Reflection #6

1.       How can technology tools encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths:

Technology tools such as Blogs offer students a way to self-reflect about what they are learning over time, such as our self-reflections on our chapters or communicating with our team members about our projects.  Profiler PRO is a way to self-assess our learning characteristics as well as others within a group, and help identify interests, strengths, and weaknesses of team members or the students in your class.  This program allows you to write your own surveys based on the classes or students’ needs and allows us to reassess their profile to monitor their learning progress.  Survey Monkey and Zoomerang are also online surveys that can be used to track results of students’ self-assessments and compare them to a larger group, such as the entire class. 

2.       How can you get students’ minds ready for a project:

The main thing for a good project is to tap students’ prior knowledge to generate interest and promote inquiry.  This can be done in several ways, such as by using K-W-L activities, or invite students to think about the possibilities of a topic by posing a question after showing a visual, bringing the topic up daily, invite experts that are mystery guests to spark students’ interests which leaves them eager to learn.  For our project, we are inviting students to think about the job of a meteorologist and the weather components he/she needs to understand in order to make weather predictions.  We will let them ponder about this idea and invite a meteorologist who will spark their interest about how their job relates to their everyday lives, as well as agriculture and tourism in Michigan.  Other ideas are discrepant events, such as investigations which arouse curiosity and prepare students to think about what is to come, or role-playing predictions where students act out what their prior knowledge of the project’s topic.  I like the idea of recording students so they can see where their understanding broke down during a discussion as a way to find out what they don’t know to start a K-W-L activity, where the next step is to figure out what they need to learn or find out.   Another way to get students’ minds ready is to connect them with experts of the field explored by students, such as a library media specialist. When school personnel are not available, I agree that the internet is a great way to meet and communicate with experts.  Flickr, which is a social networking photo sharing site where students can view other peoples work on similar projects and write comments that go back to the submitters.  I believe that the best way to tap students’ prior knowledge is when they are allowed to connect their initial inquiry to the real world, where they are allowed to connect with the project on a personal level to find out what they do or do not know.         

3.       Elements of teaching fundamentals first:

I agree that when launching a project, we need to think about teaching the prerequisite knowledge or skills (fundamentals) students need to know in order to be independent learners.  For our project, we are teaching students about all the weather components important to a meteorologist’s job in order for them to explorer them during the unit and create a weekly weather broadcast.  When equipped with the essential knowledge of the components of a meteorologist’s job, such as knowing about weather conditions, severe weather and weather safety, weather instruments, weather information and data collection from maps, Doppler radar, weather charts, etc., a prediction model, and the process of creating a weekly weather forecast, students will be directed in the right direction when starting their investigations for the project that are student driven.  By creating a weather word wall, concept map, or making a weather question board our students are learning the necessary vocabulary and background knowledge necessary to tackle their own investigations/projects that uses the latest technology.  We should also teach students the necessary background knowledge for the technology used in order to prepare them.  I agree that when students are aware of what they know and don’t know their learning takes on a sense of purpose and once that is accomplished we can take them a step further by prompting them with “why,” “should,” and “how” questions.  I believe that an assessment rubric is vital in giving students an understanding of what is expected of them by addressing what good performance looks like through qualitative descriptions of each rating.     

4.       The important steps in preparing students for using technology in a project:

To get students ready for using technology in a project, we need to plan efficient ways for students to learn them.  The first step is to set up a technology playground where students teach each other to solve problems, such as simply learning about the technology.  The second step is to tap student’s expertise by immersing them in technology where technically able students teach other with the help of computer stations each with one tool that will be used in the project.  It is important to discuss the purpose of each tool and set expectations for its use and build on student’s understanding.  The third step is to introduce project-management tools, such as a project log, a check list or journal to track student’s progress toward goals and help with their self-reflection.  This allows us to assess why students are falling behind.  The fourth step is to be comfortable enough with tools that we want students to use and help demonstrate their use to our students.  If we are not, we can ask technology specialists or skilled students to help with a screencast that students can watch from anywhere about how to use the technical process of tools necessary for a project.  It allows for tutorials about the tools, narrated slideshows, and feedback on student’ work.  The fifth step is to collaborate with technology specialists to match and teach learning objectives with technologies that help students meet them.  The sixth step is to think about the usefulness of the technical skill.

5.       Ways to promote inquiry and deep learning:

We need to guide students to choose the right questions, plan investigations, and begin to put their plan into action.  We need to let students wonder about class displays, posters, etc., have them ask questions and ask them questions to encourage inquiry and research.  We need to provide collaborative activities for investigations that are challenging.  We need to guide them past the superficial and factual to meaningful inquiry based research by thinking like scientists.  We need to encourage students to come up with more challenging questions that guide meaningful inquiry by guiding them with question starters.  Allow students to think about the project further by allowing them to work on the web for teaching about information literacy.  Offer credible electronic resources and narrow information we want students to use by distributing a list of selected sites with their web addresses to limit the attention to credible sources that were evaluated by us.  Explain these sources, look at organization, examine index pages, discuss search parameters, and read from sites together before expecting them to be independent learners.   Have students explorer search engines for reliable and accurate search engines, such as ask for kids, kidsclick, yahookids, or nettrecker.  When students understand all this, we can teach them about the “Big 6,” that offers students strategies to help find, organize, and evaluate information. 

6.       How concepts in this chapter relate to our topic/project:

This chapter is guiding us in understanding how we can set the stage for students to learn by inquiry using technology tools.  We have used Blogs and Profiler Pro to self-reflect and self-assess our knowledge and background knowledge.  To get students’ minds ready in our project we are using a similar project-launching method as did the project of the fantastical settlement on Mars, where we will use a visual or a prompting question to tap student’s prior knowledge and invite a mystery guest.  This prior knowledge will be collected in the form of a K-W-L activity, such as a weather word wall or question board that allows us to see what terms students are already familiar with when it comes to weather and the job of a meteorologist.  To teach students the fundamentals of the project, we are teaching students about the weather components to direct them properly for possible investigations in the project.  For our concept map, we have already been considering an assessment rubric as important aspects of presenting a weekly weather forecast/broadcast which will guide our students.  Several of our lessons include experts or media specialists to teach students important background knowledge about the technological tools they will be using for their lessons as choices for their projects.  We will try to guide students in order to provide rich inquiry lessons that are meaningful to them and help them to become independent 21-st century literate learners.

