Final Concept Map

Reading Reflection 11

The project based learning approach allows teachers and students to work collaboratively to solve a problem, rather then a teacher lecturing on how to. PBL closely relates the learning that is taking place inside of a classroom to the real world, which gives the students a stake in their own education. If students feel that what they are doing is important, they will care about the outcome of the project because, it matters! PBL is beneficial to students and teachers, but to parents and guardians as well. PBL teaches children to be community members as well as learning 21^st century skills that will help them be successful later on in their education and in life. Concepts in the chapter relate to our topic because it truly focuses on celebrating a project, and what better way to celebrate then a successful event and smiles on all of the participant’s faces!  Our students will have learned so many skills that will transfer to other aspects of learning including collaboration, teamwork, persistence, organization, dedication, and what it takes to work towards a common goal.

Reading Reflection 10

1.   It is very important to set aside time for reflection because when students reflect on things they can determine if they need to change them or if they are okay as they are. Reflection also can help students feel good about what they have accomplished thus far.

2.   Students to need reflect and elaborate because they need to determine what they have done and what is left to complete. Reflection is important to students because it helps them grow as learners and to determine what they need to change in order to become better learners. Elaboration is important because although the students may be thinking something, as teachers, we need to see it on paper in order to see if they are on the right track.

3.   Schools build tradition and identity mainly because they form communities inside the building. It is the job of schools and teachers to involve the community and to connect it with the school and the students in it. If students feel that their learning matters to the community and to their family and peers, they will most likely do better.

4.   Celebrating a project is important to the project process because depending on the project, it can take a long time to complete! Student’s interest has been kept from beginning to end and they have created something that they will be proud of, so celebration is key! When the project is completed, celebration will give students a sense of pride in their work and show them that their work really matters.

5.   Concepts in this chapter relate to our topic because for our kickball tournament, we need a lot of community support! Students will be researching on their own but presenting the information to the community in order to gain interest. If we as a school have a bad identity in the community, no one will want to take part in our project and then it will most likely fail.

Reading Reflection 9

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

There are many great ways to determine students prior knowledge, which is needed in order to determine which what your lessons need to cover and how in depth they need to go. KWL charts are a great resource because they allow the student to track their own progress and determine their own learning goals of the project.

2.   Discussion on the importance of establishing anchors for a project.

Establishing anchors for a project are ways that the teacher and students can track progress and determine if they are on the right track. Anchors give teacher a sense of where students started, where they want to be, and where they are currently. If students are all in different places the teacher can then determine which groups to work with first whereas if all the groups are about the same spot, the teacher can spread her guidance a little differently.

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

There are many ways to assess students during a project, but the most effective seems to be time benchmarks and anchors. If students have to have certain parts of the project done and handed in over a period of time, a teacher can determine where they are in their discovery process each time something is or isn’t turned in.

4. Concepts in this chapter relate to our project because without benchmarks and anchors of progress we would be over loading the students with a ton of work right at the end of the unit. In order to organize a successful event, it’s important that each and every thing needs to happen in order, you can’t promote the event before you know why you are doing the event in the first place!

Reading Reflection 8

1.   Description of some ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom.

In order to branch out and make connections outside of the classroom, you must know what recourses are available to you and your students. Utilizing technology is a great thing that can help you do this, especially through the use of blogs. If a teacher can open doors for their students, the information and knowledge that they can gain from outside resources is endless. When students utilize the world outside of them, they are making the connections to the real world themselves therefore making their learning that much more substantial. Students need to learn how to communicate and receive information from people working in the fields they are researching in order to truly utilize the community.

2.   Description of the EAST Initiative Model.

 The Environmental and Spatial Technologies (EAST) is a model that requires students to utilize technology in a positive and engaging way. This initiative model helps students do projects that will allow them to master different technologies while solving a community problem. There are four parts to the model, which includes student driven learning, authentic project based learning, technology as tools, and collaboration. Through this model, teachers will learn to take a step back and facilitate learning rather then direct it, also known as the transition from project leader to project supervisor. The EAST model provides teachers with ongoing support and students with collaborative student based learning of technology.

