Revised Concept Map 03/01/2013

Amanda Miller

EDT 3470

22 February 2013

Reflection #5

1.      There are several things that need to be considered before introducing a project to students. First, it is essential to consider the resources you will need and plan strategies to support effective time management, teaming and assessment. By doing this, we ensure that we are ready to make the best use of instructional time once the project is underway. Before beginning, teachers need to ask themselves what resources need to be used. See what supplies, tools or other materials are available at school or offered by your parent community and other supporters. Next teachers need to ask themselves if technology will be used and who else can help with the project.

2.      When planning a project, teachers and students should have management needs and skills. This is extremely important and extremely essential to a successful project as well as overall, learning. Many things that are important for teachers to include are tools like milestones, communication and assessments. As the reading states, a good team needs a mix of skills. These management skill help student become more structured. Team planning requires the reset of expectations and experiment will different combinations. With that being said, it may help to team students will others who share the same skills or interests. I think it is also key for students to know how to seek help or assistance when working so that they can learn and grow from feedback.

3.      In this chapter, I found that there are many technology applications that should be considered for use in a project. With web pages, a wiki is the simplest and easy when editing. A blog is another great form, such as Drupal or Textpattern. These web applications give students the opportunity to submit their work and have their teachers and classmates read and provide feedback. This is a great way to engage in project based learning.

4.      I enjoyed reading this chapter because it relates to our project/topic by giving us more ways to become successful while using project based learning. This chapter also shines light upon what we have been doing in class which will also help our group project be a success. I think this chapter goes hand in hand with classroom management as well. This chapter stresses the importance of organization too. Our project can and will truly benefit from this chapter let alone this text.

Reading Reflection #5

Lydia Harpe

Reading Reflection #5

Ever since my very first education class I have learned from my professors and from my peers that the most valuable resource a first-year teacher can have is the advice from the teachers around her. This chapter reinforces that idea by saying that "team management takes effort but...is worth the investment" (80); it also suggests many other invaluable assets that teachers will need to gather as they plan their "big idea"; these include supplies, experts on the topic, and technology.

Technology is essential to a 21st century project and there are a wide variety of ways to use it! For example, my group's project this semester is designing and creating a healthy dessert oookbook, and I can envision the students in my classroom using a class blog to share ideas and skype to communicate with chefs and bakers around the world! I just wrote a lesson plan about having my students use laptops and ipads to research desserts from countries around the world; this information would not be nearly as accessible without the technology that allows the students to instantly find it!

In order to manage a project appropriately, teachers need to use tools for communicating with their students about the project (such as a blog or class website), systems for managing work products, and assessment tools and strategies. Technology can be used for all of these to make important information easily accessible and visible to both students and teachers. As students work through a project they are going to need ways to stay on track and receive timely feedback, and teachers can connect with their students outside of the classroom through using technology. Students will also be able to collaborate with one another and seek assistance through using the technology that their teachers make available.

Last week's lecture about high and low tech really excited me about the endless possibilities for technology in my future classroom and so did this chapter! I hope to start simply and then build my way up to managing a classroom that utilizes technology as a way for teachers and students to connect, collaborate, and assist in learning!

     

Reading Reflection #5

Corin Justa

February 22, 2013

Reading Reflection #5:

All teachers are obligated to successfully fulfill the curriculum standards in their classrooms throughout the school year. However, teaching requires more than just providing students with an education, but with lessons and materials to make students learning experience engaging and meaningful. The items that should be considered before starting a project with students are what materials you will need. It is important to take an inventory of what supplies are available at the school in order to know what you have to work with. In the case of not having all the necessary materials, teachers can use parents, students and the community as resources to help provide these necessary items for the students positive learning experience classroom. It is also important to know if projects are going to require technology, expert speakers, or field trips to appropriately plan and inform students, as well as their parents of what they can look forward too as they move through the project.

Project management is extremely important and essential to a successful learning experience. It is crucial that teachers include tools for communication, milestones/events, and assessments in their lessons. Providing students with clear systems of management, structured tasks and due dates will help establish a structured and organized project. Project management tools and strategies that are necessary for students include having methods for managing time work flow, and materials appropriately. It is also important for students to know how to appropriately seek assistance and use feedback when working to better their learning experience.