Revised Collaborative Concept Map (2/28)

Reading Reflection #6

1.) Technology tools can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths. Some examples of technology tools:
--Blogs: Blogs provide students with a space to reflect on their work and what they're learning. This is a great place for students to talk to each other about any new concepts/ideas that they've learned.
--ProfilerPRO: This is a very useful online survey tool that allows you to identify the learning characteristics of an individual and also among members of a group. Some things that can be identified are strengths, weaknesses, and interests. This information can then be used to guide student learning. Students can reassess their profile over time to monitor the progress that they've made.
--SurveyMonkey/Zoomerang: These allow teachers to set up live online surveys. The results can be used to track trends as well as help students see how their self-assessment compares to the rest of the class.


2.) Before students begin a project, it's important that they get their minds ready. Teachers can prepare students' minds in the following ways: -By creating a K-W-L chart, -By getting students' attention and giving the idea time to settle in their imaginations, -By encouraging your students to explore and think about the topic, and to discuss their ideas with friends and perhaps even at the dinner table with family. Talking about your topic with others is a great way to discover new ideas that you never even thought of before.


3.) Before embarking on a project, it's important to think about teaching prerequisite knowledge or skills students need in order to work with a degree of independence on their project. In order to help set the stage for independent inquiry, you should begin your project with the K-W-L activity. This lets the students discuss what they already know about the topic, what they wonder about the topic, and what they want to learn about the topic. It's also important for teachers to share the assessment rubric with their students. This informs the students of the exact expectations for the project and gives them a roadmap toward great achievement. "The best rubrics even leave room for unanticipated brilliance!"


4.) The important steps in preparing students for using technology in their project are as follows:
--Set Up a Technology Playground: This is where you should provide the opportunity for students to explore the different types of technology that they can use for their project.
--Tap Student Expertise: This is where you should allow tech savvy students to teach other students about technology.
--Introduce Project-Management Tools: This is where a project log or a project journal help students track their progress toward certain goals. By encouraging students to write about their progress toward certain goals, you're able to gain insights as to why they're struggling/falling behind.
--Demonstrate: If you feel like you're comfortable with technology, go ahead and demonstrate to the children how certain technologies work. Be sure to mention the use of the tools within the context of the project. Also, it's important that you make your expectations very clear for the students.
--Rely on Your Technology Specialist: Collaborate with your technology specialist to match your learning objectives with proper technologies that will help students meet these objectives.

5.) In order to promote inquiry and deep learning, teachers should consider inquiry guiding question starters such as:
--"How" questions: These questions ask students to understand problems, to weigh options, and to propose solutions.
--"Which one" questions: These questions ask students to collect information and make informed decisions.
--"What if"/hypothetical questions: These questions ask students to use the knowledge they have to pose a hypothesis and consider options.
--"Why" questions: These questions ask students to understand cause and effect.
--"Should" questions: These questions ask students to make moral or practical decisions based on evidence.
All of these types of questions require the students to really put their brain to work when giving an answer. These five types of questions are all excellent ways to promote inquiry and deep learning.


6.) The information that was discussed in this chapter directly relates to our project. When deciding what lesson topics each person gets, we post on our blog. We also should consider implementing the K-W-L activity into our project because it's important to know what the students want to learn. Lastly, we want to ensure that our students are familiar and understand how to use the technology that they'll be working with to complete their project.

Reflection 6

1. Different technology tools that can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths are...
- blogs: blogs offer students space where they can reflect over time about what they are learning
- profilerPRO: this is an online survey tool that allows you to identify the learning characteristics of an individual and also among members of a group. You are able to identify interests, strengths, and weaknesses and use this information to guide learning. Students are able to create their own survey and use a template that meets their needs. Students can also assess their profile and compare it to what they started with in the begging of the year.
- SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang: these sites allow you to set up online surveys. You can use the survey results to track trends and help students see how their self assessment compares to the larger group.

2. A great activity that most teachers use before starting a project is a K-W-L chart. Start projects by getting students attention and giving the idea time to settle in their imaginations. Students need to envision what they want to do for a project before they actually start something. Teachers need to encourage their students to explore and think about the topic they are doing their project on and sharing their ideas with classmates and friends. When starting a project, it is all about possibilities.

3. Before starting a project, teachers need to think about teaching prerequisite knowledge or skills students need in order to work independently on their project. Before starting, teachers should teach a few mini-lessons to get the class interested and intrigued in the topic they are about to be doing a project about. Teachers need to set the stage for independent inquiry. When students are aware of what they know and don't know they can establish a point of departure and a sense of purpose. The K-W-L activity allows the student to explore and will give them a sense of their prior knowledge and help them imagine what they will be learning. Teachers also need to share the assessment rubric. This will help students achieve exactly what you what them to do. A discussion on an in depth description of the rubric must take place so students understand what they need to do to be successful in the project.

4. Steps to preparing students to use technology:
- Set up a technology playground: allow students to explore with the technology you will be using.
- Tap student expertise: let technically able students teach each other.
- Introduce project management tools: a project log or journal offers another tool to help students track their progress toward goals. Allowing them to write about their progress will benefit the teacher in seeing where they are struggling and what they might need help with
- demonstrate: if comfortable, demonstrate. If not familiar ask a tech. specialist to demonstrate. Discuss use of toold within the context of the project and make expectations clear.

5. Ways to promote inquiry and deep learning:
- guide students as they choose questions, plan investigations, and begin to put their plan into action
- "Which one" questions asks students to collect information and make informed decisions
- "How" questions ask students to understand problems, to weigh options, and to propose solutions
- "What if" questions ask students to use the knowledge they have to pose a hypothesis and consider options.
- "Should" questions ask students to make moral and practical decisions based on evidence.
- "Why" questions ask students to understand cause and effect.

