Buisness decison lesson plan

I know this lesson plan needs some tlc. I plan on fixing it tomorrow. But for now this is what I have:
https://w.taskstream.com/Lesson/View/F7D0A6769FC04164BF6BC387D3C7640E

mindmap 4

Reading Reflection #11

Reading Reflection #11

1. Teacher's and student's both benefit from Project-based learning approach. For students, PBL can help them:
-become more engaged in their learning
-help understand project management
-learn from previous knowledge
-learn to apply information in future learning
-meet deadlines
-work with a global audience
-reflecting on projects
-be independent and build confidence
For teachers:
-have the chance to watch their students grow in their learning
-communicate while reflecting on projects and completed work
-sharing class ideas with other teachers
-always do their best to become better then they are.
Project-based learning is beneficial for both teachers and students and it is something I hope to use in my future classroom!

2. Starting and finishing a project is a big accomplishment. Just because it is finished, does not mean that it should be said aside. Finishing a project should leave students with memories and ideas that can help them on their next journey. Reflecting on projects is so important because it helps look back and expand knowledge on future projects while celebrating students' work and moving on to the next exciting thing.

3. This chapter wraps up everything like we are doing in class now. It is important to look back on Project based learning and why it is so important in the classroom. Once our projects in our classroom are finished, we will reflect and be proud of what we accomplished. This chapter does a good job wrapping our semester up along with giving advice on what students should take away from projects and how to finish a project strong with meaning.

Chapter 11

1. Project based learning brings the classroom community closer together, allows students to take charge of their own learning, and puts student learning in a real- world context.

2. A teacher can bring her project based learning home by ending with an event that allows students to reflect on what they have learned. As teachers we should reflect on what went well and what did not go so well for next time. Teachers should then make it connect to the next unit so that the transition goes smoothly.

3. I feel that with out farmers' market and follow up celebration our students will end their project successfully. The money the students earn will be used for further learning. Our students will take many pictures as well as learn a lot through experience during our unit plan.

Reading Reflection #11

1) As a result of project based learning, you feel more connected to your students. It's as if you guys have gone on an adventure together. The students will have also learned more than they would have if they had simply read about something such as gardening from a book. By actually doing a project, what they have learned will click and stick for them. 2) Bringing home your project can occur in many ways. You will want to make sure that you capitalize on all of the time that you have put into planning this and make any changes that need to be made before the next time you implement this project. You will also want to share your insights with other teachers so that maybe they too can learn from your project. Finally, you can simply sit back and enjoy the journey. Look at how far you have come and how much further it is possible to go. 3) This connects to our topic because we are nearing the point ourselves where we are getting ready to wrap up the project and 'bring it home'. Our students will have been working on their garden throughout this unit and they will now be getting ready to host their farmers market. After that, it's the end and it will be time to move on to the next great adventure with the kids.

Concept Map #3

Reading Reflection 10

1) Setting aside time for reflection is critical in the classroom. By doing this, we are allowing the children to think about things they may have never thought about otherwise. They are able to make better connections and can even help them to realize that they now know more than they thought they did.

2) Reflecting is meant to be a positive thing for both the students and the teacher. Through reflections, the teacher is able to see just how much the students really learned. They are also able to better help steer the students in a better direction for projects.

3) Schools can build traditions and identity through various programs and projects. What is your school known for? Personally, my high school was known in the area for it's band. We always got medals during competitions. Building traditions and identity is a great way for the schools to grow and for the community to feel involved and have pride.

4) Celebrating a project is a wonderful way of acknowledging just how much a student has put into their work. In our project, our farmers market will be a way of celebrating our students learning and seeing just how far they have come during this project.

5) Throughout our project, we will have the students reflect so that we can see what they have learned. We want to make sure that they are on track and actually getting what they should be out of the project. At the end, we also plan to celebrate our students learning with the farmers market which will be open for others outside of our classroom to attend.

Reading Reflection Chapter 10

1. Setting aside time for reflection is very important. For a teacher she can reflect on her own lesson and the success or failure of his or her lesson, so that the lesson can be improved upon in the future. Foe students it really gives the teacher insight as to what the student was thinking as well as how to help the student in the future. This practice also shows the student what he or she learned. (mentioned on 147- 148)
Example: If my students were recording information on their customers for the farmers' market I may find that I was not very clear on what I expected and I may notice that students seemed to not have had a very good introduction to this section. I may then decide to bring in a cashier or other sales professional to explain how they give special offers to their customers in order to find out information about their customers. When I survey my students I may find that the students learned a lot about entering data into a spread sheet, but they did not learn a lot about marketing. Students may find they want to know more about how these charts will help their booths produce the correct goods.

2. Students need reflection and elaboration so that teachers can know what the students are trying to explain. This may also help both the students and the teacher narrow down a topic so that they can explore the right kinds of things together. (mentioned page 149)
Example: My students wanted to know more "about growing plants". This was very broad and vague. I told students to reflect what they already knew and go from there. Once my students reflected they knew that they wanted to know how to grow exotic flowers like orchids.

3. Schools build tradition and identity by trying new exciting things, inviting the community to get exited and be apart of it, and by doing it again the following year. (mentioned on 150- 153)
Example: We will plan on making our farmers' market an annual thing each year. We may even have our students sell produce more than one time each year if students are able to grow enough produce and flowers. We will invite community members to stop in and give the children information and to participate in the purchasing of a good or service.

4. It is way important to celebrate projects to really drive home what students learned. It also makes what they learned seem more important than when students just get a grade at the end. It also gives students authentic real world practice planning events if you have them plan their own celebration. (mentioned on page 154)
Example: Our students will celebrate during and after the farmers' market. Students will also decide what we do with the money we earn from the market.