Some of the technology applications that should be considered for use in a project include web-based applications such as Wiki, or a blog such as Drupal or Textpattern. These web pages provide the students the opportunity to publish their work and have their peers and teachers read and reflect on it. Each online application provides a different way for students to study and reflect on their experience as they engage in the projects they are learning.

The concepts in this chapter relate to our project/topic by illustrating more ways to conduct a successful lesson while using project based learning. It also reflects on what we have been doing within our technology education course, by blogging and reflecting on each other’s responses to the chapters we are reading. As with classroom management, project management is extremely important when trying to provide a positive learning experience. Organization is a key component to both the student’s, as well as the teacher’s success in a classroom.

 

Reading Reflection #4

Corin Justa

February 15, 2013

Reading Reflection #4:

1.      The potential pitfalls of project design include:

a.       Long activities that are short on learning outcome, meaning that the project may be busy or too long that it does not provide the level of recall and understanding because of its lengthiness.

b.      Technology layered over traditional practice, where students research topics online, but present their knowledge using their traditional presentations with things such as PowerPoint.

c.       Trivial thematic units that may lack the big picture of many other aspects that may correlate with the topic being studied.

d.      Overly scripted with many, many words, which can cause students and teachers to go through many steps to find the key things they are searching for and be led to a dead end.

2.      Some features of a good project include features such as:

a.       Being loosely designed with the possibility of different learning paths.

b.      Being generative, causing students to construct meaning.

c.       Centering on a driving question or are otherwise structured for inquiry.

d.      Capturing student interest through complex and compelling real-life or stimulated experiences.  

e.       Reaching beyond school to involve others.

f.       Having students working as inquiring experts might

g.      have students learn by doing

3.      Project ideas come from:

a.       new stories

b.      contemporary issues

c.       student questions or interests

d.      a classroom irritant put to educational use

e.       a “mash up” of a great idea or a new tool

f.       a tried or true project with potential for more meaningful, expressive learning

g.      project plans developed by and for other teachers

4.      The steps to design a project include revisiting the framework by doing such things as making a final list of learning objectives for core subjects and allied disciplines. It is important to decide on what specific skills should be addressed and to identify the learning dispositions. With these skills, teachers can establish evidence of understanding among their students, identify what they will acquire and plan the project experience.

5.      Discussion in this chapter relate to our group topic by providing examples of what does and does not work when trying to incorporate project based learning into our lesson. With this new knowledge of good project features and pitfalls, we can stay clear of certain teaching styles that may defect our topic by avoiding them and try to incorporate the successful ones to become efficient in our ways of teaching.

Reflection #4

Amanda Miller

ED 3470

15 February 2013

Reflection #4

1.      The chapter focuses on four potential pitfalls:

a.       Long on activity, short on learning outcomes. Meaning if the activity takes longer for the learner and the student does not learn much of anything, then it may be best to come up with another idea for that project.

b.      Technology layered over traditional practice. This means that if learning aims are lofty and technology helps students reach them, then the integration of technology is essential to the project. It says in the book that, as you are 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 and high-quality learning products.

c.       Trivial thematic units: This is not essentially project based learning. When examining thematic projects or creating your own, look for ways a theme elevates and connects the learning.

d.      Overly scripted with many, many steps. This can sometimes involve many steps. But as long as the students are gaining and learning from this step may be promising. On the other hand, be weary of over-prescriptive project plans that have many discrete steps.

2.      The best projects share the important features.

a.       Are loosely designed with the intent of different learning paths

b.      Are generative, causing students to construct meaning

c.       Center on a driving question or are otherwise structured for inquiry

d.      Capture student interest through complex and compelling real-life or simulated experiences.

e.       They are realistic, and therefore cross multiple disciplines

f.       They reach beyond school to involve others

g.      Tap rich data or primary sources

h.      They are structured so that students learn with and from each other

3.      Project ideas are said to come from everywhere. One successful project will lead to another.  There are many resources out there to help get project ideas. There are sources on the internet, books, magazines, student interests or questions, etc. Finding something with a good structure is essential, too.

4.      When designing your project you must first revisit the framework, meaning make a final list of learning objectives for core subjects and allied disciplines. Also, identify learning dispositions you want to foster, such as persistence and reflection. Then, establish evidence o f understanding. Plan the “vehicle,” and plan the entrée into the project experience. When planning a project, we need to paint a clear picture of how we want our project to be so that it will be a success when seen.