6. This chapter relates to what we are doing in class greatly. We use blogs to put all of our ideas out on the table and we also put new information on what we are learning in them as well. When doing our project we need to think about what the students may or may not know already about the topic. All that we have read so far relates to everything we are doing in the class with our big projects.

Reading Reflection 6

1.) Before starting a project with your class you need to come up with a plan and how you want to get them excited and prepared for the learning ahead. It's important that you teach your students any of the additional skills that they need to complete the project, but it is also important that you teach your students how to monitor their own progress. When students learn how to articulate their own metacognitive strategies it helps them understand how to attack problems in the future. Technology tools can be used to encourage students to be reflective and value their own strengths.

• Students can use blogs to record what they are learning, and go back at any time to review what they already know.
• ProfilerPro is an online survey tool that the students can use to determine their strengths and weaknesses that allows them to watch their results change over time.
• Survey Monkey and Zoomerang are also an online survey tool that helps track trends in student learning.

2.) Preparing your students for projects is important because we want to get them excited about their next big project, we don't want to weigh them down negativity before the project even begins. To avoid the dreaded looks of unhappy students the teacher needs to get the students minds prepared and ready to start the next project. The best way to avoid problems with your projects is to make sure it is tapping into your students prior knowledge, as well as what they are interested in learning about. Some teachers like to make K-W-L charts to get the class thinking about their subject and so that he/she can determine what the students already know about the subject and what should become  more or less of a focus. Make sure that you give your students plenty of time to think about your main idea so they have the opportunity to think about how they want to go about handling it, also allow to them to talk with their friends about what they like and don't like about the idea. If your having difficulties building excitement about the project you can spend more time slowing integrating ideas about the project into your classroom by talking about it briefly each day until you see some excitement. It might also be helpful to have a guest speaker come in and talk to the class about all the cool things about your next topic.

3.) We want our students to feel confident going into their new project so it is very important that they have all the necessary skills needed to give them independence and freedom within their project so they don't feel weighted down by not having the proper skills to get the project done effectively. The only way to truly avoid this problem is to introduce these concepts to your students minds before they need to utilize them. By planning a series of mini-lessons you can attack all the problems early on, and leave your students feeling knowledgable and prepared for the next section. Teaching fundamentals first gets your students heading in the direction and also helps to invoke some excitement in them for whats to come later. You also want to remember to keep your students informed of their goals and what they are being graded on (share the assessment rubric).

4.) If the students do not know how to navigate the technology used in the project then they are more than likely going to do the project incorrectly. As teachers we need to ensure that our students are up to date on their technological skills before we ask them to complete a project that they may not be prepared to handle. Sometimes advance planning for the whole class is necessary and sometimes you may just need to sit down with a few students. Make sure to only included resources that are available to students all the time, and nothing too crazy that they can't get their hands on. Also remember not to forget that technology does not always mean a computer, it can be any electronic device. Set up time for students to build on their technological skills and think about why using technology is essential to the project at hand. Remember that each school should have a technology specialists that is prepared to help. Do not move on until your are positive that every students has a grasp on what the technology is demanding of them.

5.) If you want to promote inquiry in the classroom environment it is crucial that the teacher is viewed as more of a guide than a dictator. The teachers job is to help push the students to the answers they are looking for without directly giving the answers away or telling them where to look. Teachers need to supply their students with complex and engaging projects that can be spun a million different ways so the students feel challenged. We want our students to feel connected and interested in the project so we allow them the freedom to pick and chose what they feel important, occasionally the teacher may need to step in and rearrange their thoughts but they are still given their independence to move on to a more in depth question. Despite the students freedom to search openly, the teacher needs to ensure that the students are making informed decisions that promote deeper thinking. Asking "what", "how","why", and "what if" questions is a good place to begin.

6.) The information in this chapter is related to what we are doing in class right now because as we work on building our individual and group lessons we need to consider some of these elements, such as building excitement for the project. We also want to ensure that our students are prepared and ready to handle the technology that is required of them as well as information that they will be seeking. We nee to remember to keep our lessons designed around the interests of what we think the children in our "class" might have by keeping the information relevant and interesting. 

Reflection 5

1. Before starting a project teachers need to gather up many things to help assist their students and help them be successful in their project making. Teachers need to take a look at what supplies the school has to offer to them. Teachers need to look for supplies, tools, and other materials that are available to them that are offered by the school, the parent community and other supporters. If nothing is supplied through the school, put out a word on your class web-site or through email to parents to try to get the supplies you need. Some questions to ask yourself before starting the project are, will your project involve the use of technologies that are new to your students? Will you need to expand your students access to technology? Will your students need access to experts to answer the questions that are apt to come up during the project? Who else can help with your project? If you are collaborating with a teaching team, think how you will divide responsibilities. What are your individual strengths and interests? For which task will each of you be responsible? How will you organize who does what when? It is essential to come up with milestones and deadlines for your students. This is a way to teach students to become effective time managers. Something else to think about is team planning. How will student teams be organized? This approach to team work requires you to reset your expectations and experiment with different combinations. Also, you need to plan for assessment. How do you know what prior knowledge and interests your students bring to a project? There is a lot that needs to be done before starting a project with a classroom. Planning is the most important aspect in a project.

2. Teachers management needs:
- 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
- assessment tools and strategies including:
1. ways to gauge whether students are working productively and accomplishing project goals
2. Ways to assess the load balance within a team so no individuals end up doing too much or too little
3. Ways to give just-in-time feedback on student work as it develops, not just when it's complicated

Students management needs:
- systems and tools that help them manage their time and flow of work
- systems that help students manage materials and control work drafts
- collaborative tools
- methods for seeking assistance
- ways to get and use feedback on their work, through self-reflection, team input, and teacher advice
- ways to work iteratively and to see how parts add up to the whole

3. Web-based applications help greatly with projects. Some different pages a student can use are, Wikis, blogs, drupal, textpattern. These are great help when constructing a project. They are also good ways to connect with others in your group when you are not in the classroom.

