Reading Reflection #7

1. It is important for there to be communication and discussion in a classroom. The ways that there is classroom discussion is teacher to teacher, for them to check the game plan, compare ideas, or about formative assessment. Another is student to student, students should constantly be discussing with their peers what they are doing, learning, etc. and learn together and from each other. Finally, teacher to student, this is not as time dominating as a traditional classroom lectures but will still sometimes be needed. It can be done with the teacher instructed a large group as a whole at the beginning with what to do or during the learning while working in small groups to check for understanding.

2. There needs to be check points and a way for students to know they are on the right track and for teachers to know that their students are where they are supposed to be. This should be done to help with procedural check ins, just asking if they are on schedule, have the right materials, etc. It can be done through teamwork, asking how are team members getting along? Listening to students to see if they are understanding, ask questions. And through self-assessment, encourage students to conduct their own reflection and self evaluation of themselves to learn.

3. Some benefits when optimizing the use of technology is that they can pick what matched their learning style and needs. For example, with a podcast it can be played at different speeds for different students to listen to. It is also good as it allows students with prior experience to explore and choose their own technology resources and gives options for students who may not be 100% comfortable with technology.

4. One 21^st century skill that can make or break a project are troubleshooting; help them to learn from their setbacks and fine-tune their strategies for getting a project back on track. Another is teamwork; if groups are not working out and the team dynamics are not good talk to students, help students to learn to manage their own team conflict, as they would have to in real-world situations.

5. These concepts are very important in my project as I need to have some check points to see that I am where I need to be, I need to have discussions with my other team members, and I need to be aware of some 21^st century skills.

Kent
Reading Reflection #6

1. Technology can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths by doing a self-evaluation that focuses on their learning dispositions that you expect them to develop during the project.
2. You can get students minds ready for a project by: tapping students prior knowledge, K-W-L activities, and bringing up the topic prior to beginning to allow discussion and ideas to be spread.
3. The elements of teaching fundamentals first are: set the stage for independent inquiry, share the assessment rubric, prepare for technology, set up a technology playground, tap student expertise, introduce project-management tools, and demonstrate.
4. The important steps to preparing students for using technology are: recall what resources are available to students, refer to the essential learning functions of digital tools, identify the learning functions that are important for this project, and talk about the learning activities you have in mind to help students reach the big ideas of the project.
5. Ways to promote inquiry and deep learning are: guide students as they choose questions, plan investigations, and begin to put their plan into action.
6. Discussions in the chapter relate to our overall topic because we need to plan lessons accordingly. We need to take into account the technology needed, what students already know, and how to promote deep learning and inquiry.

Reading Reflection Chapter 6

Abby Harrop

EDT 

1. Tools that can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths are:

-Blogs, as they offer students space where they can reflect and see what they are learning

-ProfilerPro, which is an online survey that allows students to identify the learning characteristics of an individual and among learners in their groups. Surveys can be taken straight from there and/or adapted. It helps to identify interests, strengths, and weaknesses to guide learning.

-SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang, which allows for surveys to be set up. There are then viewable results and trends to help students to see how their self-assessment compares to the larger group.

2. It is important that students are ready to learn before starting a project and some ways to get minds ready are by doing:

-A K-W-L, a know, wonder, learn activity to see what they want to know, what they already know.

-Get the students excited about their project, encourage them to look into it, explore and think about the topic, discuss the ideas with friends and family.

-Get a visitor or two to come in and talk about the subject

-Bring in something to do with the subject leading up to the topic to get them excited for the upcoming topic

3. Before teaching a lesson, there has to be a foundation, some fundamentals, visited first. These are to think about teaching prerequisite knowldges or skills students will need to know. When students know the fundamentals they can then make sure students are focused and moving in the right direction when they start the project. Building up their knowledge beforehand helps in the long run so it is not as overwhelming and complicated.

4. Steps for preparing students for using technology are:

-Set up a technology: consider how to set up opportunities for students to learn by themselves and learn to use the technologies without always having spelled out for them

-Tap student expertise: let students who are more technologically inclined to help other students. This can help students to learn better and those teaching it will also understand it more.

-Introduce Project-Management Tools: this is set up to let students track their progress towards their goals.

-Demonstrate: demonstrate how to use the tools the students will be using. If you feel uncomfortable, ask a specialist to help teach the students.

5. Ways to promote inquiry and deep learning things needed to be understood are:

- There is a relationship between need and opportunity, and between scarcity and abundance

-Money, bartering, and other means of exchange have existed throughout history and across civilizations, and they continue to change

-Modern money has symbolic worth as an exchange medium

-Economics, health, and well-being are related

-Money means different things to different people

-Humans are interdependent

6. These concepts relate to my topic in that they give us ideas on how to get our students’ minds ready for starting the project that we want them to do. We can also see some tools that encourage our students to be reflective and evaluate the strengths that they have.

