Reading Reflection #9

1. Discussion on ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom.
2. Description of the EAST Initiative Model.
3. Discussion on some reasons to let students “lead” their projects.
4. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

Ways to build connections and branch out of the classroom can be done easily through technology. Students and teachers can communicate with other students and teachers across the world. People in local communities and across the world can have access to read and take part in PBL together. The EAST Initiative Model is Environmental and Spatial Technologies Initiatives. It has been developed to demonstrate the benefits of using technology for a real purpose to solve problems and make improvements in communities.  Reasons to let students "lead" their projects is to give them a sense of responsibility of their own learning, engaging in real life problems, to collaborate with one another, and to access relevant technologies. These concepts can relate to the project because it will allow students to lead their own projects and work together to collaborate across the world.

Ch 9 reflection

1. Discussion on ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom.
1. The internet has an unlimited amount of opportunities for branching out beyond the classroom. Social media allows students to branch out to connect with other students. Blog discussions allow students to communicate on each others pages about an array of topics. Skype allows students to communicate to other students without being with those other students. These connections allow students to communicate their thoughts across the entire world.
2. Description of the EAST Initiative Model.
1. They found benefits of using technology to solve problems and use it as a tool. They have made their tools able to help in labs and studios. They have helped create maps and geographical findings. 200 schools have adapted to use EAST labs in their schools. 
3. Discussion on some reasons to let students “lead” their projects.
1. The students are able to find out what they are passionate about. Teachers don't have to micromanage each project. The students are allowed to take on their own learning. 
4. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.
1. These concepts find their way into my project since they will use technology/webpage to build connections and to further learn their project. They could use the data in the graphs they have made and post them to a blog so that their peers can see their work.

Reading Reflection 9 (Week 9)

1. Discussion on ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom.
2. Description of the EAST Initiative Model.
3. Discussion on some reasons to let students “lead” their projects.
4. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

There are many ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom. You can ask experts that are willing to communicate online, reach out to family members and friends, seek help from community members, etc. By reaching out beyond the classroom, you lead your students to a more meaningful project. 

The EAST Initiative Model is all about using technology to solve real-world problems. Students are able to learn the necessary material while helping their communities. 

There are a lot of reasons to let students students "lead" their projects. The students will be able to feel responsible for their own learning, they will be more engaged, and it will often lead to other topics that need to be explored. In the book, it says that, "projects spiral in unanticipated directions and live on into the future to create extended benefits" (pg. 199). This is helpful especially because as teachers, we think we know the right time to end a project, but there could be other learning opportunities within the same project.

The concepts in this chapter relate to the lesson that I wrote for this topic because I had to understand the importance of letting the students take charge of their own learning. Sure, the teacher needs to be there to guide the instruction, but the students will feel more responsible for their learning and be more engaged if they have a more important role in their own learning. 

Ch 7 reflection

  Know what the students already know, let them explore more for themselves through this project. Inspire them to know more. Give them optimism with a topic that they already care about to make a pleasant and exciting learning environment.

Set up a technology playground can be helpful in student’s learning and exploration. It allows students to learn from play. Another way to prepare students for using technology in a project is by taping their expertise. Teachers can first demonstrate and show expectations then the students then can explore devises or technological tools.

Screencasting allows you to narrate your voice and emotion or caption through presentations that a person isn’t physically giving. Tutorials are great ways to teach through technology. It can be watched again in any location at any time. Presentations can be helped with screencasting by adding music or other additions.

 Plan out chapters think about efficiency, ineractivity, smooth voice, and clarity. Practice before recording. Record your voice. Edit out the bad parts keep it shorter. Publish and save it with the correct file size. Promote easy assess to the screencast.

Ask questions to the students to understand problems and then to propose a solution. It’s the teacher’s job to shape the students learning interest in real inquiry. Students should collect information to make informed decisions. Asking why questions help students understand cause and effect.

         Screencasting is interactive and helps the students add to their projects. The students will be able to make presentations using the voice in screencasts. Screencasts help the students add to their presentations and enables them to show their projects without being there.

Ch 6 Relfection

Quality communication, management of time budget and trouble shooting are all necessary skills to manage a project. These skills can later be applied to real world jobs. These skills are important to teach our students.

