Chapter 11

Students can benefit a lot from Project Based Learning. Students Results from PBL contain the fact that they will move on with knowledge and skills they will be able to keep with, and use their whole life. In comparison to studying for tests, and be assessed where the students are likely to forget the information PBL gives students the ability to manage time, projects, enable the skills to work with a team, and much more important aspects to education passing on to real world situations. To be able to “Bring your project home” it is key to take your investment and capitalize on it. It is also important to critique your work, share thoughts, and become a resource to others around you. Another important thing is to be able to look back at work and understand how certain plans made it successful. By doing this you are able to pick out pieces that worked. Picking out specific things such as technological tools and strategies can help you for when planning future projects. It is important to give insight to co working teachers for they will also learn from you. This chapter applies to your project of Birding because our main goal is to have the students develop and take the skills that they build to use later in life in the real world. It is important so that the students can hold on to ideas so that they can apply them to future projects they may be assigned at a later time.

Reflection - Chapter 11

The result of project-based learning projects is an amazing learning journey! These well thought out projects provide student and teachers experiences that will last a life time; true learning. By the time a project is completed, results include research using technology and community or global collaboration, a comprehensive understanding of the project content, and an appreciation for learning.

Chances are that when a project is finished, there will still be some lingering questions or even questions about new project topics. The first step to take in “bringing it home” is to reflect individually and as a group. Focus on how you feel now that the project is done, what worked or didn’t, and ask each student to write about something they look forward to researching after the completion of the project. Following this technique keeps the learning project alive in what your class does each day.

Our group project on birding will follow these guidelines. Our Event Day is going to be a huge deal! This final piece of our project will be such a learning event itself; requiring a great deal of reflection. I will be taking notes of how our Event unfolds but most importantly, the students will do their bst to predict what will happen that day. If we find something didn’t work the way we hoped, we may plan our next project around how to fix that kind of issue.

Reflection 10

The importance of setting aside time for reflection is an essential element in learning. Setting aside time for conscious reflection helps students reveal things they might not otherwise think about: what they learned ( and what they enjoyed about learning,) their growth as learners, and what/how they want to learn in projects ahead.

The reason students need to reflect and elaborate is so they can become more accomplished project-doers. You can ask them: What does this get you wondering about next? What do you want to learn now, and how do you want to go about it? We must ask our students where they want to go. We may find that their answer might yield a more ambitious project than we would imagine.

Many schools’ identities are tied to their traditions. Some schools are sport powerhouses, while in other communities the school symphony is a source of great pride. These schools share a sense of tradition and expectation of excellence.

Celebrating a project is very important because it gives students pride in their own work. Make sure any celebration includes the following:

·  An opportunity to look back one more time

·  Acknowledgment of how hard work and commitment contributed to the success of the project and culture of excellence at your school

·    Appreciation for those who helped

·    A display of the learning, including both student creations and presentations

·   A look inside the learners with opportunities for them to talk about their processes and growth

·  An opportunity to show case projects to colleagues, administrators, parents, and others in you larger learning community.

Concepts in this chapter relate to my topic because we are building tradition and identity in our project. We are asking our community to come together and participate in the celebration of learning in “All Things Birds, a Community Event.”

Chapter 9

 It is good to have students write brief summaries as to what there current knowledge on a topic is, this way the teacher get get an understanding to what they already know. The KWL  is also a useful tool, having students complet the KWL and read them aloud to the rest of the class or turn it into the teacher.

it is easy to get an understanding  where individual students are in the beggining of their projects and the work they need to put in to that project by establishing an anchor because In a PBL based classroom the opportunities to use different types of instruction in order to help every type of learner complete their project in a full manner.

A type of assessment that can be used is to conference with the students as to what they learned. an idea would also be to use video taping, interviews with each student so the teacher can look back on them and analyze each students differences. At the end of a project the teacher could have the students complete a separate activity so the could summarize what they learned while working through their projects. One way to evaluate the work of your students is to use a modeled real world assessment, to do this, the teacher would have the students apply the professional skills in a specific area.

This chapter was very useful to our project subject. since our subject is birding, it could be difficult in finding ways as to assess the students. The chapter was able to provide solid examples as to ways we could go about doing this.

Digital Story

http://youtu.be/bYKpz-9iE7U

Reflection 9

There are many methods of understanding prior-knowledge of students. Often not all students are on the same level. By understanding where your students stand you will be able to help and assess them on what they already know and what they have learned. Not all projects will be the same for every student. Establishing anchors for a project is very important. You can gain a sense of where your students are and how far they need to go. Measuring a students progress will help us find out how far that student is going or needs to work to meet the learning goals. There are several ways to assess what students have learned during a project. You can develop rubrics to assess the progress toward certain key learning goals. You can also do a formal evaluation of your students understand. By giving your students a test over the material you can clearing see if your students understood the material based on their scores. If the class scores good then you did it! However, if the scores are lower than you anticipated you know what you need to work on or have your students improve on. The concepts in this chapter relate to our project because we have to establish "anchors" for our students. We also need to create some kind of assessment so that we test and understand where are students stand,what they need to review,and what else we need to teach them so that they can gain a better understanding of the topic.

