Final Concept Map

Reading Reflection #11

As a result of using Project-based learning approach, students take learning as well as teaching into their own hands.  This is a very beneficial lifelong lesson that continues to develop even after the project is complete.  A student’s project can be “brought home” when students learn leadership, teamwork, and cooperation throughout their project and because the project is designed, created and presented by them they will complete the project with a sense of pride, achievement and ownership.  Not only is Project-based learning beneficial for students, but for teachers and faculty as well.  The teachers are able to review students’ projects and take a new look into the minds of students.  They are then able to network with other faculty and share inspiration and good, as well as not so good, ideas with others.  Concepts in this chapter relate to our teams topic/project by emphasizing the importance of taking pride in the completed project.  Once the project is completed, our team has developed knowledge about teamwork, dedication and what it takes to help make a project beneficial.  Our teammates will use this knowledge throughout their lives to all projects that they may become involved in. 

Reading Reflection #11

1. Using the Project-Based Learning approach means that there is no "dead end" after a project is completed. Students should feel accomplished--like they finished a journey--after their project is complete. With PBL, projects open new doors and ideas for students. PBL isn't only beneficial for the students, but for the teacher as well. With the PBL approach, teachers are able to link projects together which makes for easier lesson planning. The PBL approach focuses on the experience, learning, and reflection.

2. To bring a project home, there are many things that must take place. First, there should be a final reflection after the project. As mentioned in previous chapters, reflection is essential in a project because it allows students (and the teacher!) to bask in the glory of all their hard work. It allows them to critique their work and focus on their strengths. Critique is another part of bringing a project home. This is an opportunity to pick out the best ideas from the project and incorporate them in the next one. Next, it's important to share insights with other teachers and colleagues. This can also be an opportunity to practice using technology to share ideas from the project (ex. blogs, social media, etc.). The most important part about bringing a project home is to make sure you enjoyed the journey.

3. This chapter relates to our project because as a team we will have to collaborate on how to bring the project home. We will take our strengths and put them toward our next project, and we will eliminate parts of the project that didn't work out as well. We will take time to reflect on how the project went and we will enjoy the journey and accomplishments along the way.

Sarah Hughey's Reading Reflection #11

1. Description of what occurs as a result of using the Project-based learning approach.

At the end of a successful PBL unit, the class as a whole will feel like they have gone on a "journey" and have created many memories, projects, and ideas together as a result of it.  A PBL unit should lead to more paths to more projects that can be done, which helps the teacher plan for future units.  The way the students have been engaged all throughout a PBL unit also changes their thinking outside of the classroom - they take the thought processes they've gained and apply them to life itself, and teachers such as Vicki Davis notice a remarkable improvement in maturity and confidence in their students.  It also brings the teacher closer to her/his colleagues.

2. Discussion on ways to “bring your project home”.

There are many things a teacher can do to "bring the project home".  Capitalizing on the investment that the teacher made in the PBL unit by capitalizing on all of the things mentioned above is one way.  Critiquing the work into the project design, implementation, and reflection stages with the colleagues and sharing insights with others (either with teachers and others within the school or outside the school, which can also build onto the tradition and identity of the school), being a resource for others trying to implement the PBL-based teaching method, entering a contest to gain exposure for both the teacher and the students and to receive more feedback, and simply enjoying the PBL experience are all other ways to "bring the project home".

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

 These relate to our project because all of this would have happened if we successfully implemented our PBL project in an actual classroom.  The occurrences listed above would hopefully occur, and we could capitalize on them by "bring the project home" with the steps listed above as well.  This chapter showed us how to continue benefiting from the project even when it ends.

Reading Reflection #10

1. Setting aside time for reflection is extremely important in project. Reflection allows students to feel good and accomplished about the project they just completed--it is very healthy for students' learning and helps learning stick. Reflection lets students create their own meaning of different concepts, which is why the learning sticks. Without reflection students might now think about important concepts they learned throughout the project.

2. Students need to reflect and elaborate because it will help them become more accomplished project-doers. Elaborating and reflecting help students with their cognitive thinking and allows them to think about the project in a different light. Elaboration makes the project meaningful to students and makes for more ambitious projects.

