Final Concept Map

1. Description of what occurs as a result of using the Project-based learning approach.
2. Discussion on ways to “bring your project home”.
3. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project

What occurs as a result of project based learning is opening of new doors for you as a teacher and for the students. There is a new authentic learning experience that your students will never forget which is a goal in education, to create life long learning. 

Ways to bring your project home is to reflect on what went well in the project and what needs improvement. Also what can you use for the future students. Finally it is important to make your lessons accessible to the community by broadcasting it in some way. For our project we will be making our lesson plans accessible for others by the creation of our website. 

reflection 11

     After learning about Project Based Learning, both teachers and students will be learning in a new way.  Project-based learning is about the students and how can you as a teacher improve their learning experience plus your teaching experience.  Also be aware that it will be a big change in the way you teach and you will be in a way learning alone with your students.  The more you practice this teaching style the easier you will be able to incorporate Project-based learning into everyday teaching and it will be worth it. 

     Through project based learning students have the opportunity to control they're own learning rather than just reading out of a textbook everyday.  Students would also be more prepared for the work force especially since many of the jobs that are in high demand have something to do with technology.  When students engage in real world projects their experiences totally change.  Projects become the center point of the curriculum rather than just something extra or something to do when the teacher has run our of things to teach.  With Project Based Learning allows students to learn how to do things by doing not just reading.  

     Good projects don't lead to a dead end.  Instead they open new doors and create connections that you can build into future designs.  You can bring your project home by capitalizing on your investment.  You also want to critique your work, and share your insights, become a resource for your colleagues, enter a contest, and enjoy the journey.  

     This chapter relates to our topic because now that we are almost done with our class we have to continue with project based learning.  We have to "Bring our project home."

Chapter 11: Bringing it Home

Ricki Feuereisen

         After taking the project-based learning approach, you learn many different things as a teacher and a student. This approach teaches you that you can learn wherever you are and whenever you want to. You may not even realize that you are learning something new. With project-based learning, you learn about web-based productivity tools and multiple communication options, from handheld devices to web-based applications. Within these two, students can use storage devices that help students store and share their files. With the web-based software is where students are allowed to create, collaborate, store and access digital work products from any Internet ready computer. Next there is deep learning, you have primary sources and rich databases along with higher-order thinking. Students are interested and engaged in learning and completing the project. With project-based learning, students are using scenarios that are relatable in engaging.

         When thinking about how to bring the project together, you want to take time to reflect on what you have done. Think about what next steps you may want to take, or where you want to go next with your research. As a teacher, you can blog about your experience, if the project worked well or you want some ideas to improve. Teachers should also give students the chance to reflect. Reflect on their experience, what they learned. When students have the chance to reflect, ask them to reflect what could have gone better, what they liked about the project, or what next steps they might want to take with the project. Teachers should talk with their colleagues and discuss the project and see if they can give any ideas, also if the project went really well you want to share it with your colleagues so that they can incorporate it in their classroom possibly. At the end of the project, your students and teachers should feel like you guys took an adventure. Look back at the memories and artifacts, and ideas for shaping their next adventure.

            This chapter relates to my topic/project because at the end of the project, we want to have students to reflect on what they have done, but also give feedback on how they think the project went and what went well and what could be improved. You want students to walk away from the project having learned something.We want to think about what we have done throughout the project and the steps we have taken to get there.

reflection 10

       It is important to set aside time for reflection because it helps students reveal things they might not otherwise think about, such as what they learned and what they enjoyed about learning, their growth as learners, and what (and how) they want to learn in projects ahead.  You also need to help students think about how joyous and gratifying the learning journey can be.  

       Students need to reflect and elaborate.  they need to focus on the few things that matter the most-- those that anchor the learning and get kids thinking about themselves as evolving learners.  They need to ask what does this get you wondering about next? also what do you want to learn now, and how do you want to go about it?

       When you build tradition and identity you need to think about how your class and school can establish a tradition of exemplary project work.  Part of the recipe is building awareness in others.  As community members begin to notice and value students' accomplishments, they will give you enthusiastic support.  Ask your community to participate in a celebration of learning.  Once you have established a tradition of excellence, students will feel it's a privilege to honor the tradition with their hard work.  

       It is important to celebrate a project.  Show student work, put it on an event , create a blog, or hold a party.  Any way you do it, celebrate learning, and build your school's identity as a place where kids get to learn through projects.  

       This relates to our project because we are creating a festival where we are showing off what we have learned.  We are also creating a website what displays all of the projects we have completed.  

Chapter 10: Celebrating and Reflecting

                                                                                                       Ricki Feuereisen 

When completing a project or even a homework assignment, it is important to set aside time for a reflection. The reason this is an important factor is because, it helps the student feel good about their accomplishments. More importantly, reflections can be the thing that makes the learning really stick. It also helps them think about what they learned throughout the project and/or assignment. Not only do students need to reflect on what they learned but they can also reflect on how they completed the assignment and how well they thought they did. Reflections helps students reveal things they may not think about, the book gives examples of what the student learned, how they grew as a learner and what students want to learn ahead from other projects.

Students need to elaborate on their reflections because it opens the student’s eyes. Student’s elaborating on their reflection, allows them to think about where they want to go and what they want to learn next.

