Reading Reflection: Chapter 6

1. It can help the students in so many ways. It can help them see the words they misspell, or their english errors with how they write, it can help them use other word choices and review exactly what they need to work on.  There are many other ways too, that is just what using Microsoft word or similar programs to that can do. 

2. To get them thinking, you can have them do outlines regarding their project.  You can also show them examples and have them write a paragraph or two with their ideas. Another great way and to use group work would be brainstorming with their groups. 

3.  Giving the students the necessary information first is key.  You must set the stage for independent inquiry to get them to generate what they know, wonder, and learn. 

4. The important steps to prepare the students include set up a technology playground, tap student expertise, introduction to project-management tools, and to demonstrate it for them. 

5.  There are many ways to promote inquiry and deep learning, the chapter has a few great examples: brainstorming ideas to combine social studies with science, math, literature, and art. Also, having the students use technology to find an answer that a book or you asked in which they're struggling with. 

6.  This chapter has many great ideas in which we can/have used for our own project.  We have created an outline and are continuously changing or adding to it to better it for our final outcome.  Brainstorming as a group helped at the beginning and still continues to help as we work further and further on our project. 

Reading Reflection #6

1. Technological tools can help students evaluate their strengths in that they can help students see and work on their spelling errors. As well as it can help them with their punctuation. Technology tools can also help students who struggle with word usage, by allowing them to use pictures.
2. You can get your students ready for projects in a variety of ways. One such way is to have them brainstorm with their group members about what they want to do for their project. You can also have them do outlines so they have a general overview of what they want to put into the project.
3. The elements of teaching fundamentals first is to stress the overall importance of fundamentals. Students can/will succeed if they stick to the proper way of doing things for the project.
4. The important steps for preparing students to use technology for projects, is to set the ground rules for it. Inform the students that these are tools not toys for their project. That to use these tools and resources is a privilege, not something for them to socialize and fool around with.
5. You can promote inquiry and deep learning by having students ask questions that a book or a peer cant answer so that they have to use technology to get the answer. This helps students think about the question as well as allows them to see how technology can help them answer their questions.
6. This chapter relates to our project, as we made outlines for our blog project so we know what we need to get done right away.

Reflection #5

1.Before your students start a project, there are several things that need to be considered. The biggest thing to be consider, is that of the projects topic, as you want students to choose a topic that can be easy to research. You also want to make sure that the students also are able to use resources available to them so that they can have success with their project.
2.The management needs for students and teachers are the same for projects. Both need to make good use of time management, management of resource use, as well as management of work.
3.There are different types of technological applications that you can use for project.s Some of those are as simple as Microsoft Word, and as high-tech as Prezy. Depending on what type of project you are doing, you can choose which one to use. Many projects, require the use of a presentation, so PowerPoint and Prezy are great kinds.
4.The concepts in this chapter are useful for my presentation, as we will be using several different types of technological applications for our project/blog of Staying Healthy.

Reading Reflection: Chapter 5

1.  Prior to starting the project with students, you must think of all that you or they will need. What materials they will need, what you will allow them to use.  Also keeping in mind the safe sites or material that they may use.  You might have to send up some guidelines or preplan to have websites they can use and are safe for your age range. Will they be required to get expert information, and who can they seek for that. Also, potential field trips that could/will be taken? Thinking through all of these prior to starting the project with students is very important for safely, functionality, and time given for the project!

2. Time management is something you need every single day in life, whether for school, work, or your family.  Setting up a project calendar with milestones is something to help them have deadlines and be sure they know when those deadlines are. It helps the students to work towards them, and the teacher to set rules and guidelines for herself and for grading. 

3.  Now a days, there are a variety of technology applications you can use for projects such as with PBL.  Such as how we use for the course, a blog.  It works well for each group member to see what is used or being done in one centralized location.  Everyone can access it, everyone can add to it, and change what they wish to!  Other examples to share would be like google docs, and wiki to name a few other examples. 

