Top 10 Things I learned about Technology This Year:

1. It's complicated, and you need time to play with it before you introduce it to students
2. Your students most likely know more than you.
3. But don't assume every student comes to you with the same amount of technology literacy.
4. When you begin to rely on technology, and it becomes second nature in your classroom, you can't imaging a teaching environment without it.
5. Like students, teachers will come to you with different levels of technology literacy, and don't assume they are going to like it. 
6. Technology glitches are going to happen, prepare for the worst, hope for the best and always have a backup plan. 
7. When you want to throw technology out the window because you and your students are so frustrated with it, don't really do it.  ( I did not learn that the hard way, though there were times when I wanted to test it out!)
8. Use your technology failures as a transparent moment with your students and debrief that failure with them, talk to them about how you felt, and how you overcame whatever it was.
9. Your students WILL blow you away with what they create using Web 2.0 tools...give them a voice, and they will speak!
10. Technology changes come fast and furious, as teachers, we owe it to our students to give them the opportunity to learn and master them in order to be competitive in the 21st Century workforce.   

Noel

Reflection on Chapter 11 - Brining It Home

Chapter 11 discusses the journey that teachers and students took to get to the end point.  As I look back on the year, I realize how tired I am!  But, it is a good tired.  It's time to debrief the project of student blogs and wikis...first with myself, and then with my co-teacher, Stephanie.  On page 161, one teacher writes about  how her student's blogs offered "...a window into the minds of my students like none I've ever had before."  I can't agree more.  I saw thinking out of a 6th grader that many would not think possible.  Blogs and Wikis give students a voice, and I am more determined than ever to continue these metacognition tools. 

Now for what I plan to work on in the future...I want to create a project in which students have to work in teams.  This has been an area that I need to work on.  This summer, I am going to take the time to look at all the amazing examples Reinventing Project-Based Learning has given, and start thinking how this will look in my classroom in tandem with the new curriculum.  I agree with the authors that the end of this project only signifies the beginning of another!

Noel

Reflection on Chapter 10 - Celebrating and Reflecting

As with the last chapter in this book, Chapter 10 resonated with me.  I am a firm believer in the reflection process, and believe that to take the time for student reflection is some of the most meaningful work we can give to students.  They need to process what they have learned in their own way.  The author writes on page 147, "reflection can be the thing that makes learning really stick."  Reflection time is student alone time with their thoughts, without the pressures of talking a loud in a class, or talking among their peers.  It is essential for kids to look back on their learning process so that they can better understand themselves as learners.  I believe that to start, reflection should be structured, to help draw out in students what we need them to do, because they are not used to this type of deeper thinking.  As students learn the art of reflection, it can be more open-ended.  In the past, students in my class, have learned amazing things about what they are capable of.  In the words of a students from last year, about her photo essay, she wrote "I have learned that when I put my mind to something, I can do great things."  This student can look back at this project, and when she is confronted with a tough assignment or tough decision, she will know that she can get through it.  So to me, reflection not only helps students better learn content, but it helps students better learn who they are. 

Reflection on Chapter 9 - Making Assessment Meaningful

As part of the Expeditionary Learning Network and philosophy, I have learned that everything we do, from our planning to student learning to student end products - needs to be meaningful and have a real world application.  Chapter 9 resonated with me because this chapter aligns tightly with some of the EL Core Benchmark Practices. 

On page 139, the author writes, "Active learning is a hallmark of good practices, and students benefit by being actively involved even in the assessment stage.  In a well-designed project, students know why their are taking on a particular task and how it leads them toward important learning goals.  They also know what "success" looks like, and they understand the various categories by which their performance will be measured."  I couldn't agree more.  Why should students be kept in the dark about what it is they need to demonstrate, and how the teacher will score them.  Understanding what is expected of them upright provides the student with a better sense of where they are going and how they will get there. 

I also completely agree with the section titled "Grades That Matter."  Students, for generations, have been inaccurately assessed based on their habits of work, and not what they know about the content.  As an EL school, we have learned about grade distortions, and taken them out of the students' academic performance.  Students are assessed on the content and what they know and don't know about it.  If a student turns something in late, or not at all, that is reflected in their Habits Of Work grades (that are not averaged into their final grade).  Now more than ever, I know exactly where my students lie in meeting their targets.

iPad envy

A few week ago, we were sent an email about the use of iPads in the classroom. The site discussed the advantages of this technology in the classroom..I don't need to be convinced though, of having this technology. We, Stephanie Gallegos and I, have had the fortune of having a classroom set of iPods this year, and it has transformed our teaching. Kids are more engaged, and involved...and we have enjoyed it too. As the year comes to a close, I realize how much my teaching has changed and how much I rely on being able to have my student access their blogs or the wiki, or TodaysMeet.

I am envious of those schools that can easily attain this technology...That their teachers don't need to look and apply for grants on their own to get things like the iPad. I defiantly have iPad envy!

Chapter 8 Reflection

Chapter 8 of Reinventing Project-Based Learning focused on building connections and branching out.  This chapter reiterated much about what I have learned from being an Expeditionary Learning School educator.  Students need real audiences in order for products to be meaningful and authentic.  Knowing that there is a broader audience beyond the school walls does help students focus more on the quality of work that they are producing. 

But having been a part of a school network that believes this, creating an authentic product is difficult and time consuming.  It takes careful planning, setting up experts, an audience and then working on the product, with multiple revisions.  It is a slow process, but students benefit from all of this work.  They experience what it is like to persevere through the learning, planning and multiple revision process.  And they feel a sense of accomplishment when all is said and done.