3. Building a tradition within the classroom is a really neat concept to promote great project work. Starting a tradition will ignite excitement within the younger students and it will have them prepared for learning and great projects. When the community and parents notice the students' accomplishments from the projects, they will be able to give you support as a teacher.

4. Having celebrations for students after they complete a project, whether it be big or small, is extremely important for their confidence as learners. We as teachers need to make our students feel important, like they just completed the most extraordinary project. Students deserve a celebration! It also allows them to reflect on their project one last time and showcase their project. It also gives us as teachers an opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate their hard work.

5. The concepts from this chapter relate to our project in many ways. Using this project can help us build a tradition for our classroom. We should also make sure to include a time to reflect and elaborate on the project so we can make sure our students are getting the most learning from the project.

Sarah Hughey's Reading Reflection #10

1. Discussion on the importance of setting aside time for reflection.

Reflection can help students feel good about what they accomplished and develop confidence, but it can also reinforce what they have learned.  Reflection helps students "create their own meaning" and further interpret what they have learned along with how they grew and what they want to continue studying.  Reflection time can also be used to help students find learning fun and positive.

2. Discussion on the reason students need to reflect and elaborate.

The reasons students need to reflect are mentioned above - these help cement in what they learned, feel good about their experience, develop confidence, see how they grew and what they want to learn next, and find learning fun.  Elaborating on what they want to learn next and how they want to go about it helps the teacher see how to facilitate the next project and utilize their learning wants in the lesson plans, and it also helps students get excited and prepared for the work that is coming.

3. Discussion on how schools build tradition and identity.

One part of building tradition and identity is to create awareness about what the tradition/identity is in the students, families, and communities.  Once they know what the school is about, the foundation for a tradition and identity is set.  Word of mouth, especially between siblings, helps this identity and tradition and creates support and excitement.  For example, younger siblings will be so excited to do the projects they hear their older siblings talking about.  As this support and excitement grows, the community will then want to get involved by both celebrating and viewing the student work but also helping with the lessons themselves.  All of this develops pride and a sense of privilege among the students for being in that school.

4. Discussion on the importance celebrating a project.

Celebrating student work and projects is important, as it also celebrates learning and helps build the tradition and identity discussed above.  Displaying student work and a end of the year event where all of the projects created are shown and remembered can be a great way to celebrate all that was accomplished and create memories.  Doing this every year in all grades is motivating and rewarding for the children for their work.

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

These relate to our project because we need to create time and room to celebrate student work, and all throughout this class we have studied how we need the community and school support for PBL-based learning and teaching.  Developing traditions, identities, and celebrations rooted in PBL will make it easier to use this type of teaching method and use our project in a real life classroom.  We also need to make sure students have time to reflect after they do projects such as the one we are making.

Reading Reflection #9

1. A good way to get a better understanding of the students' prior knowledge is to create some sort of activity to get a sense of where students are and how far they need to go to meet their learning goals. This method can be called "establishing anchors."

2. Like I mentioned before, establishing anchors is important when conducting a project because it lets the teacher know how far students are and how far they have until they reach a certain goal. Establishing anchors helps each student become a successful learner.

3. One real-world way to assess what a student learned in their project is by bringing in a panel to judge the students' work. This example can help motivate students by putting them in a real-world setting and it is a fun and different way to assess the students' work. Also, having guests come in to assess work gives students a chance to defend their work and explain their research and what they have learned. \

4. The concepts in this chapter relate to our project because we will need to figure out ways to assess the students' work. It would be fun to have a fitness instructor or a dietitian come in to assess the students' research and fitness plans they have created. This would give them a taste of the real world while also assessing them.

Sarah Hughey's Reading Reflection #9

1. Description of a method of understanding prior-knowledge of students.



One method to understand the prior-knowledge of the students is to do a small activity and gauge their responses.  For example, the KWL activity reveals to the teacher what the students already know and wonder about.  Not all students will be at the same place, so this shows the teacher if s/he needs to do a review lesson on background knowledge or if only a couple students who could be reached individually need extra help.

