Friday, September 28, 2012

Ryeasha's websites (so far)..

choosemyplate.gov
letsmove.gov
http://kidsheartfelthealth.com/index.html
Learning communities are a great idea for teaching. I thought that the book made a good point about teaching being a very isolating profession. I like the idea of collaboration with other teachers for better results and being able to come back after you've done to talk about the results of whatever you did and get feedback. It would help also because kids love doing things with other classes. It is memorable thing to bring classes together and work with students that they don't see everyday that whatever lesson you're working on they will remember. I also think that its beneficial for teachers because its a chance to share ideas and support one another in their teacher-y endeavors. Its a great way to do the penpal thing. Its also Is a good thing to maybe use Skype for things like meeting classroom to classroom. It's nice for students because they are getting a chance to interact and share ideas as well. Just like the teaching pluses, the students get support and get to share information and ideas towards the same goal. Working together is having a shared vision can be great. Science seems to be a big benefactor in a lot of these ideas. Because it is easy to share data and collect it from everywhere and bring it together. Like in the chapter it shows examples of kids collecting meteorological data or rainfall. Overall I think that learning communities is a great tool for teachers to share and connect with other teachers and expand thier horizons as well as their student's.

Ryeasha's 2nd Reading Reflection

In this chapter we were introduced to communities in the schools, but the focus wasn't on students instead this chapter centered on the importance of a learning community amongst teachers. This concept includes the sharing of ideas, lessons, and teacher strategies for teachers by teachers. Conceptually, this ideal seems rather simple but in reality, the notion of teamwork in the education field is scarce in comparison to other fields. This fairly new concept entails fruitful discussions and the exchange of ideas between teachers. In this digital age, where communication is made easier by technology, it strengthens 'learning communities' by supplying teachers with even more resources and opportunities to network with other teachers. Benefits of Learning communities include lower teacher isolation, and higher level of commitment to the mission, shared responsibility, more powerful learing and a higher likelihood of fundamental, systemic change. The benefits to students are that it shift the focus from looking at what you teach to focusing on what children are learning. This practice ensures that students learn, it creates a culture of collaboration for school improvement, and focuses on results. For both the teacher and student skills and dispositions are developed that will prepare them for the real world. Both will learn to learn and even more importantly, will learn to work together as they strengthen communication, problem-solving, and project management skills. In this chapter, we learned that one must consider many components when enlisting like minded people to collaborate with in your learning community. This includes collaboration between individuals who share a vision of the conditions they must create to achieve the mission. In using this concept will strengthen our Project-based learning classrooms by providing both the teachers and the students a community to learn from and with.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Sara's reading reflection #2

I thought this chapter was really interesting because i learned so much about working together and collaborating ideas with other people. I thought that the focus of learning communities was about getting people together not just in your community but all around the world to collaborate ideas. This chapter talked a lot about teachers getting a team together to brainstorm ideas for new ways to teach students that incorporated technology. When teachers worked together, they expected to produce something greater than what they had by themselves. A quote that i found interesting was "having somebody to brainstorm with about planning, having colleagues to reflect with about what was going on in the classroom" (Mueller 29). I absolutely agreed with what she said because having someone to talk to is better than being isolated and thinking of your own ideas. Some of the benefits to learning communities included decreased teacher isolation, increased commitment to the mission, shared responsibility, more powerful thinking and a higher likelihood of fundamental, systematic change. These points just show how beneficial it is to share ideas with other teachers and how they have such a passion for teaching. When teachers work together, not everything will turn out the way they want it too. If they made a mistake, they have to look at what they did and move on. Students aren't the only ones learning, teachers learn as much as the students do in order to teach them and pass on the knowledge. Learning communities share the same vision and they are all goal and result oriented. Along with a clear sense of mission and working together to get the best results. Students are organized into groups by teachers/leaders. These learners share the same values and collaborate with each other to commit to continuous improvement. This whole learning community really ties into our group project for education technology because we have a group of three people and we are working together to get the same goal at the end. We have an online blog to communicate with each other and to share ideas. If something doesn't work out, we just re-do it and think of a way to make it better. I'm glad that i am taking this class and reading about other people that share the same goal because it encourages me to try harder.

Sara's eating healthy concept map

Sara's websites

http://kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/ http://www.childrensaidsociety.org/ http://classroom.kidshealth.org/ http://www.pbs.org/parents/food-and-fitness/

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Lindsey's Late Reading Reflection

First. I know my post is late :(

     The chapter helped me think about PBL. I don't have a lot of experience with project based learning and this was an eye-opening thought to base my learning on projects and use that project in every aspect of my classroom. I think that project based learning is a big step up from what I remember form school.