5. The actions listed above benefit our project in many ways. Some specific examples are listed in the example section.

Reading Reflection #10

Reading Reflection #10

1. Setting aside time for reflection is important for both teachers and students. When students are reflecting, they make their own meaning of what they learned and it gives them meaning and purpose to their work. Reflecting is a time for students to feel good about their accomplishments and/or look to improving as well. Overall, it is a positive thing and teachers should frequently reflect to help students grow in their learning.

2. Reflecting is important for students in many ways. Reflecting allows students to focus on what they have done, what came from their learning and how they can improve. It should be a positive experience even if something didn’t go as planned, reflection is a chance for improvement. Reflection increases teamwork as a class, confidence as a student, and relationships between teachers and students. It is a really good thing.

3. Schools build identity and tradition by students, teachers, and community teamwork. School activities, events, good reputation of the classrooms, and family involvement creates great identity. Tradition and identity help schools grow and it will give future families an idea of what to expect at that school and in that classroom.

4. Celebrating a project is not only a fun way to make students excited but it gives students the praise they deserve. When celebrating a project, according to this chapter, the celebrations should include:

-an opportunity to look back one more time, reflection

-acknowledgment of how hard work and commitment contributed to the success of the project and a culture of excellence at your school

-appreciation for those who helped

-a display of the learning, including both student creations and presentations

-a look inside the learners with opportunities for them to talk about their process and growth

-an opportunity to showcase projects to colleagues, administrators, parents, and others in your larger, learning community

5. Reflecting and celebrating our project is very important in our gardening unit. There are many times we need to step back and look at the big picture of how we are creating our project. Creating a big project to be done in a school helps give it identity and tradition. It’s important to look at these tips when going through our project, it helps us stay on track and realize what we are doing at all times. 

Group Email

Gmail Account

group gmail: gardening2015edt@gmail.com

password: edtech3470

Storyboard

Gardening Assignment X Part A

Plants

            Parts of a Plant-Lesson 1

http://www.mbgnet.net/bioplants/parts.html

http://www.tooter4kids.com/Plants/parts_of_plants.htm

            Life Cycle of a Plant-Lesson 2

https://cdn-jr.brainpop.com/science/plants/plantlifecycle/preview.weml

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPqnYYI2Uq8

http://scienceandfunmh.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-life-cycle-of-plant.html

            Planting our seed-Lesson 3

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/firstgarden/

http://eartheasy.com/grow_gardening_children.htm

            Greenhouse Field Trip/Digital Story-Sheryl

Garden

            Garden layout-Extra Lesson Plan-Molly

            Tools-Lesson Plan/Digital Story-Kayla

            Safety

            Soil

            Plant Selection-Lesson Plan-Sheryl

            Caring for Plant-Lesson Plan Molly

            Growing Plants/Plant Growth Progress-Lesson Plan Molly

Economy

            Supply & Demand-Lesson Plan Sheryl

            Comparing prices

            Trade

Farmers Market

            Location

            Planning

            Advertisement-Extra Lesson Plan-Kayla

            Pricing-Extra Lesson Plan-Sheryl

            Set up

            Jobs

Wrap Up

            Farmer’s Market/Digital Story-Molly

            Discussion/Reflection

           

Reading Reflection #9

Reading Reflection #9

1. A KWL chart is one of the best to use for a prior knowledge method. There are different methods that teachers can use to see where students are academically, but in this chapter and in my classes, a KWL chart is a great way.

2. Anchors are a great guidance for teachers and students in the classroom. Anchors tell teachers where students start and where they plan to finish in a project. This will also help students establish goals and ideas throughout their planning. 

3. There are several ways to assess what students learned during the project. It is important to check for understanding throughout the project to assure that students are on the right track and don’t have any confusion as they work. As the project goes on students should be able to summarize their thoughts and ideas. Sharing their projects and teaching it to the class is very important in assessment during a project. Being able to apply it to something new and to real world events is important as well. 

4. No matter how old students are, we must keep all this in mind while we create our own projects. Creating an anchor to keep our group in check is very helpful. Thinking about assessment is key when creating a project or any lesson plan. Prior knowledge is also always important when thinking about our project because we are creating our project based on lots of experience and knowledge we’ve learned before. 

Reading Reflection #9

1) One of the most common methods of assessing a students prior knowledge is through the use of a kwl chart. This is where the students write about what they know, what they want to know, and what they ultimately learned.

2) Establishing anchors is important because is allows you to see how much the students will grow throughout the project. By seeing where they are starting from, you will know how far it is that each student will have to go to reach the end result.

3) With project based learning, there is not just one way that the projects can be assessed. Instead, it should be assessed through a multitude of different assessment strategies. One way to assess your students is by having them enter a contest or submit their work for publication. This allows the students to value the effort that they are putting into their work and see it as being worth while. It is not just a grade, it is something that matters to the world outside of school.

4) This connects with our project because we will be creating a website. This is not something that will simply be contained to this particular classroom here at Western. We will be publishing it for the entire world to access if they so desire. By doing this, we will have to put real thought into what we include because everybody will be able to see it once it is done.

1. One way to understand prior knowledge is a k-w-l chart or have students write down a few things they already know about the topic. Example: When we were collecting data on who had what tools for gardening and how they used these tools etc. Sara told us about a shovel, rake, disk, tractor etc. her parents had at home.

2. Anchors will tell the teacher where students are starting at and how far they go on reaching their learning goals (140). This will also help teachers to when differentiating instruction (140). For example: In our "classroom" (the fictional one for our unit plan) there is a girl named Sara. Sara started out knowing a lot about how to grow plants, but she knew very little about the different parts of the plant. She, therefore, has a way different starting point then Billy who lives in an urban area and does not know as much about plants.

