Chapter 7 Reading Reflection

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.

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.

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.

Final Concept Map

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.

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.

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.

Chapter 10 reading reflections

It is important to set time aside for reflection because it helps students to feel good about all of their accomplishments and because reflection helps students remember. When students reflect, they create their own meaning. They need to look at their project from different aspects and from a distance to get to the next learning challenge. Reflection also helps students' project have a personal meaning and to discover the importance of it to them. Students should reflect on the good aspects of their projects as well as the challenges and frustration and they should look at how they overcame those obstacles.
A successful project should set students up for the next cycle of learning. To get students to elaborate on their reflection questions should be asked such as "what are you wondering about next?" or "what do you want to learn next?"Teacher should be asking where students want to go next. It could help develop a project that the teacher would not have thought up on their own.
Schools build tradition and identity a number of ways. For example some schools are known for their sports or a performance such as a symphony. Schools using project based learning should establish a tradition of exemplary project work. To begin, building awareness in other is important. When others know what you are doing you have a foundation for tradition. When the community sees students' accomplishment they will support what you are doing, and they may want to get involved.
There are many ways to celebrate children's work . The school could hold an event, create a blog or have a party. A classroom display is a good way to share students work with others. For longer projects that last the whole school year a year-in-review retrospective could be held. This reminds students of everything that they did throughout the year. This is a part of building a schools identity in project based learning.
This chapter relates to our topic because students will need to reflect on their project. It is important for them to pick out what was important to them in our canning activity and feeding the homeless. It is also important to celebrate students accomplishments.

CH 10 RR

It is very important to set aside time for reflection. Not only is it an essential part of learning, but it is essential when students create meaning because it allows the meaning to take shape, especially when viewed from angles not otherwise thought about. When the project draws to a finish, students can reflect on what they learned and how it was personally meaningful and beneficial. A teacher can help facilitate reflection by asking questions such as how specific learning behaviors factored into the success of the project; their skill development; how they changed/improved; how their collaborations improved; how they got better at giving/receiving;how they learned to hold themselves and the team to high standards; if technology skills were used, and if they could apply their technical learning; and if they wanted to know about any other related technologies. Our students should also reflect on their growth and development as a learner, and well as graciously reflecting on how fun the learning journey can be.

There are many reasons for students to reflect and elaborate. When students become more accomplished "project-doers", teachers feel more comfortable putting decisions into their hands. Asking where students want to go is very enlightening for a teacher, because it allows them to really understand what the students want to get out of it. When students elaborate, they embrace challenges and employ skills to delve into the subject. Authentic assessments then help to solidify the information to make it realistic.

Schools need to build tradition and identity. When schools are unique and have a sense of tradition and expectation of excellence, a sense of community is created. The tradition of exemplary project work is formed partly when the students build an awareness for others, and partly when you are transparent in your activities and traditions. When community members notice and value student contributions,, they will give you as the teacher enthusiastic support. For example, the Charles N Fortes Magnet Academy in Rhode Island has a long tradition of focusing on history. Students, parents, and teachers alike feel "honor-bound to uphold the tradition of serving the community" in different ways.

Once a project has finished, it is important to celebrate! When a student spends so much time devoted to a specific project, working on it slowly and in depth, students need a finished project and a reason to celebrate their hard work. Holding a retrospective "Year in Review" is a good way to acknowledge the students consistent hard work all year long by capturing moments throughout and posting them all at the end of the year. Having an "end of project" celebration will be meaningful to students by anchoring memories, and will also help you as the teacher to learn the highlights of projects and how you can improve them in the future based on students' experiences.

This concept definitely connects to our PBL on food preservation. When designing the project, it is important to have a sense of tradition, connecting the students to the rest of the community. It is also very important to allow the students to reflect and elaborate. It helps them to expand their knowledge to the best of their ability, and allows us as teachers to know what was good and what can be improved upon for next time.

Chapter 9 reading reflection

Chapter nine discussed ways that teachers could make their assessments meaningful to their students in a classroom. One teacher tells her students that they can either be producers or consumers. She then goes on to say that we shoudl strive to be producers because we are creating something that will bring our learning to the next level. I think this is a great way to help remind students of how to think of themselves in the classroom and outside of the classroom. The teacher goes on to say being a producer is the "global goal" now instead of just being a consumer.
A teacher needs to be taking several things into consideration while assessing students' project work such as what they have created, teamwork, effort, and the creativity that went into the project. Teachers need to be fair when assessing and that doesn't mean that they need to assign everyone the exact same amount of work for each project. Some students take 3 hours to write what takes another student 20 min. The teacher needs to keep this in mind and assess accordingly. This is called establishing anchors.
The New Technology Foundation has come up with a gradebook that is shared with schools across the high school network. The grades are brokendown much more than what a normal teacher would do. One teacher has grades for how well the student knows the content, written communication, critical thinking, and work ethic. All of the students, parents and teachers have access to these grades, which can create more opportunities for meaningful conversations about student achievements.
Having students reflect on what they learned in a fun way, such as a podcast, can be another learning experience. Other students can give feedback on how they presented what they learned in their podcast in order for the creator to know what to do better next time. Another option would be to have the student create something new after the project is done to summarize or synthesize what they have learned from creating their project. An example could be having the students create a book about something that they had already been doing throughout the project then publishing the book for the students.
These new and improved ways of making assessment meaningful will help us in our own PBL project by fitting these different forms of assessment into our own work as well as the students. We will be able to assess whether the students actually know what they are doing or have done and how much they learned instead of allowing them to slack off on their work and still get a good grade becuase they know how to guess really well at multiple choice questions.

Chapter 9 reading reflection

One way to understand students prior-knowledge is to have  them fill out a K-W-L chart. Students fill out the K- what they know and the W- What they want to learn before a project begins. Once the project is over they fill out the L- what they have learned.
It is important to establish anchors for a project. By understanding what students already know you can "establish anchors," to see where students are starting, and to see how far they are going as they do the project. A project based classroom has more opportunities to have differentiated instruction so all students can be successful. When creating an assessment it is important to measure how each student has progressed throughout the project.
Online grade books can be used to assess what students have learned during the project. It helps measure students progress in several categories. The students, their parents and teachers all have access to the assessment data. Another kind of assessment was a video taped interview with students at the end of the project. There were able to be honest and reflect on the project. They could also have a real-world assessment where a professional would come in and give feedback and evaluate their work.
This chapter relates to our project because we will need to find some way to assess our students. By finding what students already know we can create realistic goals for them, and see how they progress throughout the project. Then we will need to find an appropriate assessment to go along with our food preservation project.

CH 9 Reading Reflection

One method of understanding prior knowledge of our students students could be through a variety of assessment strategies, such as the criterion-referenced assessments, alternative assessments, and performance assessments. Another method could be KWL charts, or Know-Want to Know-Learned graphic organizers.

