Sara's Reading reflection #7

There are different levels of classroom discussion that makes everything more productive.  The first level is from teacher to teacher.  Teachers collaborate with each other to plan about activities and assessments for the students.  Planning is key for teachers to give explicit instruction and help students understand their assignment.  If teachers can't talk face to face, they should use other forms communication to communicate with each other like blogs and wiki.  The second level is student to student.  Students communicate with each other to talk about their project and what they learn thus far.  It is really important for students to talk to their teammate or group members to keep up with what is going on and who is doing what.  Communicating is a really important skill for students to learn because that is how everyone talks to each other.  The last level is a teacher to student.  Teacher to one student is not normal these days unless no one uses project based learning.  Teachers usually give a big announcement in the beginning of class or the project to inform everyone of what they need to know.  There isn't a lot of one on one time because students work together on their project and will occasionally ask the teacher for assistance. When teachers check in on their students, there are some questions to ask themselves.  For procedural purposes, are you on schedule with the right materials? See how the team work is going and see if students are splitting up jobs evenly among group members.  For understanding, listen to what the students have to say and asking questions based off that.  The last check is self assessment, you have to find out what students think about the project and how it is coming along so far.  Journals and blogs are encouraged so they pour out what they think.When students use technology, there are many benefits.  Students learn to communicate and create goals for themselves.  They stay organized collaborate with other members of their team.  Using technology helps them reach out and broader there thinking.  There is troubleshooting when it comes to 21st century skills.  This teaches students that there are real life situation they have to face.  Dilemmas will come up when something will never or always or sometimes go your way.  Students have to learn to interact and communicate with each other and really have to work out the kinks to make it work.  All of these concepts are exactly what me and my teammate are going through.  We have explanations from our professor and after that, it is our job as a team to figure out what we are doing and help each other out.  We keep blogs to communicate with each other.  Not everything goes our way and we have to push a little harder to get the outcomes we want.

collaborative web

Sara's reading reflection #6

When it comes down to strategies to help students with their projects, there are many ways of doing it. Technology encourages students to evaluate and be reflective of their own strengths. As we are doing, we have a blog to reflect on a chapter we read or other homework that is due. Also using survey sites is a good way to evaluate their feelings and thoughts about something and also look at the results to reflect on what they are doing. When getting students minds ready for a project, always start out with what they know. Let them explore and search on their topic and let the idea settle into their minds. Tell the students interesting facts and stories about the topic so it grabs their attention and it also gets them excited. Teaching fundamentals is the first step in introducing the project. In order to successfully complete a project, start out with the starting point and the road you're going to take next. Students need to know the points and what they are going to make or create. They need a set point of how everything is going to be done. The KWL process is helpful because students generate what they know then what they wonder and lastly, what they want to learn. As the project gets deeper, give them questions so they can look more into their topic and answer questions. Students will use technology in their project and their are important steps to take. First, set up a technology playground which means students should play around with it and get to know it. Tap student expertise is a way to set up tools in a station and let them go around to get familiar with each one. Project management tools is a good way for students to keep a log and record their process so far and reflect. Teachers should promote inquiry and deep learning to their students. Students should understand that humans are interdependent, economics, health and well-being are related in some ways. Modern money has a symbolic worth as an exchange medium and also money means different things to different people. These concepts relate to our health and nutrition project because we keep blogs and talk about the chapter we read and post things up about or project. When we made a concept map, we started out with what we knew in order to make the map and put what we want to learn. This concept will keep helping us out in the future.

Chapter 6

In chapter 6, our focus shifted from prepping for our project to putting our plans into action. The ideas in this chapter were very informative to our project because it prepares us for launching our project and will this can be exhilarating for some, and can also be stressful for the teacher who has finally gets to put all that careful planning into action. Most importantly, chapter 6 provided strategies for implementing our project that were useful in so many ways: time-saving, technologically supportive, organized, and a light at the end of the project-planning tunnel for pre-service teachers like me.

  The chapter began by describing the project kick-off as a deep, thoughtful learning cycle. It was suggested to incite the interest of students before the project is introduced and to learn what they know and care about before beginning the projects. Teachers are encouraged to teach prerequisite concepts and skills, including those related to technology, as students will need them to carry out the project’s objectives. In taking care to do these things before the start of the project, students and teachers will make a smooth, optimism-filled transition into the project.

   Technology tools can be used to encourage students to be reflective of strengths. Some examples of this could be to use an online survey tool, like profilerPRO, or create your own on Survey Monkey so students can evaluate themselves. At the end of the project, students can complete this same survey and as a result, they will be aware of the progress they’ve made and can feel accomplished and motivated for the next project. Students can also create a blog to log progress and reflect over time on the learnings they've made.