3. A teacher could assess by interview the students/ have a podcast (143), have your students make something new (143), have the assessment be real- world ie. have experts take a look at it(144), have your students enter it in a contest/ submit for publication (144). Example: When students in our gardening group have their produce days they will be experts on their own plants. They will be the ones explaining how the process works etc to their own customers and clients.

4. Please see examples in the other questions to see how chapter nine could in real life help connect to our project.

Reading Reflection 8

1) Building connections and branching out beyond the classroom all starts with choosing an interesting topic. The students can from there make connections to themselves or their community, bring in experts on that topic, expand their learning circle, and connect it to real world problems.

2) The EAST Initiative Model focuses on student driven learning, authentic project-based leaning, using technology as tools, and collaboration. It also focuses on training and support for the teachers that are bringing this model back to their own district. The teachers need to learn to allow the students to take the lead when it comes to their learning which can be a new concept for the teachers.

3) The largest reason to allow students to lead their projects is because it is THEIR project. It is a topic that they are passionate about and odds are that the students will know more about that particular topic than the teacher will. By picking their own topics, they will have more interest in the project as a whole and will be more willing to work at it and make something great come from the project.

4) The concept the relates best to our project from this chapter is that we are the ones leading our own project in this class. I know that personally I would have had no interest in doing a project on health (sorry, health groups) but and would not have gotten as much out of any work we did simply because the topic didn't interest me. By being able to choose gardening, I feel like I am much more engaged and getting more out of what we are doing.

Reading Reflection #8

Reading Reflection #8

1. There are specific ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom. These ways include: letting students choose an interesting topic, allowing students to make connections to themselves or their community, introducing the students to an expert on the topic, making connections to real world problems, and having students explore more in depth to help learn more about their topic.

2. EAST is a nonprofit organization that works with public and private partners to achieve its mission. It has four parts. According to the chapter these include:

-Student-driven learning: students need to be responsible for their own learning.

-Authentic project-based learning: students should be engaged in solving real problems in their communities.

-Technology as tools: students need access to the relevant technologies that professionals use to solve real problems.

-Collaboration: when students collaborate in teams to pursue authentic projects, they accomplish more than any one person can do in isolation.

3. Letting students “lead” their projects is important. By doing this, it allows students to choose something they are passionate about. If they are passionate about it they may take more interest in it and create something great. When they collaborate with other students, they can put their heads together and create an even bigger, better project. 

4. Our group project on gardening involves the real world very much and that is why it will be such a great project for students. We get to lead our own projects in the way of picking the topic and creating ideas for it and that is a great way to get our creative juices flowing. 

I have pictures

I went the the greenhouse today and took lots of pictures (I still need to get them off my phone and on to my computer). I will keep you guys updated on the progress of that.

Chapter 8 reflection

1. Ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom:
1) Allow the students to choose topics that interest them (136) example: How a farmers' market works.
2) Connect students with a read audience (127). example: The people in their community who want fresh produce and flowers.
3) Connect students with experts (128). example: the owner of a local greenhouse.
4) Expand the learning circle (129- 130).
5) Address real world problems (132- 133). example: The local markets are too expensive to get enough fresh fruits and vegetables to people who want and need them.

2. The EAST initiative model is a program that connects students to technology but uses it to solve real life problems in the students' communities. Characteristics of this model are (133- 135):
1) Student driven learning (134). example: The students in our unit plan will be responsible for how their own booths will be run and what to sell etc.
2) Authentic project based learning (134). example: The students will actually be running their own farmers markets as well as growing their own plants. Both of these types of things can and do happen in the real world.
3) Technology as tools (135). The students will use technology to research about plants, track their own progress, make informed decisions, etc.
4) collaboration (135). example: The students will work in groups several times during the semester as well as working whole class and with experts during portions of this unit.

3. When students lead their own projects:
1) It opens up opportunities for a real world effect (136). example: The community may decide to make a community garden in a public space to fill the need for fresh produce and flowers after seeing the success of the classroom garden.
2) Teachers do not have to "make" the projects cool because the students choose them (136).
3) Students are able to pick what interest them (136).

4. Please see the examples in the above problems to see how our project can partner with the principals we are learning (I made all of my examples pertinent to my groups gardening topic).

Reading Reflection Chapter 7

1) The first level of classroom discussion is teacher to teacher. This can be about anything from procedural to formative assessment. The next level is student to student. This should be about what they are learning as they learn it so that they can collaborate with each other to get the most from their project based learning. The final level is teacher to student. This is most mostly done with small groups although whole class discussions can also be done.

2) The first question for checking in is procedural which makes sure that the students are where they should be. The next question is about teamwork and whether or not the team is getting along well and being productive. The next question is understanding where you want to make sure that the students are understanding what they should be. The final question is self-assessment to find out what the students are thinking of their project.

3) The benefits to students when using technology are wide reaching. Students are already using technology and integrating it into the classroom is a great way to reach them and peak their interest. It is also something that works for students with a wide variety of learning abilities. With a podcast, for example, students who need a bit more help can easily replay the information without having to ask the teacher to repeat himself.

4) Troubleshooting can make or break a project. When something goes wrong, you need to be able to figure out what that something is so that students can work around it otherwise it turns into a roadblock that stops the learning. Another thing that can make or break a project is teamwork. Teamwork is the very foundation of working on a collaborative project. If someone doesn't do their part, the entire thing can fall apart.

5) This chapter connects with our topic because we ourselves are having to work together in a team. This can be challenging at times but makes it just that much more rewarding. If anything, collaboration like this becomes more important in college than it is in the lower grades mostly mentioned in this chapter. We all have our own lives and school and work, but it is good to know that we can all count on each other.

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/8067_10151938980246160_1808106691_n.jpg?oh=e8f5169141475abab6c5843522eeaf6c&oe=5579020A

hopefully this works (I found it on facebook and I think it would be a cool internet picture to use for our website).