3.   Discussion on some reasons to let students “lead” their projects.

Allowing students to lead their own projects allows them to determine what they want to gain from the project. When students are in charge of their own projects they have a stake in their learning and it means that much more to them. Teachers are then allowed to step back and do not have to micromanage every single student because they are collaborating and helping themselves.

4. This chapter relates to our topic because we can utilize the topics discussed to encourage connections between the classroom and the community. We can also utilize this teaching style described in the chapter to become facilitators of learning rather then  the traditional approach of teacher directed classrooms.

Reading Log 7

       1.  Description of the levels of classroom discussions.

Classroom discussions can be implemented in many ways to promote learning in any type of classroom. Teacher to teacher is one type of discussion that will happen within a classroom. Teacher to teacher is an avenue that you may utilize to take advantage of working with others. Teacher to teacher can touch on everything prom the procedural method to formative assessment, which is a great resource. Teacher to teacher allows educators to take ideas and bounce them of their peers and perfect them. Anther type of discussion is teacher to student, which includes different things in a PBL classroom. In a traditional classroom, teacher to student looks something like a teacher lecturing the students. During PBL, the teacher utilizes this type of discussion within small groups and traveling around the classroom.

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

PBL allows students to utilize different avenues in order to complete a project in any way they choose. Checking in is a tool to monitor student’s progress by communicating with them throughout the entirety of the project. Checking in allows touch base and stay on top of children in order for them to be hitting checkpoints and completing tasks in a timely fashion. Checking in truly allows the PBL project process to be successful.

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

a.    Technology is a very apparent thing in our world today, so utilizing it within our project process is a must. First and foremost, technology being used needs to be useful and helpful to any project. By utilizing technology, you keep the students interest while achieving learning goals, keeping them organized, expanding their technological knowledge, extend creativity and gain new insights.

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

Developing 21^st skills is an important thing to do in order to be successful inside a PBL classroom as well as in the real world. In order for students to truly get a lot out of PBL projects it’s the teachers job to connect them to real world situations, and that can be done while developing 21^st century skills. Communication, collaboration, persistence, and time management are all very important skills to master in the PBL process as well as in education.

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

This chapter relates to our topic because a lot of student discussion will need to take place in order for the event to be successful. The students will be researching and providing the information found to the community and in order for that to take place they must work collaboratively with each other and produce a final product.

Website Gmail Account

name: kickareforkids@gmail.com
password: kickit!!!

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 #10

1. Setting aside time for reflection is important in the end of the project. Reflection provides students with a chance to reflect on the work that they have accomplished and completed.  Reflection lets students create their own meaning of different concepts.  This allows the ideas that have been learned to stick. Without reflection, students may not congratulate themselves for all of the hard work and leadership that they did successfully.  Also, it could make the facts about what they learned to go away from memory.

2. Students need to reflect and elaborate because it will help them in their future projects. 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 that they be a part of in the future.

3. Building a tradition within the classroom is a really neat concept to promote great project work. Starting a tradition will ignite excitement, especially in the younger classrooms. 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, no matter the size, it is extremely important to develop confidence as learners. We, as teachers, need to make our students feel important, like they just completed the most amazing project and that the whole world will learn from their findings. 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 celebrating finished projects.  In our case, the annual Kicks are for Kids kickball tournament! 

Reading Reflection #11

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

• Once the project has been completed, the teacher and students will feel as if they have gone somewhere together and leave vivid memories, souvenirs, and artifacts, as well as, ideas for shaping the next learning adventure.

Discussion on ways to “bring your project home”.

• Ways to bring your project home are to capitalize on your investment, critique your work, share your insights, become a resource for your colleagues, enter a contest, and/or enjoy the journey. 

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

• For our project we will want to critique our work to figure out what worked and what didn't. We are also creating a website that can be used as a resource for colleagues to see what was done and what resources were used to create this project.

Reading Reflection #10

Discussion on the importance of setting aside time for reflection

• It is important to set aside time for reflection to determine that what has been learned really sticks. Also, it can help students feel good about their accomplishments.

