Reading Reflection #7

1. The levels of classroom discussion are teacher to teacher, student to student, and teacher to student. Teacher to teacher must be a constant conversation with a motive to improve the project and work to collaborate how the project can be most effective. Student to student discussion should be a way for students to work on their communication skills as well as to keep their team on track. Students benefit from this type of discussion because it allows for students to gain a deeper understanding and meaning to the project. Student to teacher discussion is less frequent in project based learning because there will be less time and need for teacher based lectures. Instead, teachers should be circulating the room more and developing their listening skills and imputing information when needed.
   
2. There are several types questions for “checking in” on students during a project. The first being procedural; making sure the deadlines and checkpoints are being met on time. Teamwork questions make sure that students are getting along and progressing appropriately on their projects. This can be done through a private online survey. Understanding based questions encourage students to push themselves to a higher understanding. Self-assessment questions can be addressed as a response in a project journal or blog so teachers can see where the students think they lie in the process of the project.
   
3. The benefits to students when optimizing the use of technology are that students gain new insights into how to communicate with a culturally diverse audience, it can help them stay organized, can expand their horizons by connecting to the broader community and experts in the community. Most importantly, the technology should assist them with their final learning goals.
   
4. The 21st-century skills that can make or break a project are troubleshooting and teamwork. Troubleshooting allows children to understand that real-world projects contain real world challenges. They need to be able to learn from their setbacks in order to get the project back on track, otherwise, that can break the project. Teamwork is another skill that is important in project based learning. Students must be able to learn how to manage their own conflicts, this is a real-life skill that they need. Being able to manage the team's conflict will allow for a successful project.
   
5. Concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project because as a group, we are working in teams, and any conflict that arises we must learn to deal with. We also have to be able to help each other when we have issues with technology or any set backs with a project. If we did not have these skills, then our assignments would be greatly flawed. We use technology to optimize our experience, as well as the "students" that we plan lessons for." The types of higher-order questions necessary to inspire deeper thinking for the students are great things to keep in mind for our teaching futures.
   

Reading Reflection #6

1. Technology tools encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths by teaching them to be independent. By asking students to assess the credibility of sites we are asking them to thinking more and doing this will help them to develop these assessment skills and work on creating their own thoughts. Tools such as blogs allow students to share their thoughts and become more reflective. As students get more experience with different kinds of projects they will be able to know which type of project they do better with. Another technological tool that helps students to be more self-reflective is the ProfilerPRO website. It is a survey tool that shows individual characteristics within each student.
2. Some ways you can get a students' mind ready for a project is through an organizer such as the K-W-L. This helps them to think about what they already know about the subject they will be working on. What questions they might have about this subject and then they will be able to work independently to find websites that will help answer their questions and teach them new ideas about the said subject. 
3.  The elements of teaching fundamentals first are that it will point the students in the right direction. By using a tool such as the K-W-L students will be able to start thinking about what they will be learning about and what they need to focus on. Students will first need to be able to work independently before starting the project. The teacher can help facilitate this by encouraging the students questions and asking them to dive further into those questions and then to set them up with reliable websites where they can find this information on their own. Another thing they need to know before they start working is what they will be assessed on. Making sure the students have a copy of the rubric that will be used to grade their work is part of the fundamentals.
4. Some ways that teachers can prepare students for using technology in their projects is to make technology readily available for them. Giving students time to explore all their technological resources is important if they are being expected to use technology. Encourage the students who understand certain websites or how to use certain resources to explain it to other students who are struggling. 
5. Some ways to promote inquiry and deep learning is to model to your students how you come up with your own questions about a subject and give them sufficient time in coming up with questions themselves. Once they  have some questions on the subject it is our job as teachers to help them expand on these questions. Often times when a student has one question it can be split up into many different paths or directions so we need to make sure we are making this evident to our students.
6. All of the concepts in this chapter will help with my project because I will need to make sure that I help my students to become technology ready and that they are confident enough to work independently to develop their own substantial questions. All of the things that I have talked about are things that I need to make sure I am working on with my students so that they are skilled with 21st century tools and ready to work on their projects.