4.  Time management is important to help to teach your students and to keep up with as a teacher.  It makes things roll better for both parties involved.  As a group, we must be concious of our deadlines, not only for our own grades and participation in the project, but to make sure we are meeting them for our overall group needs within our project and the final portion of it. 

Revised Concept Map

Reading Reflection: Chapter 4

1. Some potential pitfalls in project design include spending a long time on activity, short time on learning outcomes, technology being layered over traditional practice, trivial thematic units, as well as being overly scripted with many, many steps. 

2.  Some good features of a project would be projects loosely designed with the possibility of different learning paths, generative which cause students to construct meaning, centered off of a driving question, captures the students interest through complex and compelling real-life experiences, structures so students learn with and from other students, and by the students actually doing are a few good ones. 

3.  Project ideas come from everywhere! Some great ideas from the chapter include: project plans developed from other teachers, contemporary issues, news stories, and student interests and questions. 

4.  The first step to design a project is to revisit the framework and make a final list of learning objectives. Next, you must establish evidence of understanding for what the students would know or be able to do. The third step is planning the project theme or subject.  The fourth step is to plan entree into the project experience. 

5. The concepts in this chapter relate greatly. We already have our project idea, but revisiting the framework of our idea and looking at our learning objectives is still very important. We want to include all our information in a clear and concise way.  

Reading Response #4

1. The potential pitfalls in project design, is that you or at times your students will get overwhelmed with all the needs of projects design. Designing your project needs a lot of collaboration from you and your group, as the presentation is the key component to your project. 

2. Good projects feature a lot of components. Good projects are well designed meaning that they have a creative and fluid flow to them for the audience. They also are clean and neat, meaning no scratched out misspellings, or anything of that nature. They also aren't too wordy, meaning that they provide clear concise information to the readers.

3. Project ideas; come from you or your group members. The ideas for projects stem from being given a topic and letting your creativity and imagination provide you with the idea for how you will present the topic to the reader. Some people will stick to generic clean/simple project ideas. While some will choose wild and imaginative ideas for how to present the information.

4. The steps to design a project, starts first the idea. You first need an idea of how you will present the data to the audience. Next you need to design your idea, in that you need to think of how you find a way to implement your idea for the audience. The next step is construction of the project, which is data collection, recording, and putting the project together. The final step is presenting your project, in which you present your project to an audience or peers.

5. These concepts are very important to my project, in that we are currently developing the "how" part of or our project. In that we are working on how we are going to present our idea. We also need to remember to keep our project clear and concise, not making it difficult for the audience to read and understand our projects overall goal.

Reading Response #3

1. Discussion on what should be considered in finding “the Big Idea” for a project.-When doing a project, you need to consider finding the "big ideas" or the "main ideas". These are key concepts, words, meanings, or at times people within the text that you are covering. By finding these, you are able to start to think of how they apply to the text and world around you. That makes it easier to do projects, if you have the main ideas.
2. Discussion on the 2lst Century skills.-21st century skills are designed to make one go beyond subject matter and look at the skills, tones, and mind-sets that projects may have. One way to help students to accomplish this is by using the Blooms categories of objectives: Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and create.
3. Discussion on the 21st Century literacies.-21st century literacy is being able to be an independent, informed, and useful member of society with the technology around you. You can help students become literate in this sense by using "true-to-life projects"(pg.49 Reinventing project-based learning, Boss&Kraus). These projects allow one to become literate of the world around them through the use of real life situations.
4. Discussion on each of the essential learning functions.-The ISTE NETSS addresses the manner of becoming more skill-full of technology in this digital age. NETSS focuses more so on the ability to be creative and innovative with technology in school and work. 
5. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.-These concepts are very useful to our project, as we will need to find the big ideas for our project so we can help apply them to the world and text to our students. By doing so it can spark an interest in the students to want to learn more. We also use the NETSS, in that our projects are done in a manner that help keep us up to date with the technological advancements of our time, as well as prepare our students for the innovations of technology down the road.