Discussion on the reason students need to reflect and elaborate.

• It is important for students to reflect and elaborate because they need to create their own meaning then be able to look at it from all sides and view it from a distance. It helps students reveal things they might not think about such as; what they learned, their growth as learners, and what/how they want to learn in projects ahead.

Discussion on how schools build tradition and identity.

• To build tradition an identity a teacher/school must build awareness in others. Involving families, the community, and students coming up and letting them know what you're up to gives a foundation for tradition. When the community begins to notice and value accomplishments they will give support and want to be involved.

Discussion on the importance celebrating a project.

• It is important to celebrate a project to give students a sense of pride in their work. Celebrating learning helps to build the school's identity. A teacher can put on an event, create a blog, or hold a party to celebrate.

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

• For our project we will be celebrating our student's accomplishments by holding a community inclusive kickball tournament. The student's will also have the time to reflect on the information they have learned before continuing onto the next assignment/project.

Reading Reflection #9

1. Description of a method of understanding prior-knowledge of students.              It was previously discussed to use a KWL activity to determine you student's prior knowledge, but a teacher must create an activity that will bring up their prior knowledge.
2. Discussion on the importance of establishing anchors for a project. It is important to establish anchors because it can help teachers gain sense of where students are starting (prior knowledge) and how far they are going as they work to meet learning goals.
3. Description of several ways to assess what students learned during the project. A couple ways to assess what students have learned is to create a task that asks students to summarize what they learned, have a panel come in to judge the student's completed work, or encourage student's to enter their work into a contest!
4. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project. For our project we have created a kickball tournament which is a task that student's will be running to show what they have learned about this particular sport.

Final Concept Map

The final concept map, I included details about the final presentation of the Kicks are for Kids tournament.  This includes the specifics of the application due dates, the first meeting (date, place time, etc.) and additional edits.

Final Concept Map-Katelyn

For my final concept map I added additional information regarding the Kicks are for Kids event and meeting! :)

Website

Link to our website so we can get started :)

https://sites.google.com/site/kicksr4kidz/

Reading Reflection 9

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

To get a better understanding of the students' prior knowledge is to create an activity that will require to expose what they already have knowledge of.  This “establishing anchors” activity should be able to be easily monitored by the teacher to get a sense of where the students are and what actions will need to be taken to meet the learning goals.

       2.     Discussion on the importance of establishing anchors for a project.

Establishing anchors is important when conducting a project because it allows the teacher to determine where the students stand with background knowledge.  Then use that background knowledge to develop a plan to be appropriate for the students to reach a certain goal.

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

To assess what a student has learned throughout their project is by having the students visually display, or present their work to a panel of judges. The students could do a presentation to a “judge panel” is at the end of their project it may help motivation.  This is a fun, real-world setting to defend their work and explain their research and what they have learned which is a great learning experience for students. .

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

This chapter relates to our project because we need to choose a method to assess the students' work. It would be fun to have a coach, fitness enthusiast or a dietitian on the judge panel. This would give them the ability to a connect their project with the real world.  

Reading Reflection #8

1. Description of some ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom.
 
Building connections and branching out beyond the classroom can be done simply by the use of technology.  This can be done by blogs.  They can be used to help develop students' writing skills and as well as to help students express themselves.  Their work can be made accessible to fellow students, 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 as teachers, we can set a stage for these connections.  Students should be prepared before these connections by teaching them how to conduct an interview to gather the most conducive information for their project.

2. Description of the EAST Initiative Model.
 
The Environmental and Spatial Technologies (EAST) Initiative model requires students to use technology to make a difference.  They do this by doing projects that help them master different technologies while solving a community problem.  The four parts to this model are student-driven learning, authentic project-based learning, technology as tools, and collaboration.  This model also includes teacher to teacher support and training.  Through this model teachers will change their roles from project leader to project supervisor.  Professional development for teachers occurs in three phases.  A collaborative training experience held for a week in the summer, when the educators begin to have questions about implementing the EAST model, and when the educators go further into the real-life problems the students run into.  Teachers also maintain ongoing support and networking.
 
