Classroom discussions are extremely important when a teacher is trying to keep their students projects moving along. There are three different levels of classroom discussions: Teacher to teacher, student to student, teacher to student. Teacher to teacher discussion is all of the collegial effort that has gone into project planning and continues throught the implementation phase. Student to student is when the students are talking about their learning experiences as they unfold. This discussion can occur within their teams as well as across different teams. Teacher to student discussion occurs mostly on a class website with the occasional whole class lecture when there is a new topic introduced.
Higher order questions need to be a priority in a project based classroom. They should be regulary asked regardless of whether the teacher is speaking to an individual student, to a small group or to an entire classroom. Teachers should be asking students to analyze, compare, evaluate and elaborate. These good questions will naturally lead to follow ups that probe for an even deeper understanding on the students part.
While the students are working on a project, many groups may be in different spots of the project based on how fast or slow they are able to accomplish their work. This means the teacher must keep track of many different things at once and they need to focus on what questions to be asking the groups in order to make sure they are keeping their projects moving along. Teachers should be asking questions about their procedure, teamwork, understanding and self assessment.
Teachers should optimize the technolgy that the children already know how to use in their classrooms. The students will learn new ways to use their technology for more informative and learning purposes. This will allow the students the chance to use the technology in the classroom that Sometimes there are conflicts that occur in groups and this is a great time to teach the students how to manage those conflicts within their group instead of breaking the group apart. This will help build the students social skills for later on in life when it isn't so easy to just switch groups or partners.
Chapter 7 will help the students while working on their food preservation project because they will have a better understanding of where they are at with their project and learn time management as well as conflict management. These are skills they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Chapter 8 reading reflection
Teacher should help students build connections and branch out from what they are used to. One way of doing this would be to help your students by connecting them with experts around the world. Teachers will do this sometimes to help students who are curious about a subject become connected with experts in order to learn more about that subject. These experts come into play when a project is based on inquiry and the students need to ask the questions to experts to continue learning in the classroom.
Teachers can help students expand their learning circle by getting them in contact with students from other schools or around the world. Jeff Whipple connected with a teacher in Korea and they collaborated an idea of how to get their students involved with each other to make their own illustrated literature project. They had their students work together and have in depth communication about their intentions and crea
tivity. They paired student writers with student artists to help them collaborate with each other and creat an end product from across countries.
Some students use the EAST initiative model to help students use technology for real life purposes while learning. This model allows students to use programs such as GIS, GPS and CAD to map the trails of Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. This initiative started in 1996 and has grown to include more than 260 schools in seven different states. Not only does it serve a purpose in a high school but it also targets students starting in second grade all the way through pos-secondary levels. When the model started growing they realized they needed to train teachers from other districts in order for them to take the initiative back to their school and launch it successfully.
Teachers should allow students to lead their own projects because more than not they have many good ideas that they are more than capable of sharing and completing a project based on their ideas. Allowing students to lead will help them feel like they are an important attribute to their project and possibly get them more excited about it.
Building connections with students and experts can help our students with their project on food preservation because they may have questions that we, as teachers, may not have all the answers to so the experts can fill the gaps that we can't.
Teachers can help students expand their learning circle by getting them in contact with students from other schools or around the world. Jeff Whipple connected with a teacher in Korea and they collaborated an idea of how to get their students involved with each other to make their own illustrated literature project. They had their students work together and have in depth communication about their intentions and crea
tivity. They paired student writers with student artists to help them collaborate with each other and creat an end product from across countries.
Some students use the EAST initiative model to help students use technology for real life purposes while learning. This model allows students to use programs such as GIS, GPS and CAD to map the trails of Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. This initiative started in 1996 and has grown to include more than 260 schools in seven different states. Not only does it serve a purpose in a high school but it also targets students starting in second grade all the way through pos-secondary levels. When the model started growing they realized they needed to train teachers from other districts in order for them to take the initiative back to their school and launch it successfully.
Teachers should allow students to lead their own projects because more than not they have many good ideas that they are more than capable of sharing and completing a project based on their ideas. Allowing students to lead will help them feel like they are an important attribute to their project and possibly get them more excited about it.
Building connections with students and experts can help our students with their project on food preservation because they may have questions that we, as teachers, may not have all the answers to so the experts can fill the gaps that we can't.
Chapter 10 Reading Reflection
Teachers should allow students time to reflect on their project after they have spend so much time on it. Setting time aside for reflection will help students feel like their project was important and they will be able to actually see how much they accomplished from start to finish. Reflection can be the one thing that wraps up the entire project and helps it stick in their brains for a very long time. A teacher asking too many reflection questions could overwhelm the students so they should really think about what they want to ask. There should be a lot of planning that goes into the final questions to reflect upon on the teachers part.