            Schools build traditions and identity by building awareness in others. Teachers should hold class traditions, meaning, to teach something year after year that students are excited for and talk about with their friends and family. Teachers and schools should hold a class celebration at end of the year, unit, and semester, where anyone can come. Students will work hard to keep up a tradition and they feel it’s a privilege to be apart of the experience.

            The importance of celebrating a project is because you’re celebrating students learning and the hard work they put into completing the project. You want to celebrate student growth and display student work so that friends, family, and community members can see. You are also celebrating the class and the work they complete in the classroom. You are celebrating the end product.

            This chapter relates to my topic/project, because at the end of the unit, we are putting together a festival of all the research that we have done. We will be creating advertisements and getting sponsors and inviting people from the community to come check it out and see all the work that was done.

1. Description of a method of understanding prior-knowledge of students.
2. Discussion on the importance of establishing anchors for a project.
3. Description of several ways to assess what students learned during the project.
4. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

According to the book one way you can access students prior knowledge is by the use of a KWL chart. This directly tells the teacher what students know about the topic, what they want to know and what they have learned. Anchors are important for understanding what students know and how they will progress through the unit. 

Several ways to assess students is by creating a final form of assessment that requires them to synthesize the information. You can have them work on a writing project or create something like a portfolio that they would potentially have to do in the future. This chapter relates to our project because we will have to create a form of assessment for our web page. 

reflection 9

     A method that is discussed when talking about understanding prior-knowledge of students is the K-W-L chart.  K is for what you know, W is for what you want to know,  and L is for what you learned.  This is critical to the teaching process so you know from where you need to start your teaching on a project so as no one is left behind.  It is important to establish anchors for a project.  By doing this you gain a sense of where students are starting and going as long as they work to meet their goals.  In a project based learning classroom, you can expand the opportunities to differentiate instruction and help all learners be successful.  In considering assessment, think about the quality of the learning experience and how will you measure the distance between each student travels as a learner. 

     A way to assess what students have learned is to use rubrics.  You can even get students involved in developing these tools and help them understand the criteria by which their work will be graded.  There was also one teacher who had their students create books to show what they have learned in class.  Another teacher video taped his student in interviews of the projects they finished. 

     This chapter relates to our project because we use rubrics to grade our assignments.  We are graded on how well we understood the material.

Reflection 9

Chapter 9- Making Assessment Meaningful

                                                                                                               Ricki Feuereisen 

This chapter was short but had some very useful information to talk about. When starting a new unit/topic as a teacher you want to know what your student’s prior knowledge is, so you know where you need start. There are many ways to assess what student’s prior knowledge is, but in this chapter it talks about using a K-W-L chart. Before starting a new unit/topic, you pass out the K-W-L chart; you have your class fill out the K (What you know) and W (What you want to know) sections.  It’s very important to know what your students know about a topic before you start teaching.

            Next, the chapter talks about establishing anchors. The importance of establishing anchors for a project is so “you gain a sense of where students are starting off and how far they are going as they work to meet learning goals”. (Pg. 140) What this means is you want to see the growth of your students, are they learning anything new? Do I need to do a review? Do some students need extra help? Etc.

            There are many ways to assess what students learned during a project. One way is having your class fill out the L (What you learned) section of the K-W-L chart. This allows students to write about what they learned or do quick bullet points. Another way is formative assessments, which could be giving students a test. Teachers can walk around and listen to their students’ conversations to collect data on if students have learned the key concepts that you wanted them to grasp on to. Another way of assessment is having student’s create a portfolio of their work so far. This is a fun one, because students have the chance to be apart of it and choose the work that they are proud of that they want to put in their portfolio. It also talks about how a teacher interviewed his class and asked questions to each student, while videotaping them. The teacher said, how surprised he was with some of the answers that students were giving because it showed him how much they learned but students also talked about their learning styles. Lastly, a teacher had her class, who were in elementary school, create their own books based on works that they learned and have been blogging about. This chapter talks about a few more assessments but I thought that these ones were interesting and different.

            These concepts relate to our project because with each assignment that we are completing, we are being assessed on. There is a rubric that is completed, that helps the teacher grade our work. With every class period, we have an assignment to complete, and when we complete the assignment it shows if we really understood it. Also with these reflections, we are getting feedback from our classmates, which will help improve our work. 

Reflection 8

1. Discussion on some reasons to let students “lead” their projects.
2. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

     Some ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom would be to connect students with experts.  Being able to talk to people besides a teacher that have experience in the subject that you are studying helps students get a better understanding, and can also be cool.  Even though it can take more effort to connect with an expert, it can be very rewarding and you can learn more things from the expert than you can from a textbook.  You can also use technology to branch out beyond the classroom by using blogs, this way you can get feed back from other people.  

     For more that a dozen years students in the Environmental and Spatial Technologies (EAST) Initiative network of schools have been demonstrating the benefits of using technology for a real purpose, to solve problems and make improvements in their communities.  Projects make use of geospatial technologies and and multimedia tools that are more commonly found in professional laboratories or design studios.  EAST students master these sophisticated tools and applications in context while solving community problems that interest them.
     Teachers will find that as students become more comfortable with the approach, they are actually able to lead when it comes to projects.  Students should be able to pick their own research projects, this will make the students more engaged and more interested in the project.  This makes the students in control of their own learning.  This relates to our topic because we were supposed to find things outside the classroom to help us create a mini lesson for our students, in this case it was an interactive game.  