5.      The concepts in this chapter relate to our project because it has some very rich and useful information when designing our projects. I learned a lot from this chapter let alone just on how to gather ideas and design our project. I think this chapter was important and spoke a lot about how to make projects a success. I think our group will learn a great deal and definitely use this chapter while designing our project.

Taskstream: Lesson Plan #1

Here's a link to my lesson plan.

Subject: Social Studies
Topic: Researching other Countries

https://w.taskstream.com/Lesson/View/FA9DC4D48A058F205782A3FE6A0AE06A

Reading Reflection #4

                                              Reading Reflection #4

          Project-based learning requires a lot of planning by us teachers if projects are to be beneficial to the students in our classrooms; a lot of our planning should be spent deciding what topics we will pick for our students to explore. We must use critical thinking to bypass the multitudes of pitfalls that we could encounter in picking a project for our classroom; for example, we must make sure that the activities of the project do not consume so much of our students' time and energy that there is little space left over for any productive learning outcomes. Another pitfall is that we will be so excited to introduce technology into our classrooms that we use it in ways that are not really that helpful; integrating technology is only useful when its enriches or adds to a project by itself. 

          Even if you are evaluating a project designed by another teacher and find that there are some pitfalls, you can always revise their ideas into an original plan for your classroom. We teachers must make sure that we create plans that take students down diverse learning paths, are based on requiring our students to research and inquire for answers, and go beyond school into real-life situations. We should not design projects just so that children have an alternative way of learning to the traditional textbook scenario, but so that students learn by doing and know that their work has real-life benefits.

         Creating and designing a project may be a lot of work, but I think that taking this time will really reap multiple benefits in the classroom. My group spent a good amount of lab time a few weeks ago just thinking over our concept map for our project and making sure we had all pieces to the puzzle in order to make our project of designing a dessert cookbook a success. So too must we be willing and prepared to work when we are designing projects for our future students.

Reflection #3

Amanda Miller

EDT 3470

February 8^th 2013

Reflection #3

1.      When thinking about what is important, I found that in this chapter, it talks about the importance of making lesson plans engaging and flourishing. The “big idea” for a project is the core concepts and processes, as well as planning out the curriculum. Another “big idea” is the learning communities that were talked about in chapter two. It’s important to use other colleagues and staff members to receive guidance and new ideas. The main idea of the lesson plan is the most important. After finding the big idea in a lesson plan, then we need to reflect on why these concepts are important. Having students learn these effective concepts will only help children tie in the relevance their everyday life and aid children in seeing things more realistically.

2.      I feel it is important for students to use twenty first century skills when doing this project. This is because it requires more hands-on time as well as higher thinking strategies. When taking a look at the aspect of project based learning, students must analyze, evaluate and create actions associated with them. These verbs will definitely come in handy when trying to “drive” student’s actions.

3.      When reading about the 21^st century literacies, I found that, “the decisions about instruction and the learning tools you use are not made lightly,” and that “When you choose new technology told or ones students or parents typically associate with other purposes, it is important to communicate about the power of using the tools to meet instructional aims, as well as you attention to safety.” This is crucial, because effective communication is a must in the classroom as well as students parents and others around who you associate yourself with.

4.      While reading I found many learning functions. I found that learning functions are important traits, attitudes, habits, and feelings we encourage but do not teach. I like how the book states, “projects with passion help connect with the social and emotional sides of the learning experience.” This is key in the classroom. Teachers must be aware of planning, organization and what the requirements of projects are. Teachers should be able to make sure that the students are actually soaking in the information that is being taught.

5.      The concepts in this chapter relate to our project topic because everything that is discussed in this chapter must be done in order for our project to run as it should. As a team, I think we have a good grasp on what we want our children to accomplish as well as gain from this project. They will have to analyze, evaluate, and create healthy deserts for our class cookbook, by learning how other contries around the world make deserts and what they include!

