Final Project

For my final project, I created a unit to that would allow me to improve the process for incorporating independent project-based learning in my classroom. At the high school level, student engagement can sometimes be a struggle as well as getting the students to think outside the box and further pursue and question a topic. I incorporated more choice into this unit along with ways to facilitate independent learning.

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5

*Note several of these lessons take more than one day to complete.

21st Century Performance Task

In this assignment, my objective was to create a 21^st Century Performance task with a focus on the meaning-centered lens.  I chose a lesson in which I have students use our home design software to create a house for some part of their life.  Some students choose to create a house for when they are single, just married, for their family, or when they are retired.  Students use online tutorials, internet resources, and collaboration with one another to complete their projects.  Students interview / ask questions to adults who fit their scenario as to what they look for in a house and what they can afford at that stage in their life.  Students gather the information shared with others who are doing the same projects and then create their houses as well as a cost analysis of what it would cost to build the house.  During the build process students, students are constantly working with one another to discuss questions or to get help with the software.  To complete the assignment, students determine how they want to present their finished house.  Students often choose a Google Site or Google Slideshow to present the floors/rooms of their house and the cost analysis.  This project is a great example of meaning center learning and the use of 21^st Century Performance tasks.

Final Project Activities Using TRUDACOT Planning Tool

Activities for Final Project:

• Students will use Google forms to select what they want to learn and what specifically they hope to gain from their rotation.
• Students will use Google Sites to build a website to inform and demonstrate what they are learning.
• Students will create a blog page on their website where they can pose questions and have outside sources contribute to their work and questions. This will give them a connection to the real world and will hopefully think deeper into what they are learning.

The two areas of the TRUDACOT planning tool that I am focusing on in my project are deeper thinking and personalization.   I have found that by focusing on these two areas I can get students more involved in their learning and the learning becomes more meaningful for them. Technology is an area that is also being incorporated into my final project, as it will be a vital part of their learning, exploration, and compilation of work. I am also using it to communication and collaborate with my students.

PSA Project for UN Goals

Check out the PSA video for UN Goal 2 - Zero Hunger:

Video Response: Stop Stealing Dreams

In the video by Seth Godin, he talks about the question: "What is school for?"  School in the past was about teaching obedience - getting students to be automated in their actions, their completion of tasks, and their way of thinking.  He goes on to talk about changes in education. Some notable changes were the teacher's role transforming to that of a coach, learning happening anywhere at anytime, open book / open notes all the time, no more memorizing, and more.  The focus of education is turning to the idea that we prepare the students to ask questions, problems solve, continually learn throughout life, learn from failures, and tune in to the student's passion.

Three statements I found intriguing from the video were:

1. We want students to connect the dots not collect the dots. 
2. Put students in a situation were they can fail.
3. Grades are an illusion - Passion and insight are reality.

These three statements apply to what is happening in my classroom.  Students in my class choose the topics they want to learn about, they learn about the topic apply what they learned.  They also are always working with the design process in which they identify a problem, design a solution, build it, test it, and evaluate it.  Students are experience failures but they are learning how to learn from it - how to fix it. 

In answering the question "What is school for?," I believe that the role of school is changing.  We as teachers need to change as well to facilitate this new way learning. This way of teaching and learning is working in my class and I see this continuing and growing.

Video Response: Do Schools Kill Creativity?

This speaker is very entertaining.  He talks about the future of education and how we are to prepare students.  He brings up his belief that creativity is as important as literacy.  I too believe these are equally important.  Students can be very book smart but without creativity they can struggle to be successful in life. Students with degrees use to be guaranteed a job, but now that is not true.  We as teachers need to focus encouraging and growing our students talents and creativity into skills that will lead them into success. We need to encourage students think outside of the box and not to follow one way of thinking and learning.

Twitter Chats

I feel that technology has a good and an evil side in the classroom.  We need to make sure that we are not replacing teaching with technology but instead supplementing our teaching with technology.  If this is done right, students will more likely have a better learning experience. 

Technology can be used in the classroom to increase communication, facilitate discussions, and spark new interests/ideas.  These all add to the human and social lenses of learning.  This week I have been learning about and using Twitter.  Twitter and many other social platforms would allow for students to easily interact with other students, experts, teachers, etc. from all over the world that they typically wouldn’t get a chance to.

Technology allows for learners to obtain knowledge from a variety of sources and to express their opinion and thoughts about this knowledge through different ways of communication.  I think this is great because it allows for students to be more aware of their writing because their audience is bigger.

I definitely feel that literacy is always changing.  Technology has had a major impact on literacy in that there is a wealth of information now accessible to students and this information is now available from numerous resources.  Students are continually finding new ways to access information and communicate with one another.

When using Twitter, I searched numerous hashtags. I found some that worked for me.  Other hashtags, I thought, were too broad.  I liked being able to choose my own hashtag because it allowed for me to bounce in and out of topics that were pertinent to me at that moment.   

What is STEM?

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.  It is sometimes referred to as STEAM when Art is integrated into it.  STEM education is based on the idea of reinforcing students' critical thinking and exploration skills.  By learning and applying STEM skills in all curricular areas students will hopefully become better at working with other students and asking deeper and more meaningful questions to solve their challenges.