Reading Reflection #7

Reading Reflection #7

1. There are three levels of classroom discussions. These include: teacher to teacher, student to student, and teacher to student. The teacher to teacher involves teacher conversations, formative assessment discussion and collaborative ways to talk. The student to student involves them talking about learning experiences, reminding them of good communication skills, and collaborating with each other. The teacher to student involves whole group discussion and student’s understanding and to teach new concepts.

2. “Checking in” on students during projects is very important in the classroom. Focusing on the procedural questions, like staying on schedule, using the right materials, etc. is the first important question when checking in. Taking note of the student’s teamwork is another important one. Making sure members of the team are completing work equally, getting along, things such as that. Understanding students is the last final check in during projects. This is for teachers to find out their students ideas, proposals, and everything else about their project.

3. There are benefits when optimizing the use of technology for students. According to the book, the implementation stage of the project makes sure that the technology is benefiting the students learn when completing their project. Integrating the tools that student use everyday while letting them follow their interest while reaching their learning goals as well. On page 120 in this chapter, there are great questions for teachers to review when integrating technology into students learning.

4. Troubleshooting and Teamwork are two important 21st century skills that can make or break a project. Troubleshooting helps distinguish project managers and makes students more flexible for the real world. Teamwork has people involved who may not enjoy being together, but when it comes down to it, you still have to cooperate in a group setting.

5. Teamwork is a huge relatable topic to our project. Our project starts with teamwork and without that, our project wouldn’t be assembling correctly. Most of the topics discussed in this chapter apply to a younger classroom setting, but they are good for us to check as we continue our group projects.

Chapter 7 reflection

1. There are three levels of classroom discussion:
A) Teacher to teacher (page 114): In this level project planning occurs. This is also where teachers ask questions and brainstorm ideas.
B) Student to student (page 115): In this level students talk about their own learning experiences. Students also pull together to complete assignments.
C) Teacher to student (page 115): In a traditional classroom this means talking to (/at) students. However, in a 21st century classroom this usually means talking with individuals or small groups so that you can understand student thinking and probe your students if they are stuck.

2. There are four types of questions a teacher can pose to "check in" on his or her students:
A) Procedural (page 118): These kinds of questions are uses to see how students are doing as far as keeping up with deadlines and reaching milestones.
- Are we on schedule?
- Do we have the right materials for this task?
- Where are you at in your project?
B) Teamwork (page 118): These type of questions help you assess team dynamics.
- How is everyone getting along?
- Who is doing what?
C) Understanding (page 118): This type of checking in is more of an observation point than a questioning point. This involves spending time watching the teams work and asking yourself the questions.
- Are students on task?
- Am I encouraging students to push themselves?
- Are students learning enough?
D) Self- assessment (page 118 - 119): This discipline is to find out what students are thinking about the project.
- How is everyone feeling?
- What is going on?
- What would be more helpful?

3. There are a few different ways to optimize student use of technology. First off if it is during the implementation stage of the project make sure that the technology is actually helping your students learn (page 119). Integrate the tools students use every day (page 119). Let students follow their interest as long as they reach learning goals (page 120). Keep in mind these questions to help you decide if the technology in your classroom is working for students (page 120):
- Is technology helping students reach learning goals?
- Is technology helping students stay organized?
- Are students able to use technology to expand their horizons?
- Is access equitable?

4. Twenty first century skills that could make or break a project may occur across all curriculum and are important for any student's learning. These skills include:
- Troubleshooting (page 112): This skill helps distinguish project managers and makes students more flexible for the real world.
- Classroom discussion (page 123): This skill helps everyone stay on the same page.
- Teamwork (page 123): This skill easily transfers to the real world where you may not like who you have to work with, but you still have to cooperate in a group setting.
- Have students keep in mind that other cultures share different values so as not to offend anyone! (page 124)

5. This chapter is relevant to our projects because we must figure out how and when to check in on students. We also need to know what skills students have to know to survive in the real world and how we can teach our students these skills in our own classrooms. These questions will also give us feedback to get students the help and resources they need.

chapter 6 reflection

1. Technology tools can help students be reflective of their own strengths by creating blogs that help them to reflect over time, surveying students giving them a chance to identify strengths and weaknesses, and by allowing students to keep tabs on their own assessments (page 96). 2. You can get students minds ready for a project by tapping into student's prior knowledge, getting students attention/ interest, and by talking about the topic often beforehand (pages 96- 97). 3. The elements of teaching fundamentals first are figuring out what students already know, what they wonder etc. Add new information while building on what students already know. Then assess what students have learned (100- 101) 4. The important steps to preparing students for using technology are setting up a chance for students to try the new technology, tap into student expertise, introduce product management tools, demonstrate, and rely on a technology specialist (101- 107). 5. You can promote inquiry and deep learning by getting the students attention, developing ideas across curriculum, and thinking outside the box (97- 98). 6. This chapter relates to my topic by telling me what I need to do to get my students comfortable with the new technology I present them with both in this sample project and in real life.

Reading Reflection #6

1) Blogs are a great way for students to reflect on their work. They can easily see just how far they have come in their learning by re-reading what they have written from earlier on in their learning.

2) The best way to get childrens' minds ready for a project is through the use of an anticipatory set. This can be dropping hints about what is coming up or having the students make predictions. It can also involve pictures and interacting with various members of the community.

3) Teaching the fundamentals first can begin with the use of a KWL chart. This gets the children to talk about what they Know, what they Wonder, and what they want to Learn. It is also good to share the rubric with them so that they can see what they need to do and how they need to do it in order to obtain a good grade.

4) To prepare students to use technology you should start with setting up a technology playground. This gives students a chance to explore the technology that is being used. Next comes tapping students expertise. Let the students help teach each other. Introducing project-management tools helps you to see where your students are and it helps the students to see where they should be. Demonstration is extremely helpful for people who are new to the technology. Technology specialists are available at your school and should be used. Lastly, one size does not fit all. All programs are not the best for every student.