Reading Reflection #6

1. Technology tools can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths by using a blog with the project where they can reflect over time. Using tools like ProfilerPRO allows you as a teacher to identify their strengths and weaknesses at the beginning of the project, and then reevaluate at the end to see their progress. Also, other survey tools like SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang allow them to evaluate their progress in relation to the group.
2. Several ways in which you can get students’ minds ready for a project are by having them complete a self evaluation that focuses on learning dispositions. It's important to allow your students to really think and discuss the project with others before they begin. They need to be able to see the possibilities and get excited about the journey. The teacher should introduce the project by building up the concept and using small activities and inquiry based discussions to peak their interest. Discrepant events, a thought-provoking event that challenges students in a topic that they have confidence in, and role-playing predictions, portraying something in their topic by using improvisational techniques, are two ways to excite the students minds.
3. The elements of teaching the fundamentals first are making sure that the students have the appropriate prerequisite knowledge required to independently work on the tasks given throughout the project.
4. The important steps in preparing students for using technology in the project are: to set the stage for independent inquiry. Make sure the students know their starting point and have some idea of where they are going to end up. Use the KWL process; generate everything they know, generate everything they wonder, and by using those, figure out what they want to learn! Then, share the assessment rubric, show them what you are expecting from them during this process. Prepare them to use the proper technology tools that they will need to succeed in this project. One of the ways to accomplish this is to set up a technology playground where the students can freely use the technology to discover it for themselves! Tapping student expertise allows the students to teach others, and in turn teach themselves a little more about it. Project management tools should be introduced to track each individuals progress throughout the project. It's also important to demonstrate, or find someone to demonstrate how to properly use the technology tools. 
5. Ways to promote inquiry and deep learning are giving them facts about the topic to try and decipher them themselves, give students a collection of seemingly unrelated topics that happen to be related, give them a list of transforming questions to expanding their knowledge on the topic, give them hypothetical questions to promote inquiry, and give them just a few websites with narrow information to begin research.
6. This chapter relates to our concept/project because we have used ProfilerPRO to mark our beginning knowledge on the topic. We've also used a blog throughout to reflect on our knowledge thus far. This chapter is also a great tool to knowing how to get our students excited and thinking about our project.

Reading Reflection #5

1. Before starting your project students and teachers will need to look at what materials must be used for the project. Will you use online resources, human resources with connections within the community? Will tools or supplies be needed for this project? It's important to look at all the different possibilities their are for your project so that you will know what is required in order to complete it. Another thing you will need to consider is how you will obtain all of these things. Say you are able to connect with someone from your community or a  neighboring community. How will you talk and connect with them? Will you meet up or exchange phone numbers? Should you both download Skype so that you can easily communicate?
2. It is essential that before or when the project is just getting started that you sit down with your students and write down on a class calendar when certain things should be done by. We are teaching our students how to manage their time and what exactly they should be working towards. By writing down milestones on a calendar of what should get done when we are teaching our students how to plan and organize your time. This gives the students something to work towards and something to be proud of once they have accomplished it.
3. Some of the technological applications that should be considered for each project are things that can be found online. Web-based resources are a great tool to use in the classroom because it is easily accessible and there a ton of websites out there that are kid friendly. Some useful websites for students to use during projects are blogs, Drupal, Textpattern, and Wiki. All of these websites hold the potential of finding great and helpful information. They are all similar to blogs which is a great way to reach our to people all around the world and connect with others to see what they are working on. By doing this the hope is that you will be able to share in similar stories and collaborate and work together to take each project to the next level.
4. All of this is useful for my own project because with each project that is done it is incredibly important to have a plan and a calendar set up so that everyone is on the same page of when things need to be finished by. It is also important to have a number of resources so before our project begins we need to think about this and make sure we have enough in order to accomplish what we are trying to do. Having websites that help foster this learning and using our resources is a great tool because it will be able to help students become more independent and find information on their own.

Reading Reflection # 5

1. Before starting a project with students, it is important to consider the materials needed. It's necessary to find what supplies, tools, are offered by the school, or if it's a possible option for parents or other supporters to donate. If the desired materials are not available at the school, send an e-mail to parents or community members. If there is unfamiliar technology involved, find what's important for the students to understand before starting the project. Find ways to introduce them to the new tools. Are there experts needed to complete the project? If so, who can you contact, and how can you contact them? Are they available in person or does a system like Skype need to be used? If you are working with other teachers on this project, figure out a good way to divide the work load. One of the most important things is to set up a deadline calendar to ensure that the student's stay on track throughout the project.
2. Teachers’ and students’ management needs are vast. Student's must be organized into groups with a mix of skills. There must be some opportunities for student's to work in groups, partners, and by themselves. To do so effectively, it is necessary for students to be evaluated not only on the content of the project, but how they are working with their groups. The assessments take various forms such as quizzes, to conversation, and written reflection. Teacher's must manage this by monitoring, observing, interacting, and analyzing the student's progress and communication. Teacher's must provide structures that support a productive learning environment as well as have methods to get resources to students. Student's must have tools that manage their time and flow of work, a way to manage their materials, collaboration tools, and ways to get feedback on their work.
3. A technology application that should be considered while doing the project is the use of a Wiki. It's a shareable tool that allows for collaboration while linking several various tools. Another good tool is to use blogs. 
4. The concepts in this chapter relate to my project because it provides ways of getting started with a project. Project Based Learning can seem so time consuming and daunting, but this was a good checklist of things to think about. Also, the use of management and how teachers and students can work effectively on projects. In our project, it's very important for our students to collaborate with experts in the field. It's important for teachers to be outlining and providing this for students. The technology applications also directly apply to our project because we are using a blog to develop and collaborate in our group!