3. Discussion on some reasons to let students “lead” their projects. 

 Students are able to successfully 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.  Students develop a passion for solving problems through their research and personal connections, so they are excited about solving the problem for themselves, as opposed to solving the problem for a teacher.

4. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.
 
 This chapter relates to our topic and project because we can use this model when developing our topic/project.  We can use this project to encourage connections being made with people outside of the classroom in projects and to let students take initiative and independence over their project.  We can also use this model in our teaching style.  We could encourage teachers to take a step back to be “supervisors” as opposed to “leaders”.

Reading Reflection 6

1               Discuss how technology tools can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths.

Technology is such a part of our world today it is almost impossible not to utilize it in not only your day to day life, but in your education as well. Technology tools can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths in many ways. The use of blogs and different websites such as Surveymonkey and Zoomerang students are easily able to identify trends and help them track their assessments with the rest of the class. Tools such as these allow students to somewhat compare themselves to their peers enabling them to track their progress, strengths and weaknesses.

2               Describe several ways in which you can get students’ minds ready for a project.

As with anything, students need to be excited about something in order for them to have a personal stake in it. In order to get student’s minds ready for a project, you need to determine the prior knowledge that they have pertaining to the topic through self-assessments. This will give you a basis on where you need to begin as well as where you need to go. Students need to see that you feel passionate about the project so it is important that you transfer that feeling to them. If they believe that you care about this and it’s outcomes, it is more likely they will. When students have an interest in their learning it becomes more important to them, therefore allowing them to become more involved. Finally, the teacher can build excitement for the project by “planting the seed” in the previous weeks leading up to the start of it. If the students are hearing about the project and it’s aspects more than just the first time you introduce it, it allows them to think openly about it and develop their own ideas.  To get students excited about the project you need to give the project a purpose and allow them to feel that they are truly discovering something new.

3  Discuss the elements of teaching fundamentals first

Teaching the fundamentals first is a crucial ideal for educators in any subject. Everything we learn, we learned the basics first in order to understand the more complicated ideas, building blocks make the final project. Fundamentals are important in projects because they allow the students to be introduced to the aspects of the project but not in an overwhelming way. In order to know where the project is going to need to know where your students are starting. A great resource mentioned in the book is having children create wikis alone, with a partner, and with another child from another class. This activity allows students to take their ideas and expand them not once, but twice therefore “perfecting” them.

4  Describe the important steps in preparing students for using technology in project.

Technology is a huge resource for our students to utilize during the project process but it is important that we are using it the best we can. Utilizing technology requires planning by the teacher in order to determine which technology can be best utilized and what the students will be familiar with. The most important thing is to consider yourself a student and try to navigate through the technology that you want them to use. You need to discover and research each piece of technology and determine if it is easy or difficult to understand as a student because if it is not, you then have to determine if it worth using.

5              Discuss ways to promote inquiry and deep learning.

Projects are great things for children to explore and investigate different topics and ideas, which in turn will lead to inquiry and deep learning. When students have a stake in their learning they truly are interested in all aspects of it therefore allowing them to investigate it more in depth. As a teacher it is your job to create an experience for the children to discover and learn new things project based learning allows them to learn hands on. It is important for students to utilize what they learn within the classroom and apply it to their own lives and what they know outside of school as well.

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

The topics in this chapter relate to our project because it’s all about creating a deeper understanding of a “simple topic” Kickball is a sport that many people know about and have most likely played before, but by examining the different health aspects of it you are giving more meaning to the project.

Reading Reflection 5

1.Discussion on the items that should be considered before starting a project with students.

When beginning a project, there are multiple things to take into account. First, you must gather the resources and tools necessary to achieve the learning goals. This will include people, places, and things (tools and technology) that will aid in their learning. Students need to consider ways to make their project engaging and interesting to all involved and to make it worthwhile. Next, students need to plan a project calendar with steps and milestones that will help them stay organized and on task in order to effectively complete each goal and learning target. Finally, student’s need to understand the expectations for the entire project and the learning goals that they are attempting to reach.