When you establish 'anchors', you gain a sense of where students are starting and how far they are going as they work to meet learning goals. You are also able to expand the opportunities to differentiate instructions and help all learners to be successful. When using PBL, the emphasis is all on quality and not quantity.

There are several ways to assess students knowledge during a project. First, you will want to create a rubric to assess progress towards the key learning goals, or objectives you feel are the most important things your students should know. Another way to assess what students have achieved is through an online grade book, like Curtis at the New Technology Foundation created. This online grade book has different categories, like knowledge of a content, written communication, critical thinking, and work ethic. A second assessment tool could be podcasts, which allow students to be reflective, honest, and insightful about articulating their own learning.

Regarding our PBL on Food Preservation, I feel we can use many applicable points from this chapter. First, we obviously need to understand what our students already know, in order to have a base and foundation to build off of. I also think this is applicable because as teachers, we need innovative and inventive ways to assess our students, especially when traditional ways just don't measure all of the knowledge and applicable, analytical ways that our students think. As teachers, we need to think about creating assessments after they have created their projects on food preservation.

chapter 8 reading reflection

There are many ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom. Connecting with experts virtually through forums, video chats or students could meet face to face with them.The first step for teachers is to create a list of experts with skill pertaining to the project, willing to talk to students. Before students talk with the expert questions should be developed to get the most out of the experience. Another way to branch out beyond the classroom is to expand learning circles. This could be exchanging videos, blog entries or other forms of communications to other students and communities across distances. This give students the opportunity to collaborate with students across the country or even across the world.
EAST initiative model stands for Environmental and Spatial Technologies and is a network of schools that show the benefits of using technology to solve problems and improve their community. Matt Dozier said "technology is the hook we use to get kids into significan projects, and to get communities into significantly wanting to support those projects." The EAST model has four main ideas that were all a part of the original design. Number one is student drivin learning. Students should be responsible for their own learning. Number two is authentic project-based learning. Students should be actively trying to solve problems in their community. Number three is technology as tools. Students should have access to technologies that professionals do to solve problems. Number four is collaboration. Students need to be collaborating with the team to accomplish more than they could individually.
   Teachers sometimes find that students are able to lead their own projects. This starts with students creating a idea for a project they care about. This allows students to be responsible for their learning. This chapter relates to our project because we need to know how to build connections outside of the classroom. When students are able to talk to experts it gives them an experience they couldnt learn from a classroom. Students should also lead their project and take responsibility for it.

Chapter 8 Reading Reflection

There are many ways to build connections and branch outside of the classroom through project based learning. One would be to connect with experts. Asking experts can help students to broaden their horizons, and probe real life, authentic ways for students to learn all the facts and the opinions. Even though connecting our students with experts requires extra work on our end, both students and teachers benefit. Teachers should be continually looking to connect with experts of all different fields. When a teacher can bring in an expert, the teacher should prepare the students by having them come up with questions and preparing them. Another way would be to expand the learning circle through connecting our students with others on a national and international level. By bringing people together across distances using technology, students understand the globalization of learning. Online collaboration is really active in extending the learning experience as well.
The EAST Initiative Movement is an Environmental and Spatial Technologies Initiative network of schools that utilize geospatial technologies and multimedia tools  to solve problems and make improvements in the community. The EAST Initiative started in Arkansas in 1996, and now includes more than 260 schools in seven states. The EAST Initiative model is based on the ideas of student based learning, authentic project-based learning, technology as tools, and collaboration. Another really important component is training and support for teachers. Teachers now become facilitators, where they have to work with student teams using interdisciplinary learning, teaming, authentic projects, and student driven learning. There are different phases in EAST training, and these all contribute to the greater goal of connecting with the community.
Letting students "lead" the project is important. As students feel comfortable and learn more about their topics, they can begin to generate their own ideas and expand into a leader role. It is very important for our students to feel in control of their projects and especially their learning. When they feel in control and a real part of the project, they are more engaged and benefit more fully.
Connecting students with others on a broader scale is important to expand their experiences, as is the EAST Initiative to get students connected with their community. However, this chapter really relates to our PBL because we need to provide students with opportunities to let them lead their own projects. As teachers, our lessons must be directed towards open, authentic ways to let students really take the lead. When we are thinking of ways to create our projects and our lessons, we need to be mindful of making the project make sense, but also that it is open enough and general enough to allow students independence.

Reading Reflection 7

There are three levels of classroom discussion. Teacher to teacher discussion is when teachers collaborate even after the project has started. This is just as important as the prep because it keeps teachers on the same page. If students are struggling with a concept small changes may need to be made. For example a mini-lesson could be planned. This is a good time to use blogs, wiki and other online tools to communicate if your project colleagues are at another location or if you cannot meet face to face with them. Student to student discussion is when students are talking amongst each other about their learning experiences. Students can talk with their team members and it is also good for them to talk with other teams. Communication is very important because they need to work as a team and stay on track. Students learn and challenge each other. Teachers should be observing, and sometimes joining the conversation when appropriate. The last level of classroom discussion is teacher to student. This is the dominating classroom discussion format in a traditional classroom where teachers lectures most of the time. During project based learning this level is only used occasionally to make announcements to the whole class or to introduce or demonstrate new ideas. Teachers should be checking in on students along the way. Students will be taking different directions and working on different speeds, which is normal. There are four types of questions that should be asked. Procedural questions should be asked such as “are you getting everything done on time?” and “do you have all of the materials you need?” The second is teamwork questions. This is good to see if everyone is getting along and sharing the work equally. The third are understanding questions. This will take some observation and listening to students. This is a good opportunity to bring up ideas that they may not of thought of and encourage them to push themselves. The last type of questions are self-assessment. This is a good time to get feedback from the students on what they think about the project and for them to share their excitement or challenges about the project. It is important that technology is used as a tool and is not a distraction. Check in with students to make sure the technology is used properly is important. There are many benefits to optimizing the use of technology. It should help students reach their learning goals. It should help them stay organized as well. For example a collaborative blog allows them to log their ideas and to share with their team mates. Technology should expand students’ horizon by connecting to experts and people outside of their community. It should also be easily accessible. Teamwork is a 21st-century skill that can make or break a project. Pay close attention to team dynamics during the beginning of the project. Allow students to manage their own conflicts. It is a good idea to have the students make a contract before their project starts where students agree on everyone’s responsibilities and have them each sign it. Students can also evaluate each other on a teamwork-scoring rubric or with a journal entry. The concepts in this chapter relate to our project because we will need to implement appropriate classroom discussion. We will also need to check in with our students along the way to make sure the project is running smoothly.

