Our Final Collaborative Concept Map!

We decided to focus the concept map more on HOW we will go about introducing and implementing the project.  Our previous concept maps were only about the concepts covered under weather, but it did not help us to plan or implement the project.

Reflection 11

Project-based learning has many benefits for the students and the teachers.  As a result of project-based learning, it will feel as though you and your students have been somewhere together.  The project will leave you with memories, souvenirs, and artifacts you have collected along the way.  The projects will open doors for new opportunities, including projects, discussions, and reflections.

To bring your project home, think about taking it outside of the classroom.  Give students a chance to show off their work and gain a better sense of pride.  Some ways to "bring it home" include sharing project ideas with colleagues, creating a project library, publishing projects to a website or printing company, or enter a contest.

I love this chapter because it has so many wonderful ideas for wrapping up the project.  I love the idea of having students create a library to look back at their work, and allowing colleagues to use this library for ideas.  I also like the idea of having students submit work to the media or contests.

Reflection 10

As a teacher begins to wrap up a project-based activity, it is important to take the time to reflect.  By taking the time to reflect, students will feel a sense of accomplishment about their work and they will be able to commit the learning to memory.  In constructivist theory, reflection is an essential element of the learning process.  It allows students to creat their own meaning.  It will also help students to "reveal things they might not otherwise think about: what they learned (and what they enjoyed about learning), their growth as learners, and what (and how) they want to learn in projects ahead.

Students reflection is a very important part that must not be skipped at the end of a project.  Reflection allows students a chance to reflect on what they learned and how it was meaningful to them.  "If it was an enriching experience that caused students to learn fundamental content, then that is an excellent outcome."  It is also important for the teacher to help students think about the joyous and gratifying parts of their learning.  Help students to elaborate on the project; "What does this get you wondering about next?"  It is important to know where this has led your students, and what the students want to do next.

Traditions of schools are important to their identities.  Some schools identify as being strong sports teams while others take pride in their science programs.  All schools, no matter what they identify with, share a sense of tradition and an expectation of excellence.  By asking the community to be involved, schools may find new traditions and identities.

Help your school to develop a sense of pride... CELEBRATE!!  It doesn't matter if it's a big celebration or a small celebration.  The point is that you take pride in your students and what they are doing.  It is important that each celebration includes an opportunity to look back one more time, acknowledgement of the hard work and commitment, appreciation for those that helped, a display of what the students have learned and created, a look inside the learners with opportunities for them to talk about their process and growth, and an opportunity to showcase your products to colleagues, administrators, parents, and others in your learning community.

It is so important that our students are given a chance to reflect and elaborate at the end of our weather unit.  Students will be given the opportunity to reflect by themselves and as a class, and they will be given a chance to share their wonderful work with other members of our learning community.  By allowing students to celebrate, they will find pride in their work. 

Reflection 2

A learning organization, or learning community, is a very common term found in the education field.  A learning organization is defined as "any business, work team, big or small, that engages in ongoing, collaborative problem solving focused on making the business better."  The members of this learning community work together to achieve their desired results, while also learning new paterns of thinking and learning how to learn together. 

In schools teachers spend a few hours a week together, but a majority of their time spent addressing schedules, addressing students issues, planning school events, and tending to other necessities.  Professional learning communities change the usual ways schools operate.  By creating a professional learning community, colleagues will find time to collaborate and work together. 

The benefits of learning communities can improve school systems around the country.  Among the many benefits, teachers will find that in a learning community there will be decreased teacher isolation, increased commitment to the mission, a shared responsibility, more powerful learning, and a higher likelihood of systematic change.  "By enlisting like-minded colleagues to lobby together for necessary changes, you create a critical mass of dedicated educators who share a common goal."

When incorporating a learning community, teachers will need to have a clear sense of the mission or overall goal.  In order to meet this goal, teachers will need to have a shared vision for how to achieve this goal.  They will then work together to determine the best practices to achieve the mission or goals by organizing groups headed by lead-teachers.  It is important to focus on the student learning, collaborate with each other, and hold the same values and beliefs.  Lastly, teachers must commit themselves to continuous improvements and see themselves as life-long learners.

A learning community among students require students to work collaboratively to achieve the same overall goal.  For a project-based learning community, learning will be relevant and rigorous.  It will be focused on real-world situations instead of textbook materials.  The students will develop the skills and dispositions necessary; such as communication, problem solving, project management, motivation, and persistence.  While working together, students will share their triumphs and disappointments. 

Students will have to adjust to going from a traditional education to being part of a learning community throughout our project.  Students will be expected to work together, communicate, share a common goal/vision, problem solve, and stay motivated. Through this, students will learn "real-world" skills that will help them be successful throughout their lives. 

Reflection 11, Chapter 11

1. Thinking beyond the set class time, thinking about and constructing their own reality, understanding of project management, big picture thinking, meeting deadlines, having a global audience, and being professional are all things that occur as a result of project based learning. If our students can leave our classroom with all of this being learned, we have done our job as a teacher. They will surely be a success in society. 2. Good projects should lead you to more projects. It should open new doors and create connections that you can build on in future projects. Make sure to reflect on the projects you are doing. This can tell you if any thing should be changed to make it better or what the next step in the project could be. Share your projects and insights with others so they can use the ideas or help you find extensions to yours. Best of all, enjoy what you have done. Enjoy the good aspects of the project with your students, and learn from the aspects that need to be changed. Have fun with what you are doing and let others have fun with you. 3. Reflection and sharing our project with others is what we will includein our project. Reflection being the most important so we can see how we could take the project to another level of learning and how to incorporate it into other subjects.

Spacing

Can anyone tell me how to get space between paragraphs? I've tried everything. Thanks.

