Update

Hey guys,

I know you guys are busy but we have things we need to do. First, we need the google docs document to be revised according to the instructions on the syllabus. We only received half credit. How to post the link is in the syllabus or I can show you guys.

Next we HAVE to get this script and start recording for our next big project due Friday.

Any concerns, please let me know.

RR #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. Things that need to be considered before starting a project with students are rather straight forward. There needs to be proper planning. With planning comes gathering resources. What materials, who and what is needed has to be planned and figured out. Take inventory and clearly gather what you need. Make sure there is a goal of the project. Goals should have deadlines and milestones and achieved accordingly. The team should be organized in team planning. There should be a plan for assessment set already. How will you test what you expected them to learn? It should have more than one good assessment. 

2. Both teachers and students have needs to create and execute a successful project. Teachers need tools for communicating, tools for milestones, making events visible and notifying students. Teachers also need methods for getting resources to students, systems for managing work products, structures that support productive learning environments and assessment tools. 

Students need systems and tools for time management, tools for material management, collaboration tools, methods for seeking assistance, feedback tools, and ways to work iteratively and see it as a whole. 

3. Some technology that could be considered are a wiki, a blog, Drupal, or Textpatter. Students can create other personalized web pages also. With all of these students and teachers can have great communication. It is easier to update each other. These are great management frameworks and structures to help the flow of information to be shared. 

4. This chapter relates because it it helps us know how to start our project. It provides great advice on what to do before we even get started to have a successful project. Also it gives great applications we can use. 

Assignment VI part A Updated

This is the route from the school we're communicating with and one of the fresh fruit markets near them. This could be one of three nearby markets they could gather their resources for their classroom kitchen.

Virtual Penpals.... information

Hey Girls,

So I know I shared the google doc with both of you but just giving you the link for the gdoc as well. It is not done, I want you girls to read through it and see if you want to change or edit or add to it. Let me know, I did choose a school in Brasilia since Ciera chose the location for the gooogle map =)

Also, for the google map, I see that we are suppose have a route and explanation for it, Ciera if you're able to clarify that, it would be excellent!


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zl1f_tgcdTuL2npn7apShA1Xb2TSsJktPBoOFUPqRMg/edit?usp=sharing

-Rebecca

Assignment VI Part B: Brasilia, Brazil

1. Discuss the potential pitfalls in project design.
2. Discuss the features of a good project.
3. Discuss where project ideas come from.
4. Discuss the steps to design a project.
5. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

We all hope to have a successful project design but there are some pitfalls that may come with that to watch for. The first is being long on activity and short on learning outcomes. The project can be a waste of students' and your time if it is busy but reaches lower order learning aims. Another is technology layered over traditional practice. You have to make sure the project is of quality and not just a dressed up research report. Next is trivial thematic units. Thematic teaching is not necessarily project based, know the difference. Another pitfall is overly scripted with many, many steps. 
A good project is loosely designed with different learning paths. It is here arid causing students to construct meaning, centered around a question, capture students' interest, realistic, and reach beyond school to involve others. It should also tap into rich data, are structured so students learn with and from each other, have them working as inquiring experts, use 21st century skills and literacies, get at learning dispositions and finally, have students learn by doing. 
Good projects are everywhere and give inspiration. One can get inspiration from a tried-and-true project, projects by other teachers, news stories, contemporary issues, student questions and interests, classroom irritant and a collection of great ideas. There are four main steps to designing a project. First revisit the framework by making a final list of objectives, decide on skills to address and identify dispositions. Second is to establish evidence of understanding. Then  plan the theme/challenge for students. Lastly plan your entry to the project and how you will introduce it. 
These concepts relate because my group and I have to begin designing our project and this gives us the steps to do so. It also has given us the pitfalls to look out for as we design it. This gives us the push to produce a successfully designed project.

Reflection #3

1.       The beginning of any project starts with some big ideas right? Students asked to brainstorm about all the potential things that can be presented for their specific project topic. Chapter 3 expressed that one of the important purposes of a group lesson plan project is to learn something that you have never known before, and through your project you are able to educate all of those who you present your project too. Collaborating with fellow classmates, sharing resources material, and thinking outside the box on how to create one cohesive project is the key to educational success.

2.       2lst century skills have a foundation built on things such as:

·         Analyzing the information when searching for reliable resource for your project.