Reading Reflection Ch 7

There are three levels to classroom discussion. The first is teacher to teacher. In this form, teachers collaborate together, taking every opportunity to work together, sharing ideas and resources. The second is student to student discussion. In this, students should be talking about their learning experiences as they unfold- within their teams as well as across teams. When students explain their thinking, it gives everyone the opportunity learn from and challenge one another. The third is teacher to student, which entails an announcement of some form or whole group lessons to introduce a new concept or demonstrate a skill that all students need to understand how to progress. In PBL, teacher to student can be used through project management tools, like project Web sites, blogs, online calenders, or online project work spaces.
When students are in the middle of a project, we as teachers can help our students to focus and adjust by checking in. Based on the information you want, you can ask questions based on different approaches. For example, if you wanted to focus on Procedural aspects, you can ask questions such as "are we on schedule? do we have the right materials? when's the best time to schedule various activities?" These questions will help reinforce progress towards milestones and deadlines, and also remind students of the project calender and monitor students' project logs and checklists.Another approach you can focus on is Teamwork. By asking questions like "how are team members doing? is one student carrying too much of the load for the whole team? Are students able to manage conflict themselves, or do they need my help?" By asking these question we can assess team dynamics and create open dialogue about the team. A third approach is Understanding. You can spend time observing teams at work, listening to student conversations and asking probing question in order to see if students are on track, making progress, and are able to go beyond expectation. The last approach is self-assessment. Asking question that encourage self-assessment and reflection can help students to describe challenges or frustration, ask questions they may feel uncomfortable asking in front of everyone, or sharing their excitement.
Optimizing technology is very useful for students. Students respond very positively to the experience of learning through technology. When teachers maximize the potential of technology through examination such as helping them focus on the learning goal; helping them to stay organized; using technology to expand their horizons by connecting to outside experts or a broader community; and by having technology be equally accessible. When technology is optimized, students gain greater benefits, new insights, and authentic feedback.
When keeping a project moving, 21st century skills must be employed. For example, teachers must act as project managers to troubleshoot any challenges or problems that may arise. For example, Anne Davis, a teacher in Georgia tried to match her fourth and fifth graders to high school mentors. When it came time to publish their writings, her students froze. Mrs. Davis talked to another teacher on the high school end, and he talked with his students about reassuring the younger students. This really eased the way for the project to continue  with success. By using conversation in the classroom as an instruction tool, you build your community of learners. Another 21st century skill is teamwork. If a teacher detects trouble, they can help their students to learn to manage their own team conflicts. An excellent way to do this is to make teamwork a focus of formal assessment.
This chapter on keeping the project moving really applies to our PBL on food preservation.When we are discussing making any project, we need to continue to ask our students questions to see if they understand. We need to check in with our students to see if we can do anything to help, and then adjust our teaching accordingly. When we vary classroom discussions, we can help students to grasp information, especially when we are teaching about food preservation, which can be difficult for many students to conceptualize. By optimizing technology and using 21st century skills, we can strive to help our students achieve.

Chapter 6 reading reflection

Before and after a project students should complete a self- evaluation that allows them to be reflective and evaluate their strengths. The self-evaluation at the end of the project should have students reflect on experience that helped them grow. There are certain technologies that can help student’s reflections such as a blog. Students can see their progress over time and can look back at everything they have learned. ProfilerPro is a website that surveys students to find their interests, strengths and weaknesses. These can be taken throughout the project to keep track of the skills they have learned. A survey website such as SurveyMonkey can allow students to see how their self-evaluation compares to other students in the class. There are several ways to get students’ mind ready for a project. A project should always start by seeing what students already know about the subject. This can be done with a K-W-L chart. Their thinking should be challenged to generate deeper questioning. Teachers should have an “attention grabber” to get students excited about the project. Every day the teacher should bring up the topic to allow excitement to build and to get them to think about the project. To teach the fundamentals first teachers should set the stage for independent inquiry. A good way to do this is by having students fill out the K-W-L chart. Through this students can become aware of what they do and do not know and it can serve as a starting point. Students are encouraged to think deeper about the things they are investigating. Teachers should also share the assessment rubric. Students will know what is expected of them and serves as a “road map.” Technology should not be the project, but it should be an aid to do the project. The first step should be to determine what technology will be the best to use in a particular project. Once a device has been picked out and before showing students how to use it, it is a good activity to have them learn among themselves and to problem solves. It is important to observe the students to see where a demonstration is needed. Students need to know the expectation for each technologies use and the purpose. A project log or a journal helps students stay on track and see their progress. Sometimes a demonstration needs to be done for the students. If a teacher is not comfortable doing a demonstration a technology specialist or another teacher can help. To promote inquiry and deep learning students should be guided as they choose a question and plan an investigation. Questions that students want to investigate may need to be altered to promote deeper learning. For example “what is money made of?” could be asked as “what is the process of making money and is it the same everywhere?” The concepts in this chapter will help us determine the best technology to use for our project. It also shows ways to track students’ progress throughout the project.

Chapter 6 Reading Reflection

Chapter six discusses the appropriate way to launch a project. Students should do a self evaluation before and after a project that focus on the learning dispositions that the teacher expects the to develop during the project. Self assessment is a major factor in how students view themselves as capable and how they direct their own learning. Students can use ProfilerPro to evaluate themselves or they can use a blog to help track their reflective thoughts over a period of time.
Students should collect their thoughts about a project topic before they actually dive into the project. A way that some teachers have their students practice this is by using a Know-Wonder-Learn (KWL) chart. This chart helps excite the students by establishing interest before the project even starts.  A teacher can spark a students interest in the project even more when they start the project off with a simple inquiry based demonstration that allows the students to guess what is going to happen, such as the ice cube example in the book on page 98.
Teachers should be teaching the fundamentals of what their project topic is about in order to allow the students to work more independently during their investigations. Students need to be helped and nudged before getting to the point of being able to work on a project independently. Working with 21st century technology based projects can be compared to learning how to drive for the first time. You start out learning the small things and work your way up to finally driving on your own, alone, in your car. Students should always be given a good rubric with room for brilliance to follow while creating their project.
Teachers should allow students to have 21st century technology available at their students fingertips in order to help them create their project more thoroughly. Even when they don't know how to use a piece of technology, students will turn it on and start playing with it in order to figure it out. Students can use a journal or project log to help them keep track of their progress toward their goals while working over several days or weeks. Teachers should be demonstrating this technology and the project log to their students if they are comfortable using it.
Teachers should guide their students through the inquiry process of a project. They should be their to guide the students as they choose questions, plan investigations, and begin to put their plan into action. The questions students should be asking are those of which the experts in the field of the topic would want to know more about.
When students are exposed to new technology that allows them to create their own webpages and comment on their classmates webpages they will gain more knowledge of how to utilize the technology and take on new roles and responsibilities. The opportunity for teaching about information literacy comes from the possibilities for working on the Web today.
This information will help us with our food preservation project because it will allow us to think about the steps we are having our students follow when researching the information to complete the project.

