Concept Map

Reading Reflection 2: p. 25-40

The focus of Learning Communities is to create new opportunities for teachers to work together and overcome the traditional isolation of the profession. Some of the benefits of implementing Learning Communities is that through the small sized collaboration, faculty can share ideas about teaching and serve as friendly critics by suggesting ways to improve lessons and classroom management. Teachers can also help evaluate students’ work and see what kind of quality of work that students can produce in different settings with different teachers. By doing this, it results in a greater appreciation of students’ talents and raised expectations of even the lowest-performing students. (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2005) Learning Communities are beneficial to students because they allow room for innovation. By planning lessons together and giving and receiving advice on how to help students, teachers gain respect for one another. These LC’s promote honesty and trust, and help to build an appreciation for who is working together. LC’s help to decrease teacher isolation, increase commitment to the mission, share responsibility, create more powerful learning learning experiences, and make more of a fundamental, systematic change. (Hord, 1997) Overall, these Learning Communities make the professional life of teachers more productive and satisfying. Learning Communities affect students by providing them with more than one mentor to help them in the process of learning. Since there are multiple teachers helping a group of students, the students can feel more comfortable opening up to at least one of the teachers instead of staying isolated if they don’t manage to find a connection with one teacher if they were in a traditional learning environment. By having more than one teacher viewing the students’ abilities to work and learn, they are able to find new ways to make things “click” with them, which allows them to become better learners all together. Some of the components for shared vision in Learning Communities would be that there is a clear sense of a mission, an understanding for what must be done to achieve the mission, work collaboratively in teams to determine the best practice, organize groups headed by teacher-leaders, the focus is on student learning, must be goal-and results-oriented, collaborate with each other, hold the same values and beliefs, commit themselves to continuous improve, and view themselves as life-long learners. This process of creating Learning Communities can be related to my topic and project because we are using teamwork to create a larger project for our students. We use collaboration to come up with what we believe to be the best strategies for our project. It is said that “a team of two is better than no team at all” on page 35, and we have THREE, instead of two! We are able to use each other to bounce ideas off of each other, instead of staying isolated in projects and assignments throughout the semester.

Chapter 2

Amber Hobson

It is important for teachers to work together. When teacher’s work together it gives a lot more room for more ideas, you can brainstorm together and work together to create a lot of projects, and lessons. Two brains are always better than one. Also getting to work with technology is a great chance for the teachers as well as the students. Just as in the HP Technology for teaching Grants where they award these grants to teams of five teachers who work together on project design and implementation. Working together in this class is very important as well. By working together we can expect to produce something greater that the sum of your parts. By working together in our teams, and using project-based learning we have a lot more to offer to a class. Doing the lesson together opens up many doors for new ideas. Working together can be a little difficult sometimes, but I think that is very important that when you are working with others to be very respectful to everyone else's ideas and their feedback. Just as Whipple said "You have to be able to be honest with one anther, and that means you have to trust and appreciate the people you're working with" and "You need to be comfortable saying, that worked OK, but maybe try this next time."

            Members should share many research-based components. Having a clear sense of mission is a very important component because working with people it is important to all have a clear understanding of what the goal is. Working together in collaborative teams to determine the best practice to achieve the mission is also a important component because of it is good to know that you have explored what is the best way to go about achieving the mission. Also are goal- and results- oriented because you always want to make sure there is a clear goal to gain the same end results.

Reading Reflection 1: p. 1-24

When considering incorporating Project-Based Learning in your classroom, there are many things to keep in mind. The main reason is that PBL is a gateway to “extra learning”. Through the use of real-world projects, learners are able to experience diverse experiences that help meet instructional goals in a new light. It is also important to be open to new ideas, and be an active learner- just like you want your students to be. PBL allows students, and teachers, to be engaged in their environment. This concept turns the traditional classroom upside down! 

Project-Based Learning have never ending benefits. Everyone involved learns to take risks, as a learner, to create a new vision of instructional design. It is a learning journey that is used to explore the potential and promise of educational technology! Classroom conversations become more productive, global connections are instantaneous, and the meaning of “learning community” is redefined indefinitely. The main goal of this concept is to “prepare students to thrive in a world that`s certain to continue changing” (13). 