1. Description of some ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom.
2. Description of the EAST Initiative Model.
3. Discussion on some reasons to let students “lead” their projects.
4. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project

Some ways to build connections outside of the classroom could possibly just knowing certain people in the community that students could talk to. I remember reading in my literacy studies class about a teacher who knew a guy that served in the Vietnam war. One of her students was working on a project of the Vietnam War and she arranged a meeting between the student and the Vietnam vet. When I read about making connections outside the classroom this immediately popped into my head. Another way to make connections could be by reaching out to other classroom teachers around the world though a blog or Wiki.
The EAST initiative model has four different steps that a teacher can use to replicate in order to create engaging lessons. the fist step is to let the students drive the leaning, which basically means let them help decide on what they're going to learn about through the school year. Second is to engage students by having them solve rel life problems. For example, the book gave a description of a classroom that worked on the contamination in a near by river. Third step is to use technology as a tool for learning which this book has been pushing towards. Finally incorporate collaboration because not only is it authentic, but also it's a well known fact that working collaboratively turns good ideas into really great ideas.
The reason that students need to 'lead' the classroom is because it'll be more engaging for them if they help decide what to learn about. It'll also help differentiate the instruction because they will be able to work at their pace and understanding. Also my own thought about it is that if you allow students to lead the project ideas you could potentially have an easier time teaching the content standards with the use of their project, maybe not all content areas but at least a couple. 

Reflection 8: Building Connections and Branching Out

                                                                                                     Ricki Feuereisen 

            I found this chapter to be very interesting. This chapter first talks about ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom. With the ability of digital tools available to us all it makes this concept easier to accomplish. Some ways that this goal is made possible, creating a blog and also a digital story. Blogs allow for students to write what they are thinking and also to express how a project is going or also what we are doing in this class, which is writing a reflection, based on questions that are from the reading. Blogs are easy for individuals all around the world to access and read and also provide responses. Digital stories can be used to tell a story, it can be of anything, a project you’re doing, your life, etc.

            The EAST Initiative Model was very interesting to read about. The EAST initiative model stands for Environmental and Spatial Technologies. This started in 1996 in a rural area in Arkansas and has now grown to include more than 260 schools in seven states. This model demonstrates the benefits of using technology for a real reason.  For example, the book mentions it helps to solve problems and make improvements in communities. Some applications that’s are used in this model is, GIS, GPS, and CAD. In 2001, EAST became a nonprofit organization and today it works with public and private partners. There are four essential ideas when using this model. The first one is student-driven learning, the second one is authentic project-based learning, the third one is technology as tools and lastly there is collaboration. Student-driven learning is just like it sounds, students choose what they learn. Authentic project-based learning is getting students engaged in solving problems in their communities. Technology as tools; students need access to technology to do research. Collaboration, students need to communicate with one another and ask each other questions and help each other out. When teachers use the EAST model, they need to go through training and they take on a new title as a facilitator.

            The last section this chapter talks about is letting students lead. It talks about Instead of having the teacher assign a topic for the whole class to research on, students are allowed to pick their own area of research. This way it makes student more engaged and more excited about completing a project. With allowing students to choose their own topic, it allows them to provide a goal for themselves about what they want to learn about, students are in charge on how they want to do their project.

            I think there are two concepts that relate to our project and that is this project is student lead and also we have the ability to build connections outside and beyond the classroom. When we first started this project, we were given options about what we could choose for our topic, but once we got into our groups, we each were able to decide what we wanted to research within that topic. We also have the ability to build connections outside and beyond the classroom, because our blogs are public and people can read about our reflections. Also when we create our digital story that will be public for people to check out. Although the digital story will not be about ourselves, it will be about our project, and if anyone wanted to view them, they will learn something new about popular places in downtown Kalamazoo. 

1. Description of the levels of classroom discussions.
2. Discussion on the questions for “checking in” on students during a project.
3. Discussion on the benefits to students when optimizing the use of technology.
4. Discussion on the 21st-century skills that can make or break a project.
5. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project

There are three different levels of classroom discussions which are: teacher to teacher, student to students and teacher to student. Teacher to teacher is basically working collaboratively to form lessons and assessments. To discuss what students are having problems with and what needs more attention. Student to student is students talking to one another about their learning experiences, they can ask each other questions and build on each others ideas. Teacher to student is a lot like what we call whole group discussion. The teacher makes announcements and check in with students. 

Checking in questions is in a way a form of formative assessment. A teacher is asking questions, using some form of communication like a blog for students to reflect on their progress, or the teacher is simply observing the students working together. 

The benefits of students using technology is that they're able to use something that they like and find stimulating as a tool for learning. However, it is important to ensure that it increases the richness of the learning environment and does not cause distractions. 