5) Promoting inquiry and deep learning begins with questions, questions, questions. These can be "which one", "how", "what if", "should", and "why". Asking questions engages the children and gets them into the right mindset to learn.

6) This chapter connected to our project because we will need to know how best to engage our children in what they will be doing. Sure kids will love to get their hands dirty digging in our garden, but we will also need to find a way to get them engaged in the economics of our farmers market and thinking science-y when they learn about the life-cycle and parts of a plant.

Reading Reflection #6

Reading Reflection #6

1. There are many technology tools that can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths. According to Chapter Six in the book, there are three key tools. 

-Blogs. We are using one in class now to create projects, summarize our thoughts, and display our thinking from our learning.

-ProfilerPRO. This is an online survey tool that allows students to identify an individual or group of people’s learning characteristics. This is an outlet for students to create their own template to meet their needs and identify interests, strengths, and weaknesses. 

-SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang are other survey tools. These help with comparing and helping students when they complete self assessments and other things.

2. There are several ways to get students’ minds ready for a project. The book described ideas that I would have suggested as well. These ideas include:

-K-W-L chart

-Bring in a guest speaker to come in and talk

-Asking questions

-Re-announcing the topic

-Encourage students to discuss project ideas with friends and family

3. There are many elements of teaching fundamentals, but a great one which I am learning about in two of my other classes is the K-W-L chart which helps students use their prior knowledge to connect with their present knowledge. This strategy helps teachers and students connect old things to new things and is just one of many great strategies.

4. There are key steps to prepare students for using technology during projects. There are specific steps listed in this chapter. These steps include:
1.  Set up a technology playground-setting up opportunities for students to learn by and with themselves while they learn how to use technology.

1. Tap student expertise-setting up computer stations while giving each student a different tool to practice using.
2. Introduce Project Management Tools-using a project journal helps students to track their progress on their project. 
3. Demonstrate-demonstrating the use of tools, discussing the tools, making rules and expectations clear.
4. 
   
5. There are different ways to promote inquiry and deep learning. According to this chapter, there are specific ways to do so.

-There is a relationship between need and opportunity, 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. Once again, this chapter implements strategies on how to help students use technology and promote inquiry and deep learning when creating projects. This all applies to our topic when relating that part to technology. Our lessons and projects we create in our groups need to follow certain guidelines and strategies to help us when preparing students to work on projects. The steps in this chapter help us prepare students to prepare just like we need preparation as well. Another helpful chapter! 

Assignment II-Part B of Concept Map

Due to computer issues, I had to screenshot the updated concept map. I can email the full page or try to send it a different way if needed. 

Reading Reflection #5

1)   Before starting a project, the teacher needs to consider the resources available. This includes both material resources and people. The teacher also needs to consider milestones and deadlines. Breaking big projects into smaller pieces makes time management much easier. Team planning must also be considered. The groups should not be set up so that only one student ends up doing all of the work. Finally, an assessment plan needs to be considered. Formative assessment plays a huge role here. 

 2)   According to pages 84 and 85 of our textbook, the teachers management needs include things such as tools for communication, making milestones and deadlines visible to students, getting resources to students, managing work products, structures for a productive learning environment, and assessment tools. Students management needs include tools to help them manage time and work flow, systems for materials, collaboration tools, seeking assistance, ways to get feedback, and ways to see how parts become a whole.

 3)   Some of the technology tools that should be considered for use in a project include a wiki, which is an easily edited webpage, a blog, which has one main author or in the case of this class, a few main authors, and drupal and textpattern, which are both slightly more sophisticated web spaces. Personally, I would feel the most comfortable with using a blog.

4)   In this class, we are using a collaborative blog for our project. By using this blog, our teacher can give us real-time feedback and everyone in this group can access it whenever we need to. We do not have to be at home in order to post on the blog, we can do it from anywhere that has access to the internet which makes it really easy to connect with each other when needed.

Chapter 5

1. The items that should be considered when deciding what materials you need for your students projects and when and how to get them should be the following (taken from pages 76- 78): Will these particular tools help my students learn the content? Is access to the tools equitable (because some students may not have that kind of technology at home)? How will I include experts? Do my students need to be shown how to use this tool? Who else can help with this project? What tools do I need? Where can I get them? How will student responsibilities be divided up? 2. There are a few organizational things that need to be planned even in the most inquiry based classrooms. The first is deadlines/ project management (taken from pages 78- 79) which has the following sub categories: The teacher should have a project calender which is available to the students. The teacher should chunk bigger task into smaller sections. A project calender should be available to the parents. The next organizational item is team planing (taken from page 79- 80) with the sub categories of: The teacher should have different students in each group doing different "group chores" both alone and together. Ensure all students are challenged appropriately. How will the teacher meet special need students accommodations. The last section is to plan for assessment (found on pages 80- 87). When using assessments for a big project teachers should make many benchmark assessments not just at the end to ensure steady growth of the students learning and exploration and to avoid students cramming everything into the last day of the last week. Teachers also need to have several different ways to asses this helps with student who may or may not test accurately in certain ways but really shine through other mediums. How will the teacher help to know what is expected with the assessment? How will the teacher incorporate student reflections. 3. There are many potential tools for doing a collaborative internet project like this one (the ones from the book are mentioned in pages 87- 91). One of the most important things a teacher will need when planning a collaborative project is a tool that links everything together. The books suggest these specific things but if you think of your own that would be great! The book list: wikis, web pages, blogs, drupal, and text pattern. The book also mentions to start with the simplest (most common) technology and then build your way up. 4. As everything begins to take place in our project plans we will need to think about how we will incorporate these items into our lessons. I feel that the answers to questions one and two are very important in this process. Three is also important, but with the onset of new technology every day I feel that things may change a lot as time moves on. Some technology may be better and some may be worse so teachers should make sure to always try new technologies out first before prescribing them to a student project.

