Reading Reflection 7

I learned a lot of new things about screencasting that I was not familiar with before. A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output from either a specific window or the entire desktop, often with audio narrartion. The output is generally a video file, which can be easily shared between users on the web. There are three main reasons for screencasting which are tutorials, narrated slideshows and feedback on work products. Tutorials: You can create a tutorial once and students can watch it over again. Students can also watch the lessons again whenever they have access to a computer. Narrative slideshows: Students can use digital slideshows and make them podcasts and present them to the class. Teachers can prerecord their slideshow with audio. Feedback: Teachers can talk about the essay on the screen as they revise it out loud It was very interesting and will be extremely useful in benefitting a classroom. I really liked learning about how they can be used in your classroom and how the students can use it to teach each other.. Reading tips, gathering supplies, planning, practice, recording, editing, publishing and promoting are some of the important steps in creating your own screencast! 

Virtual Pen Pals

Who are the students your students will communicate with (specific location, grade level)? The students that our students will be communicating with are third graders in Poltava, Ukraine. When would your students contact these other students (at what point in their project work)? Our students will contact these students three times during the school year. 1. While they are in the planning stages of their garden at the beginning of the school year 2. Halfway through the school year to report progress of their fruits and vegetables. 3. At the end of the school year once they have sold their fruits/vegetables at the farmers market to share how much money that they have raised for the No Kid Hungry organization. What kinds of questions would they ask each other and what kinds of information would they share? The kinds of questions that they will ask each other include: 1. What kinds of fruits/vegetables they will be growing 2. The progress of their fruits/vegetables' growth (plant height, quantity, quality, etc.) 3. How they are planning to sell their food (our classroom will be selling their harvest at a farmers' market) 4. How much money they raised to give to a charity (our classroom will be donating to No Kid Hungry) What will they do with the information they get from the other students? Our students will compare/contrast: 1. The types of fruits/vegetables that can be grown at our school and their school 2. Progress of the fruits/vegetables 3. The different ways to sell their harvest 4. The different charities that are being donated to They will then create a report/presentation stating what they learned through the growing, selling, and donating process at our school and comparing it to how they grew/sold/donated in Poltava, Ukraine.

Reading Reflection 6

When you become a successful manager of digital-age projects, you touch on a combination of skills to facilitate your student’s learning. Your students will also learn from your example. After introducing your students to these skills they will begin to develop their own strategies, know how to manage time, collaborate with classmates and assess their progress. By following these skills, your students should be able to lead themselves to maximize their learning experience.

When gathering resources for a certain project, it is important to look into what inventory you will be working with and consider how specific resources could support your project. If you aren’t able to find the supplies you need, put the word out to other teachers around your school or throughout the parent community. Using your class website or email will allow those people to hear about what could be used in the classroom quickly. Community resources such as recycling centers are also a great place to ask for anything they might donate or need to get rid of.       

Projects of all sizes offer different opportunities to teach and reinforce good time management skills for both the student and teacher. A good idea to help your students manage all the work they need to do is by making a project calendar. By doing this, students will be able to clearly see deadlines, track their own progress and troubleshoot potential problems before they get behind. If you are planning a project that will last several weeks, it will help to chunk bigger tasks into smaller ones so that is more manageable. If you decide to use an online calendar, share those calendars with parents through email so that they can help their child stay on task and be aware of upcoming milestones

Students’ project management needs

-Systems and tools that help them manage their time and flow of work.

-Systems that help students manage materials and control work drafts

-Collaboration tools

-Methods for seeking assistance

-Ways to get and use feedback on their work, through self-reflection, team input and teach advice

Teachers’   project management needs

-Tools for communicating with students and others about the project

-Methods for getting appropriate resources

-Systems for managing work products

-Structures that support a productive learning environment learning environment in which everyone is engaged in a variety of learning tasks at the same time

-Assessment tools and strategies 

Reading Reflection #5

The first thing I wanted to pull from this chapter was the quote on page 96, "When the cook tastes the soup, that's formative. When the guests taste the soup, that's summative." This was very interesting to me and really outline the meanings of each type of assessment. A different way to look at assessment was "Authentic Assessment," I did not actually understand what Darling-Hammond meant by this? I appreciated that the chapter had a lot of information and ideas to offer to future teachers. It's important to keep our assessment creative and exciting! There are more ways to assess than just a written exam. (That stresses us all out) The section on Selecting Project Assignments and Performance Tasks was very important because it game a lot of examples of project based learning and gave pointers on how to keep the project on task and educational. But also have that fun and exciting side to learning! Jerome Burg had his students create a comic book out of scenes, quotes and visual symbols from Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men. He let them take complete control of the characters and elements of the book. This allowed them to understand the content of the book rather than just facts about what they had read. Burg decided to do this rather than take the test that was sent with the book, which was multiple choice and only assessed them on facts. They would not actually need to understand the novel.