This chapter relates to our project because we are using a lot of technology tools to create a project ourselves just as the students would in the classrooms mentioned. 

reflection 7

      When it comes to levels of classroom discussion there are three groups; teacher to teacher, student to students, and teacher to student.  In teacher to teacher, conversations will likely touch on everything from the procedural to formative assessment.  If there is not time for face-to-face collaboration, or if a your project colleagues are at a distance location, teachers need to be sure they are making use of a project blog, wiki, or other collaborative tools to keep your teacher to teacher conversation going.  In student to student, students should be talking about their learning experiences as they unfold, within their teams as well as across teams.  In teacher to student, the lecture format dominates teacher to student interactions.
     There are four groups that questions fall under when teacher check in on students during a project. The first is procedural which is to track progress toward milestones and deadlines, remind students of the project calender and monitor students' project log and checklists. The second group is teamwork.  This is where teachers circulate and ask general questions to help you assess team dynamics.  The third group is understanding.  Spend time observing teams work, listening to student conversations, and asking probing questions.  The last group is self-assessment.  To find out what students are thinking about the project, ask questions that encourage self-assessment and reflection.
     Technology needs to be optimized.  During project planning, you select the technologies to integrate.  Make sure the technology is helping students reach learning goals.  Students need to be able to use technology to expand their horizons by connecting to outside experts or a broader community.
     Trouble shooting is one of the 21st century skills that can make or break a project.  Teachers need to help students understand that real-world projects come with real-world challenges.  the need to help students learn from setbacks and fine-tune their strategies for getting a project back on track.  Another skill is teamwork.  During project implementation, teachers need to play close attention to team dynamics.  If they detect trouble the need to help students learn to manage their own team conflicts.  This chapter is related to our project because we have to communicate with each other, both teacher to student and student to student.

Reflection 7

Ricki Feuereisen 

Chapter 7

        While reading this chapter I found some useful information that I would be incorporating in my classroom as a teacher. The first set I came across was different levels of classroom discussions. There are three different levels, which are teacher-to-teacher, student-to-student, and lastly, teacher to student. The first one, teacher-to-teacher is what it sounds like. Teachers work with one another about the project that is being worked on in the classroom. It especially helps if you are working together on a project that is being implemented. Collaboration is key between colleagues; you get instant feedback and are able to ask questions and bounce off ideas from one another. With teacher-to-teacher, you can talk about what is working with the project and what you want to improve on for next time. Another helpful component could be to use blogs to communicate with one another no matter where you are. The next level is student-to-student, student’s work together to provide feedback to one another and bounce off ideas. It is important for students to communicate with one another and to help each other out especially when doing a project. When students communicate, they are able to expand on their original ideas and how to approach a problem and steps that you can take to solve the issue. Lastly, there is teacher-to-student, with this the teacher has the opportunity to talk individually with students or as a whole class. The teacher can walk around and observe what students are doing and talking about during work time. The teacher can address the whole class and redirect students or go more into detail/re-explain about what the class should be doing. With teacher-to-student, teachers should have the opportunity with asking higher order questions to their class to make them think deeper about what they learning about.

            Next in the book, it talks about four questions for checking in on students during a project. The four components are procedural, teamwork, understanding, and self-assessment. Procedural is tracking your progress on how you are doing with completing assignments and also looking at due dates and staying on top of things. You can also ask yourself questions, like how am I doing? Teamwork is where students talk and work with each other. Students have the chance to ask each other question’s and be there for support. With teamwork, you need to make sure that everyone has a part to complete and has something to work on. Questions that you can ask yourself, how am I getting along with my teammates? Do you like whom you are working with? Understanding is pretty simple; do students know what to do? Are they helping each other? The teacher can walk around and see if students are having good, solid conversations about the topic. Lastly, there is self-assessment, as a teacher you can have students write a reflection about the project and how they think they did and how it went. What did they learn? What were they excited about? What would they change and how would they improve for next time?

            The third question that we are supposed to address is the benefits to students when optimizing the use of technology. The benefits that students receive when using technology for a project they talk about in the book is students gain new insights into how to communicate with a culturally diverse audience and to become reviewers of other students work. With technology it also allows for students to reach their goals and keep them organized.

            Next, the book talks about 21^st-century skills that can make or break a project. There are two skills that can do this, the first one being teamwork, if students don’t get along the teacher needs to help students work through their problems. If students don’t work well together then it can make a project go horrible and students won’t do their best work. The second skill is troubleshooting, in the book it discusses who elementary school students were paired up with high schoolers to share their writing, and the elementary school students were intimidated, and they didn’t do their best work. Teachers need to communicate with their students.

            This chapter relates to our project, because as a group we communicate with one another and we communicate with the teacher, which would be using the teacher-to-student concept and student-to-student concept. We are also working in groups and we all have a part to work on and if one person doesn’t do their part it would affect the outcome of the project; we all count on one another to do their part.

            

1. Discuss how technology tools can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths.
2. Describe several ways in which you can get students’ minds ready for a project.
3. Discuss the elements of teaching fundamentals first.
4. Describe the important steps in preparing students for using technology in project.
5. Discuss ways to promote inquiry and deep learning.
6. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

Technology can help students to be reflective by allowing them to assess their strengths and weakness. They will be able to become aware of what challenges them and how to work through it. The book talked about using KWL to get the student's minds ready for a project. Also you the teacher can pose questions to students to get them thinking about the subject. It's important to create excitement in your students. The teacher can bring in special guests, have students role play  or act out important topics, you can use the internet to bring them to places, you can show pictures to create big questions for the students to think about. 