·         Evaluating the research you have found to narrow down the key points for the project.

·         Using Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives to help construct an effective plan lesson for the group project.

3.       It’s essential to understanding that 21^st century literacy allow students gain strong a more realistic view of the world they live in. Reading and writing skills are important parts of 21^st century literacies, but students have to possess comprehension skills for the things they are reading and writing for critical thinking to take place and as a result students have eternally learned something for a lifetime.

4.       The essential learning functions contains eight parts.

o   Ubiquity: Learning Inside and Outside the Classroom, and All the Time - tools that help students become more mobile and learn on the go.

o   Deep Learning - go beyond "filtered" information and use higher-order thinking to engage students.

o   Making Things Visible and Discussable – Students will be able to display the key points to their audience from the information they’ve found.

o   Expressing Ourselves, Sharing Ideas, Building Community – Students should use the Internet to express their thoughts and feelings with those within a shared society.  EX: Twitter.

o   Collaboration-Teaching and learning with others – students will learn more when working hand and hand with fellow classmates and teachers.

o   Research – Students should use the Interest to look for reliable resources.  

o   Project Management: Planning and Organization - helps students manage time, work, sources, feedback from others, drafts, and products during projects.

o   Reflection and Iteration – Students will be able to reflect on what was going on when they were coming up with their big ideas. Having a Facebook page is one of the many ways to be about to do this.

5.       What I have learned from this chapter is that there is so much that goes into group project lesson planning and now I have a better understanding of what my group will have to do for our Classroom Kitchen lesson plan project to better successful.

Here are my 3 websites Evals. I wasn't sure if that was something that we were suppose to do individual but them I realized that we had three different assigned topics...I apologize for that.

http://www.mdcfoodprogram.com/menuideas.html


http://www.nourishinteractive.com/nutrition-education-printables/category/4-teaching-students-healthy-cooking-classroom-activities-kids-eating-healthy-food-cooking-teacher-resources-printables-worksheets


http://visualrecipes.com/

I also find some resources about teaching students with special needs how to cook and having fun while learning what all goes into a classroom kitchen.

http://www.angelfire.com/pa5/as/cooking.html

This one link has a bunch of sites.

Hey girls!
These are the sites that I evaluated for Assignment 3.

https://www.sba.gov/content/follow-these-steps-starting-business

http://classroomcaboodle.com/teacher-resources/classroom-floor-plan/ 

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/elementary-financial-literacy-lessons-resources-brian-page  

Reflection 3

In a classroom, with any project planning there must be a big idea to base it off of. While trying to do this, one must find out exactly what the big idea is. You have to identify what the main concepts are, what you want your students to understand and why the concepts are important. Once you've done this, you can begin thinking of application and relevance for students and real life applications. Once you've thought about these things, it's a good idea to discuss them with your colleagues.
A well put together project will evolve your students using 21st century skills and access them to the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. Students will analyze, evaluate, and create! Your project should challenge students to do them all. Along with those students should access the 21st century literacies. The project should naturally involve students learning to become independent, aware and productive. Within different contexts, students should be able to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute.
There are several essential learning functions that students should accomplish. Ubiquity is not exactly a learning function but it supports project learning just the same. It is being able to learn all the time, inside and outside the classroom. Deep learning pushes students beyond raw information and require students to engage in higher order thinking. Making things visible and discussable enables students to use their mind to examine things versus just telling. There is a visible representation. Expressing ourselves, sharing ideas and building community includes students using tools to express their ideas and build a society around interests. They share their ideas and have social interaction. Collaboration invite students to learn together, plan and write together and grow together. Research involves students using the web but being able to use filters, citations, and organizing information. Project management helps students manage time, work, sources, feedback from peers and teachers, and other organizational tools. Lastly, reflection and iteration refers to being able to reshape and reconsider ideas. Students could use blogs to express these drafts of works and continue to polish them.
All of these elements relate to our project because it shows us how to start. We know the steps and what to look for/keep in mind while designing this project. Kitchen classrooms can be very fun for the children and with the proper steps, we can create an effective environment for 21st century skills and literacies to be accessed.  

Hey guys! Here are our lesson plan topics!

Ciera - Space/Room

Rebecca - Budget

Alexis - Menu Ideas

Now that I've remembered how to post, here is my reflection #2.

