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. 

A bit of a vent...

Class sizes aren't going to change, and neither will our technology access problems/issues change.  I was sad to hear that the Director of Technology position has been cut due to budget issues.  Who is going to champion now for better access to technology?  Who is going to ensure that teachers have equal access to computer labs...because right now, that is not the case.  Who is going to finally say that computer labs are obsolete, that we shouldn't be taking kids out of our classroom to technology, but the technology should be brought INTO the classrooms?  Our students won't be proficient in 21st century skills if we keep 21 century skills only in technology class - just like we are all teachers of reading and writing in our specific content, we should all be teachers of 21st century skills - and that won't happen until we have better and equal access to what our students need.  

Noel 

Technology Glictches...

Students are completing their final of their photo essay.  They have been working on and off between Tech class and social studies and writing class - taking pictures, downloading them, editing them into black and white, formatting Word document to our specifications, pre-planning in social studies, pre-planning in writing, rough draft, revising, typing draft, revising...and revising more.  Finally, last week, all their work was coming together into the beautiful final piece.  It's been HARD work for them, and us.  Computer issues have been many, mainly...getting students onto the server, because they couldn't.  Other problems, students working faster than other kids...so what do you do when they get done?  Or how do you support those students who are seriously behind when the number of students who don't need lab time outweigh those who do?  What happens to the student project who was almost done, and the computer just completely crashed his project, and no matter what you say, it is MONTHS of exhaustive work that has been lost, and the prospect of starting over is just too much?  I don't have the answers, and it is discouraging.  

One last question...maybe someone can help?  We want students to get onto our laptops under their server log in so that we can save their project onto a flash drive while we are in the classroom during other work.  This worked for us well last year. We can move on, without having to be in the lab.  However, when students have tried to login using our laptop, Microsoft Word does not exist...and they can't pull their project up.  It comes up as a text edit box thing.  Ultimately, students can't pull their projects up on our laptops...is it because we have Microsoft 2011?  

Noel

Reflections on Chapter 7 - Keeping a Project Moving

This chapter discusses the  importance of communicating with all the teachers involved in a cross-curricular project; and ensuring students are on the right track by asking the right question and becoming an observer in the classroom.  I liked the section about asking higher order questions - claiming that these types of questions are part of the everyday life of a project based classroom.  I completely agree with this, as asking these types of questions is just good teaching.  

At one point in the chapter, the authors discuss having students ask good question (for an interview, or to form a historical question to research).  I was hoping that the authors would spend time on how to teach kids to write a quality question that would drive their own research (which is one of the new Colorado Standards for history).  I am disappointed and frustrated that this was not addressed.