  Some ways to get students’ minds ready for the projects is to figure out what they already know. Know-Wonder-Learn activities are often introduced at the beginning of projects but you can simply engage students in conversation about the projects or related topics and invite them to open their eyes to the possibilities. Ways for promoting inquiry and deep thought include discrepant-events and role-playing predictions. Discrepant events are attention-getting, thought-provoking events like the student-designed investigations led by the 5^th grade teacher and her student about density and buoyancy to generate interest amongst students and to provoke deep—thinking and inquiry in the classroom.

    There are steps that need to be taken when implementing technology in the project. When preparing for technology for students teachers should remember that technology isn’t the focus of the project but rather a tool for completing the project. These steps include setting up a technology playground in the classroom, tapping student expertise, introducing the project management tools and demonstrating for students. While this is important, it’s still imperative to teach the fundamentals first by setting the stage for independent inquiry and to share the assessment rubric.
  
   All of this information can be useful in our PBL unit. The steps to project launching are rather lengthy but the result is a well-carried out projects and students who are ready to learn because their interest has been cultivated and are excited about the project. We can implemtent these steps in our own projects and think about ways to evaluate students to see what they know and to get them thinking about the projects in ways that make them excited about it.

Chapter 5 setting up

Before starting a project, you should look into some experts to help answer your student's questions and giving presentations on the subjects your students are interested in. Another thing you should look into is how you're going to organize all the information your students will acquire during the course of the project. And ways for your students to submit work to you. The students will need tools for looking up research. A place to work independently and store their work individually. They will also need a space where they can see other group's information. This will let them see other peoples work and gather their own ideas. Also it will allow them to work in partners or small groups because they will be able to see each others works. As a teacher, you will need a place to see and correct all your student's work and progress. You will also need a place to communicate milestones and deadlines for the project. A place for all your students information to be organized and easily go back to old work. Some great technology that could really come in handy for some of your student and teacher project needs are first a learning Management System ( or LMS). A LMS Like desire2learn for example, is a place where teachers can post instructions for the project, Post a timeline on a calendar for the milestones and deadlines, and give students a place to put assignments in a dropbox. Other great ideas for the project would be a wiki page. It will give your students a place to archive their work and progressively go and come back to what they are working on form any computer that they have access to. They can change the information they have gathered and see what others have added to what they have found. It could easily be the hub of your project. Also a blog might be useful for telling and sharing student's final work and how a project is progressing. A blog would update readers, like students parents and fellow teachers, on how your project is doing and get some feedback as well. For a student's personal work space you might want to consider igoogle, Protopage, my yahoo. All places where a student can save his or her work in an organized manner that he or she understands. I think that the personal student work space is a very cool idea for the project. I can see students keeping their food journals in there for our nutrition project or maybe me posting neat articles to share with the students on a shared learning management system. I can see many practical uses for all of the mentioned technology in this chapter. I am be coming particularly fond of using a blog to hear what others have to say and sharing information. Another thing that I wished I could figure out how to make work would be like a classroom twitter. I think that maybe individual blogs and following them might be the closest I can get but to just work in small groups and be able to more or less IM what's going on in that group would be great for teachers monitoring and assessing understanding.