Reading Reflection 5

Discussion on planning for a summative assessment: 1. Keep the end in mind- "Once you have the end in mind, you can circle back to project planning and imagine the kinds of activities students would need to engage in across the arc of the project to acquire these new concepts, skills, and dispositions. 2. Objectives- What will students learn through this project? 3. Evidence- What would they need to demonstrate to show they learned? 4. Activities- What approaches might they take to go from not knowing to knowing? Discussion on options for summative assessments: -"PBL teachers often grade a culminating product, such as the public testimony students presented in the social studies example, or other expression of their work, such as a mock defense, a consumer manual, or a creative dramatization" (100). Plan for a formative assessment: -"...Planning ways to tap in to students' progress during the project" (112). -Set milestones- "They 'chunk' the work into manageable parts and help students pace their efforts. Also important, they mark for the teacher stages in the project that warrant attention. Milestones indicate opportunities to check in and correct, redirect, or reteach at pivotal moments to shape learning" (13). -Plan check-ins- "Check-ins are brief meetings or written updates to discuss learning, skills, and processes" (114). -Look for other progress markers- "For instance, instead of having students write a reflection, have partners interview or dictate to one another" (115). What I learned from chapter 5 is how important it is to assess children's learning. This not only shows what the children are retaining and what needs to be gone over again, but it also shows how effective the teaching was for that particular subject.

Reading Reflection 5

Assessment is a very important part of project-based learning. With planning ahead of time and lots of practice, you can take advantage of assessment opportunities throughout the project and not just at the end. Formative assessment will allow you to create more opportunities to know what your students are thinking and understanding so that you can better facilitate successful learning. Paying attention to different types of assessment will also broaden your thoughts on how exactly it is this project works. A complex project requires multiple assessment methods, ranging from formal to informal evaluations.

 Technology can be a great way to support a wide range of assessment activities. The project planning stage will give you an opportunity to design tools to help assess student progress, such as a rubric. Scoring rubrics help you focus on specific categories including content knowledge, discrete skills, or dispositions. They also help you focus your attention on desired outcomes and help communicate learning goals and levels of accomplishment to students. Effective project management involves minimizing risks, but also maximizing opportunities.  

Reading Reflection 3 & 4

Chapter 3 Things that should be considered when finding the big idea for a project are, "Scan the tables of contents of your teaching guides. Review the curriculum standards for your subjects, along with the Common Core standards for math and language arts. Ask yourself and ask your colleagues: What do these add up to?" (63). When you look for the big idea of a project you want to incorporate all of what the students are learning, not just focus on a minute detail. Chapter 4 Potential pitfalls in project design include (81-83): -Long on activity, short on learning outcomes -Technology layered over traditional practice -Trivial thematic units -Overly scripted with many, many steps -Not enough focus on formative assessment -Assessment that doesn't feel authentic Features of a good project include (87-88): -Loosely designed with the possibility of different learning paths -Are generative, causing students to construct meaning -Center on a driving question or are otherwise structured for inquiry -Capture student interest through complex and compelling real-life or simulated experiences -Are realistic, and therefore cross multiple disciplines -Reach beyond school to involve others -Tap rich date or primary sources -Structured so students learn with and from each other -Call for iterative work with cycles of feedback, reflection, and revision -Have students working as inquiring experts might -Get at digital-age skills and literacies, including communication, project management, and technology use

Reading Reflections 3 & 4

Reading Reflection 3

    Every school no matter what grade or subject focus on a variety of big ideas, and so does everything that is happening in the world around us. This chapter talks about how sometimes it can be difficult to find the big idea of a subject because of the wide range of aspects to one concept. It is important to think about who cares about a certain idea and who does it touch. Although attitudes, important skills and habits are the major objectives there are also some other things to think about. Analyzing, evaluating and creating have become very relevant when dealing with project based learning. There are 8 essential learning functions-ubiquity, deep learning, making things visible, expressing ourselves, collaboration, research, project management and reflection. All of the functions work together to make learning work. A couple of the features of a good project included being realistic, being structured so students can learn from another and are generative.