When it's time to introduce the type of technology the students will be using you should first lets the students "play" with it in order to figure it out. Most student's will have encountered technology before and have ways to figure out what they are and how they work by just turning it on and investigating it. You can also have fellow classmates teach students how to use a specific tool of technology. Finally you the teacher can demonstrate how to use it. To promote inquiry and deeper learning it's important to ask question that are rich and can't be answered simply. The question should allow students to really investigate in order to answer the question. The book talked about types of questions you can ask which are: "Which one", "How", "what if",   "Should" and "Why". In my own opinion posing questions for students to answer in a project gives the project more meaning to the student. If a teacher tells you to report on a specific topic than you're just looking for facts to report back. However, when posed with a question to answer it requires not only finding facts but interpreting the facts to form your own ideas. This chapter addresses our project because were creating questions and finding the information in order to form our projects. We're practicing inquiry learning ourselves. 

revised concept map

reflection 6

1. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

 Technology tools can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths.  For example, blogs offer students space where they can reflect over time about what they are learning.  There is also ProfilerPRO which is an online survey tool that allows you to identify the learning characteristics of an individual and also among members of a group.  You can identify interests, strengths, and weaknesses, and use this information as you guide your learning.  There is also SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang which are online surveys. In order to get students' minds ready for a project you need to generate interest and promote inquiry.  Start by getting students' attention and giving the idea time to settle in their imaginations.  Invite them to open their eyes to the possibilities before digging in.  Encourage students to explore and think about the topic, and to discuss their ideas with friends and at the dinner table for several days.  The elements of teaching fundamentals first are that before launching a project, think about teaching knowledge or skills students need in order to work with a degree of independence in their investigations.  When students are aware of what they know and don't know, they can establish a sense of purpose.  When preparing students for using technology in projects plan efficient ways to get students ready to use technology for learning.  Also let technically able students teach others.  Set up computer stations, each with one tool students will use use in the project, perhaps and online database at one station, presentation software at another, and shared wiki documents on another.  Do a practice run with student trainers to make sure they can teach the important functions. Ways to promote inquiry and deep learning are are by guiding students as they choose questions, plan investigations, and begin to put their plan into action.  you should make sure that their questions are meaningful.  they also talk about having question starters especially ones that start with, which ones, how, what if, or hypothetical questions, should and why.
This chapter relates to our topic because we give each other feedback on our chapter reviews.  We also have to use technology a lot, like for the lesson plans we had to use a special website.  Also for the podcast we had to use specific software.

Reflection 6

The first thing that is discussed in chapter 6 is how technology tools can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths. After reading this section, I learned student could do this by using blogs, online surveys and self-evaluations. Students need to be given the opportunity to reflect on their capabilities. Students need to reflect on their experiences that they had and how it helped them grow along with the activities that they completed. In the book it talks about “asking students to think about their thinking and processes”. (pg. 95) This helps them think about the strategies that they use when learning something new.

            Next is several ways in which you can get students’ mind ready for a project. This is important, because if your students are interested in the topic and aren’t sure what they are doing, you won’t get their best work and they won’t want to complete the project. There is an unbelievable amount of ideas to get students’ excited and ready for the project. Some examples are, teachers should start with learning about their students’ prior knowledge, possibly using a K-W-L chart. K-W-L charts are often, the go to starter. Teachers need to get their students excited about the project topic, have them explore and think and discuss about it for a little while, individually or in a group. Before starting the project, take a few minutes at the beginning of class to talk about the topic, this way it will grab the student’s attention about the different possibilities they can take the research. 

            There are three different elements for teaching fundamentals to students’, the first one is teaching skills to student’s that are needed in order to work with a degree of independence and talking about previous knowledge. The second one is, building skills gradually, you want to spend time teaching each skill, to make sure that student’s are understanding how to use applications and know what to do. The last one is independent inquiry, this is where students think about what they know so far and where they want to end up learning at the end of the project.

            I found four important steps in preparing students for using technology in their projects. The first one is, learning functions, you want to set up a technology playground, think to yourself how you may want to set up different opportunities for students to learn. Introduce problem-solving experiences and let students explore doing it on their own. Walk around the classroom and see where you are needed. Do you need to provide a demonstration and teach a lesson on something to the whole class? It is also important to include parents with teaching how to use technology so they can help their child. The second step is tap student expertise, this includes having students’ help with teaching one another, set up different stations with different tools that students’ maybe needing to use in their project, pick a few students to teach to be an expert, and give them classes on what the rest of the class should know. Give students the chance to try it on their own after getting an introduction on the trainer. Set a purpose and expectations for why they are using these tools. The third one is, introduce project-management tools, this is having a project log or journals, and this will allow students to keep track of their learning and how they are doing so far. The last one is, demonstration. Bring in a technology specialist or student expert to talk to the class and talk about how to use certain programs. With this, you need to plan ahead and make sure that the specialist is scheduled and know when to come to your class.

            The last section talks about promoting inquiry and deep learning. With inquiry the student gets to choose the topic and questions that they want to research. Talk about what investigations that they are going to be completing, and begin helping students begin their planning. Make sure that their research is meaningful and that students are picking a topic that interests them. It also talks about having question starters especially ones that start with, which one, how, what if or hypothetical questions, should and why. With these starters it provide more meaningful thinking and is considered higher ordered questioning.