Reflection 10, Chapter 10

1. "Taking time to reflect helps students feel good about their accomplishments, and reflection can be the thing that makes the learning really stick." This is so true! If we don't look back and see the good and the bad of a project, we can't learn from it and make it better. 2. Reflecting on positive experiences helps students see that these made them confident and made them look forward to more. Reflection is an essential learning tool. Asking students why and what questions about their projects helps them really think about these questions and helps the learning stick better in their minds. Reflections can also help students see what went wrong and how they fixed it. 3. "When families, the community, and students coming up through the grades know what yu are up to, you have a foundation for tradition." Young students will be ready to learn, community members will give enthusiastic support and expect to be involved. Forming traditions are a part of life. We have traditions of thanksgiving dinner, how and when we put up our christmas tree, even taditional presents. I started a tradition of getting my daughter an angel as a present for every christmas. When we start traditions, the students will remember it and others will wait for it as they grow and reach that grade. 4. Celebrating student work is a way to build your schools identity as a place where kids get to learn through projects. Students get a sense of pride when their work is displayed and celebrated. The school I use to work always displayed the students work in the classroom and in the hall ways. The students were thrilled when they could come in and see their work on the walls and they could show their parents or relatives their work during conferences. This also gives the students a way to look back at the project and reflect on how they did it and what they learned while doing it. 5. The most important thing we will include in our project is reflection. We must use this as a learning tool and help the students really learn and help that learning stick in their minds and hearts.

Chapter 9 Reflection

Students have a different amount of knowledge when entering a project, and they also learn at a different pace during the project. It is important for the teacher to set up anchors for gaining a sense of where a student is in the learning process.  It is important to use a variety of assessments when determining where you students are academically, and how much they have learned during the project.  You can use rubrics to generate a meaningful way to provide feedback to students and discover how much they have learned.  There are also online grade books, illustrating a novel they read, listening to conversations between students, and collecting typical tests.

                It is important to establish these anchors to you can adjust the project to better fit the individual students.  Sometimes you may find that your students are not where you would like them to be, and you must slow down the project to help them gain the knowledge they should have gained previously.  It is also important to create something knew to summarize or synthesis what the students have learned. 

                The assessments that go with project-based learning can come in a variety of forms.  You can assess students on a real-world model.  Students can draw on the real world experience of creating a portfolio and having the teacher or expert assess their work.  Another option is having students present their information to a panel of experts or international educators.  The students could take the information a step higher and submit it for publication or a contest.  Have students write a book or an article or a summary about the information they have discovered.

                I loved that this chapter discussed the different ways you can assess students.  For our project, I would like to get rid of the typical assessments and tests, and have students submit a unique project.  For weather, we could have the students create a website that teaches people about weather patterns.  Or we could assemble a group of meteorologist that the students must present their information to.  The options are endless when it comes to assessments!

Reflection 9, Chapter 9

1.One method to understanding a students prior knowledge is to use a KWL chart. This chart tells us what the students already knows (K) what the student wants to know from the project or assignment (W) and what the student has learned after the project or assignment is finished (L). 2. By using these anchors you get a sense of where your students are at when starting a project or assignment and how far they have come during and at the end of a project or assingment. Teachers need to know if the project is too hard, too easy or just right for the students to understand and move forward. 3. Create a rubric with the students to see if they meet all the criteria of the rubric and understand the material. The book talks about how a teahcer had the students create a classics illustrated style comic book. I love this idea. You can use it to assess anything. Showing the students a film or clip of the information you are working on can get them questioning more or help them understand something better when they see it. Sometimes things are hard to grasp by just reading it, seeing it in a movie or clip might be the extra boost they need to really understand it. These are all ways to assess what your students learn during a project. 4. I think the concept we will use in our project is the assessment of what students learn during the project. We have said in our podcast that we will have an on-line assessment to see what the students know at the beginning and I think we will have an assessment at the end to see what they have learned during the project.

Reflection 8, Chapter 8

1. To build connections and branch out from the classroom you can, of course, use the internet. Technology helps reach an authentic audience. Students might get in contact with experts to help them in what ever project they are doing. Any time you can ask another person who has extertise in an area is a great thing to do. This not only helps the students it can help the other person they are talking to feel better about themselves or their job. 2. The EAST model is based on is built on 4 essential ideas: 1. student-driven learning. Students need to be responsible for their own learning. 2. Authentic project based learning . Studensts should be engaged in solving real problems in their communitites. 3. Technology as a tool. Students need access to the relevant technologies that professionals use to solve these real problems. 4. ollaboration. When students collaborate in teams they accomplish more than any one person can do in isolation. Training and support for teachers is another critical component as well. All of this is essential for students to do and to learn. 3. Letting students chose their own projects helps them find information they need, ups,dwns of a project, how to work with others durning those ups and downs, gets them curious about things they might not have ever thought of, and gets them interacting with others from down the hall, down the street, or around the world. This chapter relates to our project in that we got to chose our project from the start. We will also incorporate into our project the interaction of other students from other countries.

Chapter 8 Reflection

It is important for students to have the opportunity to branch out and build connections beyond the classroom.  Allowing students to extend their learning experience beyond the classroom will help them meet the goals of many 21^st century projects.  This is easily done through the digital community, which includes a diverse audience, family members, peers, local community members, and people around the world.  Knowing that others will be reading, watching, listening, and commenting can be a motivating factor for our students. 

                There are many great ways to build connections and branch out of the classroom.  You may seek out experts on the project topic to give curious students an opportunity to chat with experts around the world.  You can do this by allowing students to interview politicians, doctors, etc. using a blog, or you could put the word out around the community that you are looking for expert help.  Save a list of experts and add people as you meet them.  This will give students a large choice when it comes to interviewing an expert on their topic.