As future educators, we know that we do what we do for the kids. PBL has so much to offer to the students that will only prepare them for the rest of their lives. They help students think more critically, they are able to make stronger connections between what they are learning and their own world- as well as they create their own meaning! It also increases the motivation of students, improves their problem solving and their higher-order thinking. They learn to how to investigate open ended questions and apply their knowledge to produce products that are authentic to them and their own learning, by doing what they want to do. These processes focus mainly on teamwork and working collaboratively with others. From this, they are not only able to learn what kind of worker they are, but they become aware of how to learn to be flexible with other thinkers, their ideas, and being able to come up with a way that works for everyone. It is important for students to develop a fuller understanding of how the world works and when these students are pushed out of their comfort zone, and into unfamiliar territory, they begin to grow in ways no one saw possible. They went from not seeing a purpose, to achieving a feeling that they can do something about changing their world. 

Before beginning to include PBL into your classroom, it is important to consider: your expectations, how you interact with students, how to help students become better at managing their progress, be ready to change the arrangement of your classroom to better facilitate teamwork and their collaboration, reevaluate what is important to point out through the learning process, and be able to explain why you are deciding to use the new project approach to parents and other faculty members. 

After reading the opening chapter about Project-Base Learning, there isn’t a doubt in my mind that I will most definitely be using the Project-Base Learning approach in my future classroom! 

Reading Reflection #1

Amber Hobson

Chapter 1

Mapping the Journey Seeing the Big Picture

        Project based learning is very important to not only students, but also us as a teacher as well. As teachers we need to make sure our students are getting the best education that we can give to them, and project based learning really helps to do that. It gives so much opportunity for the students to choose what they want to learn and for the students to continue to build on to that through out a semester. Also for the teacher is gives great opportunities for the teacher to be creative every year and experiment with lessons. I also think that it really builds a bond with the teacher and the class, because these are projects that they will always remember doing, because it is something that they really care about learning, and that they are putting so much time and effort into. In project-based learning, students investigate open-ended questions and apply heir knowledge to produce authentic products. Projects typically allow for students choice, setting the stage for active learning and teamwork (12)

        For a teacher teaching with project-based learning it is important for a teacher to have the knowledge and the tools to teach using this approach. As a teacher knowing how to use technology and the tools that go with it is something that the teacher needs to know so they can have their students doing everything they can for their project. Technology is growing more and more important in education, especially for the younger generations, since they are growing up with all of the new technology out there.  With practice, engaging in project work helps teachers and students develop new ways of working together and incorporating new ideas. Over time, your students will get better at working on a team , managing deadlines, resolving conflicts, and investigating their own questions. (21) Whats Next? The things that we will be learning in this class are all things that I know that I am going to be able to use in my future to teach project-based learning. 

Reading Reflection #1

Stephanie Hill
EDT
4-5:20

As both teacher and student begin Project-based learning (PBL), there are many things that we need to keep in mind.  One thing that we need to keep in mind when beginning our journey with PBL is that we have to be willing to take risks.  This means that because PBL is a new and different type of learning we need to transform our brains to think in a new way.  Some of the main points that the book talks to keep in mind is that today’s students are up to a challenge, projects are worth the effort, students live and learn in the new world and new contexts encourage the project approach.  I think the most important point to keep in mind is that students live and learn in the new world because in order for students to truly benefit from learning, they need to be able to bring their knowledge from the classro0m to their everyday life situations.
PBL has a vast amount of benefits.  First off, PBL encourages students to be charge of their own learning, such as thinking of their own questions and developing meaning from the answers to the questions that they have.  In addition, PBL aides children to use different tools to attack a project that they may have never thought of before beginning PBL.  Continuing, PBL gives children to question one others ideas and come together as a classroom to discuss the best solution.  Also, PBL directs children to work together and be active what each others classmates think and have ideas about.  On another note, PBL provides teaches with the access to think ahead of the time or “jump time zones” (12).
There are a few issues that need to be considered for PBL.  One of the issues that needs to be considered is the transformation to PBL because it is such a revolutionary way of teaching.  PBL uses methods that many teachers may have never had experience, thus the transformation to teaching PBL can be difficult.
At New Technology High, which is an example of New Technology Model, the students and teachers underwent many changes while seeking a new vision of learning.  New Technology High explains that although there is access to computes at all times, students use computers as an extra source or material when creating projects.  Furthermore, the technology at New Technology High gives students the opportunity to see how they are doing other than the standard letter grade (17).

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