            This relates to the project that we are doing in class, because with these reflections, we give each other feedback on what they write for their answers. We also work together as a group and plan out what we are going to be researching. We are using technology with our projects and if we don’t know how to use an application, we can ask one another for help or even ask the teacher. We also did research on some websites of our choosing for our topics to see if they were reliable and up to date. This would be used for our lesson plans too, because we are providing a Hot list for them to use. This project is also considered as an inquiry project, because we start off with a topic and then decide what we want to research within that topic. 

reflection #5

Something that should be considered before starting a project with students is what materials you will need.  Take a look at your inventory and see what supplies, tools, and other materials are available at school or offered by your parent community and other supporters.  If you don’t find what you need put out the word about your upcoming project.  You should also plan a project calendar with milestones along the way.  The students’ attention to time management will be better if you share a project calendar that makes deadlines visible.  You can turn big chunk tasks into small, more manageable pieces.  You should also think about how your teams are going to be organized.  You should remember that students will be doing different things at different time when you are the project manager.  The team approach requires you to reset your expectations and experiment with different combinations.  Also plan for assessment. 

Teachers’ management needs are tools for communicating with students and others about the project, tools for making milestones and events visible and for notifying students when changes occur, methods for getting recourses to students, systems for managing work products, and structures that support a productive learning environment in which teams and individuals are engaged in a variety of the learning tasks at the same time.  Students’ management needs are systems and tool 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 teachers advice; and ways to work iteratively and to see how parts add up to the world.

Some of the technology application that should be considered for the use in a project are web based applications.  You can link a set of tools together in a wiki, associate them with a blog, or alternatively, use a web based desktop application.  This chapter relates to what we are doing in class because each of us are responsible for a section to research from our topic.  Also our whole class is broken up into smaller more manageable chunks rather than one that is hard to get through.  

1. Discussion on the items that should be considered before starting a project with students.
2. Discussion on teachers’ and students’ management needs.
3. Discuss some of the technology applications that should be considered for use in a project.
4. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

Before starting a project with the students it's important to gather all the resources, tools and materials that will be needed for the project. Reach out to staff, parents and the community to help you gather all the necessary items. It's important to consider what technology your students will be working with and how much prior experience (if any) that they have. ALso consider primary resources that your students could consult with and how will you arrange for these interactions. 

An important management need is a deadline and mini deadlines. Mini deadlines will help your students not fall behind in their final deadline. You can use calendars to help students recognize their time management. Secondly it's very important that when grouping students together that you put the "right" team together. The book talks about the potential downfalls of not creating groups that are "right" for each other. For example if you put two students together that are at very different learning levels, than you could potentially have one student that does all the work. As a teacher it'll be important to figure out how group member and the teacher will communicate. This is important because students need to be able to seek assistance and have constant feedback on work that they're doing. By using some tool of communication through technology students will be able to seek help whenever they need it from not only the teacher but from their peers as well. Also the teacher will be able to monitor progress and ensure that students are on the right track. 

Some technologies that should be considered google docs, wiki and blog. Goggle docs is a great way for students to work together outside of school. They're able to access the documents whenever needed and everyone can work on the document together. Also teachers will be able to provide feedback in the google docs instead of only providing feedback during assessment. Wiki is a program that allows you to create a web page. This would be a great tool for the class because you will be able to post deadlines, announcements, ideas, surveys etc. FInally are blogs which can allow a place for students to post their work and ideas. 

This chapter relates to our project because a lot of the technology tools that were spoken about are tools that we are using in our project. For example our group uses a blog to collaborate and post our project artifacts. 

Reflection 5

Chapter 5 talks about Project Management Strategies for Teachers and Learners. I thought this chapter was very interesting. Before starting a project with your students, a teacher should first think about the project, what do you want your students to research, what is the main idea of this project, who will they need to talk to or get in touch with? A teacher should first turn to the school and take inventory and see what supplies they have on hand. Next, turn to parents and the community and see if they have anything you can borrow that you may need for the project. A teacher should also put the word out there, like I said talk to parents, tell them about the project and what students will be doing, you can also write in the weekly newsletter to inform families and the community. After thinking about the supplies, think about the technology aspect, will your students know how to use the technology or applications that you want them to use, or do you need the media specialist to come in and give a demonstration and talk to the class? Also think about other specialists that maybe needed throughout the project. Lastly, think about the experts that students may need to talk to, can they talk to these individuals in person or will they need to send e-mails, will students have the opportunity to video-conference or take a virtual field trip with the expert of their choosing based on their topics? There is a lot to think about and prepare for when having students work on a project.

            When it comes to teachers’ and students’ management needs for projects, there are a lot. For teachers’ management needs they need Tools for communicating with students and others about the project, tools for making milestones and events visible and for notifying students when 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 same time and lastly, assessment tools and strategies. For students’ management needs, they need 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 lastly, ways to work iteratively and to see how parts add up to the whole.

