Reflection on Chapter 4

1. A potential pitfall for this is that you spend a lot of time designing a project but you could end up with not a lot of things in the outcome. There are also a lot of things needed for project design and if you try to do it all at once you could end up being very overwhelmed. I think this needs collaboration or a large amount of time to prep so that you and your students don't get overwhelmed.

2. To me a great thing about group projects is that they can be less strict with instructions so groups can co-construct their own learning. This will help to lead our students down different learning areas! This can help students learn more real life contexts when it comes to working with others and solving problems in more than their own way.

3. Project ideas can honestly come from anywhere. They can come from you or a group member or a problem that is going on outside of the classroom. It will depend on the group if they are going to do a "neat and clean" project with strict rules and guidelines. Or you will get groups with wild and crazy ideas that they will try to solve to the best of their ability.

4. The first step of a project is to make sure that you have met all your objectives and that they are clearly set up. Once we set the objectives we need to make sure their is some sort of evidence that the students are understanding the material. Then we need to find a subject or topic for the project. Finally we proceed with the project.

5. The concepts in chapter 4 relate to our project in a big way. We have identified our objectives and have figured out how to create evidence of understanding. We have also found a topic and made it clear and concise.

Reading Reflection 3

1. When finding the big idea one must remember that the big idea is the core concept and process of the project. Therefore when planning the big idea of a project a teacher must keep in mind what the main idea the student should take away from the project is. The big idea must also be something that the student can relate to and understand so that they actually take something away from the project. 
2. As for anything going on within the classroom it is important to understand what skills the students will be using and taking away from the project. As for 21st century skills there are three main important ones, analyze, evaluate and create. These three skills can be used in many different ways. 
3. As for having 21st century literacy in PBL one must have a project that allows the student to learn to be independent and aware. This also means that students must be able to become self sufficient within their project. 
4. Ubiquity: this is an overarching and desirable quality of tools that support project learning. This encourages students to learn inside and outside of the classroom.
   Deep Learning: Students have the ability to use higher-order thinking when sorting and analyzing information to speed the learning process up.
   Making things visible and discussable: Using digital tools to make information visible can make it easier to actually see what is going on within the project
   Expressing Ourselves, Sharing Ideas, Building Community: Finding ways to use the internet within the classroom via blogs, social software, tagging, and virtual meetings.
   Collaboration: By having students collaborate they work with each other and may bounce ideas off of each other. This way it is encouraged for students to work together.
   Research By teaching students which websites will provide useful information compared to the websites that will just give information is crucial in any PBL.   
   Project Management:Planning and Organization Helping students manage time, work, sources, feedback from others, drafts and more during projects
   Reflection and Iteration: examining ideas from all sides and other points of view, also looking back at what a student has done from a different point of view.
5. This chapter is very relevant to our project because as educators we must get in the habit now of using all of the 21st century literacy and skills within our classroom. 

RR #3

   1)   When trying to find the “big idea” for a project, you need to know what the overall goal is that you want your students to take from the project. Also taking into consideration what does the subject mean to your students and how will it touch them on a personal level.  If your big idea doesn’t let your students tackle real world issues and keep them engaged, you may want to rethink your big idea.

   2)   21^st century skills are important to integrate into the PBL that takes place in your classroom. This is crucial in making sure that your students can tackle real word situations and problems. Analyzing is a big skill needed, which requires students to clarify and examine information. Evaluation allows students to become the judge of things and defend their ideas. Creation allows students to compose ideas and formulate solutions to real life problems.

   3)   21^st century literacies are an important part of instruction to your children. 21^st century learning is all about being self-sufficient problem solvers in the ever-changing global landscape. This allows for students to become independent and aware while partaking in the problem solving process.

   4)   Ubiquity: This is a very important concept to implement into your teaching practices. This allows the students to think of them selves as life long learners. Their learning will take place not only in the classroom, but out in the real world as well.

Deep Learning: This is a form of higher level thinking that is important for students to be exposed to. This allows them to compile data and know what to do with it. This could include organizing, summarizing, and analyzing.

Making Things Visible and Discussable: This really allows the students to open up their minds and see the picture that they might be mentally painting. When the students can see a good visual representation of something is allows them to engage more critically.

Expressing Ourselves, Sharing Ideas, Building Community: The use of the Internet as a tool is important for students. When letting the students express themselves on things like blogs or chartrooms, we are allowing them to share their ideas and create a community of learning by engaging with other students online.

Collaboration: This is crucial in helping to make students better rounded individuals. It allows the students to bounce ideas off of each other face to face.

Research: With the help of the right sites, this can help the students reach information faster than ever before. Students are able to quickly find answers to research questions.

Project Management: This is essential for building well-rounded students. It allows students to learn time management, meet deadlines, organize, and get feedback. This is a huge part of any PBL project.