4. This chapter connects to what we are doing in class because we need to learn about how to start a project before actually doing it. We also use different websites to communicate with each other when we are not in the classroom, those ones in the book are a few that we have used in class before. It is also essential that we know the management needs of both the teacher and the student because we will be in that position one day and it is good to learn about now!

Reflection #5

1)  Items that should be considered before starting a project with students:
The first item to consider are the resources needed to keep within budget.  I especially like the idea of using reusable materials from organizations like SCRAP (the School and Community Reuse Action Project) or craigslist to accomplish this budget goal. We can also post a wish list of supplies to parents, or acquire the supplies from local recycling centers.  Other resources are accessible and equitable technology, providing access to experts in the field being studied, technology coordinators and media specialists to help with presentations, as well as the strenghts and interests within a team.  The second item to consider is time management skills.  A great tool to manage time is a project calendar with visual deadlines of big tasks that can be accomplished by meeting smaller deadlines that are all shared with students and parents in order for them to plan ahead, track progress, and discuss delays.  The third item to consider is good team planning, such as how students will be organized based on complementing attributes or  different learning styles, and encouraging commitment to the team through a contract.  I like the idea of contracts because they hold students accountable for their role within a group and that way not one single person ends up having to do the majority of the work load.  The last item to consider is planning for assessment throughout the project using formative assessment, such as quizzes, conversations, and written reflections, and adapt them to meet student needs by using monitoring, observing, interacting, analyzing, and/or reporting, allowing us to monitor students and providing them with critical feedback.  I like the example of Esther Wojcicki, who provides immediate feedback to her students' writing, so they can revise their work before getting off track too far with a shared resource such as google doc.  This form of communication/technology allows students to give feedback to each other as an authentic audience.  Technology like google docs and other forms help support numerous forms of assessment activities, such as surveys, scoring rubrics to promote desired outcomes, and student reflection activities that help with self-assessment so that students can improve and grow.

2.  Teachers' and Students' Management Needs:
For teachers it is the project-management tools and strategies that make their work and communication during a project more manageable.  These include: A) tools for communicating with students and others about the project; B) tools for making milestones and events visible and for notifying students when changes occur; C) methods for getting resources to students; D) systems for managing work products; E) 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 F) assessment tools and strategies, such as accomplishing project goals, assessing the load balance, and giving relevant up-to-date feedback.  For students, the project management needs depend on the resources and technical supports that we make available for them, as well as our own comfort level with technology.  They include: A) systems and tools that help them manage their time and flow of work; B) systems that help students manage materials and control work drafts; C) collaboration tools; D) methods for seeking assistance; E) ways to get and use feedback on their work, through self-reflection, team input, and teacher advice; and F) ways to work iteratively and to see how parts add up to the whole.  I like the idea of providing students with a Learning Management System (LMS), to guide them with all their management needs discussed in the form of assignment drop boxes, grading, calendars, chats, rubrics, presentations, etc. which is considered a project briefcase that students can access anytime for anything they may need or schedule appointments with teachers.  A project briefcase helps us stay organized and on top of what we need to get done, it allows us to monitor the progress and actual use of students.

3.  Technology Applications that should be considered for use in a project:
The book describes several technology applications we should consider, such as  A) web-based applications that include wikis (an easily edited web page with several authors that holds students' digital artifacts and monitors what students are doing / holds students accountable for their learning, as well as their contributions). These can be easily edited by many authors/students.  Once students understand wikis, they can associate them with B) a blog ( an easily edited web page with only one author that broadcasts and shares news related to the project.  You can access blogs by C)
 using web-based "desktop" applications, such as iGoogle, My Yahoo, and Netvibes that are highly configurable in regards to items like Web mail, calendars, notepads, and news and blog feeds, etc..   Additionally, web spaces such as Drupal and Textpattern, which blend content management and blogging to help students collaborate are a great way to make quick changes to organizational structures and are a great tool for students to support their learning. 
4.  How does all this relate what we are doing:
This chapter is informing us about what we need to consider when creating our projects, how to make our projects more manageable, and how to accommodate students' management needs.  Most importantly, it allows us to understand what technology applications to consider for our project, such as wikis, a blog, and web-based "desktop" applications.  In class, technology has been the main focus and so that is something we have become more familiar with, in particular using blogs and desktop applications.  We signed a contract to work together collaboratively in each team, and in our joint effort of creating weather lessons to go with our concept maps, we are developing forms of formative assessment that reflect what we want students to learn.  Feedback from our peers has been our way of formal assessment and self-assessment through self-reflection on our blog that in turn is reviewed for feedback by our peers, and allows for formal assessment by the teacher to see whether we are participating and understanding the tasks in creating our project.  Our teams have had to manage different web based applications, such as Inspiration to create our concept maps, google doc to communicate and collaborate with our team mates, and task stream  to create our lessons, etc.

Reading Reflection #5

1.) Before having your students start a project, there are some important items that you as a teacher should consider first. You should start off by considering what resources your students will need when working on the project. Make sure to look at your inventory to see what supplies, tools, or other materials are available at the school or offered by your parent community and other supporters. Also, make sure that proper technologies will be available to your students (if required to complete the project). The next thing you should do before beginning the project is plan strategies to support effective time management, teaming, and assessment. Teaching students to be effective time-managers should be a part of every project you assign your students. Team planning with other teachers will help you tighten up any loose ends of your project. Since assessment is such a crucial part of PBL, it's important to plan proper assessments throughout the project. Overall, it's very important that you spend time planning each element of the project!


2.) Probably the most important management need of any project is time management. If the students don't understand how to properly manage their time, they will most likely start to fall behind on their project. And when the students start falling behind, it can be quite difficult for them to catch up to where they should be. So, ensure that your students know how to properly manage their time before starting the project.