Chapter 5 Reading Reflection

These are some things that should be considered before starting a project with students.  Plan wisely.  Front load before you engage students, and consider your resources that will be effective in implementing your project.  Keep in mind your budget, and keep track of milestones and deadlines.  You can do this by modeling.  This is a 21st century skill, time management.  You can use a project calendar, and break tasks down and make goals doable.  Organizing is also important and team planning.  You need to make sure all students are challenged and you are meeting all learners needs. 

As they work in teams, you assess their ability to work and gather information but how are they working together.  Is everyone contributing.  Team management is very important. 

As you plan for assessment informal and formal, you can also use technology to help you.  online surveys are useful and as you begin to project plan, you need to think about the design of rubrics etc.  to help you.  In our project we will probably use Rubric Wizard in Taskstream.

For our project there are opportunities to assess progress along the way.  The team approach will be very important as we divide up responsibilities and find and develop our strengths and interests.

Technology can also help teachers communicate with students and others, and students can use technology to help them mange time and work flow, they can collaborate with others, for example our sister school in Chile. 

Learning management systems such as Desire2Learn are useful tech. tool.  Wikis are easily edited web pages, and blogs can  be useful as well.  And personalized web pages can be helpful as well.

Chapter 4 Reading Reflection

There are several things to consider when planning your project.   This chapter is about choosing and designing a project.  Basically where and how to come up with ideas.  You can come up with your own project or use one someone else has used.  As you explore/brainstorm you should look at other projects online to see what other teachers are doing.   They can come from the news, contemporary issues, student questions, and interests, collaboration with other teachers, etc. 

The most important thing is to examine the quality of the student's experience.  Things to watch out for include:
1.  Fit, good outcomes and good amount of activities.
2.  technology should be used to connect people to people and people to information.
3.  boring repetitive seasonally themed units.
4.  be aware of inquiry versus scripted projects.  Let them think a bit on their own.
self discovery!


Great projects have some flexibility, and they let student's interests and curiosity steer the learning experience.  I think this goes along with really knowing and listening to your students.  I liked the idea of setting up situations in which students ask questions, want and need to know and believe it's important to them and the community to discover the answers.   We need to look at projects as investigations.

The best ones are loosely designed, realistic, cross multiple disciplines, reach beyond school to involve others, use primary sources, design includes students learning with and from each others, and include 21st centurey skills and liertacies including communication, project management and tecnology.  And students learn by doing. 

Designing the project should include making a list of learning objectives and deciding what 21st centruy skills you may include, identify what you want to foster in students (i.e. reflection or persistance) (Boss, Krauss), evidence of understanding, the project's theme, and planning for the experience.  You can also use a project sketch to get ideas flowing.  Asset maps are also good and help you with organization and "turn to" people.  It's good in any project to know your strengths and weaknesses. And who on your team is good at what.  Tracking assets online is also a good strategy.

Reading Reflection Chapter 4

1. The potential pitfalls in project design:

• The first pitfall of project design discussed is the potential to create a project that is "long on activity, but short on learning outcomes." It's important that most of the activity be focused on the results of the activity, not just the activity itself. 

• The second intentional pitfall is technology layered over traditional practice. Technology should be integrated when natural and useful, not put into an activity because it "should be."

• The third pitfall is trivial thematic units. This states that a theme is a good thing to have, but to be effective it needs to be taken to another level. It can't just be frivolous things that don't require higher thinking, their must be other real world concepts along with it.

• The fourth pitfall is have a project that is overly scripted with many. many steps. The results of the student's projects should not be the same cookie cutter outcomes. If that is the case, then students are probably not getting enough freedom, and they aren't being allowed to make many decisions.