·      Online tools or social media devices such as twitter can be resourceful to communicate to others. Make use of community resources such as recycling centers. This is a good idea since it is cost efficient and teaches our students a good lesson of recycling. Look local for help when students are need of supplies, such as libraries.

The teacher will need to use tools to communicate with students and be able to show that students are hitting benchmarks to show their success. I will need to adapt a system to manage products. It is also important to assess which students are doing the most work and which aren’t doing as much and enable them to all be doing the same work load. Teachers should also look for ways to give feedback to students as the project goes on not just at the final project.

Students need to develop a system that they can use tools to help them manage their time and work flow. They need to be able to collaborate with peers to develop good communication. Students will be able to seek assistance from different resources at times of struggles.

·      Some of the technology applications that should be considered is using wikis, a blog or other web pages using forums or surveys. All these resources allows students to explore and use other variations of displaying their learning. For an example, skype is a resource to communicate with others to gain knowledge that other could help them with. Shared media allows students to learn more from others that cannot be near. 

·      My students will need a variety of plants. They will use youtube to watch informative videos of plants. The students will then also use programs like excel to record numerical data and use engines to create those numbers into visual representations.

reading reflection #8

1. Discussion on the teacher’s role in keeping the project moving.
2. Discussion on levels of classroom discussions.
3. Discussion on the type of questions needed in project-based learning.
4. Discussion on Expeditionary Learning (EL) and how it relates to project-based learning.
5. Discussion on what needs to be considered in order to maximize the potential of technology during a project.
6. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

The teacher's role in keeping the project moving is to be a person of support for the students on their learning journey. A teacher must be able to think on their feet when unexpected situations arise or when students veer from their learning goals. The levels of classroom discussions include teacher to teacher, student to student, and teacher to student. The types of questions needed in PBL are questions that allow for inquiry to occur. Questions should be higher-order and  reach new pieces of understanding. EL is a model of instruction that puts equal emphasis on rigorous academics, higher order thinking, and active citizenship. What needs to be considered in order to maximize the potential of technology during a project is introducing different technology and encouraging its use. As a teacher you must ask yourself if the technology is helping students reach their goals or if it is causing them to be side tracked. You must be sure that the technology is equitable, used to expand student horizons, and keeping students organized. Concepts from this chapter helped me realize when and when technology is not appropriate for PBL.

Ch 8 reading reflection

1. Discussion on the teacher’s role in keeping the project moving.
1. Teachers must support their students on their learning journey. The ending may not always end up as expected so its part of the teachers role to keep the project on task. It is our job to keep the project on task. We have to see where the project may be struggling and be able to tend to those needs. It is also our responsibility to stay open to possibilities. 
2. Discussion on levels of classroom discussions.
1. Teacher to teacher- helps create projects and sharing lessons to best teach our students. We can collaborate with other teachers to help with confusion or other teachers opinions. 
2. Student-student-talking in their teams teaches them good communication skills. By communication it helps the students stay on track and organized. It is important to allow student-student discussion to enable them to be able to work together in the future as well. 
3. teacher-student: limit lecturing to entire classroom and instead try to talk to the students in a smaller group setting. Sometimes it is more beneficial to talk to students in small group or class discussions to allow a different kind of communication/learning. 
3. Discussion on the type of questions needed in project-based learning.
1. high order questions: asks students to analyze, compare, evaluate, and elaborate. such as, what did you try next, why do you think that happened. Sometimes it is best to ask more questions when a students is struggling. 
2. Questions for inquiry: these questions allow for students to make themselves into experts such as a scientist, politicians, historians, and others. If this is a new learning experience for the children helping the students develop a list of questions could be helpful.
4. Discussion on Expeditionary Learning (EL) and how it relates to project-based learning.
1. EL allows students to take learning in a more rigorous, high-order and active manner. 
5. Discussion on what needs to be considered in order to maximize the potential of technology during a project.
1. Does the technology help the students or does is stray from the goal. Is the technology being used a helpful tool? Does is allow students to organize and collaborate with others. Is technology able to help the students communicate with others? Are they taking advantage of all the ways of reaching out to others. 
6. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.
1. This chapter relates to my topic in many different ways. There are ways that i have learned in this chapter that i could integrate in my project. I really liked the  different types of communication. Learning should come from all kinds of communication not limited to just class lectures. Student-student communication is necessary for the project to be successful. my students will need their peers to be able to commucation skillfully to get to their goal aligned with communication with me(teacher).