2. Discussion on the importance of establishing anchors for a project.
Establishing anchors gives the teacher a feel as to where the students are going to begin in the project and how far they will have to stretch themselves to get to the end goals.  With this sense, teachers will be prepared to give projects that aren't so difficult that they overwhelm the student's starting point and are impossible for them to complete but that are also not so easy and don't require much on the part of the students.

3. Description of several ways to assess what students learned during the project.

- Asking students what they learned: A teacher can simply ask the students to reflect on their projects and what they felt that they learned.  This can not only help the teacher see how the students improved but also give them insight on ways to improve their teaching (ex. how the students in the chapter mentioned they really liked the use of podcasts).
- Having the students create something new: This will force the students to either summarize or demonstrate what they learned.  For example, all of us are creating our websites with everything we have created and learned this semester.  This is our professor's way of assessing us instead of something traditional such as a multiple choice exam.
- Modeling real-world assessment: Assess the students the way that they would be assessed in the field that their project was in.  For example, if the students did a science project, assess them like how scientists are assessed, and if they created something like a graphic art, assess them like how those in the field would be assessed.
- Enter a contest/submit for publication: This motivates students to really put forth their best effort, and this is point-blank real world assessment.  For example, if they make a business plan, have them pitch it in a business plan competition.

4. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.
One of the connections I made early was how we're creating an over-arching website for our project as a final exam and how we're witnessing one of the ways of assessment in action.  We also need to incorporate checks for background knowledge and ways to establish anchors in our project so we will be prepared to do this in the future.

Reading Reflection 8

1. Technology makes it easy to branch out and make connections beyond the classroom. Digital tools allow for sharing among colleagues, parents, students, and others. One great example of technology that helps make connections beyond the classroom is blogging. Blogging is an easy and excellent way to communicate with an audience and connect with others. Blogging and other communication tools are important because it allows each student to have a voice in the classroom. Other ideas to branch out include digital stories, researching, and others.

2. The EAST Initiative Model demonstrates the benefits of using technology to solve problems and improve their community. It is a great idea that allows students to collaborate, research, and display their work by use of technology. EAST Models can be seen in many schools today, and the teachers must let the students take the lead when it comes to accomplishing their goals--an example of PBL. EAST was built on four main ideas: Student-driven learning, authentic project-based learning, technology as tools, and finally, collaboration.

3. Letting students lead is essential in project based learning. As teachers, we need to understand that sometimes students are more capable of leading their own project than we are. We don't necessarily need to be the designer of the project--we should listen to our students and let them explore their options of projects that meet their interests. It's important to let students be in charge of their own learning

4. The first concept from this chapter that I could relate to our project is the use of digital stories. We are working on digital stories right now in order to introduce the main topic of our project. Another concept that can be used in our project is letting students lead. This is a neat way to see how students collaborate and learn on their own terms.

Sarah Hughey's Reading Reflection #8

1. Description of some ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom.
 
Technology can be used to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom.  For example, blogs can be used to not only help develop students' writing skills but also to help students express themselves to people outside of the classroom and connect with experts in the topic they're writing about.  Digital-age projects can also encourage or require students to connect with people outside of the classroom, whether they're contacting experts, classrooms across the globe, etc.  Projects that incorporate inquiry are great opportunities to involve an expert, and in certain projects teachers can arrange for these connections.  Students should be prepared before these contacts by teaching them how to be efficient at interviewing, and experts should also be advised on what will be asked and how to talk with the students.  Projects such as The Flat Classroom Project also can be used to connect students with other students who live elsewhere.

2. Description of the EAST Initiative Model.
 
The Environmental and Spatial Technologies (EAST) Initiative model has students using technology to make an actual difference by doing projects that help them master different technologies in the context of solving a community problem.  The four cornerstones to this model are student-driven learning, authentic project-based learning, technology as tools, and collaboration.  Also vital to this model is teacher to teacher support and training, as teachers who take on this model also get a new role in their classrooms - facilitator instead of the one who has all of the control.  Professional development for teachers occurs in three phases: a collaborative training experience held for a week in the summer, then when the educators begin to have questions about implementing the EAST model, and then when the educators go further into the real-life problems the students run into.  Teachers also get ongoing support and networking.
 