2. Discussion on teachers and students’ management needs.

Management is an important thing in creating and completing a project as well as many other things. Management includes everything from the different tools for communication and recourses to different methods and avenues of assessment. In order for a project to be successful, systems and strategies need to be established for all of the above to stay organized. The student’s needs to be kept in mind when determining which management techniques are important and which will help them become most successful. Another important thing to keep in mind about management is time and flow of work so that your students are consistently completing their work in a timely fashion.

3. Discuss some of the technology applications that should be considered for use in a project.

Technology is a great resource for advancing your projects. Wiki, blogs, drupal and textpattern are great online resources to allow your students to utilize. Resources such as the ones listed above allow students to search for information and then work collaboratively no matter where they are. Tools such as these allow projects to be carried out in a more time efficient manor.

Concepts in this chapter relate to our project because there are many aspects to creating a kickball event while also making it an educational experience for students. This chapter defines the process of the different stages throughout the project process, which helps you to stay organized and complete each certain task. The most important thing that this chapter explains is that technology is a great tool to utilize in a project. For ours specifically, we are utilizing South Korean kickball ideals in comparison with the USA, and we would not be able to easily find that information without the internet. Overall, this chapter outlines each step and lays out what is important to think about before and during the project process.

Reading Reflection #7

1. Description of the levels of classroom discussions.    Throughout implementation, several levels of discussion take place.  Teacher to teacher discussion could touch on many different areas including the procedural method, who’s leading, who’s working together, to formative assessment.  This could cover the problems the students are having understanding certain areas.  If teachers are not able to have face to face connection, they could communicate through a blog, wiki or any different collaborative technology tool to keep in touch.  Student to Student discussion can take place from members in one team communicating with teammates, or members of one team collaborating with another team.  Teacher to student discussion takes place in traditional classrooms through lecture format where the teacher dominates the conversation.  However, this approach to teacher to student discussion is modified for PBL.  During PBL, the teacher to student discussion is likely to take place as the teacher travels around the classroom assisting, providing guidance, or keeping the students on task as opposed to the lecture format. 

2. Discussion on the questions for “checking in” on students during a project. With PBL, students are encouraged to take different routes with the project.  With all this variation in the classroom taking place, it is important for the teacher to check in and touch base with the students.  Checking in is used to monitor the student’s progress by making sure that the members of the team have good time management, team work as well as understanding of the PBL topic. Checking in is an essential part to project progress.

3. Discussion on the benefits to students when optimizing the use of technology. When optimizing the use of technology for a project it is important to make sure that the technology being used is the most preferred technology tool of the student.  This is a way that the students will stay interested in the project if they are using technology they are comfortable with. The technology chosen should help students reach their learning goals, keep them organized, expand their horizons, stretch their creativity and gain new insights for communication.

4. Discussion on the 21st-century skills that can make or break a project. Distinguishing troubleshooting is a key 21^st century skill that could make or break a project.  Helping students realize that all the projects are like everything in life. They will more than likely come with some sort of problem.  This is important in PBL because it develops exposure to real life in a way that a person can mess up, but lessons can be learned from the mistakes and can be corrected or modified.

5. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project. The concepts in this chapter relate to our topic/project because student to student discussion takes place through the children’s pen pal communication with students in South Korea.  Also, Student to student discussion also will take place in our project when students share their Venn Diagrams with others.  This is an interesting take on student to student discussion with students playing both roles of student to teacher discussion when the students are sharing and teaching each other about the health benefits of kickball.  

Reading Reflection #8

Description of some ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom.

• Connect with experts-connect students with experts to expand their knowledge
• Expand the learning circle-include distant countries/continents
• Communicate findings-allow students to share their findings with each other
• Let students lead-allow the students to lead a project

Description of the EAST Initiative Model.

• EAST stands for Environmental and Spatial Technologies. This is an initiative network of schools that demonstrate the benefits of using technology for a real purpose. The four essential ideas are; student-driven, authentic project-based learning, technology as tools, and collaboration.

Discussion on some reasons to let students “lead” their projects.

• Students are capable of leading their own projects especially when a teacher has generated  a project idea the students care about. Students can take on their own learning while the teacher is there for support. 