CH 6 Reading Reflection

Technology tools can be very effective and influential in students' learning. It can also help them to evaluate their own strengths. For example, a blog offers students space where they can reflect over time about what they are learning. A ProfilerPRO (which we have used in our classroom) is an online survey tool that allows you to identify the learning characteristics of an individual and also among members of a group. Another tool is the SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang, which both allow you to set up surveys. All of these technology tools really help students to tap into their prior knowledge, and allows them to evaluate how they are doing and what they are good at.
There are many ways to get students minds ready for knowledge. First, you want to tap into prior knowledge. By introducing a KWL (Know/Want to know/Learned), you can assess what students already know and how to assist them best. As a teacher, we must be intentional in our instillation of passion in order to transfer the desire to try and succeed into our students so they may do the best of their ability. We want to be encouraging, allowing students to explore and think and discuss.By building excitement throughout the lesson or the week, students' interests emerge, and they become more invested in the project. A teacher must describe the activity, answer questions, encourage students to inquire, and advice them on design. Teachers can also use technology to get minds ready. For example, teachers can use Google Earth if you are discussing geography, or they may use social media sites (safely) at school to display a project collectively.
By teaching fundamentals first, teachers must think about teaching prerequisite knowledge or skills students need to be independent. Teachers must build up to the idea in order to grasp what it means. Teachers can set the stage for independent inquiry through tools such as the KWL process.They can also share the assessment rubric with students, parents, teachesr, whomever.
The next important step would be to prepare for technology. The teacher can first set up a technology playground. Teachers can track how students are doing, but it has a large learning curve. The next step would be to tap into student expertise. Because they grew up cutting their teeth on technology, they likely know more shortcuts tan any of the teachers. A third thing teachers can apply is to introduce project-management tools such as journals or logs to keep track of all they have accomplished. Finally, teachers must demonstrate how to use technology successfully and wisely in order to be effective.
Promoting inquiry and deep learning is very important in PBL. Our questions we ask our students should be geared specifically towards higher level thinking. First, we must have a complex and engaging project. By taking a basic question/objective and really expounding upon it to stretch out as many possible answers as possible is ideal. Teachers must guide students to get them to imagine what experts might ask. We need to ask questions such as "which one", "how", "what if", "should", and "why".
In our unit of healthy living/food preservation, we need to include this in our lesson plan very explicitly. When planning hands on PBL we must plan ahead, and be sure that when we are implementing the strategies, they are cohesive and effective. First, we will lay the groundwork in our lesson plans and prepare as much as possible. Then, we can focus on getting ours students' minds ready by utilizing tools and technologies to instill passion in our students. Food preservation may not be the most exciting idea to some, so it is our job to make it have meaning. We can also think about how to incorporate technology to have a captivating introduction to a project. By understanding that we must teach the fundamentals first, and thoroughly preparing for technology, we can help our students to get the most out of it. Finally, by promoting inquiry and deep learning, we can include this in thinking about what projects we are doing and how we are approaching and presenting them to our students.

Collaborative Concept Map

Chapter 5 Reading Reflection

Chapter 5 discusses project management and how to keep a project organized when a group of people are working together. A solid project begins with great resources. Teachers should consider who and what they will need to make the project successful. If a computer lab is not available or a limited amount of space and time spent in the lab is sparse then the teacher should look into alternative options such as internet cafes around town. Allowing students the opportunity to experience something that has to do with their project is extremely helpful, such as the students observing a surgery in real time and having the opportunity to ask questions. Anyone and everything that could help students complete their project to the best of their ability and give the experiences that they never had before should be made available to a reasonable extent.
Students and teachers need to be able to see what milestones they have accomplished with their project and what they still need to accomplish. The easiest way to do this is to keep a classroom calendar available at all times showing all of the due dates for the project. You can also use a calendar online that everyone involved in the project has access to at all times. Teachers should make sure they use the class website, blog, wiki, or email to communicate deadlines and milestones with parents.
Team planning can be difficult because teams should consist of people who complement each other. One person who is good at writing may be paired with anothe person who is good at using technology. Each of the partners should hold their own weight. Sometimes teachers pair high achieving students with lower achieving students and the result of that is one student doing the majority of the work. Teachers should allow students to choose their partner for one project but then switch the members of a group around for the next project.
Students need to have guidelines given to them so they know what they will be assessed on throughout the project. There are websites that help teachers create rubrics that are worthwhile for the students and the teacher. One of the websites is http://rubistar.4teachers.org.
Web-based applications are amazing tools for students to be able to stay in contact with each other while working on a project. They are a good way for teachers to give feedback right away as well. These are both good things because students will learn to continually be revising and editing their work based on the feedback from their peers and teachers!
Once students are familiarized with 21st century technology and all that can be done in order to build a project with a partner without meeting face to face they will be able to create their own personalized web page. These are virtual office spaces to help keep their lives and projects organized. Some of the providers of virtual offices are Netvibes, Protopage, Pageflakes, iGoogle, and My Yahoo!
The information in chapter 5 will help us work on our project in class and outside of class. This will help us be able to stay organized and meet deadlines while using online tools and colaborating with each other. While planning our project, we can create incorporate these tools and knowledge into our preservatives project while planning it for our future students.

Chapter 4 RR

Chapter four discussed strategies for discovery and how teachers can integrate technology into the classroom. This chapter discusses how teachers should plan for projects that students will be creating. There are many reasons why projects don't work out as planned and sometimes it stems from the very beginning and how the project was put together. There are four major pitfalls that this chapter discusses that have an effect on how good the project will or will not be for the students. 1. Long on Activity, short on learning outcomes. This pitfall is stating that these types of projects can be long and a lot of busy work but they only reach a small or lower order learning aim. These are the projects that are a waste of time for the students and the teacher. The students should be learning more from the project than what they could learn from one short lecture or from reference material. Teachers should take these limited idea projects and figure out a way to enhance them so they aren't a complete failure! 2. Technology layered over traditional practice. If the sole purpose of using technology is just to dress up what could otherwise be created without the technology while doing a research project then it is useless. Teachers need to make sure that they are integrating 21st century technology into the projects for students so that they are learning how to research online and become connected with print rich data and primary resources. 3. Trivial thematic units. When using thematic units in the classroom such as apples in the Fall, teachers tend to just add pictures of apples to every subject. In order to use a thematic unit correctly, the teacher should be having a farmer come in to explain how to harvest apples, where they come from, the process of how they get from the orchards to our tables, having the students interview the produce buyer in a household, polling students to find out which type of apple is their favorite and then creating a class graph out of the data to display their results. Those are all examples of how to have a successful and meaningful theme in a classroom. 4. Overly scripted with many, many steps. Giving students too many directions can hinder the quality of the overall project in a classroom. If all students are creating a "cookie cutter" project in the end or the results don't equal out to the amount of work that had to be done to get to the end then the teacher needs to reevaluate the project they are having their students work on.
The information in this chapter will help us with our project on preservatives because we will be able to create a project that will help the students learn about preservatives using 21st century technologies. The four major pitfalls are techniques that we can keep in mind and question ourselves to see if our project falls into those pitfalls or not.