        Throughout this chapter it also talks about technology applications that should be considered for use in a project. I found three applications that include, creating a blog, a wiki page, and also a web-based “desktop” application. A wiki page is created for sharing content. You can add web links and build pages. With a wiki page, anyone who is an author can write or edit the page anything from anywhere. You can make it open to the public or have it be limited. This application is good for developing information. There are two types of wiki pages, Wiki spaces and PBwiki. The next application is a blog, with a blog there is one primary author, viewers are allowed to comment. This is great for communicating with others; you can communicate about your progress, or milestones that you may have accomplished and also to broadcast news that is related to your project. With the blog application, you can one big blog or the group, or you can make individual blogs. Lastly, web-based “desktop” application, I did not find much about this in the book, but I did find two type, Drupal and Text pattern.

        This chapter relates to our project, because we each are responsible for a section to research from our topic. In this class, we have a calendar with all the due dates on it. Everyone in our group has some sort of skills to bring to the project. Also at the beginning of the semester, we all signed a contract saying that we will participate in the group and we each will be responsible for our part and that we won’t sit back and let one person do all the work. For this project, each group has their own blog for their topic, and everyone in the class can comment on our posts. Lastly, in the book it talks about rubrics, when we create our lesson plans, we each are creating a rubric to go along with it, with the rubric we are each using the same template but we will each have different components that we are looking for. 

Reflection 4

     When looking at potential pitfalls of project design there are four major ones to keep in mind.  The first is long on activity and short on learning outcomes.  This means that if the project is busy and long but reaches small or lower order learning aims, it is not worth investing your students' time or yours.  A project should be sized right for what it accomplishes.  The second potential pitfall is technology layered over traditional practice.  Having students research a topic on the internet and then present it in an electronic slideshow is not a quality project.  Decide whether the technology is being used to bring people together, and connecting students to rich data and primary sources, or if it isn't provide some other way to allow students to create unique and high quality learning projects.  The third potential pitfall is trivial thematic units.  When using thematic projects look for ways a theme elevates and connects the learning.  The last potential pitfall is overly scripted with many, many steps.  be wary of over perceptive projects plans that have many discrete steps but have limited possible results.  

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

     Project ideas can come from everywhere, even from a classroom issue.  Problems in everyday life can become the topic for students to research at anytime.  They can also come from ideas off of passed projects that have been successful, they are just changed a little.  

     There are four step when designing a project.  The first is to revisit the framework.  You need to make a list of learning objectives for core subjects and allied disciplines.  Decide which skills you want to address.  The second step is to establish evidence of understanding.  The third is to plan the project theme or challenge.  You should pick something the students would like to research about.  the last step is to plan entree into the project.  What are you going to use to get the students attention. We had to use these skills when we were making our lesson plans.  We had to think of a good project and then we had to make a lesson plan for it with a full list of procedures that we were going to follow.  

1. Discuss the potential pitfalls in project design.
2. Discuss the features of a good project.
3. Discuss where project ideas come from.
4. Discuss the steps to design a project.
5. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

1. The potential pitfall in project based learning is having a long activity that doesn't have many learning outcomes. Based on what we've learned in lecture and in the book, a good project can teach students many different content area subjects. For example they can learn math, english, science and history all in one project. The pitfall is that the class spends so much time on a project that doesn't teach them anything more than what they could've learned from a book or a teacher. The second potential pitfall in project based learning is what the book calls "Technology layered over traditional practice." Basically this pitfall says that if the technology isn't essential to the project than it's nothing more than a research report. Thirds talks about how one theme can address many different learning outcomes for students if manipulated to do so. Lastly is that the project can have too many steps that take away the uniqueness of each individual. 

2. The features of a good project are loosely designed with the possibility of different learning paths. They allow students to construct meaning, and leave room for inquiry. They capture the interests of students and a realistic. They involve others in the students communities, include primary resources, allow students to learn from each other. Uses 21st century skills and literacies, and students are learning by doing. 

3. Project ideas should come from the students. In the book the teachers were going to work on a unit about ocean's but they noticed that a large group of students were interested in boats. They figured they should change the unit to boats instead of oceans because they connect with the students interests. It's important for students to have their interests taken into account because this will create a passion in learning for the students. 

4. The steps in designing a project are to first revisit the framework. In this step the teacher(s) should make a list of possible learning objects for their students in each content area. Then they will want to figure out what 21st century skills they will want to address. Finally identify learning dispositions the teacher wants to foster.

Second step includes looking into the future at the end of the project. How will the students be different as a learner? 

Third includes creating the instruction for the project. It's important to leave enough room for creativity. 

Finally the step includes how are you going to get the students excited about the project?

5. This chapter I thought really connected to the lesson plan each member in our group has to write. 

Reflection #4

                                                                                            Ricki Feuereisen 

This chapter has a lot of good information about creating projects for your classroom. Teachers have the opportunity to collaborate and get feedback on a project they are thinking about having their students do. It also talks about getting ideas from other colleagues that they may have used in their classroom and has been successful and engaging.