                Fluency in technology is a great skill to teach students, and it will benefit them for the rest of their lives.  For over a dozen years, students in the Environmental and Spatial Technologies (EAST) have been showing the benefits of using technology to solve problems and make improvements in the community.  The students use geospatial technology and multimedia tools to solve problems that interest them throughout the community.  This is done following the EAST Initiative Model, a model which can be replicated in your classroom.

                The EAST Initiative Model is built on four essential ideas: student-driven learning, authentic project-based learning, technology as a tool, and collaboration.  Students need to be responsible for their own learning, and they should be engaged by solving real problems that their communities face.  It is important to give students access to technology in order to solve these problems, and for students to work as a team.  Following this model will teach students how to be effective problem solvers, fluent in technology, and give them the 21^st century skills necessary to be successful in their generation.

                It is important to teach students to lead their own inquiry.  This will allow students to be more interested, and it will allow them to retain the information for a longer amount of time.  Of course it is also important to teach to the standards and requirements of your school, but there are ways to let students take charge of their own learning.  With higher interest and more collaboration, your students will become more successful academically, socially, and in the future. 

                For our project, I would like to incorporate the EAST Initiative Model.  It is so important for students to learn these skills, and be able to apply what they have learned in the future.  The students will learn how to solve problems, involving weather, which are found throughout the community.  And hopefully the students will retain this information and be able to apply it later in life.

Chapter 7 Reflection

Good questions are an important aspect of effective classroom discussions.  There are three levels of classroom discussion that take place on during project implementation; teacher to teacher, student to student, and teacher to student.  Teacher to teacher discussions are the collegial effort made when project planning, and it continues when you begin the implementation phase.  Student to student discussions allow students to talk about their learning experiences as they unfold.  Remind students that good communication skills are part of effective teamwork and will help keep their team organized and on track.  The teacher to student discussions are the important during lectures and projects, but vary deeply depending on the type of instruction.  During projects, it will be the teachers job to address the whole-class, individuals, and teams.

Questioning is an important part of the learning process, and it is important that teachers use questions for checking in.  To check in, you may want to answer the following: procedural, teamwork, understanding, and self-assessment.  When asking procedural, you should be tracking progress toward milestones and deadlines, and remind the students of the project calendars.  For teamwork, circulate and ask questions to help you assess team dynamics.  Understanding requires you to spend time observing teams at work, listening to student conversations, and asking probing questions.  For self-assessment, find out what your students are thinking about with the project.  Ask questions that encourage self-assessment and reflection. 

It is important for a teacher to get students to optimize their use of technology.  By optimizing technology use, students will gain new insight on how to communicate with a culturally diverse audience.  To maximize the use of technology during a project, you shhould consider the following questions: Is technology helping students reach learning goals, or is it leading them on side trips?  Is technology helping students stay organized? Are students able to use technology to expand their horizons by connecting outside experts or a broader community?  Do students have access to the technologies that they need?

There are important 21st-century skills that can make or break a project.  Troubleshooting is one of the 21st-century skills that distinguish an effective project manager.  Hleping students understand the real-world projects come with real-world challenges.  Help them learn from setbacks and fine-tune their strategies for getting a project back on track. Teamwork is another 21st-century skill that can make or break a project.  During project implementation, it is important to play close attention to team dynamics.  If you detect a problem, helps students resolve it.  It's a real-life skill that will serve them well for years to come. 

This section was wonderful to read because it allowed me to realize some important life skills that students should be learning about during the project.  It is very important for teachers to still be involved in their students work, and it is important that the teacher gives the skills needed to overcome challenges.  This is good to know when planning a project with my students, and would help in teaching students about the weather project.

Reflection 7, Chapter 7

1. Levels of classroom discussion range from teacher to teacher, student to student, and teacher to student. Teacher to teacher discussion can show us how we are doing on a particular project or subject. If they need something more, if they are to long, if another teacher has done the same thing and has suggestions to make it better or how it didn't work for them. You can use blogs or wikis or any other mode of technology to communicate with teachers that you can not meet face to face. Student tostudent discussions helps them communicate with other students and collaborate on their project. They can get new ideas, get different views, and even explain their own thinking to others when communicating with other students. Teacher to student discussions help the student understand something they are confussed about, helps the teacher understand where the students are coming from with a idea that may be close to the students heart or why they are passionate about something. Discussion is communication, communication is essential in any classroom or work place. 2. Questions for "checking in" on students is very important. Procedural questions like "Are we on task?" "Do we have the right materials?" Teamwork questions like "Are the team memebers doing their part?" "Are they getting along with all memebers?" Understanding questions like "Have you thought about...?" and "Where did you get your information?" Self-assessment questions like "Did you include all the information necessary to finish your project?" or "How do you feel you did on your project?" All these questions are intended to help the students do their projects to the best of their ability. If we just let them go and do not ask questions, we might end up with students not doing what they are suppose to do or studetns not understanding something and not even bothering to t=do the project. 3. Benefits to students when optimizing the use of technology are that the technology can help studetns reach learning goals. Some studetns learn best with hands on experience. Using different types of technology gives them this hands on experience. Technology can help students stay organized. Like using Excel, students can put thier information into a spreadsheet and graph instead of writing it down on paper, this helps them keep it organized and it won't get lost in the mix of other papers. Technology is always expanding and adding new things. There should always be something new that a student can learn while using new technology. Most studetns should have access to the technology through school. If they do not have it at home they can try a library or computer labs at various locations. Some schools are even giving their studetns laptops or ipads to use at school and at home. 4.Teamwork is a skill that can make or break a project. If the students are doing their work and doing it well they can make the project work. If students do not get along with their partner this can be a terrible situation and they will not communicate with each other and they may not even do the project, thus breaking the project. When teamwork is an important part of a project, we need to make sure we fit the right partners together to get the end results that we want. When doing a project that requires new information about a subject, make sure to listen to the studetns prior knowledge and suppliment anything else that they should know before starting the project. The book talks about different cultures. Somethings we say in America sould be rude or offensive to someone in another country. The conceps that relate to our project are that I am using new technology that I have not used before. Like blogs, podcasts, and moviemaker. This makes the project more interesting to do and hopefully more interesting to view. I also think it will help us by using the different "checking in" procedures to help keep us on track and on time.