     As far as technology, I think that the younger generation is very savvy when it comes to computers and things. They use technology everyday and it's only right that they use it in school. Not only does it give them a wealth of information at their fingertips but I think it gives students confidence because technology is something that they know how to use. Although I'm not a wiz-kid when it comes to technology, but I think it would be a great asset to any project based learning environment.

Again sorry for the late and quick post. I will give it a better go next assignment.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Ryeasha's Reader Response #!


  As a life-long learner and future educator, it is my job to make my self aware of the constant changes made in the world around me. I will be teaching in a classroom of students who have almost unlimited access to information at their fingertips, literally. As a result of the wide-spread use of technology there will be certain demands of the outside-world for my students as they tackle this changing world after leaving the classroom. It will be my job to prepare them for this transition. I will use Project-Based Learning to facilitate technology-use, collaborative work and creative thinking that will eventually lead to growth, for both myself and my students.

  Some issues to this approach are that I may need to reconsider my learning goals, classroom manangement style, how I will assess student learning, and even how I set-up my classroom and communicate with students. However, in my journey to project-based learning I will keep in mind that we, my students and I, are both learning and growing. I will need to get familiar with the 'learner' role again and be comfortable with change as many of the methods I was taught as a pre-service teacher will indefinitely be tested in mapping out my own project-based, technology-enriched curriculum. In modeling my role as a 'learner' it will demonstrate to my students that change is essential for their own future success.  I will need to keep in mind that my students are up for the challenge because they live in the real world. While the projects may appear challenging, they are certainly worth the effort,

  An example of PBL in action was illustrated in Chapter 1 as readers were introduced to New Technology HIgh, PBL was the framework for the curriculum at New Technology High, where the school population was 400 students. The district  was faced with the demands of the 21st century's workforce needs. The district was challenged with creating an infrastructure of learning that promoted technology as a tool for research and problem solving but also for challenging students to think critically and to collaborate as a team. This lead to the New Tech model, in which schools are smaller by design which allows for personalization which transforms the school into a community of learners, both students and teachers working together. This leads to improved effectiveness in teaching. Furthermore, less time is devoted to student management issues which lends more time for learning. At New Technology High students were immersed in real-world learning, technology was easily accessible to all students, good ideas are shared, online tools that made assessing students and providing them feedback were more effective and easier for teachers. and the benefits to teachers were time and incentives to work together.

    The benefits of PBL are endless when done correctly. Overall benefits of PBL are that once a project has been perfected and proven effective I can continue to use it for future classrooms or as a reference and resource to other teachers. Additionally, it leads to stronger communication skills of the students who are often grouped with other students and are pushed into working collaboratively. PBL creates student-driven classrooms by placing the focus on them which promotes inquiry and connection-making. In this method, students will develop a greater understanding of the world and the way it works.

Reading Reflection #1

           As I start this journey of project based learning, there are some things i should keep in mind not only for myself but for others too.  This is a new and creative way of starting projects and it should be interesting to work with other people and get new ideas.  New ways of learning can sound scary at first but i know that i have to be up for the challenge and test myself to new limits.  You never know how anything is going to turn out until you try it.  Another point of starting this journey is that other people are using project based learning also and we all have to experience working together in the real world.  That's how we collaborate and brainstorm new ideas.

           Experiencing Project based learning is beneficial in many aspects.  Starting out from the old school traditional classrooms to the new and improved classroom using technology.  Students/learners think of their own questions and try to make a meaning out of what they learn, not necessarily from teachers.  Students teach themselves in this scenario and become independent learners.  Not only is this beneficial to the concept itself but beneficial to students who participate.  When using this project, students understand the world and how it functions.  Students learn how to communicate with one another and gain skills work with one another.  They become dependent on each other and hours of work they put in because deadlines are very important.

          Project based learning isn't an instant thing that just works with a snap of a finger.  You invest in this new technology and keep building on top it to create something better.  There is a lot of preparation and planning to make this possible in order for students to learn in a new and creative way.  Each project is different and what you learn the first time connects you to the second project..so on and so forth.  Everyone thinks that this project is only for the students when in fact; teachers learn as much as the student do.  Its a learning process for everyone and develops ways of teachers and students working together for ideas.

          New Technology model is like project based learning.  Its a new way of learning with technology.  Project based learning is based on technology and working together but new technology model helps students create digital portfolios to reflect on their learning from the past time.