Reflection 8

Some ways to build connections and branch out are to use digital age projects. The students can consult with experts in the course of researching a particular topic. They can design a project so that they can communicate with fellow learners from other classrooms or even around the world. This way they can become proficient at working in a culturally diverse world. The EAST Initiative Model is a network of schools demonstrating the benefits of using technology for a real purpose. These projects solve problems and make improvements in their communities. These projects make use of geospatial technologies and multimedia tools that are more commonly found in professional laboratories or design studios. The EAST model is built on four essential ideas. 1. Student driven learning: students need to be responsible for their own learning. 2. Authentic project based learning: students should be engaged in solving real problems in their communities.3. Technology as tools: students need access to relevant technologies that professionals use to solve real problems. 4. Collaboration:When students collaborate in teams to pursue authentic projects, they accomplish more than any one person can do in isolation. As teachers become more comfortable with the project approach they can see that their students are capable of leading their own projects. This allows students to start thinking and generating ideas that they care about. Concepts in this chapter relate to my topic because our students will be reaching out beyond the classroom to other students around the world. Our students will build connections and use digital age projects too. This will allow our students to communicate with others any use the knowledge of what they know about technology.

Chapter 8

There are several ways to build to extend lessons beyond the classroom. Some of the ways to reach beyond the immediate classroom are to have a blog. having a blog allows a teacher to work, and share ideas with colleagues. Incorporating blogs also allows your student to be able to connect with people over vast distance so that they can experience live input and collaboration.The EAST initiative model focuses on student independent learning, project based learning, using technology as tools and collaboration with others. The model is used from lower elementary up to the higher level learning of highschool age. teachers have found that for the years this program has been implemented, it has shown a high success rate amongst educating students. A couple key points of the program is that is helps students become independent for when they head out into the real world situations.Teachers should let students lead their projects. A couple reasons that this would be effective is that it makes sure that the students understand the concepts to the point of being able to teach that subject to someone else, allows students to become comfortable with their projects, and also builds a students confidence when giving explanation.All of this summary is releveant to my project because all of the things talked about can be beneficial to use when having a class of my own. I especially find the EAST inititative model of upmost importance because it allows students to connect and become independent thinkers and to be able to take action in real world situations.

Chapter 7 Read and Reflect

The different levels of discussions within the classroom include teacher to teacher, student to teacher and student to student. Teacher to teacher includes collaboration among colleagues. It is highly important for teachers and staff to work together as a team so that the students benefit. Student  to teacher are paths of communication between the two Students need to be able to notify their instructor as to how they are coming along with their projects, what parts they are having trouble with, and what their strengths are. Also student to student includes the collaboration of work to better understand one another. For checking in, several questions can be formulated based on students during a project. Procedural; which points to making sure the due dates and check points are being completed in the time allotted. Teamwork questions help to ensure students are getting along, working well with each other, along with making progress on their project. This can be done is by having students take confidential online surveys of one another. Having students grasp a better understanding of based questions encourages students to push themselves to maximum potential. Self-assessment questions can be recorded in a personal daily journal that students make look back on throughout their project.There are many 21^stcentury skills that can make or break a project. Troubleshooting allows students to get an understanding that real-world projects come from real-world challenges. Team work skills along with dynamics can affect a project greatly both ways.Teachers should provide help to students if they sense a problem arising, also evaluation of peers can be highly effective when using a rubric. Our project uses 21^st Skills in several ways. Students will be utilizing many forms of technology, along with much group discussion getting peers to play a big part within the collaborative portion, sharing ideas, thoughts, and plans with one another.

Chapter 7 - Reflection

Walk by a classroom and you will hear lots of laughter and chatter! This chatter you hear is learning and this dialogue can be explained in three tiers; teacher to teacher, student to student, and teacher to student. Teacher to teacher describes the planning and collaboration between teachers. Student to student occurs between collaborate groups and across groups. Finally, there is the teacher to student dialogue.

Teachers need to remember that there are always chances to check learning; this cannot be overused! We want the students to be independent learners, so questions should promote self-reflection.  However, the best questions are one that the students and teachers both learn from!

Just as questions need to be thoughtful, the use of technology in the classroom should be meaningful as well. Make sure the technology helps students reach learning goals and stay organized. Technology should expand the students’ learning. Many of the 21^st Century Skills we have discussed can really make a difference in how successful your project turns out. For example team collaboration is such a valuable, real world tool for students. As a teacher, anticipate problem areas, but facilitation is a better approach as opposed to avoidance; your students will learn to work cooperatively in school and in life.

My project utilizes 21^st Skills in many ways. Students will be first introduced to many different forms of technology. Also, they will be involved in many student to student discussions during their collaborative group work.

reflection 7

Classroom discussions take place on several levels during project implementation. They include three levels, teacher to teacher, student to student, and teacher to student. In the middle of a project student teams are likely to be going in many directions/speeds. Based on the type of information you want to ask the following questions: Are we staying on schedule? How are teams members getting along? Do we have the right materials available? When’s the best time to schedule a field trip? Consideration of the following questions may help you maximize the potential of technology during a project: Is technology helping students reach learning goals, or is it leading them on side trips? Is technology helping students stay organized? Are students able to use technology to expand their horizon by connecting outside experts or a broader community? The 21st century skills that can make or break a project are very important. Helping students understand that real world projects come with real world challenges. As teachers we need to help them learn from setbacks and fine tune their strategies for getting a project. The concepts in this chapter relate to my project/topic because we have to consider questions that will help us maximize our potential of the technology part of the project.