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

• We are allowing our students to take the lead in our kickball project especially when it comes time for the Kickball tournament, it will be student-lead with support from the three of us. We will also be using technology as our tools to develop knowledge on kickball and how to play. We will be expanding our learning circle by talking with students from South Korea.

Reading Reflection #7

Description of the levels of classroom discussions.

• Teacher to teacher-teachers continue to discuss the project plan while they implement
• Student to student-students talk with each other about their learning experiences
• Teacher to student-occasionally teacher will have a whole group discussion or lecture

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

• Questions need to be asked to check-in on students to see if they're staying on schedule, teams are getting along, if they understand the project, and what students are thinking about the project.
• The four types of questions are procedural, teamwork, understanding, and self-assessment

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

• A teacher needs to evaluate the use of technology during projects to determine if it is helping students reach their goals, stay organized, expand their horizons, and whether or not it's equitable.

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

• The 21st century skill that can make or break a project is teamwork. Students must work together to successfully complete a project. Ways to help teamwork not break a project is to have students agree on their roles and responsibilities and spell out consequences if they don't follow their agreement. A teacher can also have an assessment or rubric to evaluate teamwork.

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

• For our Kickball project, my team and I need to consistently be checking in on our students to make sure that they fully understand the project and are staying on-task and organized. We also need to make sure that the use of technology is beneficial and helping the students reach their end goal for the project. Also, we'll want to emphasize the importance of teamwork during this project and evaluate to make sure the 21st century skill is being applied.

Reading Reflection 6

Technology tools can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths. Using blogs is a way for them to reflect on what they have done and how they can better themselves in the future projects/assignments. An online survey tool can be used to  identify the learning characteristics of an individual and groups.

In order to get students' minds ready, a teacher must start with identifying students' prior knowledge. A teacher should shake up students' ideas to generate interest and promote inquiry. One could do role-playing or discrepant events to create curiosity.

It is very crucial for teachers to teach fundamentals first. They need to set the stage for independent inquiry. That involves possibly a KWL activity to determine what students know, wonder, and want to learn. Teachers should also provide the assessment rubric that was created for the project to use as a roadmap toward great achievements.

There are multiple ways and steps to prepare yourself and students for technology. First, a teacher needs to plan efficient ways to get students ready to use technology for their learning. You can consider a way to set up opportunities for students to learn by and among themselves.  Encourage students to teach each other by setting up computer stations, each with one tool that will be used in the project, and then let them teach!

To promote inquiry and deep learning a teacher must guide students as they develop questions, plan investigations, and begin to put their plans to action.There are multiple primary outcomes that all students should understand. They 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

Currently, my group is determining ways to get students' minds ready, as well as, the communities for our super fun kickball tournament, Kicks are for Kids. We also must use information from this chapter to determine how we will begin by teaching the fundamentals and use technology tools in the project. We also will determine ways to teach and prepare our class to use technology for this project, especially since they will be using ePals to talk with students from South Korea.

Updated Concept Map

Updated Concept Map:
I added a branch off of Team Sports to specifically include kickball, and then utilized that to touch on the event and its significance. I thought that this branch was important because it combined the different benefits of health with the purpose of the event. Overall, this concept map will show how all of these topics are interrelated and relevant to each other.