Below are several TEACHER project-management needs listed in the book:
-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
-Assessment tools & strategies
-Structures that support a positive learning environment

Below are several STUDENT project-management needs listed in the book:
-Systems and tools that help students manage their time and flow of work
-Collaboration tools
-Methods for seeking assistance
-Systems that help students manage materials and control work drafts
-Ways to get and use feedback on their work


3.) Technology can be used in almost any project. The best technology application to use with a project is a class Wiki. This is a website that is able to easily be edited by the students. This is a great place for students to share ideas and collaborate with each other. Another way that technology can be used in a project is a blog. This is effective because what students post can only be changed by themselves. Other students can comment on the posts, but they can't change what someone has posted. Two more technology applications are Drupal and Textpattern. These are Web spaces that combine content management and blogging into one. Both of these resources are excellent ways for students to practice Web collaboration.


4.) The information presented in this chapter definitely relates to our group project. We need to make sure to include time-management practice into one of our first lessons. This will help prepare our students for the upcoming project they will do. The chapter also helps us realize that, as teachers, we have a lot of planning we need to do before we assign the project to our students. Since we plan on having our 5th grade class communicate with another 5th grade class in Sochi, Russia, we could incorporate the use of a blog into our project.

Reading Reflection 5

1. Before beginning your project it is important to remember that your classroom will need to have all of the necessary materials that are required to make the project as efficient as possible. By looking at the inventory that your school provides you with, you can determine if you have all the supplies needed for the project or if you lesson needs to be redesigned. Sometimes if the school does not offer you the materials you need you can seek for help from other areas of your community. As a teacher, you also need to double check that all of the technology you are planning on incorporating into the project is offered to the students to use while at school, if not you need to set up alternatives. Another invaluable resource that should be offered to the students is a person of expertise in your particular area of study. Sometimes it is not possible to get the physical person in the classroom; however, using technology to find information is always a good backup. The best thing a teacher can do before planning the project is to converse with as many fellow teachers as possible so that they can provide feedback and offer suggestions. 

2. Management needs, particularly time management is a crucial factor in all projects. Learning time management is an important skill that every student needs to learn. A lot of teachers incorporate projects into their curriculum just so that they can spend time getting their students used to a time crunch. The best way to ensure that your students will stick to the schedule is if you provide them with a visual project calendar to use as a reference for due dates. Share your calendar not only with the students but with the parents as well so they can monitor their students efforts. It is also important to remember that large projects should always be broken down into chunks so that not all of information is due on one day. One of the easiest ways to manage all of the information for the teacher, students, and parents is through an online environment, such as a class website. If the project was managed correctly every person involved should have felt informed and well-prepared to handle the task. 

Additional Project-Management Needs for Teachers:

• Tools for communicating with students about the project

• Methods for getting resources to the students

• Systems for managing work projects

• Structures that support a productive learning environment for both teams and individuals

Additional Project-Management Needs for Students: 

• Systems and tools to help them manage their time and flow of work

• Systems that help students manage materials and control work draft

• Collaboration tools

• Methods for seeking assistance

• Ways to get and use feedback on their work

• Ways to work interactively

3. Technology can be incorporated into almost any project, including those that aren't technology based.  For starters, technology can be used to post the deadlines for the project on a class website. The online website is also a great place for teachers to post the project rubric. Teachers can also incorporate technology into their assessments by planning for a wide range of formative assessments. You could have your students take a survey or fill out an online forum. For projects that include there are many web-based applications and services that can help assist students with their projects.Wiki pages and blogs are great examples of some of the products that students can make for their projects. 

4. The information in this chapter is relevant to our project because it gives us an idea of how we should be managing not only our own assignments but also the assignments that we are using in the project that we are designing for our "class". This chapter provides us with the best insight with how to properly plan and anticipate all of the elements that need to be included in our projects.

Reflection #4

1. There are four main pitfalls to look out for during project design. The first is, long on activity, short on learning outcomes. If the project is busy and long but reaches small or lower order learning aims, its not worth investigating your students or your time. If students can learn what is being taught in a lecture or in a book, the project is cut short. The second pitfall is, technology layered over traditional practice. Having students research a topic on the internet then having them present their information is not a quality project. Good projects focus on reaching significant learning outcomes. While reviewing a project plan, consider whether technology is used to bring people together, connect students to rich data or primary sources, or provide some other way to allow students to create unique high-quality learning products. The third pitfall is, trivial thematic units. Thematic teaching is not necessarily project based learning. There is a difference between learning about apples and going to an apple orchard and going to interview produce buyers and polling students at school. The final pitfall of project design is, overly scripted with many, many steps. The best projects have students making critical decisions about their learning path. 2.There are many features that make a project the best it can be. Research based frameworks for project design share distinguished features. Here are some features that are essential to keep in mind when designing a project: - loosely designed with the possibility of different learning paths - generative, causing students to construct meaning - center on a driving question or are otherwise structured for inquiry - realistic, and therefore cross multiple disciplines - reach beyond school to involve others - tap rich data or primary sources - get at 21st century skills and literacies, including communication, project management, and technology use - have students learn by doing 3. Good projects come from everywhere. Consider looking in the following directions in search of project ideas: - a tried and true project with potential for more meaningful, expressive learning - project plans developed by and for other teachers - news stories - contemporary issues - student questions or interests - a classroom irritant put to educational use - a "mash-up" of a great idea and new tool 4. Steps to designing a project: as you begin, remember your project exists within a context. 1. Revisit the framework - make a final list of learning objectives for core subjects and allied disciplines - decide on the 21st century skills you want to address in your classroom - identify learning dispositions you want to foster, such as persistence and reflection 2. Establish evidence of understanding. Imagine what students will know after they have learned. 3. Plan the "vehicle" (the project theme). What would your students inquire about, do, create? Imagine the ways experts interact with the topics you identified. 4. Plan entree into the project experience. What are the first things you might say to get students' attention and build excitement for the learning ahead? 5. Write a project sketch: a brief account of your project. 5. This topic relates greatly to what we are doing in class. It is very essential in our classroom that we take the proper steps in creating our projects. It is also important that we know what makes a good project. Its great to read about everything that makes a good project because that is what we are aiming for with the projects we are working on in the classroom.