Reading Reflection #3

Corin Justa

EDT 3470

February 8, 2013

Chapter Three Reflection:

The topic of chapter three involved discussing the many ways of planning to help develop the most successful and engaging lesson plans. The “Big Idea” for a project is looking over the curriculum standards and using those and your colleagues as teaching guides. When creating a lesson plan, looking at the main focus is most important. Students can become responsible for finding ways that the subjects they are learning about are incorporated into actual jobs and day to day life. Illustrating these important parts to your students and giving them the opportunity to connect it to the world around them is a very beneficial, fun and engaging way to get the curriculum across and keep the students focused.

The twenty-first century skills include knowledge, comprehension, and synthesis. These skills cause the students to really think and understand what they are learning through analyzing, evaluating, creating. The twenty-first century literacies involve the skills but more importantly focuses on the student’s ability to be independent, aware and productive in their learning. These qualities are crucial to have in order for students to be taught new information, be able to grasp the concepts and put it all to good use in the future.  

There are several essential learning functions. Some of the important parts include learning inside and outside the classroom, all the time, as well as deep learning, collaborating, researching, reflecting and iteration. It is important to allow the students to express themselves, share ideas and build communities. Making things visible and discussable helps with project management when planning and organizing what the students are learning. When all of these functions are used together, it helps provide students the ability to work collectively to discover new things as they learn, and provides the teacher with the ability to assess how the students are do and how successfully they are comprehending the material they are learning.

The concepts discussed in this chapter relate to our project by illustrating how research, planning and organization are all key components to successful hands on learning experience. Being able to have students, as well as teachers work together to analyze, evaluate, and create new ideas and ways of thinking while using collaboration, visuals, discussion and planning and organizing  is one of the best ways to stay engaged when learning new material. Using these ideas of skills, literacies and functions while creating our project will help us to construct strong engaging lesson plans on the topics we are covering.

Reading Reflection #3

                                            Reading Reflection #3

           In project-based learning there must of course be a large goal for students and their teacher to work towards if the project is to span several subjects, last long enough, and be an enriching learning experience for all. This is called the “big idea” and can be anything from publishing a school newspaper to energy in the solar system. I think that when picking out the “big idea” for your classroom's project, one must consider something that connects to the real world as well as to the normal curriculum and subjects students are expected to learn.

           Students must use 21^st century skills in working on this project, which requires deeper thinking and more hands-on work than traditional work in the classroom. In this aspect of project-based learning students must analyze, evaluate, and create; perhaps these activities might manifest themselves by students analyzing sources, evaluating books, and creating newspaper articles.

            Going hand in hand with 21^st century skills are the essential learning functions, some of which we have already talked about before in chapters one and two. For example, just as we teachers must be open to sharing and collaborating on ideas, students must also realize the necessity of working with one another in the classroom and online. Projects also require research, which is where the components of students analyzing and evaluating prior works relating to their topics comes in. I think the most important part of project-based learning is the planning and organization that teachers must put into the projects behind the scene to make sure everything goes smoothly and students are actually learning amid all the discussion and work that must take place. 

          My group is focusing on creating a dessert cookbook with our students that is both healthy and unique as well as containing multicultural ideas from our partner school. I think that we have a pretty “big idea” for our students to work towards because they have to analyze and evaluate both American and European cultures in order to create healthy recipes for our cookbook. I am excited to keep working towards reaching a successful completion to our project.

Reflection #2 Chpter 2

Amanda Miller

EDT 3740

02 February 2013

Reflection #2

1.      Before reading this chapter and just glancing at the topic questions, I thought that “learning communities” is such a broad issue to discuss.  When reading this chapter I found that learning communities are different from other communities. A learning community is a cluster of people who share the same values or beliefs. Chapter two focuses on the importance of this community as well as its impact on teachers and students.

2.      The benefits of learning communities include decreased teacher isolation, increased commitment, shared responsibility, more powerful learning and a higher likelihood of fundamental, systemic change. Also, communicating with others daily will help people be able to solve little problems and exchange ideas to different problems. Learning communities help with the core learning techniques that are shared in the classroom. These communities help to seek and understand how learning matters in education.

3.      Learning communities can help teachers because working with other colleagues inside a teaching community will aid in teaching strategies and lessons throughout the year. I witnessed this personally in my pre-internship. One of the most important reasons, I think, that learning communities are important for teachers is so that there is time left for other teachers to talk about what they are going to teach and how they do it.

 This chapter states that “Creating a professional learning community means making time for ways of working with colleagues (pg. 31.)” Chapter two also talks about how these learning communities will help support the shift in project-based instruction.