Reading Reflection 4

There are a few pitfalls to look out for when working in the project design world. The long on activity, short on outcome pitfall occurs when you realize the project was a waste of time and that the students could learn more in a brief lecture than the busy, long project. The technology layered over traditional practice pitfall is when technology is over-used or insignificant. The trivial thematic pitfall can happen when you don’t create a theme that connects their learning.

Reflection #3

On page 73 there is a section titled "Keep Your Students in Mind." The title alone truly grabs my attention. We are instructed to replace the word project with passion and to imagine what passion based learning would look like... We discussed with our speaker, Mark, about how important it was to make sure the students are engaged and actually want to be there. Yes, we can do this with technology but we can also do this on our own. We need to combine our activities, technology, energy and all of our other tools into a 50 minute lesson to ensure that our students are getting 150% from us; they deserve nothing but our absolute best.

Pen Pal Map

Websites for Evaluations

Hey girls! I used... garden.org feedthechildren.org betterhealthchannel for my website evaluations!

Reading Reflection #2

While reading this chapter on "Creating a Professional Learning Community" I couldn't help but notice how much we overlook using the connections we have outside of the classroom. We look at texts and the internet but little do we know, a few cities or countries over, something spectacular could be happening and we are sitting here trying to use what we already know. We, as future teachers need to take initiative of each and every opportunity that is out there. Even when our communities resources are low we can find something to advance our learning, just as Elise Mueller did. She and her co-workers were provided with a new piece of technology and had to integrate them into their subjects. They relied on one another to help navigate and use the technology. They would simply meet up after school and share what they had their classrooms do- this did not cost them a dime. I really appreciated that this chapter was very informative on giving us sites and ideas to use to start up a useful community. I agree with a lot of these teachers when they complained about having to be "alone" your first year. It's going to be refreshing and exciting to be on my own but I'm also going to be scared out of my mind. With the help and guidance of a team who is on your side you have the opportunity to create a learning environment without being overwhelmed. It won't take 3 years to "get on your feet," you have the tools to start out the right way.

Mind Map #1

Reading Reflection #2

1. One way to create a successful professional learning community is to collaborate, "Before I introduced the project to students, I presented it to about 10 teachers. I laid out all the planning details and they gave me critical feedback. It was a great opportunity to see things that I may have overlooked. They offered some ideas about how I could expand the project out to the community. And, it was a chance to make my interests public. Other teachers could see how we might work together on future projects to reach our shared goals" (40). By making these connections it develops a professional learning community that not only gets the job done but that creates a positive working relationship within the school. 3. One thing that teachers can learn from HTH's model of PBL is "Emphasize teacher-as-designer role" (42). Teachers can learn how to effectively design, oversee, test for understanding, and present projects for their lessons. Another thing that teachers can learn from HTH's model of PBL is "Adopt formal protocols" (42). By setting guidelines and expectations for all components of being an educator, "...critical peer feedback, troubleshoot project challenges, and examine work together" (42) there is nothing left to guess about how to go about addressing and finding the solution to any situation.

Lauren's Concept Map #1

Reading Reflection #2

There are many different types of learning communities. A school might include formal protocol or teacher feedback, whereas it might be as casual as two teachers meeting for lunch and conversation. Some professional learning communities exist in cyberspace, which can be great and very convenient. Determining the composition of your group and the variety of ways you interact you will be able to tell which way will provide the most success. Working together in collaborative teams to determine the best practice will be your best bet in a strong learning community.

Intention and trust will lead your team to the best “learning organization” which will improve your student’s achievement throughout the project approach. Being able to solve littler problems and exchange ideas quickly with other teachers via email is an essential component with PBL.

Professional communities and online communities go hand in hand to making your classroom the best learning environment. Participating in these communities will not only connect you to a wider network of colleagues who share your professional interests but also teach teachers to create their own opportunities for shared learning. Incorporating digital age products is a great example of a new strategy that can be a tremendous help to not only teachers but also students.  These strategies can be used and tested and then talked about in person for the most success.