Reading Reflection #4

1.) When creating/reviewing a project, it's important to understand that there are some potential pitfalls that you might encounter. ---One potential pitfall is titled "Long on activity, short on learning outcomes." In other words, make sure that your project focuses more on learning outcomes rather than length. If your students do a lengthy project but don't learn much from it, then it's pretty much a waste of time.
---Another potential pitfall is called "Technology layered over traditional practice." This means that you shouldn't simply assign your students a research project where they look up things on the internet and then present their findings. This is basically just a research report, not a quality project. So, be sure to focus the project on reaching significant learning outcomes.
---A third potential pitfall is titled "Trivial thematic units." It's crucial to avoid trivial thematic units because the don't give students a deep knowledge/understanding of the topic. Be sure to structure your project properly so that your students learn about many different aspects of your topic.
---The fourth and final pitfall is called "Overly scripted with many, many steps." Excellent projects are those that require students to make critical decisions about their learning path. So, it's very important to stay away from projects that are scripted. You want to make sure that your project does NOT end with "cookie cutter" work products.


2.) There are many features of a good project, I will discuss a few of them. Probably the most important feature of a good project is that it's designed loosely; good projects allow students to take different learning paths. Another feature of a good project is that it's realistic and crosses multiple disciplines. A realistic project will be very beneficial to your students. Another feature of a good project is that it reaches beyond school to involve others. If the project does this, the students will be able to learn how to collaborate with others. Another feature of a good project is that the project has the students learn by doing. Hands on activities will greatly help enhance the students' learning during the process of completing the project. One last feature of a good project is that it taps into rich data and primary resources. This will help develop the students' research skills.


3.) Project ideas can come from absolutely anywhere! Project ideas can come from other teachers. As teachers, we're all in this together to make sure that our student's continue to develop on a daily basis. With that being said, don't hesitate to ask other teachers for project ideas! Project ideas can also come from contemporary issues. When debating about a project idea, you can sometimes look to the news for interesting topic ideas. Believe it or not, project ideas can even come from classroom irritants. For example, you could even base a project around cellphones. Cellphones can be used as excellent research tools. When it comes to finding good project ideas, something that you should always remember to do is keep your eyes and your ears open because you never know when you'll come across a great idea!


4.) Designing a project is a step by step process. The first step is to revisit the framework. During this step you need to make a final list of all learning objectives for core subjects, decide on the specific 21st-century skills you want to address, and also identify learning dispositions you want to foster. The second step is to establish evidence of understanding. This involves imagining what your students will be able to do once they have learned something new and completed the project. The third step is to plan the "vehicle." Planning the theme or challenge of your project is a very crucial step. The fourth and final step is to plan excitement into the project experience. Building excitement into the project and grabbing the students' attention from the very beginning is a key component to a project's success.


5.) The information covered in this chapter directly relates to our project. In our project, we're having our "class" communicate with another 5th grade class in Sochi, Russia. This is one of the features of a good project, "reach beyond school to involve others." Also, our students will "learn by doing." Our students will be learning how to monitor weather and report on the current conditions. In doing this, our students will actually go outside and record observations about the weather. Overall, this chapter will be a very useful resource when planning our project!

Reflection #4

1)       Potential Pitfalls in Project Design:

The potential pitfalls are 1) long on activity, short on learning outcomes (avoid creating a project about something that can be just as well read or taught in a lecture and avoid projects where students produce similar products or products that can be found in reference material), 2) technology layered over traditional practice (avoid research reports in an electronic slideshow when conducting research on the internet), 3) trivial thematic units (do not confuse thematic teaching with PBL which may be trivial, rather think of a unifying theme that makes important connections and elevates learning by making certain the project is interdisciplinary, collaborative, and rigorous), and 4) overly scripted activities with many, many steps in projects (may lead to limited and predictable results).  We need to be mindful of these potential pitfalls when creating/planning a project that focuses on the quality of the student experience.  In order to achieve authentic learning for students and avoid coming up short, we need to keep looking until we can develop a project that eliminates these pitfalls.
 I believe that our group can avoid some of these pitfalls by offering our students authentic activities that allow them various ways to present their projects using different tools; and by using technology to bring students together with students in another country to discuss weather, as well as instant Doppler radar and weather maps.  We are hoping to make our project more relevant by having students learn about the effects that weather has on our Earth and its different regions (such as deserts due to no rain, or tundra due to severe cold temperatures, etc.) or simply our own community (four seasons with long winters, short summers).  Another way to make it more relevant for students is letting them explorer how weather and severe weather might affect our crops in the U.S. and Michigan or tourism and throughout our project, we need to allow students to make some of their own instructional decisions.

2)       Features of a Good Project:

A good project keeps its students in mind, the school calendar, the curriculum sequence, student readiness, and student interests, meaning you need to be flexible and understand that this year’s class may be different than last year’s class, today may be different than tomorrow, and students may have different abilities, allowing for varying amount of work to be completed, therefore a project or lessons may need to be altered accordingly.  A good project does not plan everything in detail from the beginning so as to not to constrain the project and limit where students can take it.  Nevertheless planning needs to be done, but in an ongoing collaborative process with lots of feedback from all of us that focuses on how we can make our project better, comprehensive, or realistic to capture students’ interests.  A good project has a flexible framework to guide project design, meaning we can make changes to our concept map/lessons that may reflect students’ interests and curiosities and learning modalities to make learning experiences more relevant.  A good project focuses on a driving question that allows tapping rich data, primary sources, acquire 21^st-century skills, and get at important learning dispositions. Good authentic projects are realistic by allowing for interdisciplinary connections to be made that promote inquiry skills as experts might, teach Internet research, allow students to make decisions, work in teams where they will learn from each other, and provide evidence of what was learned.  A good project avoids the traditional way of thinking when designing a project; it incorporates real-life or simulated situations in which students naturally want to learn more by asking open-ended questions, learn by doing, and reach beyond school to involve others by trying to find answers that involve their community in order to construct meaning.      