As students get older and can think more critically the teacher should allow them to make decisions for subsequent projects. The teacher should ask the students where they see the project going next, what questions were sparked, what they are wondering about next, what else they want to learn and how do they plan on going about it.
Teachers should build traditions in their schools so that students who are younger are already excited about their projects years before they are in your classroom or grade. One teacher, for example, left a project based classroom and ran into a young lady several years later. The lady told her how bummed she was when she found out the teacher had left because she was so excited to do the salmon project that her brothers did years before she was going to be in that grade. This proves that siblings talk and they can get others excited about projects done on a traditional basis many years before the youngest steps foot in the classroom.
Teachers should celebrate students work by hosting an event for the school to come visit the classroom as well as parents and friends. Then they should display the students work for others to view for some time after the project is over with. Having a main celebration at the end of the year to show a retrospective "year in review" of projects for people to view is always a good way to show how much the students have accomplished all year long.
Reflection is an important piece to our project on food preservation because we want students to remember everything they have done and to be able to see where else they could go with our project.
As students get older and can think more critically the teacher should allow them to make decisions for subsequent projects. The teacher should ask the students where they see the project going next, what questions were sparked, what they are wondering about next, what else they want to learn and how do they plan on going about it.
Teachers should build traditions in their schools so that students who are younger are already excited about their projects years before they are in your classroom or grade. One teacher, for example, left a project based classroom and ran into a young lady several years later. The lady told her how bummed she was when she found out the teacher had left because she was so excited to do the salmon project that her brothers did years before she was going to be in that grade. This proves that siblings talk and they can get others excited about projects done on a traditional basis many years before the youngest steps foot in the classroom.
Teachers should celebrate students work by hosting an event for the school to come visit the classroom as well as parents and friends. Then they should display the students work for others to view for some time after the project is over with. Having a main celebration at the end of the year to show a retrospective "year in review" of projects for people to view is always a good way to show how much the students have accomplished all year long.
Reflection is an important piece to our project on food preservation because we want students to remember everything they have done and to be able to see where else they could go with our project.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Monday, December 3, 2012
Reading Reflection 11
A good project continues even after the initial project is done. It should open new doors and could build a future project design. It is important for students to have time to reflect at the end of a project not only for the students, but for ways to improve the project. Michael Mcdowell, a high school teacher says he has a big reflection piece at the end of the project. The students tell him what they could have done better or what can be done to improve on the project.
To "bring the project home" you should first critique your work. At the end of the project it is important to get together with your team of colleagues to discuss the outcomes and to share ideas for improvements. This could be meeting with other teachers at your school, or by communicating across distances through the email or blogs.
Another thing that should be done at the end of the project is to share your insight. Designing a project takes a lot of time and effort and when you have good ideas you should share them for other teachers to use. There are a number of different ways to share your idea including sharing on existing networks such as iEarn, creating a project library, turning your project into an archive on the web, or publishing you project. You could also become a resource for your colleagues. A project could be turned into a professional development opportunity for your colleagues, and help them get into project based learning.
There are contests where you can enter your project into to gain more exposure for your project and can help raise the profile for what you are doing. This is also time for a colleagues to give critical feedback. Most importantly you should enjoy the journey. It was a long road to develop and teach your project.
This relates to our topic of food preservation because it is a good way to end the project. After we give the homeless shelter the canned food we processed students will have time to reflect on their experiences with canning, or how they felt helping others.
To "bring the project home" you should first critique your work. At the end of the project it is important to get together with your team of colleagues to discuss the outcomes and to share ideas for improvements. This could be meeting with other teachers at your school, or by communicating across distances through the email or blogs.
Another thing that should be done at the end of the project is to share your insight. Designing a project takes a lot of time and effort and when you have good ideas you should share them for other teachers to use. There are a number of different ways to share your idea including sharing on existing networks such as iEarn, creating a project library, turning your project into an archive on the web, or publishing you project. You could also become a resource for your colleagues. A project could be turned into a professional development opportunity for your colleagues, and help them get into project based learning.
There are contests where you can enter your project into to gain more exposure for your project and can help raise the profile for what you are doing. This is also time for a colleagues to give critical feedback. Most importantly you should enjoy the journey. It was a long road to develop and teach your project.
This relates to our topic of food preservation because it is a good way to end the project. After we give the homeless shelter the canned food we processed students will have time to reflect on their experiences with canning, or how they felt helping others.