There are four different potential pitfalls in project design the first being long on activity, short on learning outcomes, the second one being technology layered over traditional practice, the third one is trivial thematic units and the last one is overly scripted with many, many steps. What does each one mean? The first potential pitfall, long on activity, short on learning outcomes means; that you as a teacher need to make sure that what you are teaching your students is worthwhile and interesting. You don’t want your students to just read a book and listen to a lecture because they probably aren’t taking in any information and aren’t listening. If you have an idea for a project, think off all the components of research that can take place. The second potential pitfall, technology layered over traditional practice; when students are doing a project, given students choice on how they can present the information, make it fun. Provide a reason of why they are doing this project and what you want them to take away from this. Also providing choices of research will improve engagement. Do you need technology for this project; will it help improve learning?

The third potential pitfall, trivial thematic units, with this one, it’s okay for teachers to think of theme for the whole year or even half of the year. When you introduce a theme make sure that there is enough to research and learn about throughout that amount of time you are using that theme. Make sure there is a connection between the theme and a project that you are having students complete. What do you want them to learn from that particular theme? The last potential pitfall overly scripted with many, many steps. You want students to have the chance to choose what they want to research within a topic. Make sure there is enough information to research that is solid but not overloading that they get overwhelmed. Students should be able to answer all the questions that they need too. If they can’t find all the answers then the topic may not work. Teachers need to remember to think from a student’s point of view when thinking of projects.

There are many different features that makes a good project, I chose to talk about four; the first is having students learn by doing, students in your classroom can be visual or auditory learners. Students also like to do hands on assignments. Students learn by doing it themselves or in groups, for some students it’s hard to learn only by watching. The second one is a good project is loosely designed with the possibility of different learning paths. To me this means, you may think a student will learn about point A but when they complete the research they find a whole different path. A good project should be flexible. The third one is good projects are realistic, and therefore cross multiple discipline. When having students complete a project there should be reason why you choose that topic for the class. It’s better when you relate it to your student’s lives, and so that they can use it outside of school. The last one I chose to talk about it, center on a driving question or are otherwise structure for inquiry. A good project should have room for inquiry, letting students have some say in their research.

When thinking of where project ideas come from, they can come from anywhere, you could be at a restaurant and see something interesting and that can create a project idea for your class to do. It also helps when you know what your students are interested in and what they like, because then when you think about an idea you’ll know your class will be excited about it.

There are five different steps to design a project, first is revisit the framework, meaning think about what the learning objectives for this project, what do you want your students to address while doing research, what’s the point of the project and also identify learning dispositions. The second on is, establish evidence of understanding, meaning why should your student learn this, what do you want your class to take away with? The third one is, plan the theme or challenge, when creating a project make a connection for your students. Have the topic have to do with something they like or are going to learn about in class. The third one is plan entrée into the project experience, with this, how can you get students excited about this project? The last one is write a project sketch, with this, you want to look at the plan you have set up, how does it look? Would you want to complete this project if you were a student?

The concepts in this chapter relate to my project that we are doing in class, because we were able to decide what we wanted to research and when we got the broad topic we were able to choose what we wanted to research within that topic. We have the flexibility of what we research and it makes the project more interesting. My group is researching Local History, so it relates to us because we live here and we are learning about the different events and places around Kalamazoo. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zXrUywpEJquKhi7ZtLcigHtCzBnVCCP0MQnYqECiDKU/edit?usp=sharing

Google Map

Reading Reflection 3

When considering the "Big Idea" of a project it's important to think about what you want the students to learn. It's important to ask yourself: why is this important to learn? This question is important because it helps you as a teacher to gain passion and real life connections to the subject you plan to teach. If you the teacher can't find why what you're teaching is important, than how can your students find it relevant to learn. This leads to the next important part of the "Big Idea"which is applying the subject matter into real life. This is important because a lot of the time students will say, "Why do I need to know this for my future?", connecting content to real life will help avoid your students posing that question.  The "Big Idea" also really helps to overlap the content ares, so instead of having complete different subject like math, language arts, history, etc. you will be able to intermingle most of the subject ares.

21st century literacy  and skills incorporates more than just the ability to read and write. Using a more project based learning system will not just teach the students the knowledge they need to know but will also prepare them with skills they will need in the 21st century. For example the book spoke of certain skills that projects can help foster in students which are: analyzing, evaluating, and creating. These are skills that will carry on with them past the school years. Developing these skills will allow them to stretch their mind past memorizing facts for a test. They will be able to problem solve and think critically about things that memorizing facts from a book or lecture cannot give to them.

When reading about the essential learning functions I thought about how easy these functions help to allow students to feel in control of their learning. In most schools the teacher is required to teach certain subjects but by incorporating these functions and projects into the learning process students have a lot more say in how and what they learn. The first essential function is ubiquity which allows students to have access to their learning at anytime. I really like this because it models to students that learning is an ever on going process and that it doesn't stop when you leave school. It also allows them to constantly have access to the projects they work on and would want to add to. Deep learning requires students to really understand where their information is coming from and how to access raw data. Making things visible is a great idea because they can look at see things and talk about them instead of just reading about them in a text book. Expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, and building community is great for creating a great project or work because more heads are better than one which also incorporates into collaboration. Research, project management and reflection all intermingle when creating a final project and can help to develop future essential skills.

Reading this chapter really reminded me of our group projects because we took an assigned topic and put our own personality into it. This is a lot like how teachers take a topic that students have to learn and allow them to put their own personality into it as well. It provides a more meaningful learning environment and allows students to learn based on their own uniqueness.