reading reflection #5

There are many things that should be considered before starting a project. The first is to gather resources. Teachers should look at the materials that are available at the school and find ways to acquire the material not provided. It should also be determined if there will be anyone who will assist with the project. This could include someone who does a demonstration in front of the class, or an expert that the students will need to speak with to get questions answered. This also includes technology coordinators and media specialists. Another thing to consider are milestones and deadlines. Teachers should provide students with a project calendar with milestones along the way. This will help students manage their time more effectively and plan ahead. If the project will last more than a few weeks, it should be broken down into smaller assignments with several deadlines. The next thing to consider is team planning. It needs to be determined how student teams will be organized. Sometimes students will be grouped by their skills and interests, and other times students should complement each other attributes. Students with disabilities also need to be considered. How will all of the students be challenged? Teachers need to plan for assessment. This should be done throughout the entire project. One should be done before the project even starts to determine student’s prior knowledge and interests. Assessments during the project allow you to see what students are thinking and understanding. Assessment shows you if the project is successfully meeting the goals or if changes need to be made. Assessments differ depending on the complexity of the project and can use formal or informal. Technology can assist in assessments such as an online survey. Teachers and students both have management needs. Teachers need tools for communicating about the project to students and others involved. Milestones should be visible for students to see at all times. Teachers need a method for getting resources to the students and a way to manage the students work. Assessment tools and strategies should also be included. Students’ management needs to include a system and tools to manage their time, and a system to help them manage their materials and control work drafts. Collaboration tools, methods for seeking assistance, and a way to receive feedback should be included. They should also have a way to work iteratively and to see how parts add up to the whole. There are some technology applications that should be considered to use in projects. A wiki is a web page that can be easily edited. Users can create pages and they can write and edit pages together. A blog is another application that can be used that is also easily edited. Usually one person is in control of the content and viewers make comments. Drupal and textpattern combine a content management framework and blogging engine. These concepts relate to our topic because we will need to determine what resources we will need. We should create milestones and deadlines for the students to follow. There should also be multiple assessments throughout the project that we should determine.

Collaborative Concept Map

Hi Kelly and Emily! Just wanted to check in and see if Sunday is still good for you both to meet to do our podcast? Emily is it okay if we meet at your place still?

Maybe then we can also discuss the Collaborative Concept Map and put ours together to get that out of the way.
Let me know! Thanks

Reading Reflection 5

Before beginning a project with your students, the teacher must consider many things. First, you must consider how you will gather resources and who you can use as a resource. You should consider what materials you will need for your project, and if you can acquire them from your own inventory, from the school, or if you need to ask parents or community resources for supplies. You should also consider if you need any technology to do your project, and whether that technology would be frequent and equitable to all your students. Engaging with experts is an excellent tool because they have the knowledge and are usually willing to share. Whether that means experts in the area or long distance, there are many ways to access experts' knowledge. Videoconferences and virtual field trips are excellent ways to connect students to experts in the field without having to waste time physically moving or traveling. Teachers should also utilize the technology coordinators, media specialists, and other specialists in their districts- they are there to be a helpful resource to you!
Another thing to consider are deadlines. "Teaching students to become effective managers of their own time should be an overarching goal of any project". Time management should be emphasized early on because it will be used for the rest of their lives. Teachers should make all deadlines clear and set ahead of time, as well as placing them somewhere students have access to. That way students can be prepared because they have physically seen when the milestone is due. This makes students both aware and accountable. Teachers can chunk big tasks into smaller, more manageable pieces to help students not feel overwhelmed by larger projects. A great tip the text gave was to share the planning calender with parents. Then, if students aren't sure or have any questions, their parents are more informed and better connected to both the class and their student. One way to facilitate organizational project learning is through online environments. Either by creating a personal briefcase for each student, or having a class Website, blog or e-mail, students are able to reference what is going on in class and can continue to work on the project outside of class if needed.
Teachers also need to focus on team planning and assessments even before beginning the project. When determining how to create student teams, the teacher needs to be aware that student teams are mixed up regularly, so they have a mix of skills available. Students will also be doing different things at different times. By having student groups with variety, it creates a cohesive group that is working separately but collaboratively towards an end result. Creating a team contract is an excellent way to have all the students accountable for their section of the project. Planning for assessment is also important to consider before beginning the project. Assessments are in integral part of PBL. Formative assessments "create more opportunities to know what your students are thinking and understanding, so that you can better facilitate successful learning". The only way to determine if your students have learned the material through the PBL is by assessing them. Tests are not the only mode of assessments. It can also include monitoring, observing, interacting, analyzing, and reporting.
Teachers' management needs are different from students management needs. Teachers' project management needs include tools for communicating with students and others about the project; tools for making milestones and events visible and for notifying students if changes occur; methods for getting resources to students; systems for managing work products; structures that support a productive learning environment in which teams and individuals are engaged in a variety of learning tasks at the the same time; and assessment tools and strategies. Teachers' management needs focus on the front-loading section of the project- preparing and filling in all the "blanks" before the project even begins. By having everything planned out, teachers can take any adjustments or questions with ease.
Students' management needs for projects include systems and tools that help them manage their time and flow of work; systems that help students manage materials and control work drafts; collaboration tools; methods for seeking assistance; ways to get and use feedback on their work, through self reflection, team input, and teacher advice; and ways to work iteratively to see how parts add up to the whole. Students needs focus on working through the project independently while learning valuable life lessons.
In a project, many technology tools can be accessed and used. Some web based applications that are helpful are wikis, blogs, and web spaces. A wiki is an easily edited web page. Teachers and students can create pages of sharable content using a browser and basic language to format. Wikis can be used to develop information that flows from many to many (like students to students). A blog is also an easily edited web page, but it has more of a one-to-many delivery system. Students can create separate blogs to keep track of their progress, and teachers can create blogs to publish announcements, news, or milestones. A web space "desktop" application is a web space that combines content management framework and blogging engine. Web spaces can have many configurations and add-ons such as plugins to facilitate information distribution. Two examples are Drupal and Textpattern.
This chapter on project management can be connected to our PBL of food preservation through our application of preparing for everything ahead of time. We as the teachers need to consider all of our resources, our go-to-people, our assessments, our team planning, and our milestones/deadlines BEFORE we set the project in motion. Another thing to consider with our project is using the technology for facilitation during the project. We can learn to use our blog to communicate with each other collaboratively, as well as designing tools to communicate with students and parents about our projects. By using our podcast, we can let our parents know what is going on in our classroom and what the students are accomplishing.

