Chapter 11 "Bring Your Project Home"

As a result of Project Base Learning, many things occur. The first thing that happens is that new doors are opened, for both students and teachers. They experience events that they wouldn't normally have had to them without the use of PBL. Another benefit is that they create connections and continue towards building the future project designs. The students also gain a better understanding towards project management. They develop more "big picture thinking" abilities. Meeting deadline realizations become more evident. Global audience becomes more real to the students and teachers. Lastly, students develop the importance towards being professional.

Some ways that the book recommended bringing the project home is through the use of identifying what they could have done better and what next steps could have been taken to benefit all involved. Both the students and teachers create a list of pros and cons of the project. They also critique their work, share insights, become resources to colleagues, and can even enter a contest.

This chapter related to my project through the use of critiquing work with other teachers. We do collaborative work that will only benfit us through the use of bouncing ideas and thoughts off of each other to get a better idea on how the project could work. We also publish our thoughts on our website that can be accessed through any computer connected to the Internet.

Chpt 11

Stephanie Hill
Chpt. 11
Bringing it home

        By using the project-based learning approach, much can be learned by both students and teacher.  The project-based learning approach allows a class to gain positive memories of working together with their peers and learning a great deal in the process.  When projects have succeed in teaching students, they do not just do the project and stop their learning; they continue to grow in the subject matter and use it in their futures.  Also, when students use project-based learning, they learn form their mistakes and understand what they need to improve on or change in their next project in order to master their learning.  It is also significant that when using project-based learning that students reflect upon their experience during the project.  This way, teachers can learn what they need to improve upon or what they can do to help their students down the road
   It is also significant to "bring your project home".  "Bringing your project home" can be done in a variety of ways.  One way to do this is to critique your work, which can be done by debriefing at the end of a project by asking your students "what has the project taught you about how your students think and learn?" Another way to "bring it home" is to share your insights.  You can share our insights by sharing your project with other teachers.  By sharing your project with other teachers, it gives you as the teacher time to verbally reflect how the project went and opportunity to share what worked and didn't work with other teachers.  Another idea is to create a project library so that others can see the plans and results of your project, allowing many to benefit from your work.  I really like the idea of entering your project in a contest because it allows your classroom to possibly gain exposure and future your projects success. 
  "Bringing it home" relates to my project because it I never really thought about the fact that when you do a project, you are never fully done because a successful project does not just end, it continues to build as children learn more throughout the year.

Ch. 11

Amber Hobson

Chapter 11

Bringing it Home

It is important that although a project ends that your own learning continues. You should always take time to reflect on what you have gained from a project. You should also share your insights with others. Always make the most of the project experience by building these insights into the next project. By the time a successful project comes to an end, you and your students will feel as if you have "been somewhere." Doing a project with a class is something that they will remember, it sticks with the students just like going on a trip. End of projects provide the class with ideas for the next learning adventure. When a project ends it opens the doors for creating a new project. You can learn so much from doing one project, for the next project just as what works and what doesn't work, how to structure a project, and how the class learns as a whole. 

As a teacher you should always reflect back on a project and recall what some of the engaging learning activities were, what really seemed to grab the students attention. You can see if things that worked in one project will cross over and work in another project. You should always critique your work, you want to make sure that there is evidence of your students understanding the material. What has the project taught you about how your students think and learn, this is important for a teacher to know about their students. 

Projects take a lot of thought and work, time and effort. You should try to find ways to share your project with others. You can do the same with other teachers, get ideas and use them for your classroom. There are many resources out there that you can go on and post your own, or view other lessons and projects.You can publish your project, or post in on the web. You could even submit your project to contests.  

Final Concept Map!

final concept map add-ons

Hey Amber!
So here is what we would like to add to the concept map:
Since you did the concept map under your account, do you mind adding to it so we don't have to create a whole new one?


under insects: under types:
ADD
- harmful to the garden
-non harmful to the garden


under locations: Where our class garden should be
 ADD
-inside locations
-outdoor locations

Under compost:
ADD
-positive aspects of compost
-negative aspects of compost

ADD new category:
Similarity of fruits, vegetables and plants 

Chapter 10

Amber Hobson

Chapter 10

Celebrating and Reflecting

Wrapping up a project is a very important step in the project. You should take the time to plan in advance what it is you plan to do when the project comes to an end. Students will want to know, so they have something to look forward too. Culminating activities celebrate the journey, reminding learners of where they have been and what they gained along the way. Having the end of a project be a meaningful experience for your students, is a great things for the students to plan for and look forward to celebrating their achievements.

Reflect on the journey, taking the time to reflect helps students feel good about their accomplishments, but more importantly reflection can be the thing that makes learning really stick. Reflection is very important to students, it is the acknowledged as being an essential element in learning. It is always good to set aside time foe conscious reflection throughout the project, things like what have they learned and what they enjoyed learning, and also what they want to learn in projects to come.

Building tradition and identity is something great to have for a school. You can be able to say "We are the school where kids get to..." Having a school that is known for doing something special will make students feel special.  A lot of schools do many different things for their names to be known and what these schools share is a sense of tradition and an expectation of excellence.

There are so many ways that you can celebrate the end of a project with a class. You can display students work, put on some sort of event, create a blog, or even hold a party. Anyway you choose to celebrate learning, and build your schools identity as a place where students can get to learn through projects. When you are planning a celebration you will want to include an opportunity to look back one more time. 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 processes and growth. Also an opportunity to showcase projects to colleagues,administrators, parents, and others in your larger learning community.

Chapter 10 p. 147-155

By setting aside time for reflection, students are able to feel good about their accomplishments that came from the hard work they put in to the project. The students are able to create meaning from what they learned in the past few weeks, through thinking critically about what they learned, what they enjoyed about learning, how they’ve grown as learners, and what (and how) they want to learn in the projects to come. When students are able to reflect on ideas such as how the project was important to them, how specific learning behaviors helped them, their skill development, how their collaborations improved, and their growth in learning dispositions (challenges, frustrations, joys, etc). 

Schools build tradition and identity by continuing to accomplish great things year after year. These great things could be anything from sport powerhouses to a school symphony. They bring pride to the school and create an expectation of excellence. When people in the community see the accomplishments being made at the school, they are more willing to help out to create even more opportunities to grow. When everyone is involved in these accomplishments at the school level, the entire community can feel pride and feel honored to have helped in the creation of the tradition. 

Celebrating a project allow students to: look back one more time on the project they just completed, acknowledgement of how hard work and commitment contributed to the success of the project and culture of excellence at your school, appreciate for those who helped, display of learning (both student creations and presentations), look inside the learners with opportunities for them talk about their processes and growth, and lastly an opportunity to showcase the projects to colleagues, administrators, parents, and others in the larger learning community. These celebrations help the students become more aware of what they actually learned. 

This chapter relates to my topic/project in the section where it discussed Starting a “Visual Conversation”. The blog that my group will be creating at the end of this semester is our way of presenting all of the different technologies we used to complete our assignments and the blog is the glue we are using to display it for everyone to see.