3. Discussion on some reasons to let students “lead” their projects. 

 Students are more than able to lead their own projects and come up with project ideas that they are passionate about.  Teachers don't have to micromanage the learning, creativity, and projects occurring in the classroom, and students can be intrinsically motivated instead of always extrinsically motivated to do projects.  For example, the book speaks about a teacher who connected a student with dyslexia with an international teacher who she could relate with, and this connection gave the student the idea to create a wiki for students with dyslexia.  This example shows that students are able and willing to try to solve problems and create project solutions without a teacher leading them to it.


4. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.
 
 This chapter relates to our topic and project because now we have a new model to use when developing our topic/project along with encouragement that coincides with what we have already been learning (to utilize people outside of the classroom in the projects and to let students take initiative and autonomy over their projects).  We can continue incorporating the emphasized ideas into our topic/project while also looking for ways to practice incorporating the EAST model into our teaching methods.

Sarah and Arika-- For the digital story project, I am planning on creating a fictional short story about a boy who ate too many sweets and candy and got sick. This will introduce the topic of nutrition and why it's important to eat healthful foods.

Sarah Hughey's Reading Reflection #7

1. Description of the levels of classroom discussions.


Teacher to teacher:  Teachers discuss not only to plan the project but also during their implementation as well.  Teachers will discuss routine things such as who will lead which activity and other things such as formative assessment.  These discussions also don't have to be face-to-face; they can be via a project blog, wiki, etc.

Student to student: Students need to be talking as they work together on project needs, of course, but they also need to be discussing what they are learning and discovering.  This helps them learn both the material and communication skills.  Teachers can join student to student discussions and should be listening to them as a bystander, but teachers have to be careful not to take over the conversation.

Teacher to student: This is the most common level in a traditional classroom but less in a PBL classroom.  This level is usually used for class-wide announcements when a project management tool such as a project Web site is not being used for them.


2. Discussion on the questions for “checking in” on students during a project.

Questions for "checking in" should be higher order questions that get students to analyze, compare, evaluate, and elaborate.  These types of questions should encourage students to look even deeper in their topic.  Also, give the students time to give an answer - the longer the teacher is willing to wait, the more engaged the students become and the more quality work they provide. 

Beyond just a general discussion on questions, the teacher should "check in" with procedural, teamwork, understanding, and self-assessment questions.  All of these questions keep the students on task, help them with work management, and encourage them to think further about their project. 

3. Discussion on the benefits to students when optimizing the use of technology.

The benefits to students when optimizing the use of technology are many.  For one, technology can help students reach learning goals, or it can misdirect them on "side trips" if not optimized.  Technology can also help them keep organized and manage time/work better and help them "expand their horizons" and connect them to people outside of the classroom relate to the project idea.  For technology to be optimized, it must be accessible by the students.


4. Discussion on the 21st-century skills that can make or break a project.

21st-century skills that can make or break a project include knowing how to troubleshoot, overcome challenges, and managing conflict.  Troubleshooting and overcoming challenges is key to PBL; without these skills, students will not be able to work on their problems because the point of PBL is to teach them to find solutions to problems.  Conflict is also natural in any team and must be dealt with maturely and responsibly, as no team will be able to get anything done if they're always tied up in arguing and fighting.  Managing conflict also relates to intercultural differences when working with students from different cultures, which is a skill they must develop for PBL to be successful.

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

We are currently practicing teacher-to-teacher discussion and collaborating together to create a PBL project, and this chapter will become more and more relevant to use when we actually begin working with students.  We have to be prepared to have many different levels of discussion, check in with questions, optimize technology, and teach 21st-century skills.  Studying this now will help us manage PBL units in the future.