Reading Reflection #5

Reading Reflection #5

1. Before starting a project with students there are many things to consider. The items that should be considered are:

-Gathering resources which includes deciding what materials you will need for the project.

-Milestones and Deadlines help with structure of the project. Things like a due dates and managing time fall under this category.

-Team planning determines how the students will be working throughout the project, whether it is individual, with partners, or in small groups.

-Planning for Assessment must be determined when creating a project. A project can have many different kinds of assessments and creating one can be fun.

2. There are important project management tools and strategies for both teachers and students. These needs differ between teachers and students. Students needs include things such as:

-systems and tools that help them with time management, systems that help students manage materials, tools for collaboration, methods for seeking assistance, ways to get and use feedback on their work, and ways to work interactively and see how the parts add up to the whole project. While these strategies are for students, teachers have a different need for project management tools and strategies. These things are: tools for communicating with students, tools for making milestones and events visible for the students and parents, methods for getting resources to students, systems for managing work products, structures that support a productive learning environment, and assessment tools and strategies.

3.There are certain technology applications that should be used for use in a project. I have my own that I think are the best. But according to chapter five in the book, they have certain ones that should be considered. This list is:

-Wiki, which is simple to use and can be shared amongst anyone

-Blogs, which we have created in this class and can be shared and used by many as well.

-Two web spaces are Durpal and Text pattern and these combine content management and a blogging engine.

4. This chapter relates to our subject because we are using technology to produce, communicate, expand, and create our project as a small group. Our project is technology based and these tips are important when creating our project. This chapter helps us expand our knowledge on the technology we are using and can teach us more about technology as well. 

Virtual Penpals

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jp9PGTJlyJhj8DW9FxaOyFZIOz3qMuQ4NmiOxhsU_1Y/edit?usp=sharing

Reading Reflection #4

Reading Reflection #4

1. There are main ideas to focus on when discussing the potential pitfalls in project design. The focuses include:
-making sure that projects are not too long or include too much detail and activity. Simple can be better and those can be the best lessons.
-using research when creating a project can be the best way to learn and create a successful project.
-make sure to have trivial thematic units that will be worth while for the students learning.
-once again, simple is better and making projects complicated and overloaded can be stressful and confusing.

2. There are many features of a good project that are on page 65 in the book.
These features include:
-flexibly designed with the opportunity of different learning paths for students
-usually generative, causing students to construct meaning
-they create a driving question or are otherwise structured for inquiry
-they capture students interested by compelling real-life situations
-they're realistic, they use multiple disciplines
-they reach beyond school to involve others
-tap rich data or primary sources
-collaboration among students in their groups
-students working as inquiring experts
-21st century skills and literacies
-important learning dispositions
-students are hands-on, learn by doing


3. There are many different places that project ideas can come from. The text gives us places where we can find ideas in the book, but we don’t need a book to get ideas. Project ideas can come from teachers, students, news stories, experiences, contemporary issues, project ideas from other classes, and many more.


4. Pages 67-68 in the book give a great outline to design a project. These steps include:
-Revisit the framework 

-make a final list of learning objectives, decide on specifics you want to address, and identify learning dispositions you want to foster.
-Establish evidence of understanding - what would your students know after completing the project, how would they be different as learners and individuals.
-Plan the theme - what would students inquire about, do, create?
-Plan entree into the project experience - what will you do to captivate your students attention, what will keep them interested in the project at hand?

5. Designing a project can be the most fun part of starting a project. This relates to our subject because this is so realistic to our everyday lives as future teachers. We will be creating lesson plans and designing our own projects and we will try to relate back to this subject and many other subjects in some way. 

Kayla's lesson plan

https://w.taskstream.com/Lesson/View/5FED0381AA3F1663D4A24F24721F7037

Here's my lesson plan :)

Reading Reflection #4

1) When working on project design, some of the pitfalls to watch for are long activity, short on learning outcomes (something that's not worth the time that is put into it), technology layered over traditional practice (same old practice but with technology added), trivial thematic units (fall being all apples), and overly scripted with many, many steps (you don't want limited and predictable results).

2) A good project includes different learning paths, are generative, inquiry based, are interesting and realistic, involves others outside of school, primary sources, make students the experts, and have the students learn by being hands on and doing it themselves.


3) Project ideas can come from a tried-and-true project, project plans by others, the news, current issues, students, a classroom irritant, and a great idea mixed with a new tool.


4) When designing a project it is important to start with the big picture like was discussed in chapter 3. Next, you want to decide on what specific skill you want to focus on. You then want to figure out what learning dispositions you want build with the students. After this comes how you will know that the students have succeeded in learning what you want them to learn. Now comes thinking about what the theme will be. Finally, what is the anticipatory set going to be?


5) The designing a project part especially relates to our topic/project because this is exactly what we will be doing every day as teachers when it comes to lesson planning. Everything we do will relate back to this topic in some way or another.