3)       Where Project Ideas Come From:

I agree with the book that good projects can be found everywhere.  Often times there are already great projects which are developed by other teachers ready for us to be accessed.  There are many more resources from books and online that we can search for, but we need to make certain that it is relevant to students.  As was discussed in the last chapter, we might want to use disruptive technology, such as cell phones and iPods as a resource to  build a project around.   

4)       Steps to Design a Project:

Now that we have created our first concept map which is our framework for our project, we need to revisit it to refresh our memory and create a “Project Sketch” (a brief description of the project framework /synthesis we have thought about so far).  It needs to include the following steps of learning the objectives for all disciplines, incorporate 21^st-Century skills we want to address, what learning dispositions we want to focus on, establish evidence of understanding, plan the project theme or what you want students to inquire about, create, or do through real-life connections, think about how to set the stage for students, and the path inquiry teams may take as they make projects their own.  Additionally, to design an authentic project, we need to create an asset map (concept map) in a program like Inspiration, which details the material goods, strengths, and talents of our team members, students, others, and resources that can be put to use for our project (such as phone numbers and web sites), and is something we are encouraged to add to.  Once our project comes together, we need to use technical aids to help us manage our resources, such as a spread sheets like Google Docs that everyone has access to.   

5)       How do Concepts Relate to our Topic/Project:

The concepts inform us about the course of action we need to take when planning our projects, what to do in order to have a good project that is authentic and relevant to students’ lives, and where we can get ideas for PBL projects and helpful steps in designing a project.  Planning a project can be overwhelming and I agree that when first creating a concept map (framework) we cannot possibly think of everything and it is an evolving process.  Additionally, to organize our ideas in writing, I have learned that we need to collaboratively develop a Project Sketch, an asset map, and technical aids to manage our project.  I have further learned that a good project has a driving question for inquiry, so I have been thinking about that based on our theme, e.g. “What do we need to know to create a weekly weather forecast?”  Our team is trying to make interdisciplinary connections to make our project more authentic by using science as the core subject and math, social studies, Language Arts, art, and technology as the disciplines with a secondary focus.  As always, collaboration and spending time on preparation is vital to the authenticity and relevance of our project.  So, we all should try to find some time online researching a project similar to what we want to do.  This would be a great resource to guide our project and make it better or we simply agree to create our own project from scratch and incorporate technology in a creative way. J J J

Reading Reflection 4

1.)Some of the potential pitfalls in project design:
 • Long activities that prove to be limiting the student’s outcomes. A project needs to be the “right size” if you want your student’s to learn the material. An indication that you may be facing this problem is when all students are producing similar products.
 • Technology layered over traditional teaching practices is an in adequate use of technology incorporation in the classroom because it is masking the true use of technology. The best way to make sure you are using technology properly is by looking at the quality of learning products.
 • Avoid trivial thematic units to ensure that your students are learning about the deeper meaning behind specific areas. Structure your lessons differently so that your students know all aspects of your topic.
 • Stay away from overly scripted lessons that contain too many steps. When a teacher is telling the students exactly what they should be doing they, you are missing the opportunity to allow your students to make their own critical decisions about their learning path.

 2.) As a teacher, the most important thing that you need to be aware of when planning a project is flexibility. It's essential to remember that you can't always predict what your day is going to be like, or how much work your students are going to be capable of handling in particular day. You should always be flexible when it comes to changing preexisting lessons so that they are newly catered to the interests of your current students. Some of the features that describe a great project is; loosely designed assignments, generative lessons that construct meaning, questions that promote inquiry, projects that are realistic and useful to real life, assignments that use 21st-century skills, and lessons that learn by the students physically doing something.

 3.) Good project ideas can be found anywhere and everywhere. By keeping your student's in mind you should always be able to find something to drive your projects. Keep your ideas limited to things that are relevant and interesting to the kids in your class. Sometimes even the things that you would never imagine forming a project around, such as disruptive technology in the classroom (i.e. cellphones, ipods, etc.) can be useful project ideas.

 4.) When designing your own project there are four important steps that need to be addressed before your idea has come to life. The first step involves revisiting the framework to make a final list of all learning objectives. You also need to decide on the 21st-century skills you want to address and utilize, as well as identifying the learning dispositions you want to foster. The second step is when you establish evidence of understanding, and imagine how your students will be different as learners because of this new information. The third step is when you plan the "vehicle" (the project theme or challenge). Before picking your topic you needs to think about what your students would acquire through this lesson. The final step is building excitement within your students so that they feel eager to start the project.

 5.) The information in this chapter is related to what we are doing in class because it shows the process that we are currently going through as we are building our projects for our "classrooms". This chapter is a good reference to consider as we build our lessons and imagine ideas to get our projects to the most productive level.

Reading Reflection #3

1.        What to consider in order to find the “Big Idea” for a project:

We need to think about how the “the heart” of a project, which is the complex and important “big idea,” that we choose will connect students to the real world and their own world and instill a passion in them. This is done best in collaboration with our colleagues where we need to be prepared to brainstorm as well as engage experts if needed in order to accommodate the diverse interest with hands-on and minds-on activities. We are developing this big idea by planning on our blog in form of a concept map and gradually fine tuning it.   How do we find this bid idea?  Well, we need to look at teacher’s guides for an overarching idea or search the internet, or come up with our own idea.  It is important, however, to think about the learning opportunities and interdisciplinary connections our project represents and incorporate a goal from several subjects through natural connections.  This overlapping of multiple disciplines will give students a real purpose to solve problems and offer value for their community.  By focusing on local issues through a community-based project, we need to think about learning dispositions and allow students to work together, be resourceful, and advocate for solutions by using digital resources, and information literacy.  This connection and authentic problem-solving will in turn allow for authentic assessment that is important in PBL by using higher level questioning.  I especially like when the book gives the example of asking students to imaginine, that you are preparing for a trip by asking you to think about where you would go, how you would get there, what you would do, and what to pack, etc.  These are natural connections we make without any trouble in order to connect the big idea.  So the biggest consideration to find the “Big Idea” in my opinion is planning which takes time.  So let’s prepare and plan together to make certain our project is authentic and incorporates all the suggestions in the book on page 57, points 1-8. J   