Virtual Pen Pals

Chapter 3 RR

I agree with chapter three that knowing the core concepts and processes of a subject is the first step of project planning. If a teacher doesn't know much about the topic or subject then they won't be able to create the best project possible for their students to become engaged in. Teachers should think about what is most important for their students to learn about the subject and then decide if a text book is the best option for teaching them the information. Unfortunately, text books are extremely limited to the information that is contained within them. If teachers believe that there is more information that is necessary to be taught to the students beyond the what is written in the text book then they should choose a different approach rather than having the students read a text book. A different option would be having students create projects and learn through experience. This allows the students to become involved with technology while learning the information that is most important for them to learn in that subject. There are so many different ways for teachers to have students become aware of the new technology that is surrounding them in their every day lives on a constant basis. Instead of sheltering the students from using the technology that is at their fingertips, teachers should teach the students how to become familiar with the technology and the proper ways of using it. For example, a teacher in the chapter decided to use MySpace as a means for the students to learn about Romeo and Juliet. She had an educational purpose for the use of MySpace which is what she was able to communicate to someone if she were to be questioned about her teaching choices. The purpose was to educate students and parents about online security. This teacher decided that MySpace was the most obvious way of teaching this because most of her students already had MySpace accounts and they were able to explore a topic and the safe uses of MySpace.
When teachers think about creating a project they should be replacing the word project with passion and rethink about the idea they had in mind. If the teacher doesn't think that the students would be passionate about their research then they should rethink the project they have created. This means that the projects should be interesting and important. The students shouldn't be groaning, saying "why do we have to do this...this is dumb", like many students said about projects when I was in school.
This chapter informs the reader of 8 essential learning functions: Ubiquity; deep learning; making things visible and discussable; expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, building community; collaboration--teaching and learning with others; research; project management: planning and organization; reflection and iteration. These are important for teachers to keep in mind when teaching their students about a topic and having them work in groups on a project.

Chapter 4 reading reflections

When creating a project it is important for it to be purposeful and have meaning. Teachers need to make sure they do not fall into any of the common pitfalls. Pitfall number one is: “long on activity, short on learning outcomes.” A project should be meaningful and students should learn things from the project that they would not learn by reading a textbook. The outcome of the project should be aligned with the amount of time spent doing it. The project should be worth the student’s time, and the teachers. The next pitfall is “technology layered over traditional practice.” There is a different between using technology in the classroom, and a project with technology assisting in the learning. “Trivial thematic units” is the next pitfall. Thematic teaching is not always project-based learning. The work should be collaborative and interdisciplinary. The last pitfall this chapter mentions is “Over scripted with many, many steps.” If the project has too many steps it takes the critical decision making and thinking out of the project. There are many aspects of a good project. They are flexible and allow students to take control of their learning and to construct meaning to the project. They are collaborative and students learn from each other. Students get a hands-on experience that uses 21st century skills. It centers on a question and allows students to discover their own answers. Ideas for great projects come from a variety of places. It could be a project the teacher or teacher’s designs for their students. It could be a project plan that is developed by another teacher. Inspiration can be found in contemporary issues, student’s questions or their interests. It could be because of classroom irritants or because of new stories. There are four main steps of designing a project. Step one of designing a project is revisit the framework. A final list of the learning objectives should be made and the specific 21-century skill that should be addressed needs to be determined. Step two is to establish evidence of understanding. Think about what tools you will use to evaluate. Step three is to plan the “vehicle” (the theme/challenge.) What real- world connections can be made? Step four is to plan entrée into the project experiences. How will you get your students excited at the beginning of the project? This chapter addresses many things that will help us develop and effective project on preserving food. It will help us avoid falling into the common pitfalls. It also provides a basic outline for developing a project.

Chapter 4 Reading Reflection

Project design is a wonderful concept of creating projects. Whether through adaptation, creation, or selection, designing a project has many components, as this chapter Strategies for Discovery have brought out. There are many pitfalls to project design however. One pitfall is having a long activity, but few learning outcomes. A teacher should design their project to be equally stimulating and knowledgeable  As the chapter brings out, a project should be "right sized" for what it accomplishes.Our learning outcomes must be more than what they can learn from a text book- higher order thinking that challenges their minds. Another pitfall to watch out for is technology layered over traditional practice. We must focus on reaching significant learning outcomes through the use of technology applications. Integration is the key to PBL- our projects should effectively use technology, but not be dependent on them, or use them as stand-alones. A third pitfall may be trivial thematic units. As teachers, we may create a theme, as long as our students work is interdisciplinary, collaborative, and/or rigorous. Themes should unify projects and help to make important connections. One final pitfall is having a project that is overly scripted with many, many steps. Students must become their own teacher essentially in PBL, so we don't want to create a project that has only one set of outcomes or predictable results. We want our students to be able to explore, and divert if they find that is what they want and need to know. When we are flexible with our projects, our students are able to fully grasp the entirety of the project, and what the big picture is.
Although there may be pitfalls, good projects are attainable. As Canadian educator Sylvia Chard said, a flexible framework should guide project design. As mentioned earlier, flexibility allows students to create their own thinking, and apply real world skills and resources to create their projects. When we let students' interests and curiosity drive the learning experience, our students respond much more favorably and are readily accepting of the knowledge and skills we are trying to teach them. Our projects must also be unconventional and innovative. Author Diane McGrath points out we must "set up a situation in which they want to ask questions, learn more, need to know something they don't already, and believe it is important to them". Students become the driving force of the operation to get the most out of the experience as possible. Furthermore, good projects share qualities such as generativity, reaching beyond school to involve others, having 21st century skills and literacy  tap rich data or primary sources, realistic, center on a driving question/inquiry, and have students learn by doing.
Project ideas come from many different places. Ideas can come from a project that had already been used, but not to its full potential; a project plan developed for and by teachers, but adapted to students; news stories; contemporary issues; issues in the community; student questions or interests; classroom "irritant" put to educational use; or a mashup of great ideas and a new tool. Many times, as Canadian educator Robert Griffin says, one successful project will grow and develop to lead to another successful project.
When designing a project, there are a few crucial steps involved. The first is revisiting the framework. Deciding what benchmarks your children need to learn, and what skills you want them to develop is key to creating a project. Next, you must establish evidence of understanding. Determining how students will express what they have learned is crucial because we must be able to assess a tangible result. We must also plan the "vehicle" (theme or challenge). Our project themes/challenges must provide enough structure to learn, but enough flexibility to alter their learning if necessary. Finally, we must plan entree into the project experience. How can we make our students excited and eager to participate?
This chapter is crucial and correlates well with our project of food preservation. The steps to designing a project are ones that are applicable to all teachers, but especially to those that are trying to create a PBL project for the first time. I hope to use those same steps when creating my project for food preservation. Another point that can be used for our project is structured flexibility. When designing a lesson plan, this chapter reminds me to keep it structured in the way of delivery, but not so rigid or demanding of precise steps that the students lose focus of what we are trying to achieve, which may not be the actual project at all. It was also good to review potential pitfalls to designing a project. When creating our project for food preservation, I was able to hold the project I had created up to those pitfalls and measure whether my project falls into any of those categories.

Lesson Plans

Hi guys!

Can you remind me what each of you are narrowing down on? I am doing the history of food preservation. I want to make sure we are on the same page, and that our lesson plans are not overlapping! Also, our learning context should be roughly the same. I am going out of town tomorrow night, so if you could respond as soon as you see this I would really appreciate it!
 Thanks!