Chapter 6

Technology tools encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths by offering them opportunities to build awareness of the skills and attitudes of accomplished scholars.  Technology such as blogs offer students a space to reflect over time about what they are learning.  ProfilerPRO, which we used in our class, is an online survey tool that allows teachers to identify learning interests, strengths, and weaknesses.  ProfilerPRO can be adapted to meet each persons individual needs.

To get students minds ready for a project, it is important to know the students' prior knowledge.  You could use a Know-Wonder-Learn (KWL) activity to get to know students better, and to discover their prior knowledge of a topic.  The teacher should encourage students to explore and think together when beginning a new topic.

It is important to teach fundamentals before launching a project.  The fundamentals include knowing what prior knowledge is necessary.  It is important for teachers to set the stage for independent inquiry.  The teacher could do this by using the K-W-L activity to tell  what they know, wonder, and learned.  The teacher should also share the assessment rubric with students to guide them to achievement.

To prepare students for using technology in a project, the teacher must plan effective ways to get the students ready for using technology.  The teacher should set up a technology playground for students to learn how to use technology from each other.  It is also important that the teacher taps into the student expertise.  Students can sometimes help each other more than a teacher can help them.  The teacher can then introduce project-management tools and demonstrate process to the students. Use your technology specialist if you need help.

To promote inquiry and deep learning, the teacher needs to guide students to choose questions, plan investigations, and begin to put their plan in action.  When brainstorming ideas, students will be able to combine information through several context areas (social studies, science, math).  Guide students toward skilled questioning by imagining what practitioners or experts might ask.

These topics from chapter six will help us with our project by allowing us to think about what is important, and how to effectively incorporate technology to give the students a positive learning experience.

Collaborative Concept Map

Reflection 6, Chapter 6

1. ProfilerPRO, blogs and SurveyMonkey ae a few tools that can help kids be reflective and evaluate their own strengths. We used the ProfilerPRO at the beginning of class to see what we knew about technology for this class. We wwill also do it at the end to see what we have learned from this class. This will show use where ore strengths are and help us reflect on what we might need to still work on. When we use the blogs (as we are now) others see our work and can comment on what we have said and what we are doing. This gives us feedback that can help us make corrections or give us new ideas of where to go with a project or how to tackle a problem with our project. 2. Using a K W L is a great way to get the students ready for a project. In seeing what they might not know about a subject may help them get interested enough to go above and beyond the research that will be necessary in learning about what they don't know. I whole heartedly agree with "giving the idea time to settle in their imaginations". Talk about the project for at least a few minutes every day and answer any questions they may have but let them figure out what to do or how to do it in their own way. I know I find it more intriguing to hear about a subject or project a little at a time. It makes my interest in it go way up. Teachers could also bring in any elements that might be included in the project for the students to see, feel or smell. Maybe a finished project from another class could bring the interest level up and get students engaged enough to want to learn more and do the project to the best of their ability. 3. We must teach fundamentals first in order to get the srudents ot the place in thelearning that is essential for doing a project. We can't just tell the students to do a project on microbes as a life form (like in the book) and expect all of the students to know what that means. By teaching them what a microbe is we give them the prior knowledge needed in order to do the project as it is intended. We need to build up the information to the project so they are ready to dig in and do the project and learn with the project the things that are in the Wonder prtion of their K W L. 4. "Learning to use technology or an application for a project can be a rich problem-solving experience." By setting up a tchnology playground, the students can explore on their own and teach others. Setting up computer stations with at least one tool they will use in the project for them to get use to that tool and the technology. Students can help others when they need help with this also. Some students tend to thrive when they are asked to help others. They feel useful and important. Using a project management tool such as a journal or a log can help students track their progressand be a source for reflections. Modle the tools yourself. Modeling for the students is the best way to teach them how to do something. If yo are not comfortable with modeling it, ask a specialist to come into the classroom and teach the students about the tool. 5. Guiding student to more skilled questions and deeper research can promote inquiry and deep learning. Instead of doing reports, the students can do research on the best place to live or the best company to buy something from. Ask them to propose a solution to landfills filling up fast instead of doing a report on landfills. Using hypothetical questions make students use the knowledge they have to pose a hypothesis and consider options. What if questions like what if the price of gas was the same as it was in China? Using should questions makes students decide on a moral or practical decision. Using why questions helps the students understand cause and effect. All of these help students dig deeperr in their projects. If the project is one to help make something better like "How can we keep landfills from filling up too soon?", the students may be helping their future by finding ways to keep the landfills low. This helps them, their kids and the rest of the world. 6. These concepts relate to our projects in that we are learning the technology in class first before we use them in our project. We need to get the students interested in the projects and make sure they have some prior knowledge about the project. If they do not, we need to get them to that point with short, easy lessons that will help them and everyone. In our podcast we asked the students to take a survey about our topic, to see what information needed to be taught more or less. If a topic is too easy and the students know everything about it they will be bored and uninterested in doing the project. In my opinion, there has to be at least one element in a project that will have the students asking questions and wondering more about that project.

Chapter 5

Beginning a Technology based project takes a lot of planning on the teachers half, but it is well worth it if you plan right since students’ gain a better understand of the information through inquiry, collaboration, and research.  Some things to consider before starting the project include; resources, supplies, and tools that will be needed to aid students with the project, consider important milestones and deadlines to help students become effective managers of their own time, and team planning to support students as they go about many activities that the project involves.