After reading, I gathered that the main focus of learning communities is to promote change. It is about making time for new ways of working with colleagues to advance students. Teachers have support from fellow teachers, get to share ideas and create overall improved project based learning practices across the board. Some of the benefits of learning communities are decreased teacher isolation, increased commitment to the mission, shared responsibility, more powerful learning, and higher likelihood of fundamental, systematic change. This is always encouraged because other teachers can open your eyes to new perspectives and ideas of teaching that you may have not thought of. Teachers often share students so it is great if the students are getting some of the same great learning skills all around. Collaboration equals a more powerful learning system for both educators and students. To have a community there are certain components that should be shared among the members. First and foremost there needs to be a clear sense of the mission. This ensures everyone is on the same page with the same goals. Members should also share a vision of conditions to achieve the mission. They must work together in teams to determine the best practice. There should be groups with teacher leaders. The focus should remain on student learning for everyone in the community. Members should be goal and results oriented. Collectively members should share values, beliefs, full commitment, and consider themselves life-long learners. We have to always be willing to learn and accept that one will never know everything and everything. With all of these components, teachers could build an effective learning community. This chapter relates to my project and topic completely. We want to create a project of a classroom kitchen. The idea is to take all of the elements of potentially running a restaurant and give students a taste of all the work that goes into that. The group has to be on one accord with the goals and mission of this. All of the components mentioned apply to us while we strive to make this project successful.  

It seemed essential after reading chapter 2 having strong learning communities is a great start to helping student become smarter well-rounded students. The  important purpose of learning communities is to push teachers to collaborate with one another. Teachers should work together to educate students because that can use each other's ideas that could be helpful in the classroom. There were multiple benefits of Learning Communities for teachers in chapter 2. Some of the benefits consisted of decreasing teacher isolation, increase commitment to the goal of educating students, and sharing the responsibility of creating a smarter society for the world. Being apart of a Learning Community is an awesome resource to have on hand. Learning Communities encourages teachers to learn to work together as a united front in educating their students. One of the best parts of teacher collaboration is having access to tips they will learn from one other in the Learning Community. Teachers use one another as guinea pigs for ideas they would like use before introducing it into the classroom. By doing this, teachers are able to improve lessons and correct any rough patches or correct spots with in the lesson plans. The overall goals is for educators help create smarter students through improving education from teachers who are constantly growing and evolving. Just as teachers, students have benefits from Learning Communities. Some of them happen to be learning to work with fellow classmates especially when there are struggling moments in the learning process. Students will be able demonstrate real-life skills such as communication and critical thinking. The three components of Learning Communities work cohesively together.By sharing ideas, communicating with one another, and learning more about PBL, Project Based Learning, teachers and students will become successful in education. I'm a BIG believer in networking with professors and fellow colleagues because you never know what will work in the classroom and having a few extra sets of eyes and ears can be really helpful.

During the starting process of introducing PBL, Project Based Learning,  into my future classroom, I would keep in mind that to  prepare my lessons plans extensively and stay as organized as possible. Collaboration with other teachers who are also interested in bring PBL, can help build a strong network  for PBL educators. I found that PBL's has a variety of benefits of students and teachers. For instance, PBL approach is centered around students. Because of its student-centered, student tend to find greater understanding in what they're learning; In return, students are able to appreciate PBL and are usually satisfied with  what they're learning in the classroom. As a result students  will carry what they've learn from PBL for the rest of their lives. In terms of teachers, students who enjoy learning in the classroom never want to miss class! This means class attendance would improve, and students will go out of their way to spend more time studying the learning materials. There were some down falls to PBL. PBL doesn't reinforce the prior knowledge student gained in their earlier educational years. For teachers it could become a challenge to bring PBL into the classroom because this approach requires a lot of prep time to make sure the lessons are executed  effectively. Often PBL takes times away from other subjects, and in those states that follow the Common Core Standards PBL might not even be an option for teachers to attempt. New Technology High supports everything that the New Technology Model is all about. Before reading I thought I would be bored and lose interest in the material but I was proven wrong. I intend on using some of the elements of PBL into my future classroom.  

I've now figured out how to use this blog ladies!..lol  I'm not the best with technology so I'm praying this course helps me get more comfortable with using everything.. thanks for being so patient. At least I was able to send Rebecca the concept mp I hope it was helpful.:)