Chapter 5 Reading Response: Ryeasha

   In chapters 1-4, readers are introduced to new methods of teaching that involve technological tools, how to create professional learning communities, establishling a framework of reference for our project, and ideas about our project design. In chapter 5, we use the skills we've collected thus far and learn how to manage them and our collective efforts to make the most of the project and more importantly, the learning experience. In this chapter, we learned that the first things to consider before starting the project is to begin thinking about the resources you will need for the project, to plan strategies for the execution of your project to support effective time management, teaming and assessment. By taking care of these in advance it ensure the functionality of the project once it's launched and thatyou are ready to make the best use of instructional time once the project is underway. This same idea can be applied to any project of any concentration. Planning ahead organizes your project. While it may take time to organize the project, it also saves you time when your project is underway and will ultimately give your project a better chance at being a success because it's been so carefully planned.
     Before gathering resources, teacher should check to see what they have in their inventory. This can save money and help them stick to their budget. Gathering resources also requires a level of resourcefulness. Teachers can use many other avenues of acquiring resources for projects, such as sending out letters to parents, general supporters, and even community resources. While it may be admirable to dig into your own pockets for the sake of the students, it would be wiser to search for other sources of supplies and this is a great way to save money. In regards to teaming students, it's nice to allow students to work with who they want but in some situations it's better to mix students at different skill and learning levels so they can complement and add to each other's learning. This is especially important when carrying out a PBL unit. Students are going to do a lot of learning themselves so it's important that they are able to learn from and teach each other . Assessment can demonstrate to teachers what students know and how successful a project is, so it's important to select the best method for assessing students. The chapter listed formative assessment as the most effective method of assessing students. This method maximizes the opportunities to know what students are thinking and understanding. Technology can be used to support a range of assessment activities similar to the ones we have at the end of every lecture:)
   Teachers and students will have different project management needs and both parties needs should be met to warrant optimal results for both. For the teacher, they will need tools for commuicating with students and others about the project and tools for making milestones and events during the project visible, methods fo getting resources and systems for managing work products. For students, their needs include collaboration tools, systems that manage materials and time, methods for seeking assistance and ways to receive and use feedback while also being able to work iteratively and to see how parts add to the whole.The skills learned in this chapter have not only sharpened some of my 21st century skills but will be assistive in my PBL unit, as well. My group can use this chapter as we begin to manage our own projects as we keep in mind the components of our PBL. We can be certain to incorporate the management needs of teachers and students into our project and to make sure we have considered the strategies for teaming, time-management planning and assessment for student when creating our project and as we prepare ourselves to become teachers.

Sara's reading reflection #5

This week's chapter about project management strategies was a helpful read because it said everything we needed and who we needed. When students start their project, any resources and materials can be used. It all depends on what type of project you're doing. Teachers should make sure that materials are available for their students in the classroom or around the school. If there are materials needed, make sure to notify the parents through newsletters, pod casts, emails so they can supply their children with what every they need. Teachers also have to make sure that students know how to use all technology in the classrooms. Managing is a big part of a project both the students and the teacher. Teachers are the ones to teach their students about managing time splitting up the work so they can get everything done. Teachers should be responsible for providing materials and tools for the project. They should also present a time table for every part of the project that is due on a specific date. Setting a time a couple months away from when they start is a good way teach the students to manage time and figure out how to plan each part of the step. Students also have management needs that need to be accomplished. Students need tools and systems that will help build their project. They need the most help they can from teachers, parents and volunteers. Students need to work individually yet collaboratively to see results and for self reflection. This is a time to test themselves and try hard to make deadlines and come up with project using the community and tools provided. Web-based applications is a form of technology application that should be used in the students projects. There are many forms of web based application and each one is beneficial. Students can use blogs, pictures, audio instruction and resources pages. Students can make a web page and customize to their own needs and based on their project. These concepts relate to our project because we've been following all the materials needed and all the deadlines. This really gets us motivated to know that schools use this method and students are responsible for their project and to get it done on time. We are currently recording pod casts and we have this blog to post so that others can see.

Ryeasha's Response Chapter 4

  In this chapter we were introduced to the Finnish teachers who created a learning networking environment called Moop. This project spurred from their acknowledging that most students had mobile phones. The phones provided students with access to other networks and in their words, "went wherever the learners went." The teachers recognized this and applied this fact to a project that would combine all the aspects for an amazing project : instructional goals, accessible technologies, student collaboration and problem solving skills. This project was a great example of selecting and designing projects, the topic of the chapter.

  It's important to be selective when considering project plans. It would be advantageous to collaborate with colleagues in your professional learning communities and to review existing plans. This way you can provide feedback and prevent any pitifalls from occuring. Pitfalls in the project design include an extensive amount of time being spent on the activity but less time spent on learning outcomes. While the activity is an important component to the lesson, the learning outcome is what is trying to be transpired to students so much more care should be spent on that. Other issues include overly scripted lessons with many steps. Students need to be able to learn some things by making their own decisions so lessons with too many instructions hurt more than they help. Technology layered over traditional practice and trivial thematic untis are two other possible pitfalls.

  Using technology is not always the best instrument to be used in projects. While they may seem fancier and will often be more aesthetically-pleasing, the more important component of projects are that the learning outcomes are present and that the objectives have been reached. Additionally, I liked the example of the "apple" project that the author used. It is this thematic approach that is discouraged because of its lack of the other necesary components of a project. Features of a good project are that they are interdisciplinary, collaborative, and rigorous. However, one of the most important places where good project ideas come from are from the students themselves, just as how Weighill and her class began their boat project.