When doing a project with Technology, it is important for the teacher and the students to have good management.  The book discussed the teacher’s management needs for tools and strategies.  These needs include: tools to be used to communicate with the students about the project, tools to communicate milestones or events to students, tools to notify students when there are changes, a method for getting resources to students, a system for managing work products, structures to support productive learning for students to be engaged in a variety of learning tasks at one time, and assessment tools.

Students on the other hand must form management tools and strategies when it comes to: systems and tools that help manage time and flow of work, systems to help manage materials and control of work, collaboration tools, methods for seeking assistance, ways to get and use feedback on their work, and ways to work iteratively and to see how parts add up to the whole. 

It is important for the teacher to think about different technology applications that can be given to students to help them on a project.  Some of these applications may be web-based applications; which include blogs.  The teacher should focus on finding things on the Web to support projects. This can be done through project wiki which will link a blog to your class to share the project with others.  The teacher can use ClustrMap to show Web visits from people around the world, RSS feeds so students are aware of project updates, links with multimedia, Skype to communicate, and links to a class Flickr site with project pictures. 

This is beneficial to our project and topic because weather is a tricky thing to teach through a long period of time.  For the teacher, it will be important for us to know seasons, and plan the best time for students to communicate with students around the world.  This is important when making sure those seasons will be opposite (summer there, winter here).  It is also important to be able to adjust the lesson when needed; for example, a hurricane is headed towards the Pacific coast.  You change the lesson from that week to teach students how to track the hurricane and study the effects it could have if it reaches land. 

Reflection 5, Chapter 5

1. Items that should be considered before starting a project are: do you intend to use technology? If so you need to make sure you have computers, projectors, cameras, or anything that the project will require the students to use. Will your students need experts to answer their questions. If so, set up a Q and A session at school and invite anyone that you know that would be able to answer the questions. Like you could invite a cook to speak if you are doing a project about cooking or recipes. If the expert can't come to the school, set up a video chat for the students. You could also have the students write or type out their questions and email or even Facebook the person.If you are working as a collaborative team, make sure everyone is involved with their strengths and weaknesses. 2.The teachers management needs are tools for communicating, tools for making events and changes visible to the students, ways to get resources to the students, systems for managing products from the project, productive learning environment, and assessment tools and strategies. With out any of these, a project can fall apart. The teacher must accommodate for anything that may come up in the classroom. The students needs are somewhat the same: tools that help them manage their time and flow of work, systems that help them manage materials and control work drafts, collaboration tools, tools to help them seek assistance, ways to get feedback, ways to use feedback, and ways to see how parts add up to a whole. If we don't teach them to manage their time and work, they might take to long or not enough time on a project. They need to know that doing only parts of the project is not acceptable and they need to use all the time possible. We always need to show them and teach them that collaboration is a great way to do a project and a great way to get to know others. They will need collaboration skills in the real world. Asking for assistance or help is a must. We have to make sure the students know we will help them or they can find help through others in the building or outside the building. Getting feedback on a project is crucial I think because we need to know what parts need tweeking but also what parts have been do very well. 3.Using a wiki is an application you can use in a project. students create pages of content to share by just using a browser, format text, add web links, or build new pages. Students can work on this together from anywhere. The wiki marks exactly who has done what, which is good for the teacher to make sure that all students are participating. I liked this when we did our map and pen-pals a couple of weeks ago. I didn't know we could do that before this class. A blog is a good technology to use in a project. Again I had never done one of these before and am kind-of liking it. It is great to share ideas, chat or just post project information too. 4. The ideas in this chapter I see use using in our project are the blog. Any information we can get from the internet will be used such as web pages that connect to weather. Janice Alff

Chapter 4 Reflection

Project design takes a lot of consideration and planning on behalf of the teacher; and sometimes the project design still does not turn out as planned.  It is important to think about the potential pitfalls you may face with project design, and know what makes a project design good.  First, if a project is busy and long, and only reaches small learning aims, it is best not to waste your time or your students time with the project.  Second, you do not want a project that has students researching and simply presenting information on a slide show.  A good project should focus on reaching significant learning outcomes with the aid of technology if it enhances the project.  Third, don’t just teach from a thematic unit plan since the work is not interdisciplinary or collaborative.  You want a project that is structured differently and combines elements of each subject.  Fourth, don’t make your project overly scripted with tons of steps.  You want steps that will lead to good outcomes and steps that lead to the objectives of the lesson.  Good projects should be loosely designed with multiple learning paths, aid students in constructing meaning, be centered on a driving question, be realistic and cross multiple disciplines, it should involve the community and people outside of schools, it show tap rich data, be structured for students to learn from each other through inquiry, involve 21^st century skills, and have students learn by doing.

                Project ideas may come from anywhere, especially from good books.   Some good places to look include educational books, project plans developed by and for other teachers, news stories, contemporary issues, student’s questions or interests, a classroom irritant put to educational use, or a mash of great ideas and new tools.  It is often found that good projects will lead you to a new project idea.

                The most difficult project you design may be your first project because it is new and you don’t know what to expect.  When designing a project, you should first consider the school calendar, curriculum sequence, student readiness, and student interests.  Then you may begin to make a framework.  Note all learning objectives for core subjects and disciplines.  Decide which 21^st century skills you want to address.  Start planning your project and all the things that must go into it.  At this time you can write a project sketch, which Is a brief account of your project.  Share these sketches with your colleagues to discuss hard questions and ways to make the project better. 

                This chapter helped with the project we are designing in Educational Technology because it made you think about different steps you should take.  It also told me what the pitfalls and aspects of a project design may be.  This made me realize that many of the ideas that I had for our project were not deep enough for students, and it would be “cookie cutter work”.