Reflection and Iteration: This allows the students to look back on what they have created. Using feedback and others ideas they may be able to improve on what they had originally came up with.

5) This chapter is very relatable to our PBL project. We will be teaching the children 21^st century skills to complete their problem. All of the essential learning functions will be in play during our project as well. 

Reading Reflection 3

1. The "big idea" is the key concepts that we need to teach our students. You can take these concepts and teach your students how to apply them to the world around them. With these big ideas projects become easier for students because they will know what they are supposed to be focusing on.
2. The way to look at 21st century thinking is through Blooms categories of objectives: Analyze, create,  evaluate, and apply. 21st century skills are more of a mind set that people live in, it is this critical thinking piece that we apply to our teaching now.
3. 21st century literacy is about being able to use the technology around you while being independent, informed and useful. Students need to become literate by using real world situations to learn literacy.
4. ISTE NETSS helps address the problem of people becoming skillful in the technology of this modern age. NETSS wants to create an innovative use of technology by integrating it into schools and work.
5. This relates to our project because we can take the big ideas of our project such as safety and apply them to the real world around our students. They can become skills that they will use in their everyday life. We use NETSS because we want to have our students use as much technology that is up to date as possible. Such as using iPads to create recipes or look at them while they are cooking.

RR #2

     1)   The focus of learning communities is for you, and also your community to grow in learning. Through this shared growth, your communities overall goal will be achieved. Also by helping your community achieve a goal, in turn you may also be able to complete the many goals of your own personal classroom.

     2)   The benefits of a learning community are virtually endless to both the teacher and the students. Some common benefits of learning communities include:

a.     Decreased teacher isolation

b.     Shared work responsibility

c.      Increased commitment of all teacher to the overall mission

d.     Power learning for both teacher and student

e.     Systematic change

     3)   Learning communities are a very positive experience for the teachers that are apart of them. It allows the teachers to feel less confined and isolated in a traditional classroom setting. It allows the teacher to be able to bounce ideas back and forth of colleagues that are part of the community itself. It also allows for the support of fellow teachers to help you reach a goal.

    4)   These learning communities are especially important for the children in the classroom. It allows them to receive an overall fuller learning experience from both their teacher and the teacher’s peers. It allows the children to also learn about shared responsibility and teaches them to be able to handle their share of the workload. Communities also expose the kids to real life learning experiences that they may not have had in a traditional classroom setting.

     5)   The components of the shared vision are simple within the learning community. The teachers shared vision is to work together to complete the common goal or goals at hand. This will also help promote this concept to the kids within the classroom. If they see their teachers working toward a common goal, then they in turn will follow suit.

     6)   This relates directly to our PBL project that our group is doing. As a group, we are creating a community this semester. We are all striving for the same goal, to complete our project. 

Chapter 2 Reflection

1. Learning Communities are implemented to help those in the community reach a common goal by learning to learn together. This is especially important for a classroom environment because it helps everyone within the classroom grow. 
2. There are many benefits for utilizing Learning Communities many of which include decreased teacher isolation, increased commitment to the mission, shared responsibility, more powerful learning, and a higher likelihood of fundamental, systematic change. These are are very important skills for every student in every classroom.
3. Learning Communities allows teachers to use other teachers as a resource for success. This also means that teachers must fully support the PBL experience, if they don't fully support the experience then it will be a failure. 
4. These communities help students learn to work with others, give and receive constructive criticism, collaborate with others, hold shared values and beliefs, learn to improve themselves constantly and see themselves as life long learners. 
5. The components for the shared vision in the learning community are the same as for any group working towards the same common goal. They follow the general guide lines of an average group project where every person in the group must work towards the same general goal. They must also communicate properly to each other. This allows students to learn how to do this same type of activity in the real world. 
6. This relates fully to what we are doing in our own project. We all have our own portion to work on to make the work load even, yet we are all working together to collaboratively come up with ideas and make changes to the general plan.  

Chapter 2 reflection

1. The focus of learning communities is to grow your class or community. This is to help your community become better than it already is. It also can help you better the community to be what you would like it to be. 

2.Learning communities can help to allow students to co-construct knowledge, while being able to learn about other types of people. It allows for growth within the school and the community, to make it a better place. 

3.I think to have a well-functioning learning community we will need to have strong teacher student relationships. The teacher can help to encourage the communities to take a more PBL approach. The teacher can also help the community to make connections outside of the classroom and step back from the students work allowing them to be accountable for what they are doing. It also allows for collaboration between teachers. 

4.Through learning communities students will be able to take many different approaches to their role in the project. A critical thinker, a teacher, a learner, and a supporter.

5.These components for shared vision in learning communities are very similar to a basic team project. I say this because the goal is a shared vision. This helps students to learn accountability, and learn to take different approaches to solving a problem. 

6. Our project uses a lot of community involvement and will encourage the students to better their own skills, and maybe spark some new food related projects that could better the community.