Concept Map

Original Concept Map

Chapter 4 Reading Reflection

Chapter 4 discusses the idea of quality, worthwhile project in a problem based learned classroom compared to any other project you may want to do. Although projects are a great way to get many types of learners involved in developing life long skills, if they are not “meaningful and motivating to learning” there is no point in wasting the teachers time or the students time on them. There are many potential pitfalls of project design one including the actual length of the project. You can work on something for a day, a week, or a month, but if it is not “the right size” for that topic, it does not matter. When determining the length that the project should last, always take into consideration if the students could learn the same things in a lecture or by reading a part of a textbook. You also always need to keep in mind that although technology is a great tool, it can also be a distraction if not used efficiently. Although there are a few ways project design can be difficult, if you always keep learning objectives, flexibility, and productivity in mind the outcome should be a good, worthwhile project. Good projects are based on flexibility and being able to take it in any direction that the children take it. Projects should have a purpose and a starting point but should not be a step-by-step recipe because it does not allow the children to think outside of the box. Projects also need to hit as many learning standards that they possibly can and in as many different ways that they can. If your project can effectively cross curriculums and intertwine different subjects, the learning possibilities are endless. Good projects most importantly reach beyond school to involve others and other outside sources. Project based learning is about developing students inquiry, decision making, and team work skills while also teaching them to critically think in real life situations. When teachers effectively utilize the surrounding community and real world situations, they are getting their students to use their traditional educational ideas and apply them to everyday life. Good projects learn by doing and utilizing the teacher as a facilitator of learning rather than a lecturer. In order to effectively carry out a good project, it begins with good ideas hat have been weeded out from the bad ones. A great resource for quality project ideas is your fellow teachers who may or may not have taught something like you are trying to get across. Collaboration between coworkers allows for classes and subjects to work with each other and more effectively sink in with the students. Another resource for project ideas is online resources such as Global SchoolNet, iEarn, and iHistory. In summation, do develop a good, worthwhile project, it takes thinking about the big picture and the objectives you want to portray to your students. Projects are supposed to be a new, exciting way to teach the traditional material and in order to keep the educational value consistent between the two worlds, most importantly we need to determine our learning targets and overall the best way to achieve those. The concepts in this chapter relate to our project directly because health and wellness is something that needs to be incorporated into education in any way possible. Although basic health and wellness will not typically interest every single child, by organizing and running an event you are giving them a stake in their own learning while allowing them to interact in the real world. Something specific that I learned and can incorporate into our project from this chapter is the absolutely crucial idea that the students need to be the leaders of the project as much as they can. The more responsibility you give the students, the more accountable for their learning they become.

Reading Reflection #6

1. Discuss how technology tools can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths.   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. 

2. Describe several ways in which you can get students’ minds ready for a project.   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. 

3. Discuss the elements of teaching fundamentals first.  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. 

4. Describe the important steps in preparing students for using technology in project.  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. 

5. Discuss ways to promote inquiry and deep learning.  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. 

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

Collaborative Concept Map:Part B

The Collaborative Concept Map has been refined to add a combination of the KAS concept maps.  This collection resulted in a more in-depth, planning on the Kicks Are for Kids event hosted by the 4th Graders at Portage Central Elementary.

Collaborative Concept Map:Part B

https://bubbl.us/?h=236dad/4867c7/23y5VUoA0896w&r=2143941868

To revise my Concept Map, I added in the details for our Kickball tournament that will be part of our project. I originally had the Rules and Regulations of Kickball that are hoped to be found by the 4th graders and have now added their part in the Kicks are for Kids tournaments, as well as, broke down the details of the tournament and the kick-off meeting for the tournament.

Reading Reflection #5

Before beginning a project with students, one should consider the following:

1. Gather the resources necessary to support the project
2. Select the tool that will help students meet the learning goals
3. Think about how to make access to technology more frequently and equitably
4. Consider ways to engage with experts both in person and through technology
5. Plan a project calendar with milestones to help teach students how to become effective time managers
6. Learn management systems for another way to organize components of the project
7. Reset your expectations and experiment with different combinations
8. Plan your assessments (Formative assessments can create more opportunities to know what your students are thinking and understanding)

There are five different categories of assessment to use:

1. Monitoring-using checklists, inventories, or project logs
2. Observing-Watching and listening to what students do and say
3. Interacting- Asking questions to coax students into deeper thinking
4. Analyzing- Collecting and analyzing artifacts of student learning
5. Reporting- Organizing performance data to share with students, parents, and others

Teachers' Project Management Needs

1. Tools for communicating with students and others about the project
2. Tools for making milestones and events visible and for notifying students when changes occur
3. Methods for getting resources to students
4. Systems for managing work products
5. Structures that support a productive learning environment in which teams and individuals are engaged in a variety of learning tasks at the same time
6. Assessment tools and strategies