Chapter 11
Projects done by students in a classroom should allow them to capitalize on their investment. The more students invest into a project and the amount of time dedicated to planning the project by the teacher, the more the students will gain from the project. An example of this is the Flat Classroom Project. The students learned how to manage a project and meet deadlines in order for their peers around the world to be able to do their part while they were sleeping in the U.S. The students in both countries understood why working collaboritively is important and according to the teacher, the students were ready to be placed in college and would have no issues on their own.
The students feedback for the teachers is helpful to know what needs to be changed with the project and what worked extremely well with the project. Teachers should critique their own work by looking back through their students work over the course of the project to see how much knowledge they gained from start to finish.
When teachers post their projects to networks such as iEARN, Global SchoolNet or publish their projects, they will be able to get feedback from other teachers to help them learn new ideas and extensions for their projects used in the classroom. Entering your students projects in a contest is a great way to get their work seen by others and to receive critical feedback from teachers that also share the passion for students to work on authentic projects in the classroom.
The most important thing to come out of a collaborative project in the classroom is that the teacher has had a chance to help the students as much as they possibly can. When teachers teach the traditional way, they miss several opportunities to get to know their students. The more collaborative work a teacher can do, the better rapport they gain with their students in their classroom.
This helps reiterate the fact that our collaborative project on food preservation will help our students gain as much knowledge as they possibly can. Every style of learning will be welcome and met with a collaborative project like our food preservation project so no children will be left behind.
The students feedback for the teachers is helpful to know what needs to be changed with the project and what worked extremely well with the project. Teachers should critique their own work by looking back through their students work over the course of the project to see how much knowledge they gained from start to finish.
When teachers post their projects to networks such as iEARN, Global SchoolNet or publish their projects, they will be able to get feedback from other teachers to help them learn new ideas and extensions for their projects used in the classroom. Entering your students projects in a contest is a great way to get their work seen by others and to receive critical feedback from teachers that also share the passion for students to work on authentic projects in the classroom.
The most important thing to come out of a collaborative project in the classroom is that the teacher has had a chance to help the students as much as they possibly can. When teachers teach the traditional way, they miss several opportunities to get to know their students. The more collaborative work a teacher can do, the better rapport they gain with their students in their classroom.
This helps reiterate the fact that our collaborative project on food preservation will help our students gain as much knowledge as they possibly can. Every style of learning will be welcome and met with a collaborative project like our food preservation project so no children will be left behind.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
CH 11 RR
As a result of PBL, many positive things occur. For one, it allows us as teachers to examine our insights into our students. As international teacher Julie Lindsay puts it, "fostering student engagement means encouraging them also to think beyond the set class time...and therefore to be thinking about and constructing thier own reality". It is so important that our students take what they learn and apply it, and then for us as their teacher to watch what worked and what didn't work. From project based learning we also are able to collaborate with other teachers or colleagues. Furthermore, we can share our insights and ideas on a broader scale to get great ideas out, and then to search for different ideas if you have come upon a new idea or topic.
There are a few different ways to "bring the project home". As mentioned earlier, it is very important to make our PBL's real to our students. Once the learning becomes real and authentic, the students are truly motivated to do their best, and then hopefully do additional research on their own. When we hear of students going above and beyond the requirements, as teachers we feel as if we have truly done our jobs right.
One concept in this final chapter that relates to our project is bringing the PBL home. We don't want all of our hard work to go to waste, but to really cement the ideas in our students, and have them be responsible and motivated enough to take it home and expound on it. It is so important that what we are teaching and doing has meaning in our students lives, otherwise it can basically be for naught. By coping with the demands of the 21st century skills, we can use this in our PBL on nutrition/preservatives to keep in mind various tools and resources we can use to be successful, and then meditate on our success and make it even better the next time around.
There are a few different ways to "bring the project home". As mentioned earlier, it is very important to make our PBL's real to our students. Once the learning becomes real and authentic, the students are truly motivated to do their best, and then hopefully do additional research on their own. When we hear of students going above and beyond the requirements, as teachers we feel as if we have truly done our jobs right.
One concept in this final chapter that relates to our project is bringing the PBL home. We don't want all of our hard work to go to waste, but to really cement the ideas in our students, and have them be responsible and motivated enough to take it home and expound on it. It is so important that what we are teaching and doing has meaning in our students lives, otherwise it can basically be for naught. By coping with the demands of the 21st century skills, we can use this in our PBL on nutrition/preservatives to keep in mind various tools and resources we can use to be successful, and then meditate on our success and make it even better the next time around.
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