  Students will tell you what they want to do and sometimes using their interests as the driving force of the project is best because students will be more enthralled in the project makig for a better learnig experience for them and the teachers. But good projects come from everywhere. New stories, current issues, classroom irritants, tried-and-true projects, ad those created from other teachers. Any of these resources can be used to come up with good projects. Another thing to consider is how to design the project. The steps to designing a project are to consult the framework and to make sure the objectives are aligned with standards, decide on a 21st century skill, identifying the learning dispositions you want fostered, establish evidence of understanding, plan the project challenge, and plan the entree for the project. This requires you to think about what to say to get student's attention and an asset map.

  The steps and ideas that came from this project can be used in our future classrooms and even in our PBL unit. When selecting and designing a problem we can use the suggestions for finding good project ideas, which is maybe what we should have done first, but this information is still very helpful because we know which pitfalls to avoid, like the trivial thematic units, which aren't very helpful to our students' learning experience and we can institute the good features of a project that the chapter provided to ensure our project is at its best and will be helpful to us and to other teachers so that we may be able to share them with other teachers in our learning community.

chapter 4

I agreed with some of the pitfalls of a not made from scratch project. I am definitely sure about the step by step kind of pitfall. Any project that holds your hand too much is not letting you learn through your mistakes and doesn't leave enough room for individual results. I also think that another offending pitfall technology that glosses over traditional teaching, because the point to PBL is that it isn't traditional learning but more about the students looking for information and finding things out for themselves. I think that being flexible is commandment number one in being a teacher in general so that they brought it up in PBL as well, I certainly agree. A topic of a project can't be to restricting. You need to let the project be carried in a different direction if you see the kids leaning that way. I thought the ocean/boat example was great, that the students lead the teachers in a different direction. I also like the idea of having real world project base. When things are based in the real world it is preparing students for being outside of a school setting and true problem solving. I like that a good project involves other people. I think that its important for the students to build communication skills too. I think good projects come from real world problems. Students need things from the outside world because that's what they live in. Its things that keep them engaged and cross over multiple subjects. Steps that lead to a good project first of all is research. By the teacher and then by the students. I think knowing about the subject Would be a start. Collaborating with colleagues and getting feedback before trying it on the students. I think involving others outside of the classroom is an important step to have children dealing with others. And my last big step would be recording our findings as a class to improve and add to the project the next time around. This chapter really helped me to think about the project we are doing and things that I should watch for in my own project. I think it showed me to stay flexible and let the project lead itself.

Sara's reading reflection #4

When reviewing projects, there could be many pitfalls and problems. There are four pitfalls and they are long on activity, short on learning outcomes. The second one is technology that is layered over traditional practice, trivial thematic units. The last pitfall in overly scripted with many steps. When the project is long on activity, short on learning outcomes it means that the project isn't worth doing because the students don't learn as much as they should. Projects should be the right size not falling short. The second pitfall is technology layered over traditional practice which means that projects should focus on reaching learning outcomes not just a quick slideshow. The third pitfall is trivial thematic units. When teachers do projects in class, it shouldn't just be for the fun of it. It should be effective learning and because thematic learning isn't project based learning. The last pitfall is projects that are overly scripted with many steps. Not every project needs so many steps to get the job done. The steps have to be clear and to the point to complete the project. There are many features of a good project and many don't know what it includes. These are some qualities of a good project. Projects are designed with a learning path, construct meaning, structured for inquiry and capturing student interest. Projects have to be realistic and involve other students from different schools so that they know how to branch out and work together. Many teachers and people think that projects are just to be done without meaning or research. Research is the biggest part of a project because students know what goes in and they learn at the same time. Project ideas come from everywhere. Books, magazines, movies, dictionaries, and music. The ideas come from what you are looking for and what you want in your project. There is no right or wrong answer from where you got your ideas from. AS long as it fits into your project, it works. When designing a project, steps should be followed to create a successful one. Your project is based off of something else so look at that first. Then make a list of objectives and subjects of the project. You have to come up with a 21st century skill that you want to incorporate then think about learning dispositions. Then think of these points will effect the students and what they will get out of it. Create a theme or what you want to challenge the students with. After that, get the students attention by thinking of something catchy to say or show. This whole concept of how to create a project can be good use to my project. I have to go back and re think the main points of what the project is going to be on. I have to use other sources and grab ideas from that to incorporate into my project. I want to make sure that my project can actually be used for students and engage their attention.