Students' Project Management Needs

1. Systems and tools that help them manage their time and flow of work
2. Systems that help students manage materials and control work drafts
3. Collaboration tools
4. Methods for seeking assistance
5. Ways to get and use feedback on their own work, through self-reflection, team input, and teacher advice
6. Ways to work iteratively and to see how parts add up to the whole

Some of the technology applications that should be considered for a project include:

1. Wiki
2. Blogs
3. Drupal
4. Textpattern

This chapter relates to our project in the sense, that we have to also take into consideration all of the above topics before we begin our project with a class. We need to determine all of the steps for our project to help it be as successful as possible. We also need to be aware of our project management needs as well as our students. Plus we need to incorporate different technology applications into our project. 

Reading Response #5

Introducing the idea of project based learning for a new project requires teachers consideration to get started.  This consideration includes the resources that will be needed as well as to plan the strategies to support effective time management, teaming and assessment.  Teachers’ management needs include a communication method to take place with the students, tools for marking and announcing milestones to be reached and looking into, and having available, the resources that will be needed by the students.  These resources may be new to students, so teachers should also a lot time to introduce unfamiliar items.  All in all, successful management of the teachers will result in the students learning management of their own.  Project management needs of the students includes methods for seeking assistance, ways to get and use feedback on their work through self-reflection, team input, and teacher advice, collaboration tools and tools to help manage their time.  This learned management of the students will be displayed by setting the end goals of their projects, and the steps that will need to be taken to reach them.  Relating to the management of students, teachers can incorporate technology applications.  This may include an online assessment for the students to complete to determine that the students did, in fact, take the management responsibilities of developing a plan to distribute their time and resources to successfully complete their project and meet their end goals.  This planning for the project to be done by teachers and students relates to our group project of tracking health habits in small groups by having the students work together to develop a plan for the week to obtain a healthy lifestyle as well as each student documenting, and communicating, their daily health data to their group to receive feedback.  

Reading Reflection #4

1. Discuss the potential pitfalls in project design. Some potential pitfalls in project design can begin with a project being long on activity, short on learning outcomes.  When planning a project, it is important to remember the outcomes you hope to achieve from the project.  Another potential pitfall is layering technology over traditional practice.  In our generation, it is importance to remember the useful help of technology, but that should not be the primary outcome of a project.  Technology is an important tool to use to help reach their goal, but the value of technology should not be misused.  Thematic unit is not PBL, but it does not mean that it has to be trivial.  As teachers, we have to be careful not to turn thematic teaching into a repetitive, useless project.  Instead we should think outside the box to turn it into PBL. Another potential pitfall in project design is a design that is overly scripted with excessive steps.  When assigning the projects, we should be aware not to assign projects with limited or predictable results. Instead of assigning “recipe” projects, we should encourage to reach their own outcomes.  Awareness of this will lead to more significant learning outcomes. 
2. Discuss the features of a good project. To create a good project, the potential pitfalls discussed above should be avoided.  Also being flexible and avoiding predictable “cookie cutter” projects helps develop good projects.  By making the topic broad, the kids have the ability to explore their own options.

3. Discuss where project ideas come from. There isn’t one specific place to find good project ideas.  Teachers can look through books, get ideas from colleagues, finds ideas online, etc. Once you get an idea for one great project, it will begin generating ideas for your next big projects.

4. Discuss the steps to design a project. To begin designing your project is to revisit the framework.  To revisit the framework, you make a list of the learning objectives and decide what you want your students to obtain from a certain project.  The next step is to have a good grasp on the topic.  If you would like your students to succeed with the project, it is important to understand the topic yourself to help guide them.  The next step is to plan a theme and structure for the project. Finally, you must think of how you will introduce the project and get your students excited to begin it!

5. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project. This chapter relates to our project because it gives us advice on how exactly to set up our first project. As a team we can take advice from this chapter and use the concepts in our own project, such as learning outcomes and flexibility.  Also, this chapter relates to our Kicks for Kids project because in order to develop a successful plan for the project, we were to pick a theme and then become knowledgeable about the topic before we can begin creating assignments.