2. The features of a good project:

• loosely designed with the possibility of different learing paths. 
• generative, causing students to construct meaning. 
• center on a driving question or are otherwise structured for inquiry. 
• capture student interest through complex and compelling real-life or simulated experiences.
• realistic, and therefore cross multiple disciplines. 
• reach beyond school to involve others.
• tap rich data or primary sources. 
• structured so students learn with and from each other. 
• have students working as inquiring experts might.
• get at 21st-centure skills and literacies, including communication, project management, and technology use.
• get at important learning dispositions, including persistence, risk-taking, confidence, resilience, self-reflection, and cooperation.

Where project ideas come from:
Project ideas come from everywhere. Teachers can implement tried and true planned projects, project plans developed by other teachers, news stories, contemporary issues, students questions or interests, a classroom irritant put to educational use, a mash up of a great idea and a new tool. After completing one project, it's much easier to do another based on the results of the first; what worked and what didn't work.

The steps to design a project:
At the beginning, it's very important to keep in mind the school calendar, curriculum sequence, student readiness, and student interests. Then you must revisit the framework: make a list of the learning objectives, decide on the specific 21st century skills that you want to address, identify the learning dispositions that you want to foster, establish evidence of understanding, plan the project "vehicle" (theme or challenge), and plan the entree into the project experience (what will get them excited). All of these combined creatte a rough outline for designing the project.

Concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project:
In this chapter, it's important to understand all of the things that contribute to creating a great project. As a group, we must keep in mind the potential pitfalls of a project to make our project more effective. Along with that, the features of a good project are what we need to focus on so that our student's can get the best experience and gain the most knowledge with our design. The steps to designing the project will give us a great start on how to create a productive project!

Reading Reflection Chapter 4

1. The potential pitfalls in project design include the amount of time given for the project, the technology used, the theme of the unit, and having too many steps. Projects assigned for your classroom need to be given the proper amount of time for work to get done. If a student is rushed or given too much time they will potential become off task or not understand the topic they are researching. Another possible pitfall is the improper use of technology. The appropriate tools and applications of technology need to be found by the teacher and implemented in the right way instead of using a certain technological application just to simply have technology involved in the project. Making sure each unit has a theme is important because it will help students to make critical connections. Lastly having a project that is too wordy or involves too many steps can cause teachers to lose a lot of kids throughout the explanation and development of the project. Experienced teachers lose their students daily with this potential pitfall.
2. Features of a good project include having a number of potential paths the student can take with the project, helping the students to generate meaning from the project, pushing the students to think critically and develop their own questions, getting students engaged in real life situations, show the students that they can learn from each other, allow the whole school to be involved, make sure the project involves a number of different subjects and lastly to use 21st-century skills and literacies.
3. Project ides can be found anywhere. The following is a list of a number of places ideas can be taken from: a book, other teacher's lesson plans, news stories, world issues, things that interest students, and problems that arise within the classroom.
4. The best way to take steps towards designing a project would be to make sure it has a "flexible framework", to have a thematic unit where each project and lesson can be related by to this theme and to digress away from traditional thinking.
5. All of these concepts relate to my own project because I obviously am still in the beginning stages of designing my project. I need to create ideas of what I could do for my project. I also need to make sure I consider the potential pitfalls for my project so that I don't fall privy to them and lastly I have to make sure my project contains all the features of a good project.