2.        21^st Century Skills:

I agree with the suggestion that the more complex and important an idea for a project is the better.  After all, we want to foster 21^st Century thinkers and problem-solvers.  Bloom’s Taxonomy is a great way to ask students lower order to higher order thinking questions that include: remember (knowledge), understand (comprehension), apply, analyze, evaluate, and create (synthesis).  However, I have learned in my pre-internship last semester that we want students to think about higher order questions and that is the realm of projects with the last three, also important to PBL.  I believe that it is so important for students to be able to analyze what they are learning, in our case weather conditions that can be measured and compared to other locations, etc.  The analysis of weather conditions can be evaluated by assessing weather and explaining weather patterns and a weekly weather forecast can be created by watching a local weather forecaster, the internet, and by design.  This will engage students, because it is authentic and students are encouraged through proper questioning to come up with solutions.     

3.        21^st Century literacy’s:

I agree that in the 21^st Century, we need to be able to do more than simply read and write as a skill.  We as teachers need to be able to teach our students’ 21^st-Century skills and a model that highlights Digital-Age literacy, Inventive Thinking, Effective Communication, and High Productivity.  This is done through a framework that incorporates Core Subjects in conjunction with 21^st-Century content, such as global awareness, something our students will garner by collecting weather data from other places in the world; Learning and Thinking Skills, such as problem-solving of how to measure weather conditions and how to interpret a weather map or communicating with a weather station and students across the globe, or using a computer to explorer important weather terms and forecasts; as well as life skills, such as self-direction by choosing which way they want to collect their data, what charts to use for the collection of data, and/or how to present their data in their presentation using technology, etc.  I agree with the book that in order to be literate, you need to be able to independently function and perform in a world that is inundated with technology, and be aware that it requires creativity, innovation, effective communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, digital citizenship, technology preparations and concepts, and adaptable thinkers who can address the challenges that lie ahead in order to be productive citizens.  So this means that we need to acquire 21^st-century skills and become 21^st-century literate ourselves in order to fill the big shoes of teaching this new way of thinking and learning through 21^st-century instructional goals involving 21^st-century technology to our students. J  I believe that no one student can be literate by learning all the information that is out on the web today, but in my opinion literate in today’s world is when you are as smart as the technology that can get you the information that you need.  So if students can learn how to learn on their own by finding their own information and share this information with others than that is a battle half won, because they learn how to find, evaluate, and synthesize information, something we want them to learn. 

4.        The essential learning functions:

The essential learning functions are: 1) Ubiquity: learning inside and outside the classroom, and all the time.  They are tools that help students to be mobile and learn wherever, whenever, and with whomever, such as google docs, web mail, mobile phones, etc.  I am seeing more and more teachers utilize these tools in the classroom.  The problem with cell phones, especially in high-school is if you know students are using them in the classroom secretly, use them to your advantage to promote learning, which in turn will spark the interest of students.  2) Deep learning suggests helping students find and make sense of “raw” information on the Web, something we are trying to do in our project by having students find, sort, and analyze, weather symbols, charts, radar imagery and weather data through real-time data sets in order to predict and create their own weather forecast.  We can also teach our students weather through digital videos and I especially like the Pearson website, which is a great teacher resource for that.   3) Making Things Visible and Discussable, such as presenting a weekly weather forecast in a digital format with graphic representations or digital art.  4) Expressing Ourselves, Sharing Ideas, Building Community allows students to express themselves by using blogs and social software to communicate with one another about their project.  5) Collaboration-Teaching and learning with others is often done through wikis, expert and learning exchanges which our students would do by exchanging weather information with students in Sochi, Russia and visiting a local weather station where they will learn about digital instruments that meteorologists use and what their job is when forecasting the weather.  6) Research in my opinion is the most important of the learning functions, because students need to be able to retrieve information, but it can be overwhelming, so we need to help them focus their research by helping them make sense of what they need to look for in search-engines with filtering, quality directories, bookmark tagging tools, and citation “engines” and something that will involve more of our guidance.  7) Project Management: Planning and Organization is best done on a homepage such as Desire2Learn, moodle, etc.  8) Reflection and Iteration on a blog allows for alternative perspectives.  It is a draft for how you think and reflect on your project collaboratively.  A great way to share ideas is on a wiki, something I have done before in numerous of my math classes. 

5.        How do the concepts in this chapter relate to our topic: 

As I have already described how this chapter relates to our topic throughout, some things I have to add is that our group is collaborating in order to develop the “big idea” of a weekly weather forecast that students will create on their own.  We have come up with several sub-topics and are continuously improving the concept map.  In fact, we have already improved it once.  We are using a blog to work on this concept map in order to share our ideas.  We are trying to include local issues into our sub-ideas by including collecting weather data in Kalamazoo and comparing it with other weather data across the globe, and visiting a local TV station to ask questions about how they collect weather data and make weather predictions. One thing we need to work on is to make certain that the sub-topics relate to different subjects and satisfy the content standards.  We also need to make sure that we develop good questions that use Bloom’s Taxonomy when creating our lesson plans where students solve real-life problems that are important to them.  We are
synthesizing information as a group and incorporating 21^st Century technologies as described.  For our project, we had to use essential learning functions by creating a document on googledocs, we have used real-time data by looking up current weather maps locally and across the globe and inserted as a visual representation on our blog.  We are learning together by collaborating on our blog as we have done when sharing our websites to make certain they were not the same and each of us finished an assigned project.  By creating this concept map, we are focusing on the big idea and sub ideas of what students should be learning to achieve the “big idea.”  This is why we have been researching to develop the concept map and are constantly planning and reflecting and iterating with each other on our blog to have a project in the end that is worthwhile. J J J