View PenPal Route in a larger map Students in our third grade class will communicate with students from Naples, Italy about the food preservation process. They will compare and contrast techniques and types of food with their penpals and they will share pictures of the process.

Chapter 3 reading reflections

            The main point of this chapter was how to build the framework of a project and how to establish important points. The teacher needs to determine why information is important for students to learn and its relevance to the real world. When a teacher instructs out of a textbook the decisions about what is important has been already made by the author. When a teacher creates a project they can tailor it to the individual need of their students. Textbooks should be used as a resource instead of the foundation of a class.

            The traditional classroom usually instructs with one discipline at a time, but with a project based learning overlapping occurs. Incorporating different disciplines may be challenging, but it is beneficial to the students. Teachers should be flexible and should be open to stepping into “new territory” that requires them to learn and try something new. This is a time where collaborating with colleagues is essential. It is good to meet with colleagues who teach a different subject and brainstorm a goal from each subject. Then find ways to incorporate each subject into the project.

            There are eight essential learning functions that this chapter covered. Number one is ubiquity, which is learning all of the time. Many students have cellphones with web-access, so information is always at their fingertips. The second essential learning function is deep learning. Students are able to make sense of data on the web and go outside of the “filtered material.” The third is making things visible and discussable. Making ideas visible helps start discussion. The next is expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, and building communities. Using social websites such as blogs allow students to share their ideas and interest. The fifth is collaborations. It is better to learn together and technology can assist through webinars or wiki’s.  The next is research which is usually students finding information from the web. The seventh is project management. This helps students manage their work and time and to stay on track and organized. The last learning function is reflection. For example a student who is creating a blog can look and reflect on their work from the beginning. I think that an effective project will incorporate all of these eight learning functions in some way.

Reading Reflection 3

Chapter 3 focused on establishing the conceptual framework of a project. When finding the "Big Idea" of a project, you must identify the overarching concepts and processes you want your students to understand, and then reflect on why the concepts are important. You want to make sure the big ideas are authentic, relevant, and engaging. A big idea won't make an impact in a students life, and allow them to learn what they need to know, unless they are invested. A good example of a teacher that uses a"big idea" effectively is Robert Griffin, who teaches in a fishing community. He uses authentic projects to reveal the "interdisciplinary nature of a project". It motivates children to do their best, because they know they will have to use it outside of school as well.
A 21st century skill is skills, attitudes, and habitats needed for higher order thinking and actions. It incorporates Digital-Age Literacy, Inventive Thinking, Effective Communication, and High Productivity, while engaging objectives such as analyzing, evaluating, creating, synthesizing, and evaluating. By using digital resources in authentic projects, students become motivated and thoroughly engaged.
21st century literacies are interlinked with 21st century skills. Students will become fluent in learning to be independent, aware, and productive citizens. By using 21st century skills, students discover digital literacies through authentic learning. Because students grow up "cutting their teeth" on technology, using technology in the classroom is just logical. Digital literacy includes creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, digital citizenship, and technology operations and concepts.
There are eight different essential learning functions. The first is deep learning. We must teach our students to make sense of "raw" information on the Web, such as primary sources and rich databases. The second is making things visible and discussable. We need to make things visible with digital tools by showing rather than telling, conceptualizing with "mind" maps, seeing things too big or too small or too fast or too slow for the naked eye, examining history through digital artifacts, expressing ideas through multimedia, graphical representations and modeling, animation, and digital art. The fourth is expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, and building community. We must teach our students positive and upbuilding ways of expressing themselves. The fifth is collaboration- teaching and learning with others. Projects are a natural segway for collaboration- whether it is in person or through the internet. The sixth is research- teaching students to do correct, organized, and quality research through the web. The seventh is project management: planning and organization. We want to help students manage time, work, sources, feedback from others, drafts and products during projects. The eighth and final essential learning function is reflection and iteration. The student must examine their work from all sides and other points of view to truly grasp it.
This concept relates to our project about food preservation because it helps us to form our lesson plan around our students. By understanding what they need in terms of essential learning functions, how we can help them to use 21st century skills and literacies, and how to develop the big ideas, we can formulate our projects to help our students get the most out of it.

Reading reflection 2

Chapter 2 was all about creating a professional learning community. Teamwork is definitely the theme of the chapter. The focus of learning communities are a collaborative, professional community.  A learning organization is any business work team, big or small that engages in ongoing, collaborative problem solving focused on making businesses (or schools) better. A learning community is the same as a learning organization. Anyone within a learning community is continually learning how to learn together.
There are many benefits to learning organization, or a learning community. First, it can add support to your work and ideas. It also allows the teachers and students to collaborate, and work together to problem solve, and learn how to learn together- both of which are applicable in the "real world". Through the learning community, you are able to watch and reflect on each other's work, and give each other critical feedback.
As a teacher, you ensure that students learn, create a culture of collaboration for school improvements, and focus on results.
For teachers, specific benefits can include decreased teacher isolation, increased commitment to the mission, shared responsibility, more powerful learning, and a higher likelihood of fundamental, systematic changes.
The components for shared vision in learning communities include having a clear sense of mission, sharing a vision of the conditions you must create to achieve the mission, working together in collaborative teams to determine the best practice to achieve the missions, becoming organized into groups headed by teacher-leaders, focusing on student learning, being goal and results oriented, collaborating with each other, holding shared values and beliefs, committing themselves to continuous improvement, and seeing themselves as life-long learners.
The concepts in this chapter are extremely relevant to our project. Before we even begin to delve into the material, we must collaborate as a group in order to be on the same page, in order to all create the same final product. We need to have a shared vision of how to approach the topic, and then how to distribute the work and problem solve as a team how to accomplish it.

Concept map

Concept Map

Reading Reflection Chapter 2

           It is important for teachers to work together as a team and share ideas with each other. There are some grants available that create opportunities for professional development. The HP Technology for Teaching Grant is awarded to teams of five teachers who design and implement a project together. The grant provides technology to the team for assist in their professional development.

            I found it interesting that there have been international educators who collaborate with other teachers who are half way across the world. An example given in the book is one teacher who was in Bangladesh and the other was in Georgia. After many hours of collaboration they launched their project. Their students read The World is Flat and then their students discussed and developed connections with other students who were “from the other side of the flat world.” The two teachers supported and encouraged each other and their project was very successful.

            It is important to develop professional learning communities in schools, which allow colleagues to work together in a different way. It makes time for teachers to talk about what they are teaching and how they are teaching it. As a teacher you are a part of many communities of practice including the faculty as a whole and with teachers of the same grade level. I feel that it is important for teachers of the same grade to get together and learn from each other as well as give critical feedback.

            Professional learning communities could be a formal school reform effort or an informal meeting of teachers. Support can also be found in online communities. This is a good option for teachers who are not in a school with project based learning but would like to create their own shared learning. When creating a “dream team” you need to find colleagues with similar goals and values, someone who is passionate about learning and their students and who is committed to the project. When the "dream team" is created a project can be developed with new opportunities for teachers and students.