4.      On the other hand, learning communities are also essential and affect students. I think the chapter says it very well, “students learn to learn well (pg. 32.)” I agree with this. For students, learning communities are used as building blocks for students. They can help prepare students for the real world. This may include things like they name in chapter two. “Communication, organization, problem solving, persistence, motivation, project management, etc. (pg. 32.)”

5.      The component for shared vision in learning communities is where teachers come together to create a teaching vision to strive towards in their daily teaching. Envisioning your school, and how you want it to be in several years ahead, sharing visions is vital in learning communities. Having shared visions is a good practice and is a great way to set goals for the future.

6.      The concepts on learning communities in chapter two relate to our topic/project because our group is a learning community within itself. I think my group is going to work well together in making our project awesome. We will aim to make a shared vision on our topic as well as communicate effectively with one another to reach a goal. This group project will certainly be a positive learning experience to better prepare us for when we teach and become a part of a faculty or teacher community.

Reading Reflection #2

Corin Justa

February 1, 2013

Reading Reflection Two:

The goal of every teacher should be to provide their students with the opportunity to learn, grow and succeed at whatever they put their minds to. It is our responsibility as teachers to explore every possible way to maintain a positive and rewarding learning experience in our classrooms. With that being said, it is important for us to know that our lessons are appropriate and that our teaching styles will be successful when educating our students. Learning Communities provides benefits to help support this important goal in our responsible careers as teachers. These communities help provide us with feedback on our ways of teaching, demonstrating the positive aspects and areas we can work on. Collaborating with other groups of teachers also allows for us to learn new approaches to teaching, which can also be extremely beneficial. This form of community among our fellow colleagues provides both teachers and students new rewarding ways to incorporate a fun and engaging learning experience within the classroom.

Learning Communities provide many benefits to teachers and students. Organizing time for teachers to discuss their lesson plans is a great opportunity to learn what may work and what they may consider changing to help improve their teaching. With new valuable feedback and other examples of teaching, educators can create an even better learning experience for their students, making learning communities rewarding for not only the teachers but the students as well. When teachers work together in communities and take the necessary steps to make changes in the education of our young learners, they begin to create and share specific visions for teaching. Having a clear sense, with conditions and collaborative teams, teachers work together to achieve their missions for new ways of teaching. They focus on the students learning by creating goal and result oriented projects, committing themselves to continuous improvement and making themselves lifelong learners.

The concepts within this chapter relates to our class project by showing us the importance of working as a team to collaborate the best strategies for a successful learning experience. It provides examples of how teachers commit to working together to create visions with goals for how to teach a successful topic in a rewarding way. It is important for us to see ourselves as life-long learners throughout this project so that we can become more educated in the topics we are covering, so that we fulfill this aspect of learning to the fullest for our own students. Learning communities will help provide a rewarding teaching and learning experience for the students and for us teachers as well.

Reading Reflection #2

Lydia Harpe

02/01/2013

                                           Reading Reflection #2

             The first chapter of our textbook introduced us to the revolutionary concept of project-based learning and how it impacts our relationships as teachers with our students in the classroom. This next chapter goes a step further to discuss our relationships with our fellow peers: the teachers we work with in our schools and all over the world. Many of my professors at Western have reminded me that my most valuable resource as a first year teacher and beyond is always the teacher in the room next door, and this chapter expounds on that idea as a key component of project-based learning.

             The key word repeated over and over in this chapter is collaboration. We must recognize the benefits of working with each other, even if it requires staying after school hours and giving up our time to do so. Opening ourselves up to peer evaluation and assessment reaps many benefits; some of these include (1) the ability to discuss new ideas and lesson plans (2) the sharing of ideas and suggestions (3) the feeling of mutual support and help. Instead of teaching being a solitary pursuit, the teachers and principals in this chapters encourage us to reach out for help not only with the teachers in our own particular school, but all across the world.

             Project-based learning and all the ideas that come with it (including such increased teacher collaboration) is a still a revolutionary concept in many schools across the United States. All it takes is one teacher to realize its immense benefits and strive to implement such a teaching (and learning) style in her classroom, with all the technology and resources along with it. I hope to someday become this teacher and not only introduce my students to a new way of learning, but also to my fellow teachers.