Books, http://cullmancollaborativebooks.wikispaces.com/

Digital version, Working Toward Excellence journal: www.abpc21.org

FIND IT FAST
These articles mention Cullman Middle School:
http://www.abpc21.org/blazingtrails.html
http://www.abpc21.org/classroom20.html

PDF (449 Kb) of the Working Toward Excellence journal's 16-page print edition, www.bestpracticescenter.org

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