Reading Reflection #2

Chapter two taught me how to create a professional learning community. There are several ways to create this community. Some teachers choose to meet with a group of colleagues to help them collaborate ideas for a project to use within their classroom. Other teachers go online and find blogs that pertain to the topic they are looking into and eventually find another teacher, sometimes across the world, that they can collaborate with to work on a new classroom project idea. Other teachers meet just one on one with each other either at school or over coffee once a week to bounce ideas off of each other. I think that all of these are great ways to start creating a professional learning community. The teachers who decide to work closely with someone else will become a better teacher because they run ideas by their co-teacher or partner prior to presenting a topic to their class. This allows teachers to see where they may need to change part of their lesson and learn more about a portion of a topic before explaining and assignment to a class and then having it not work as well as the teacher thought it would.
There was a good example of how teachers worked together in a group to help themselves learn about a piece of technology that they had never used before. The teachers were given tablets to use in their classrooms and they were supposed to integrate technology into their science lessons. The teachers were not certain how to go about this so they decided to team up and work through their ideas. There was a lot of time and research involved but their lessons ended up being extremely stronger and more meaningful in the end because they worked together! I thought this was great and it shows that no matter what new technology is introduced to teachers, they will always be able to figure out a way to incorporate it into their lessons. Teachers will always be able to stay up-to-date with technology and learn how to use it if they can work as a team to help each other get through tough times and frustration.
Working as a member of a team is way better than working on your own as a teacher. Every teacher should be willing to put forth the extra effort to be a part of a team because if they don't then they will end up with the most work in the end. Working alone is much harder than working with another person or a few people. Teachers need to make sure they don't forget this and consider their colleagues a part of their family that they can go to at any time to help them work through any issue that may arise. Teachers should always remember that they can collaborate ideas with teachers across the world thanks to the wonderful technology that has been given to us and take advantage of that!

Assignment II Part A

Chapter One Project Based Learning

Chapter one is all about project based learning and how it originated. It was started by teachers who could look back at what they learned in school and realized they didn't remember ever doing one project in their school career. They remembered tests but nothing that they could recall in their brains that they remembered specifically learning in school. They decided that they needed to teach students the subjects necessary but without being dependent on text books. They came up with learning through experience and doing projects that helped the students learn by solving their own problems and overcoming obstacles. This took all of the focus off the teachers and the children ended up with more responsibility in the classroom.
I think this extra responsibility is important for students to experience. This is preparing them for life after school. There won't always be someone to guide everyone through life. Project based learning is helping those students become prepared to problem solve through situations when they don't have someone there to help them every step of the way. I wish that my teachers would have used this type of teaching. PBL would have been more interesting than sitting through my boring classes struggling to stay awake and having to read from 4 inch thick Biology books in high school full of words I didn't understand. I am a hands on learner and PBL would have been perfect for me in order to understand a lot of things I had to memorize in school. I don't remember a lot of things I memorized because once the test was over, I didn't have to know the material anymore. I would say a lot of students do this with information that they learn in school, but if there was something unique that they could remember doing in school then they would be able to keep that information in their brains the rest of their lives.
I agree that PBL would be difficult to use in a classroom if the rest of the school was not on board as well. I feel that the students may get irritated at the teacher using PBL because it is so much work and not a lot of people like to work in groups. This would be a big obstacle to overcome and have the students cooperate with the teachers requests. I like the fact that there are schools that are completely run using PBL and all of the teachers are cooperating with one another. The fact that all the teachers share their ideas with each other is nice and they are all on a database that can be accessed at any time in order to use, reuse or change to their individual liking.
Overall I think PBL is something that is important for teachers to start using across the board in order to help students learn more meaningful information and continue to retain the information well after test day!

Chapter 1 reading reflection

I think project based learning is a great thing to incorporate in the classroom. It gives students a hands- on experience that goes outside of the limitations of the classroom. Instead of a teacher standing in front of their classroom leading the lesson, the students ask their own questions and discover answers with guidance from the teacher.  

           Project based learning also prepares students for the real world. Students develop their problem solving skills as they discover their own answers to their questions. They learn how to manage deadlines and how to work as a team.
            Students also get the opportunity to work with new technology. Technology is a huge part of our society and students should be introduced to different technology at an early age. As long as the technology doesn’t turn into a distraction, then it can give students a huge advantage. It should act as a tool, instead of the main focus of the project.  
           Since this is a fairly new concept teachers should be ready to step out of the “traditional” classroom lesson and into a lesson that fully engages students and motivates them to learn. There is a lot of work that is required to initially set up a project. It is an investment that gets better as the teacher and students get familiar with it. Teachers need to rethink how they will manage their classroom, how they will assess progress and what the goals and expectations are for the students. This is a new concept for students as well. They will need to learn how to work and communicate with a team and how to manage their time

Reading Reflection 1

Reading Reflection 1

                Throughout the PBL journey, every student/pre-intern/teacher needs to keep in mind that this is not what is considered “normal”, teacher-centered teaching. Instead, “learners pursue their own questions to create their own meaning”. By using technology, students are able to become immersed in what they find interesting while learning useful skills along the way. Teachers must also realize that this may mean additional work for them- even if it is student-centered- because the teachers will need to make sure they plan meaningful, and innovate projects based on the classroom. Because this is a relatively new approach, teachers will need to adjust their thinking, and realize that they have a learning curve to achieve truly productive PBL. They can do this by conducting research or seeking expert advice before diving in. However, doing so will teach the children true life skills, and help them to find the answer to any question they may ever have.

                Teachers have found that PBL is not only efficient, but also effective. By having teachers invest in students, students develop good communication skills, good inquiry skills, flexibility, a further understanding of how the world works, and a sense of justice and social activism. PBL opens the student up to seeing what else is out there, and different ways to go about either understanding it, or solving it.

                PBL has many useful benefits to students. First, PBL allows students to be creative, and create their own knowledge. Not only are they learning valuable life skills that they can apply their whole life, but they are also learning more ‘educational subjects’ like science, social studies, math, and language arts, because they are interested and invested.

                When it comes to the PBL approach, we must consider the amount of planning we need to do, as well as being flexible and ready to adapt to any situation. Teachers must also talk and engage with students the entire time to ensure full participation. Teachers must be mindful about their own personal classroom management style, the arrangement of the classroom, the assessments, and collecting assignments. Finally, teachers must consider that communication with the parents and colleagues is vital if PBL has any chance of being effective with support from home and other classes.

                New Technology High School is a perfect example of PBL. New Technology incorporates 21^st century technology every step of the way to keep up with the needs of the students. They also designed it to be small, so teachers can work more closely with students, and so that full-fledged projects in the real world are easier to coordinate and instruct. Teachers are encouraged to work together to maintain a “project based learning” environment, sometimes continuing a lesson plan to be more focused or more in depth. New Technology also provides online assessment tools to help with feedback instantaneously, and much more accurately than an end of the unit test might.