Chapter 5
Kent

1. The items that should be considered before starting a project with students are: materials needed, technology needed, are experts needed, milestones and deadlines, organization, and assessments.
2. Teacher management needs are: tools for communicating with students and others about the projects, tools for making milestones and events visible and for notifying students when changes occur, methods for getting resources to students, systems for managing work products, structures that support a productive learning environment, and assessment tools and strategies.
Student management needs are: 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, and ways to work to see how parts add up to the whole.
3. The technology applications that should be considered for this project are: web based applications, blogs, different platforms, and any technological assistance that could be needed.
4. Concepts in this chapter relate to our project due to the nature of our project. Technology needs for both situations are the same. Our projects can directly be compared to this chapter due to the nature of our projects. We are doing a technology project in which all these technology and planning needs to be considered.

Chapter 6

1.     Tools that can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths:

a.     Blogs allow students space where they can reflect over time about what they are learning.

b.     ProfilerPRO is an online survey tool that allows you to identify the learning characteristics of an individual and also among members of a group. You can identify interests, strengths, and weaknesses, and use this information as you guide learning. Create your own survey in ProfilerPRO or adapt a template to meet your needs. You can also have students reassess their profile over time and compare how their “badge” changes as they acquire new skills and understanding.

c.      Tools such as SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang allow you to set up online surveys. You can use the results to track trends and help students see how their self-assessment compares to the larger group.

2.     Ways to get students’ minds ready for a project

a.     K-W-L chart

b.     Have someone in the field that is being taught, come in and talk

c.      Ask a question

d.     Keep bringing up the topic

e.     Tell them to discuss their ideas with friends and family

3.     When students are aware of what they know and don’t know, they can establish a point of departure and a sense of purpose. The K-W-L activity is an exploration that puts students in touch with their prior knowledge and helps them imagine where their learning can go. By doing this activity, students generate everything they know, what they wonder and what they want to learn.

4.     Steps in preparing students for using technology

a.     Step 1: Set Up a Technology Playground:  consider how you might set up opportunities for students to learn by and among themselves, & learn how to use the technology

b.     Step 2: Tap Student Expertise: set up computer stations, each with one tool students will use in the project, do a practice run with the student trainers to make sure they can teach important functions, help them find tutorials and demonstrations, have small groups rotate from station to station, discuss the purpose of each tool and set expectations for its use

c.      Step 3: Introduce Project-Management Tools: a project log or journal, helps students track their progress toward goals, can be a checklist, encourage students to write their own progress goals, make sure they understand how to use it

d.     Step 4: Demonstrate: demonstrate the use of tools, discuss the use of the tools within the context of the project, make expectations clear, ask a specialist if needed

5.     Ways to promote inquiry and deep learning:

a.     There is a relationship between need and opportunity, and between scarcity and abundance

b.     Money, bartering, and other means of exchange have existed throughout history and across civilizations, and they continue to change

c.      Modern money has symbolic worth as an exchange medium

d.     Economics, health, and well-being are related

e.     Money means different things to different people

f.      Humans are interdependent

6.     This relates to our topic because we have to know how to start of our lessons in our lesson plans. We have to be creative thinking about ways to start off our topics about staying healthy.

Reading Reflection #5

Abby Harrop

EDT

Reading Reflection #5

1. When first starting a project with students you, as a teacher, must prepare beforehand. You need to make sure you have all the materials that you need, and if you don’t, for you to go and get them in order to proceed. You need to make sure you know if the technologies required for the project are new to the students or not. If they are unfamiliar, make sure you set aside time and plan to introduce the technology and tools for the students. Think about whether the students will have questions during the project and there are appropriate people and experts available for them to approach and ask. Next, plan and look into anyone who can help and aid with the project, such as a media specialist, technology coordinator, among others. Finally, plan and think about how you will divide responsibilities within the group who are going to work collaboratively together.

2. Teachers and students both have management needs. Teachers’ needs are:

·       Tools for communicating with students and others about the project

·       Tools for making milestones and events visible for notifying students when changed occur

·       Methods for getting resources to students

·       Systems for managing work products

·       Structures that support a productive learning environment in which teams and individuals are engaged in a variety of learning tasks at the same time

·       Assessment tools and strategies including
-ways to gauge whether students are working productively and accomplishing project
-ways to assess the load balance within a team so no individuals end up doing too much or too little
-ways to give just-in-time feedback on student work as it develops, not just when it’s completed

Students’ management needs are:

·       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 teacher advice

·       Ways to work iteratively and to see how parts add up to the whole

3. Some applications that should be considered are wiki, an easily edited Web page. A blog, which is a Web page, but has less of a free-for-all, and has great tools for communicating about progress or milestones and to broadcast news related to the project. There is also Drupal and Texpattern, which are more sophisticated Web spaces which combine content management with blogging engine.

4. This can be relatable to our project because we are using a blog, which allows us to communicate with one another and share any news we may need to get across. It shows us how we can possibly implement and use blogging into our future classrooms and see how we like it and if we could manage it.