Reading Reflection 7

1. Classroom discussions are important in order for the classroom to be productive in its learning. There are different levels of discussion in classrooms. The first is Teacher to Teacher. This level includes teachers working together and taking opportunities to collaborate with other teachers. This is a good way to plan ideas for the classroom by discussing with another teacher and brainstorm for the upcoming days. The next level is Student to Student which includes students talking about their different learning experiences. This promotes teamwork and good communication skills, which are important for students to learn. The last level of classroom discussions is Teacher to Student. Teacher to Student is when the teacher promotes whole group discussion with the students. It's important to stay away from the lecture format when dealing with Project Based Learning.

2. When a project is assigned, students will go different directions with the project, especially in PBL. So it is important to check in with students to see how the project is going. Parts of checking in include seeing if the student is staying on schedule and using good time management skills, team members getting along, checking for understanding, and finding out what students think of the project. Checking in is an essential part to project progress.

3. When optimizing the use of technology for a project, it may be a good idea to check with your students and see what technology they prefer to use. This will keep students interested in the project if they are using technology they know and love--which is a huge benefit for projects. The technology chosen should help students reach their learning goals, keep them organized, expand their horizons, and gain new insights for communication.

4. Managing conflict is essential for a project. Students should be able to manage their own team conflicts, and this skill will be important to know and use in their futures. A way to avoid conflict is for team members to agree on their responsibilities and consequences. This way students know what they are accountable for. To make sure conflict is being managed, the teacher should include a feedback rubric to score the other members of the team to make sure everyone is doing their part.

5. The content in this chapter is relatable to our project because it helps with avoiding conflict among students and checking their progress. It's important to see how a student is doing with a project before they turn in the final product, and this chapter gave instruction on how to check in with our students. It also helped with learning how to work collaboratively and discuss in different ways.

Lesson Plan 2 Topics

Sarah and Arika-

Just a reminder that I plan on having students record their different fitness activities throughout the week and putting them in a bar graph on Excel. 

Sarah Hughey's Reading Response #6

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

1.When discussing how technology tools can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths, it is better to discuss specific tools rather than just giving general descriptions on how technology can help with this.  Three examples of technology tools that can encourage students to be reflective and evaluating are blogs, ProfilerPRO, and online surveys such as Surveymonkey and Zoomerang.  Blogs encourage these traits by making students reflect throughout the project on what is being learned (like we are doing with our blogs in this class).  ProfilePRO surveys the students and shows them what their interests, strengths, weaknesses, and similar characteristics are.  This tool can be used to show students how their ProfilePRO results are changing over time as they go through their project and learn new things.  The online surveys can help the students track trends and compare their assessment to the group as a whole.

2. To prepare the students' minds for a project, teachers can introduce projects with a Know-Wonder-Learn (KWL) activity.  I have done such an activity in my other education classes, and this is how it was done: The professor put up a chart with three columns: one for "K", one for "W", and one for "L".  Then, as a class, we would have to write what we already knew about the topic and what we wanted to learn about the topic.  After the topic was done, we would write down what we learned under the "L" column.  However, the book suggests creating interest and excitement before introducing a task such as KWL.  This makes sense to me, as I can imagine the "W" column being completely empty if the students are disinterested in the topic and don't have the interest to come up with questions about it.  Teachers should invite students to think and discuss about the topic for quite some time (the book suggests several days) to create optimism and excitement.  Ideas to include in this preparatory stage include discrepant events that challenge taken-for-granted knowledge, role playing, and using technology such as Google Earth and Flickr to increase background knowledge and curiosity.

.3. Teaching fundamentals are critical to a successful PBL project.  If the students don't have the prerequisite background knowledge needed, then they may not tackle the project in the right direction and will struggle learning the skills and information needed for the project while trying to do the project at the same time.  And, in my opinion, having the students work on a PBL project before they have the skills needed for it is unlike the real world, where people are interviewed for a job to make sure they have the needed skills before being hired and working on projects.