Chapter 4 reflection

1. There are several pitfalls to avoid when designing your own project. Including the following four. 1) A long activity and a short learning outcome (60). : This means that if the learning objectives are "brief" or "simple" and you are having a whole unit on this particular idea then it may be time to rethink your plan. 2) Technology layered over traditional practice (61). : This pretty much means adding technology just because you can. However, when used correctly technology can be a fun/ creative resource to enhance student learning. 3) Trivial thematic units (61). : Means having a unit just because you can without having a higher learning purpose behind it. 4) Overly scripted with many, many steps (61). : This means don't make a unit that is so inflexible that students do not get to make any of their own decisions in the project. This also means do not make it so complicated that students have to follow along and not deviate at all. 2. There are many features of a good project. However, most projects have flexibility. Flexibility allows students to engage what interest them the most. Another important component is emphasis on getting away from the traditional thinking when you design a project. Make sure you engage the learners and step away from "just trying to cover as much material as possible." Because a focus on things like that or "teaching to the test" makes students bored and pushes them away. Along with that according to page 65 in our book all the best projects have the following qualities (which I have rephrased to reflect my understanding of them): - a loose design with different possible paths - let students construct their own meanings - ask motivating/ inquiry questions - capture interest by making it pertinent to real life - make it realistic (and use multiple disciplines) - involve non school people (like parents/ community members) - use primary sources or really good data - have students engage in cooperative learning not competitive learning - have students do what the experts do - acquire and apply 21 century skills and literacies - help/ allow students to acquire learning dispositions - have students learn by doing 3. Project ideas can come from anywhere. However, here are the ones the book mentions: - a tried and true project (65). One that has potential to be meaningful when extended. - a project developed for/ by other teachers (65). - the news (66) - contemporary issues (66). ie. current issues/ events - student questions/ interest (66) - a classroom irritant put to educational use (66). ie. problem solving an issue - a "mash-up" of a good idea and new tools (66) 4. steps to making your own project: 1) Get inspired 2) get an idea 3) revisit framework (67) 4) establish student prior knowledge (68) 5) plan project theme/ challenge (68) 6) plan "attention grabber" (68) 7) make a sketch (69- 70) 8) Make an "assessment map" (71- 73) 9) track resources (74) 10) tweak and enact 5. This chapter relates to our topic because in order to create a project of our own we will need to do each of these steps with our group. Knowing the pitfalls will allow us to work around them, and knowing what we need will help us to acquire everything we need in order to get this project well underway.

Sheryl's lesson plan

https://w.taskstream.com/Lesson/View/C547708A1555AA0A438C3C77DD9A3291 ^ is supposed to be a hyperlink to my lesson (that is being reviewed) you may have to copy and paste it because the links aren't working for me today, sorry guys.

Gardening Google Map

Reading Reflection #3

1)   The big idea for a project is the most important part. Without it, you won’t be able to get very far with your lesson. You need to keep in mind what it is that you want the students to take away from the project. There needs to be a purpose to what you are doing.

2)   The 21^st century skills move beyond the big idea. Rather than focusing specifically on content, the focus shifts to the skills that the students will use and how this will help them in the 21^st century. Analyzing, evaluating, and creating are all considered to be extremely important in regards to this.

3)   The 21^st century literacies help to build and expand on what the children already know. The children should be able to ‘recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use the information effectively’ (pg 51 of our textbook).

4)   The 8 essential learning functions listed are:

a.     Ubiquity – Students learn all the time and not just in one place, they can learn everywhere.

b.     Deep Learning – Using raw information to help students build their higher level thinking skills.

c.      Making Things Visible and Discussable – Pictures or visual representations

d.     Expressing Ourselves, Sharing Ideas, Building Community – Helping students to use tools like the internet to help build up their community interest and idea wise.

e.     Collaboration – Working together with others

f.      Research – Allows students to find the information that they need to answer their questions.

g.     Project Management – Balancing their work. Helping them to organize their work will help greatly.

h.     Reflection and Iteration – Thinking back on the work. A blog is a great way to track this.

5)   The concepts in this chapter give a very good breakdown of what we need to look at when we are coming up with our lessons. By looking at each of these parts separately, we should hopefully be able to come up with a very thorough lesson. With all three of our brains working toward the same goal, I believe our gardening lessons will be a success!

Reading Reflection #3

1. “The Big Idea” for any project is important. You always want to make sure the “big idea” will be something that students, or anyone who is learning about it will take from it. This can be a certain subject or topic, a lesson learned, a question, any sort of words with a main idea. 

2. The 21st Century skills are very relevant to PBL. Apply, analyze, evaluate, create, and remember are some of the skills. These are all important skills to have and are key skills for students to develop. These skills develop and and progress over time and some skills are more useful in different subjects such as computers, and some in reading. 

3. The 21st Century literacy skills help with expanding knowledge of important themes, topics, and questions. With PBL, students experience literacy skills in a whole different way. Literacy is used in school with every subject and it is very important to develop these skills in the 21st Century. 

4. There are eight essential learning functions from the book. They include:

-Ubiquity, which is learning in the classroom, but learning in your environment too.

-Deep learning is learning more in depth, investigating knowledge to learn.

-Making things visible and discussable is all about students making representations to show their thinking.

-Expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, building community is all about learning through socially sharing ideas, thoughts, etc.

-Collaboration is teaching and learning with others to expand knowledge.

-Research helps students find the information they need to help them succeed.

-Project management is very key to students success. Planning and organization is the best way to keep work in order.

-Reflection and iteration is reflecting on work completed and analyzing how it went. 

5. Chapter three helped me think about all the skills, functions, and topics to consider when creating our lesson on gardening. These will all be things to look at when developing our project. I learned a few functions to think about from this chapter that I wouldn't of thought of before. Great tips and realizations to incorporate into our own lesson. 

Reflection #3

1. The big idea for a project is what is the number one take away you would like your students to get from a project. You can build other take aways from there, but this is the main idea that is even more important than all of the rest. This is the idea that if the student could only learn one thing from your lesson this is what you would want them to learn. My position is supported by pages 44 and 45 in the textbook.

2 & 3. I see 21st century literacies as a way to obtain 21st century skills. Literacies are like your students "knowledge tools" that they feel profficient with. You need to build these before you can actually develop any skills. In my opinion some of the most important 21st century literacies are technological things like how to use a computer, how to type, how to use word documents, how to use PowerPoint, and how to use the world wide web.