Reflection 4, Chapter 4

1. Some potential pitfalls of project design are if the project is to long, but short on the learning aspect of the project. The project may be a hit with the students but if they are not learning enough doing the project then what use is it? Technology layered over traditional practice--we need to make sure the project will reach a specific learning outcome. As the book states, "Having students research a topic on the internet and then present it in a electronic slideshow is not a quality project-it is just a dressed up version of a research report." Pg. 61. Trivial thematic units--Make sure to have many different projects for one theme. One project for one theme can be dull. Look at the big picture with your theme and try to connect it to many subjects in your classroom. Overly scripted with many, many steps--This sounds boring. To many steps lead kids to become bored with the project and they will not finish it or poorly finish it. Kids need precise steps but short and few steps. They will learn more because they stay interested and more engaged. 2. The features of a good project include letting the students interests play a role in the projects. If they are interested in the project they are much more likely to stay with it and finish the project with as much enthusiasim as they can. Make sure they want to ask questions about the topic. Asking questions makes the project more interesting, if the questions are something that no one has thought of before. 3. Where do project ideas come from? They can come from anywhere and from anyone. Teachers may have projects from their schooling or from projects they have used in the past in their classrooms. Ideas can also come from other teachers. You can get ideas from the news, contemporary issues, student questions and interest, or even a classroom problem that needs to be solved. The students can research how to solve the problem. Ideas can also come from former projects that you give a new twist to. 4. The steps to design a project are to decide on the skills you want to address, identify the learning dispostitions you want to foster, establish how you will evaluate understanding of the skills, plan the theme or challenge of the project, and how will you get the students excited and interestedin the project. Try to think of every possible advantage and disadvantage for and about the project that might come up with the students during the project. 5. I think the concepts of this chapter that relate to my project are making sure the students are interested in the project. If we were in a classroom teaching doing a project eith the students, I would listen to their interests and hope to come up with one or two that everyone agrees on. I think the weather is an interesting topic for my project and I hope to engage all students in the topic. Having the penpals to work with will help students see that the weather is different in different parts of the world at differernt times. Some students may not realize this if they have never been outside their town or state. I hope to get information and project ideas from other teachers. Other teachers can be they biggest resource for us.

Chapter 2 Response - Late

         Learning communities are beneficial because it allows the students and the teachers to learn and grow together.  Although it has never been popular for teachers to work together, it has been shown that when teachers work together, it allows the teachers to grow more and projects to be more in-depth.  And thanks to the growth of teachers, our students are able to grow collaboratively with their teachers and classmates.
         Learning communities are very beneficial to the teachers and the students.  For teachers, they are able to work together to determine the best practice to achieve a mission, bounce ideas off each other, plan large projects with a clear mission, allows different groups to work together, it commits teachers to always do their best, and allows teachers to be lifelong learners. Benefits for learning communities that function for several years include "decreased teacher isolation, increased commitment to the mission, shared responsibility, more powerful learning, and a higher likelihood of fundamental, systemic change.
       Learning communities affect teachers a lot, because like the book said, it has never been a habit for teachers to work together.  Even during practicums  I have noticed that teachers are reserved and do not like to share ideas or suggestions with co-teachers.  Teachers will have to learn how to work together collaboratively, and how to respect each others work and listen to ideas.  Teachers must have an open mind for learning communities to work.
        Learning communities also have a large affect on students because instead of just receiving an education from one teacher, the students are learning from all teachers since they share their ideas.  The teachers being put in groups and sharing ideas would change the types of lessons and projects students did.  Students will also need to learn how to work with each other to apply their knowledge to real life situations. The students also benefit from learning communities because the teachers are constantly learning and assessing how ideas work, and they are constantly working together to figure out how to best teach students.  Students also have the opportunity to work with classmates to design more in-depth projects and to think deeper through interaction.
      Many of the components that go into learning communities was already discussed earlier in the reflection.  But it is important to address their research-based components and make sure that everyone understands them.  Members of the community must "have a clear sense of the mission, share a vision of the conditions they must create to achieve the mission, work together in collaborative teams to determine best practice to achieve the mission, organize into groups headed by teacher-leaders, focus on student learning, are goal- and result- oriented, collaborate with each other, hold shared values and beliefs, commit themselves to continuous improvement, and see themselves as life-long learners."
      The concepts found in chapter two are very relevant to the project we are working on in teams.  Us, as teachers, are required to work together in planning and sharing ideas that we believe would work best to reach students.  During this, it is important that both "teachers" are respectful of the others ideas, we assess what works and what does not, and we have to find a mission and figure out what will be best to reach that vision.
     

Chapter 3 Resonse

When deciding on the “Big Ideas” for a project, teachers should consider the core concepts and processes.  Identifying the big ideas at the heart of the subjects we teach is the first step of project planning.  To figure out the big ideas, the teacher should read the table of contents for the teaching guide and review curriculum standards for his or her subject.  The teacher also needs to think about how a hands-on project might evolve to take diverse interests into account.  The teacher should also consider real-world contexts and interdisciplinary natures of the project they are planning.  All of these things will help the teacher decide on the big ideas for the projects that he or she is planning.

Well-designed projects will push students to think deeper intellectually that traditional assignments did not do.  It is best for students to use Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives when project planning.  This includes remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.  When planning, you should try to evolve the higher-order thinking skills analyzing, evaluating, and creating.  When analyzing, the students will examine, explain, investigate, characterize, classify, compare, contrast, illustrate, or prioritize.  Using the evaluation skill, students will judge, select, decide, justify, improve, defend, debate, recommend, and assess.  When creating, students will adapt, anticipate, combine, compose, design, imagine, theorize, and/or formulate.

                Many instructional standards of the 21^st century focus more on the behaviors required of accomplished people of the 21^st century.  A model done has shown the highlights of Digital-Age Literacy like scientific, economic, and technological literacies; visual and information literacies,; and Inventive thinking; effective communication; and high productivity.  Students also must be taught how to effectively use real-world tools and how to produce relevant, high-quality products.  By multiple definitions, literacy now boils down to learning to be independent, aware, and productive citizens.  