4. To prepare students to use technology in a project, the teacher should first "set up a technology playground".  Have technology be available, and allow the students to explore them by and with each other before immediately jumping into a lesson on how to do it.  Offer help when needed and keep an eye out for when a specific lesson is needed, but trust that the students have the ability to explore it for themselves.  Next, teachers should "tap student expertise" - they should allow the tech-savvy students to teach the others.  Practice runs should be done with the student teachers along with making available teaching tools (ex. demonstrations/tutorials) if it seems like a tool that the majority of the students wouldn't be using.  Third, teachers should "introduce project management tools" such as logs or journals to make it easier for the students to keep track and reflect on the project and for the teacher to provide just-in-time assessment.  Fourth, the teachers should demonstrate if they are comfortable with the tools to be used, or they can allow a student or technology specialist to demonstrate, perhaps with a screencast.  The teacher should be willing to "rely on [any available] technology specialist[s]", and finally, the teacher needs to recognize that one size does NOT fit all, so not everyone has to master every tool or application if it is not something that will potentially be needed for lifelong learning.

5. A teacher has many ways to promote inquiry and deep learning.  A method the book gives is to guide students into skilled questioning - for example, leading students to use question starters such as "which one", "how", "what if", "should", and "why" can help students ask questions that will get them deeper into the topic rather than questions that just skims the surface of the information.  This leads students to collect information and make informed decisions, understand problems and various points of views in order to come up with solutions, create a hypothesis about the topic, debate morality or practicality, and understand cause and effect.  This thinking leads to information literacy: "less looking, more thinking".

6.  All of these concepts relate to our project, as we need to make sure to incorporate them into any PBL project we create.  We want to be able to have students that can reflect and evaluate their strengths and work, be able to prepare students for a project that everyone is going to have to exert much time and energy on, not have students be lost because they don't have the fundamentals, have students be ready to use technology in a project, and be lifelong learners who inquire and learn in depth.  If the students are achieving these, we know that our project was a success and that the time and resources were well used.

 

Reading Reflection #6

1.  Technology can be great for students while evaluating their own strengths. One student will have different strengths than another, but they can collaborate and use the tools that they both know best and help each other out. Technology can also help students stay organized and on tasks. It can also allow students to give and receive feedback not only from teachers, but also evaluations from other students.

2. First things first, it is important to get an understanding of the students' prior knowledge in order to get their minds ready for a project. It's also important to instill passion on whatever topic the project is on because if you are passionate about it, chances are your students will be too. Encouraging students to think about the project and giving them a few days to explore the topic is also a great idea to get students' minds ready for a project. This gives them time to brainstorm and think about how they want to pursue the project.

3. Teaching fundamentals first is all about teaching prerequisite knowledge and skills in order to succeed in the project. Once students understand the fundamentals, they will have their own independence to explore the project and come up with ideas on their own. If students have a basic understanding of the topic, they can then plan investigations for the project from their prior knowledge.

4. It is important for students to realize that technology is not the whole project, but simply a tool to help complete a project. Technology is for learning, however sometimes it requires additional planning. To prepare the students for technology with a project, it is your job as the teacher to identify exactly what technology will best benefit your students. Flexibility is also important when preparing for technology.

5. To promote deeper learning for your students, you must ask the right questions. With the right questions, students will have to think on a deeper level to understand the project and other related aspects of it. Teachers should design collaborative activities for students to help them with their research and findings. The book mentions guiding your students to think like scientists--encourage them to analyze the data they are finding.

6. This chapter, like the others, is relevant to our project because we can use all of these ideas while planning. This lesson talks a lot about the preparation for a good project and finding the right technology that will benefit our students--and that's exactly what we are doing in our project. We want to find technology that will help them complete their project and also find ways for them to analyze their data and promote a deeper learning.