chapter 3- all about the project

The BIG IDEA should be something that can cover more than one subject. I also think that it should be a worthwhile project,something that would have meaning outside in the real world outside of the classroom. I think that 21st century skills are important to kids today. They need these skills in working cooperatively, working with multimedia tools, and thinking as a team. They are all Skills to use in the world outside of school. About the 21st century literacies are not something I would think about really. It was a new thing for me to learn about. I think it makes sense that We would try to encompas world learning and technology and Inventive thinking and Effective communication. I'm glad that they have moved the literacies into the 21st century. The essential learning functions are Ubiquity,Deep learning,Making things Visible and discussable,Expressing ourselves or Sharing ideas, collaboration or teaching others, Research, Project management, and Reflection and iteration. I think to begin ubiquity is an inevitable thing. The use of cellphones, mp3's, and other things like tablets allowing students to learn anywhere are things that open the world up to students. Deep learning is good for any student. The amount of data students have at their fingertips because of ubiquity is amazing, the process of digging through the information is an important skill. Making things that we know into visual pictures or maps, etc... make it easier for students that have trouble expressing things in words. Social expression and sharing ideas are made very possible by messengers and blogs open doors for sharing information and ideas between everywhere. Students can be half way around the world from each other and still share the idea they want to with each other. Reflection and iteration are important to students so that they can look back on what they have done on their project and look back to make corrections or improve on the project overtime. I think everything falls into my project from this chapter. All the aspects are what project teaching is about. My students will have to work together with students abroad, dig through data and material to find what they need record what they've done, and reflect on what they could have done better.

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Reading Response on Chapter 3

The concepts in this chapter are definitely relatable to our project because it will give us the framework for our projects, and particularly our PBL unit. Good teachers will need to use the student's frame of reference, interests, and experiences in addition to formatting the lesson to cater to your students' learning needs. In considering 'the Big Idea' for a project teachers should first identify the overarching concepts and processes you want students to understand and to reflect on why these concepts are important for students to learn. This will inspire both students and teachers to think about if and how they can be applied to real life situations and how relevant they are to these situations. Just like how Robert Griffin did with his students. Students can benefit from lessons like these that demonstrate the inter-disciplinary nature of a project. A great portion of this chapter also identified how to use the big ideas to help develop student's 21-st century skills. These skills include analyzing, evaluating, and creating. The objectives are covered in Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational guideline and are used to ensure rigor in the classroom. Some of the thinking that evolves from well-designed projects causes students to stretch their thiking in ways traditional learnig activities cannot. Technologuical immersion is one example of this. The 21st century literacies involved in this methods of learning include the Netsis which are the standards usedto guide learning i the 21st century and also to address digital literacies. Additionally with projects there are certain learning functions that are expected to come as a result of them. These can also provide a model for teachers to curve certain learning dispositions. These are the essential learning functions include ubiquity, deep learning, making things visible and discussale, research, collaboration, expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, building community, project management, and reflection and iteration.

Sara's reading reflection #3

When you think of a "big idea" for a project, make it into your own. Your big idea has to do with a concept that is for a project so you want to make it known to other people to help you out. Think of why these concepts are important and how you can make it interesting to your students and reach out to the community for help. Students and teachers also should keep to fit in 21st century skills. 21st century skills help think beyond your skills, attitudes and habits. This skill uses higher-order thinking skills which includes analyzing, evaluating and creating plans. This is the concept of moving from lower-order to higher order. 21st century literacy is how well you can show yourself through certain skills. How you think, communicate, perform skills and plan is part of 21st century literacy. This prepares young aged students to work on their speaking skills and collaborating with other students to better their performance for projects or whatever they are assigned in class. This also prepares you for the future and what job you're going to have. Being independent, aware and productivity sums up what literacy is. Ubiquity is a good way for students to get a feel for different technology and web-based programs to help themselves improve technique and for learning. Deep learning is pretty much high order thinking where they have to be on top of their game to perform tasks and think outside the box. Making things visible and discussable is good because some people learning visually and many people learn by discussing topics. Pictures and graphical representations mean so much than people think. Expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, building community is the fourth learning function. Sharing ideas is great for students because they use myspace, facebook, and twitter to talk about their day and just to express themselves. This allows searching and using the web to share things. Collaboration is probably one of the most top rated learning function for me because working together is the best way to sum up more ideas. You earn at the same time others learn because you are exchanging ideas. Research is also important because you have to know what type of search engine you're using and which ones will give you a legit website to use. Project management helps students and teachers manage time, source and feedback. Everyone has to have their own way of organizing all their information so that they can plan off of that. Reflection and Iteration is a good way of going back to your information and searching the past for answers. That sounds so cheesy but it is a good way to see how far you've come from the beginning and all that information can help you out in the end. These concepts could be so beneficial to me because i work with two other people that are in my group. We all have a blog to post our work and reading reflections. This helps our project because all of us post helpful tips and websites that we could always go back to and look at.

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