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!