 Once you know your basic literacies you can use this knowledge to learn the skills you will need like how to problem solve, how to work as a team, how to present to others, etc... *The examples given are what I think are important 21st century skills and literacies and might not completely mesh with what the book says. To know what the book author's opinion is on this please visit pages 47, 48, 49, and 51.*

4. Essential learning functions go with my personal definitions of 21st century literacies and skills. These are the functioning that allow children to actually experience what it is like to actually do what real adults do in the real world. The book talks about these skills on pages 45, 54, and 55.

5. This chapter lets us know what we need to think about and incorporate in out own lesson plan unit on gardening (for other groups it's another subject). It also may help us break our thinking into four different subcategories that we can subdivide to make a more detailed thorough project.

reflection #2

1. The book says that the focus of a learning community is to "engage ongoing collaborative problem solving" they specifically state in businesses, however, I feel that because this can be extended to schools as well as the real world I would finish it with something along the lines of: to make whatever group/organization/etc they belong to run smoother (this information can be found on page 30). The book then goes into learning communities when you specify these communities to education/ school based communities. The book says that school educational communities do these three very important things: 1. They ensure that students learn. 2) They create a collaboration for school improvement. 3. They focus on results. (All three of these items can be found on page 32). I feel that although it is good to have results or a goal in mind that educators need to be wary of being goal oriented to some extent because that detracts from the authentic learning that their student's crave.

2. The book also had a lot to say about the benefits of learning communities. The book said that learning communities: decrease teacher isolation, increase commitment to the mission, share responsibility, create more powerful learning, and promote a higher likely hood of systematic change (all of which is listed on page 33). These are all great things that can be accomplished if set up correctly and teachers should definitely be given time to form these connections.

3. Although not directly mentioned in this chapter this discipline benefits teachers by providing a way for them to express themselves as well as gain creative ideas.This also helps teachers not feel alone against all of his or her students. This allows teachers to branch out and do more for their students.

4. Although not mentioned in this chapter project based learning allows students to make connections in many other subjects as well as in the real world. When a math teacher and a government teacher team up to teach about economics it really allows students to see more than one perspective on issues and allows them to see deeper into the subject. This also allows teachers to collaborate better to meet the students needs.

5. The book also proposed what it felt the components of a shared vision were in a learning community. The book said: clear sense of mission, shared vision of conditions that must be in place, people must work together in collaborative teams to determine the best practice, organized into groups with a leader, focus on student learning, people need to be goal/ result oriented, people need to collaborate with one another, people need to have the same values/ beliefs, commitment needs to be made to continuous improvement, and the people must see themselves as life long learners (all on page 35). Even though these are important fundamental goals I do not feel all of them apply in this kind of situation. For example, a religious person and an atheist can work together on projects that are not theology based without much hassle for the most part.Also, I feel that teachers need to not focus so much on being goal or result oriented because when they do that many teachers tend to teach to the test which takes away from meaningful project- based learning.

6. The concept in this chapter reinforces why we need to work in teams to make this project really do well. When putting the elements of a collaborative project into place we learn new ideas and grow into really cool individuals that will be able to help our students grow no mater what.

Reading Reflection #2

1. I like the idea of learning communities. The idea is for teachers to combine ideas with other teachers to gather ideas and share ways to improve lessons, attitudes, tests, etc. Doing this improves teacher relationships and allows teachers to become better. With teacher focus on learning communities, this can improve their students learning by expanding their own knowledge. 

2. I find there are many benefits to learning communities. The biggest one is that there is infinite knowledge that can be passed around from teacher to teacher collaberation. The expansion of ideas and discussions can create a whole knew teaching technique, project, lesson, and much more in the classroom.

3. Learning communities can only affect teachers in a positive way. I'm sure there are many teachers out there who would rather not share their teaching strategies and not receive advice from others, but in the end, that can always help even a little. Learning communities should be looked as a helpful, affective way to enhance a teachers teaching.

4. When teachers are making an effort to expand their knowledge and do more for the benefit of their students, it is going to affect their students in a positive way. Teachers play as a role model and by their collaberation and coming together to learn can be a great influence on students. Sharing and combining thoughts to become better and know more is a great power to have.

5. Some components for shared vision in the learning communities are shared visions from teacher to teacher, collaborate with one another, focus on student learning, share and hold beliefs, commit to ongoing improvement, and expand their own knowledge so they are life-long learners.

6. Working in our groups based around a theme, makes us our own learning community. We are constantly putting our heads together and coming up with ideas. Three minds are better than one in my opinion and the three of us will be able to come up with great ideas to benefit our own students.

Reading Response #2

1)   The focus of learning communities is to build up a collaborative effort between teachers to improve student learning. Teachers are normally isolated in their teaching and learning communities is a way to bring them all together.

2)   One of the largest benefits of learning communities is that teachers are able to give each other critical feedback to improve lesson ideas and see flaws before the lesson is given to students. This allows the lessons to run much smoother.

3)   Learning communities affect teachers by giving them someone else to talk to in order to improve their teaching. These can be colleagues teaching in your school or people teaching across the globe. Learning communities bring people together.

4)   Learning communities affect students by allowing them to get more out of the lesson. They are also able to connect with other students from around the world. Other students can use the data that your students collect and they can use what those students have found in return. Learning becomes collaborative and connected.

5)   A main component for shared visions in the learning community is that teachers work together. The ultimate goal of course is that the students are able to learn. Both the teachers and the students want to be goal oriented. Everyone looks for ways to further improve learning.

6)   The concepts in this chapter connect to our topic because we are acting as the teachers. The three of us are working together and collaborating so that our students are able to get the most from this project. We are bouncing ideas off of each other and are able to give each other feedback. Our students will also hopefully be able to connect to members of the community when they sell what they have grown.