                There are eight essential learning functions that teachers must keep in mind when they are designing a project.  First, learning inside and outside the classroom, stresses that teachers give students the ability to learn anytime and anyplace.  Tools the teacher could use include MP3 players, mobile phones, and Google Docs.  Second, deep learning, stresses that students go beyond the “filtered” information and help students make sense of information found on the web.  Students could use educational video-on-demand or real-time data sets.  Third, making things visible and discussable, teaches students how to use resources to gain a better understand of something.  Students could use “mind maps”, Visual Thesauruses, or Google Earth to make things more visible for discussion.  Fourth, expressing ourselves and sharing ideas and building communities, will provide students with a connection to the social world.  Students could use Flicker or Facebook to share ideas.  Fifth, Collaboration, allows students to use tools to help learn together.  Students should share, write, and survey together.  Students could use tools such as wiki or Web-based “Office” applications.  Sixth, research, is essential for students to learn.  The 21^st century has demanded students to use research and the web.  Students could use Google Search for questions or the Citation Machine for citing information.  Seventh, Project management, stresses the importance of students managing time, work, sources, feedback, drafts, and products during projects.  Students could use Desire2Learn or simply make a folder of their own.  Eighth, reflection and interaction, allows students to think deeper when reviewing and viewing ideas from different points of view.  Students could use Blogger or Wikispaces for this essential learning function. 

                The points discussed in this chapter of the book are very useful in reference to our project and topic.  Students have a much different demand for learning thanks to the turn of the 21^st century.  Less focus is put on the “busy” work, and students are being asked to think deeper, relate information to real-life situations, and collaborate with classmates and the community.  By knowing the eight essential learning functions, teachers will be able to implement all the important aspects of learning and help students find new references for the future. 

Acrossed the Globe: Kalamazoo, MI to Russia and Brazil.

View Weather Monitoring Acrossed the Globe in a larger map This map shows our third grade students in Kalamazoo, Michigan where their penpals are located. Our students will be communicating with students in Rio de Janiero, Brazil and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Google Document: Penpals

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gyz6zO9nCrK2HkMl42BhptTLc2EP8FS6j_WK9FbmSyA/edit

Reflection 3, Chapter 3

Reflection 3, Chapter 3. 1. Some things to consider in finding "the Big Idea" for are project are to identify the concepts and process you want students to understand and reflect on why they are important. Think about the real-world contexts to see the many disciplines of the project that will help your students in many ways. Think of projects that may help the community. Students may have ideas of their own on what to do for a project for the community. 2. "A well designed project causes students to stretch their intellectual muscles in ways traditional learning activities may not." pg. 47. Using Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives will help with this. The objectives are: Remember (Knowledge), Understand (Comprehension), Apply, Analyze (examine, explain, investigate, ect..), Evaluate (judge, select, decide, justify, ect...), and create (adapt, anticipate, combine, invent, ect..). Doing all of these will help students with their projects as well as with anything else they are doing. In the real-world we do some parts, if not all parts of these in everything we do. 3. Digital Age literacy, Inventive Thinking, Effective Communication, and High Productivity are all important literacies. "Literacy boils down to learning to be independent, aware, and productive citizens." pg. 49. We must teach our students how to use technology, be independent with their thinking, be able to communicate well with others, and be able to produce masterful pieces in whatever they do. 4. The essential learning functions are 1)Ubiquity: Learning inside and outside the classroom, and at all times. Teachers must look for and utilize any and all tools that will help students learn where ever they are and with whom they want to. 2)Deep Learning. "Higher-order thinking is engaged when students have to navigate and sort, organize, analyze, and make graphical representations in order to learn and express learning." pg. 54. We all need this in order to do our best in anything we do. 3)Making things visible and discussable. Making our thoughts and ideas visible is a good step in getting a conversation going. 4)Expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, building community. Using Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter helps students express themselves without having to write a long, boring paper about themselves. Papers are for school, the other avenues are more open and interesting for students. 5)Collaboration--teaching and learning with others. Collaboration is the major part of projects. We must teach our students how to work well with others because in most jobs they will have to work with others in some way. 6)Research. In order to get information right, we must research what we want to know and make sure it is from a trusted site or trusted individual. 7)Project Management:Planning and organization. Students must learn to manage time, work, play, and others. Doing projects with others helps with all of these. 8)Reflection and Iteration. Examining all aspects of and hearing others reacttions to your projects or information makes it possible to see and hear what you might need to or want to change in the work. 5. Collaboration, organize, analyze, evaluate, create, and research all play a part in the topic my partner and I have choosen. We must engage our students to do all of them in order to get the best possible information out of them. Janice Alff