Reading Response #6 Arika White

Technology tools can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths.  This can be done by use of blogs to reflect what they are learning over the course of learning.  ProfilerPRO can be used to determine a student’s learning characteristics as well as identify their strengths and weaknesses.  Also, SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang are websites that use surveys to help students track trends and help individuals to compare their self-assessments with their whole group.  Before the project begins, the students will need to have their minds ready and a collection of their prior knowledge will need to be discovered.  Many teachers use a Know-Wonder-Learn activity to begin students with the project.  One important beginning step of introducing the project is to help students develop excitement, passion, imagination and begin to think about the project and develop ideas.  Teachers may help students develop excitement prior to beginning the project by posing questions a week or two before the project is introduced to get students engaged and excited about the topic.  It is important for teachers to teach the students fundamentals of the topic first, before launching the project.  This is important because students can then be introduced and taught the basics of the topic so they can distribute their time more efficiently.  Instead of using the project time to become familiar with the basics of the topic, they can manage their time more efficiently to study the topic deeper.  Preparation to use technology in the project requires advanced planning.  The use of technology is not the project, but instead, how the project will get done.  This preparation can be done by considering that you are a student, and which methods would be most effective to get the project done.  By creating an exposure to many, un-alike topics, teachers can promote inquiry and deep learning by asking the students to brainstorm ways that those topics can be connected.  As a project is launched in this manner, students will branch off with their own inquiries to develop a deeper understanding in those areas they are interested.  Concepts in this chapter relate to my group’s project especially the idea of reaching a deeper understanding.  By allowing the students to brainstorm and develop their own chosen plans for health and nutrition, they can take the knowledge to a deeper understanding by investigating, researching and studying a topic they are more interested in.  

Concept Map Version B

Reading Reflection #5

1. Before starting a project with students, it is important to consider your preparation. Projects require time management, organization, communication, and much more. Before starting a project, you will need to gather plenty of resources to support your project. You want your students to get the most out of the project and benefit greatly from it.

2. Teachers' project management needs include tools for communication, tools to present milestones, methods to get resources to students, systems for managing the project, structures to support productive learning, and many other tools. Students' project management needs include tools to help them manager their time, tools or systems to help manage materials and drafts, collaboration tools, methods to seek assistance, ways to get feedback, and ways to work interactively to see how parts add up to a whole.

3. There are many applications that can be used to assist in project management. One of my favorite ways to manage a project is through a blog. This allows viewers to see what is going on in the classroom and allows them to comment and give their input. Drupal and Textpattern include tools such as surveys and discussion forums that make it easier to collaborate.

4. This chapter relates to our project because we need to consider all of these concepts before launching the project. As a team, we have also been using a blog and practicing using applications to help us plan our projects.

Sarah Hughey's Reading Response #5

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

1.  The items and people that should be considered before starting a project with students are materials, use/access of technology, any experts that should be consulted, who else can help with the project, and how responsibilities will be divided between the teachers if it is a collaborative project between classrooms.

2.  Students need to manage their time wisely.  To help with this, a project calendar with milestones and visual deadlines helps students keep better time management skills.  This calendar can either be a low-tech literal calendar on the board or one that's online.  If having a project that spans across many weeks, it helps students to have it broken down into manageable pieces and smaller deadlines so they are not overwhelmed.  It is also beneficial for parents to be aware of these deadlines and have access to the calendar so they can help their students and simply be in the know.  Both teachers and students have a management need of organizing the project.  Learning management systems online can help with this, as students can have access to their work wherever they have internet and teachers can view student in-progress work and be aware of any needs out there.  Teachers also need to manage the teams and mix them up every so often while matching students together who will work well together.  Finally, teachers have to plan for assessment and will have to manage multiple assessments and feedback methods throughout a single PBL project.

Tools that teachers need for management are tools for communicating about the project and changes about the project, tools for making milestones/events such as deadlines available for viewing, methods for giving students resources, systems for managing work products, structures supporting a healthy learning environment, and assessment tools and strategies.  Tools that students need for management are time-management tools/systems, systems to manage materials/drafts, methods for asking for guidance, methods to get feedback from themselves and others, and ways to see how everything comes together.

3. Some of the technology applications that should be considered for use in a project include a wiki (esp. the "Flat Classroom" wiki), a blog, a "desktop" application, and personalized web pages (ex. either an actual website or a "home page"/"startpage" that many browsers and e-mail services offer).  Page sharing in particular between students, teachers, and parents can be beneficial.

4.  These concepts are very relate-able to our project.  For one, being more aware of our and our students' management needs will help us design our project in order to ensure that nobody is frustrated due to a lack of management tools and to make sure we can efficiently get our work done.  We also need to incorporate the various items and people that the chapter suggested rather than just only coming up with an idea, and being in a technology in the classroom course means that we need to also consider how to incorporate technology applications in a meaningful way.