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!