reflection 2

Reflection #2 Chapter 2 1. “The learning organization can be any business work team, big or small, that engages in ongoing, collaborative problem solving focused on making the business better. They learn new patters of thinking, they learn how to capitalize on the wisdom of the group, and, most importantly, they continually learn how to learn together.” Pg. 30. This is what we all strive for,to learn how to learn together. I believe that teachers as well as students need to keep learning in order to stay on top of the newest technology and information available. Teachers need to consult with other teachers in order to get necessary feedback on their teaching and their instruction. 2. Benefits of the learning community start at teachers not being so isolated, which is a good thing. Teachers need help too, if they can learn from other teachers they will be more willing to help others in need. Increased commitment to the mission is another benefit. This is beneficial to all how need that extra help from their colleagues. Shared responsibility and more powerful learning are other benefits of the learning community. We all need to help each other with anything that might come up, in or out of a classroom. The last one is a higher likelihood of fundamental, systemic change. Everything is changing all the time, we have to keep up and keep on top of these changes. It is easier to do this as a group where we will have help and encouragement to change. 3. Learning communities affect teachers in that there is a “shift from looking at what you teach to focusing on what your students learn.” Pg. 32. The learning is relevant and rigorous. Teachers as well as students learn the skills necessary for the real world, from communication to problem solving and motivation. By getting other teachers involved we create a critical mass of dedicated teachers who share the common goal. By doing this we can be the driving force that moves a school forward. 4. A learning community has the same effects on students as it does on teachers. There are more student centered ideas, collaboration is a critical measure for the real world, and project management helps the students in many ways. We must do everything we can as teachers, and as parents, to help our students gain the knowledge of and for the real world. 5. Components of a learning community are as follows: have a clear sense of the mission, share a vision of the conditions teachers must create to achieve the mission, work together in collaborative teams to determine the best practice to achieve the mission, organize into groups headed by teacher-leaders, focus on student learning, are goal-and results-oriented, collaborate with each other, hold shared values and beliefs, commit themselves to continuous improvement, and see themselves as life-long learners. 6. I believe our project relates to the concepts in this chapter in that the project is set for collaboration with others, it will be a project that will use technology as well as a hands on activity, and will help the students gain knowledge of the weather.

reference map

View map for reference in a larger map

map

View Random Places in a larger map

Reflection #1

Chapter 1

Janice Alff

 

1.       There are a few things you should keep in mind as you start your journey through Project-Based Learning.  You should be ready to rethink your expectations of the students and their work.  You should be ready to interact more with your students.  You should help your students get better at managing their own progress.  You should be ready to reorganize your room to help with teamwork and collaboration.  The biggest thing, I believe, is to be ready to explain your reasoning for taking the 21^st-century project approach.

2.      Some of the benefits of the PBL approach are projects allow for student choice which sets the stage for active learning and teamwork.  Some tools open new windows onto student thinking which can help with more productive conversation.  PBL can have instant global connections if using the internet.  The students get real world activities and practice the strategies of authentic disciplines.

3.      The benefits to students are: they use hands on projects instead of just sitting and listening to lecture.  They use teamwork to do much of the assigned projects.  It enhances their communication skills as well as their inquiry skills.  They learn to be flexible with their working hours like they will in the real world.  They also get a fuller understanding of how the world works, and realize that individuals can do something about changing the world.

4.      The issues that need to be considered are: teachers need to be comfortable in the learner role as we start own journey.  We must be able to adapt to change as the projects and information is always changing.  We need to be able to meet the complex needs of the digital-age learner.

5.      We all need models to help us along.  In my English class we talk about modeling our writing for our students.  If we show them how we do it and how we can make mistakes, they are more apt to understand better and enjoy it more knowing they are not alone in the process.  The same goes for the New Technology High; it was modeled, found to work effectively, and endorsed by the community.  Because of these things, other schools and communities want to implement it as well.

Reflection: Week 1

Project-based learning is a strategy where students collaborate to work on real-world projects.  Students pursue their own ideas using technology and outside resources while the teacher acts as a guide to help students when they need it.  This type of education is much different those used in the past because the teacher in no longer the content expert.  The students must investigate open-ended questions and use their knowledge to provide an authentic answer.  These projects are centered on the curriculum, while also engaging students in real-world activities.

                As you begin project-based learning, it is important for teachers to be prepared.  In this activity, you will be sending students off on their own to find information and work together.  This will cause the teacher to act as an aid instead of the main source of information.  You must have good open-ended questions to push students thinking, know resources that students can use, and be able to gain control if the project gets to be too out of hand.   This means you have to have a good classroom organization and good classroom management.  It is also important to keep an open relationship with the parents, students, and other people involved in the project.

                You may be wondering why to choose project-based learning if it takes so much extra work and change on the teacher’s part.  You must remember that you are doing project-based learning for the benefit of the students.  Project-based learning is a great way to get the students interested in projects and issues throughout the community or world, and it could be a great way to get the community involved in the education at your school.  Project-based learning pushes the educational thought process, and engages the teacher and student in a new way.  It pushes both the teacher and the students to grow in their roles as a learner. 

                The person who will benefit the most from project-based learning is the most important person in the school, the student.  The reason that most people begin teaching is to make an impact in students’ lives.  This is your chance!  Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.  Project-based learning will have such a positive benefit on the students in your class.  Students will develop better communication as they work together and they work with people in the community, students will develop better inquiry skills, students will learn to be flexible with working hours because people are counting on them meeting their deadlines, and students will gain a fuller understanding of the world.   The best benefit will be that students will feel like they are experts in the subject they are studying.

                Some issues you should think about when using project-based learning is the importance of monitoring your students as they work through these projects.  Planning is a very important thing to remember for the teacher when he or she is planning a project.  If the teacher is not organized, the whole project will fall apart.  The teacher also needs to plan open-ended to push the students when they come to a dead-end.

                The New Technology Model took years of research and data to finalize, and I guarantee that it will continue to change during the years as it is implemented into more schools.  New Technology High, a school in California, was founded after business people voiced their concerns about students not being able to meet the workforce needs.  These business leaders pushed the school to use critical thinking, collaboration, and technology as a means to better prepare the students for the workforce and needs of this new technological age. 

                I believe it is important for project-based learning to continue being implemented into school districts because it gives students a new way of learning that will better prepare them for problems they may face in the future.  Simply standing in front of students and feeding them information will never be as effective as students being placed in a real-world setting and having to use critical thinking and collaboration to solve the problems they are given.

Websites...

Hey,
I found a great website that ties into our topic and is aimed at young children.  If you find any, post them here so we can share :)

http://www.weatherwizkids.com/

Weather Concept Map

by Janice Alff

topic for project

We have decided to do Weather Monitoring for our project.
Thank you,
Janice  & Heather

Welcome

Hi,
Welcome to our blog for Technology for Elementary Education!  More to come soon...