Reading Reflection
Chapter 3

1. Things that should be considered in finding the "Big Idea" for a project are what do you want your students to walk away with from this project. Collaborating with other teachers will help you to do this. Another way to help students remember the main idea of each project is to create projects that pertain to the real world. This way students will become more engaged because their interest will be peaked. One way I have seen this in a number of my classrooms is through the objectives for the lesson. By posting objectives and sharing them with the students they will know what is coming and what to watch for, they are being held accountable for their own learning. Then at the end of the day reviewing these objectives to see if they were met and to help the student sum up what they have learned.
2. To help students develop skills that will benefit them in the 21st century as teachers we need to make sure we are challenging them. Jane Krauss suggests that teachers use the higher-order categories of Blooms Taxonomy. This includes phrases such as analyze, evaluate, and create. By having our students work on these concepts within a project we are pushing their thinking and forcing them to look outside the box. This will help them immensely in the real world.
3. Twenty-first century literacies are asking students to collaborate and create new things everyday. This teaches the student to be involved, independent, aware, and productive. By creating this type of environment within the classroom it will become second nature for students to behave this way in the real world. By explaining to students the importance of being literate in the 21st century you are showing them how essential technological tools are and they will see that importance and learn how to use this new tool.
4.  
1. Having students see the opportunity to learn from technology inside and outside of the classroom is incredibly important. Technology is everywhere now and if we teach our students to take the initiative in learning how to use it all we are setting them up for great success in the world they are growing up in.
2. Since anybody can post anything on the internet now it is important to teach our students how to evaluate the technology they are using. Students need to be comfortable with looking at websites and evaluating their credibility. As teachers it is our job to scaffold them and model for them the right way to approach new websites.
3. The world we live in now allows information to be constantly at the tip of our fingers so it is vital that we teach our students how to organize and represent their data in a visual way. By highlighting what is the main idea or what is most important while using technology we can from that point show our students how to take the best notes and represent them in a visual way so when they go back to look at them again they are able to quickly recall what they learned.
4. With all the social media that is surround our students we need to be able to show them how to positively and effectively communicate our discoveries. Showing students things such as blogs and postings that certain interest groups share is a good way to go about doing this.
5. Collaboration with colleagues is always important. Making sure that lines of communication are open between teachers is essential and allows for discussion on how to better each teachers classroom and develop more projects while involving as much technology as possible.
6. If teachers are going to implement technological projects into their classroom they need to make sure they show their students how to find credible resources online. Students need to learn how to do research on the web and use what is available to them.
7. Planning and organizing for a project is always a must and by providing our students with website and programs that can assist in this process we will be exposing our students to the many benefits to technology and all that it has to offer.
8. After the project is all over reflection is a must if our students are going to learn from what they have done. As teachers we need to make sure we give them the technological tools they need so they can reflect on their work and better it for next time. Blogs are a great tool for this and they are extremely accessible so there is no reason teachers should not be using blogs in their classroom.

5. Ideas that were brought up in this chapter will help benefit my project because I am creating a possible lesson for my classroom. So with all the concepts that were provided in this chapter I will be able to use them to help develop my project so that my future classroom can benefit. For example, I can now think back to all the learning function and reference them so that my project can best reflect what I have just learned.

Assignment IV Penpals

This is a part of the Penpals project for our Garden to Farmer's Market Project.

Websites for Evaluation

http://www.gardenweb.com/
 http://www.kidsgardening.org/
 http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/HealthierKids/TeachingGardens/Teaching-Gardens_UCM_436602_SubHomePage.jsp

Reading Reflection #3

1. For finding the "Big Idea" of a project, a few things must be considered. A teacher must review the curriculum standards for the subjects, but also be able to consider the real world benefits of it. The project should be able to benefit the community in some way, because by doing that, the students have more of a purpose and are highly motivated to get involved. Brainstorming between teachers and teachers, and teachers and experts is very important. Collaborating on the different subjects and discipline possibilities for the project makes it come together.
2. The 21st century skills seem incredibly relevant to a student's future success. This allows them to report on a topic in many different ways using many forms of thinking and creativity. I like the Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Those verbs are a great guide on the ways you would like your students to think and report on their findings.
3. The 21st century literacies are the necessary thinking and learning skills that students need to be successful in the 21st century. It allows students to learn how to be independent, aware, and productive citizens; which are three skills needed to be successful. It teaches students to recognize when information is needed, what information is good, and how they can interpret and use that information.
   
4. The firsts essential learning function is ubiquity which allows students to understand how to learn any time or anywhere using devices that they already obtain. It's definitely an important life skill to have. The second is deep learning. Instead of reading and re-reporting on information that they have found, students must be bale to use other tools to organize and analyze the information they're given, which allows them to more deeply understand it. The third function is making things visible and discussable. Many times, showing a picture or visually seeing a concept as an image can help students to understand the concept. Using these tools will further develop their learning abilities. The fourth function is expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, building community. This concept is exactly how it's titled. It's using the available social media on the web to connect with others and develop learning. The fifth concept is collaboration. This involves using technology to find other experts or learners to collaborate with on certain topics. The sixth function is research. This involves using tools to filter and limit the information given on certain topics. Not all the information on a topic is necessary, so this allows students to be able to decipher the necessary information. The seventh function is project management. Using systems like this help students organize their information all in one place that they can easily access and further be successful in their learning. The eighth and final function is reflection and iteration. Using a blog can allow students to share their ideas with others effectively as well as be able to reflection their past thinking. It helps students to see information from all different sides instead of a one-sided view.
5. The concepts in this chapter allow me to see ways to help my students use technology and information in an organized way. It gives me a place to start when creating my project by giving ways to come up with the Big Idea. Overall, it's a good resource for seeing what the students should be gaining from this type of learning.