Project Presentations

Last week we had the opportunity to present our project-based learning units to the class. It was great to see the units that either are or will be taught in the near future. Cindy turned her Crayfish unit into one the students will really enjoy. Learning about crayfish is not the favorite of many teachers, but nonetheless, is one that really turns third graders on. I like how you're involving the students in their own learning, comparing life cycles of other animals with that of a crayfish. I'll bet they learn more about other animals, too.!

Sheila has an interesting project, involving students research other states, like Idaho, to Wisconsin, involving all sorts of research tools within the project. I like the way you presented it, with a culminating project of their convincing you to move to their state. It gets their interest because you've included a lot of choices within their project.

I really enjoyed learning about the way Shari Incorporated geometrical shapes in having students put together their own dream house. I'm still working on mine!! It was interesting to see where the kids can go to look at floor plans and learn about how to put one together. I like the idea of having an architect coming to visit your class and looking over the plans. It puts a real world spin on their dream houses.

Jim's project of getting the students involved in their own accounting is wonderful! Accounting is not one of the world's greatest subjects for kids to study, unless they're really into it. I like the way you stimulated their interest in getting them involved in their learning. The way you presented the project, I thought students would have a longer time to work with it. I could see you expanding and growing with the idea of projects in accounting.

Jody, I wish I could go shopping with your class! What a great way to get them stimulated and learning about money! Taking pictures along the way to record their progress and trip is an excellent idea. Making a "movie" out of it could be done, as well.

Tom, you had a great idea for incorporating Geometry into planning a pool and a gazebo. Having guest speakers come in and talk about the real world application of knowing perimeter, area and volume is great! I like you you had your students blog about how they'd use geometry in their dream job. Even the musician had an idea!

Megan's idea of having her kindergartners bring in pictures of their family car and house is a good one. I like how you're having the students draw their own houses and putting them up, side by side, with their real house. The idea of sharing their pictures on a secured site so family can see it is a interesting, keeping in mind the legalities and safety issues involved in the posting.

Wendy, what a great idea for students sharing information about their cultural heritage. You have them involving their parents, grandparents, and others via e-mail and letters, or other means of communication. Posting it to the web is a great enticement for them to do their best work!

I was amazed at Lori's project of sickle cell anemia. She really got to the heart of what one student, especially, wanted to work on. Having staff and students learn about this in the way you're presenting it, really gets at the heart of what everyone should know.

Katie L. really has her students involved in building a new Munich. I can see the students getting into this project. They have a lot of choices in creating their cities. I like the way you're having students present to each other in German. Incorporating people who live in Munich to look and respond to their cities is a great idea!

Kris, you really involved your students in your project. Having them take surveys and samplings of how people would be voting on the referendum, and then having them present their findings to the Superintendent is awesome! As they're the ones who'll be voting in the fall, it makes sense to have them involved in the process itself.
Mike had an interesting project involving Newton's law. I can visualize all the students being really involved in it, especially since they get to build a rocket and blast it off! They get really involved when it comes to doing something they're interested in.
Katie A. had involved her high school students with elementary students in a conservation project. This was an interesting project as it has to work on two levels, one, getting the 9th - 12th graders involved in conservation and second, reaching the 2nd and 3rd graders at their level. All the students become involved in learning about the project. By presenting to the younger students, the older ones have a real, targeted audience. The project involves something all students need to learn about, conservation. It was an interesting project.
I was amazed at all the different types of projects that were presented. There were so many different ways to do projects and it is interesting to see how many different subjects and grade levels were represented. I think we all learned something new.

Project-Based Learning - Session 4

Looking over the past few weeks, I've really come to a better understanding of what Project Based Learning is and how it can be used in a variety of ways with all levels of students. I've found it's not easy to jump in and do one because it means giving up some control over what I've been used to doing. I do like the fact that students are more in control of their learning as it really excites them and makes coming to school a joy instead of a chore, especially when they get to focus on their topic of choice within a curricular area. The more choices the student gets to make, the more excited they become about the project. I've seen this when I started the Caldecott Unit project with the third graders. They were excited to go on the Internet and do a scavenger hunt. They also were happy when they learned they were going to make a multimedia class project for their parents to see at Open House in May as well as hold a mock Caldecott Award vote with books they haven't seen yet. They're the ones who get to make the final decisions.
I can see their incentive for learning increase when they get to do some of the same things that their parents do. When the students were taught to scan, and one student was teaching another, one third grade student said to me, "I get to scan pictures like my dad! He scans pictures for his work all the time. He makes labels."
At that point, another student said, "My mom does, too!" I could see the excitement in their eyes and actions. They were learning something their parents do all the time and felt their learning was real world and relevant.
The impact it's had on me was just as relevant. I was excited to see the students learn and get involved in researching their author. Developing the unit has taken a while but is well worth the effort. It'll be great to see their class projects, presentations and votes.

Session 3 Blooms

Reviewing the material on Bloom's Taxonomy this week was helpful. The handouts are a good resource for daily lesson planning as well as for our projects. I enjoyed breaking into groups and jigsawing one of the lessons presented. It's always a reminder that we can do this in our own classrooms as well. At times I have students collaborate on their work. It's good practice to give them a jigsaw session to learn not only how to work on a project but how to collaborate as well, especially at the elementary level.
The Wall of Fame activity was a good one for us to practice. It's interesting to see we, as a class, came up with almost the same ideas as to what was wrong with the lesson and to what audience the lesson was aimed. I know we're all busy figuring out our own lessons for next week. I'm going to look over the lesson format and streamline it so I'm evaluating only the areas I want assessed.
I was glad we had time to collaborate with our teachers about our projects! I really appreciate the input and new ideas as to what to incorporate within them. I felt something was missing and knew when we talked that it was the mock voting piece I needed to add as a culminating event. It's also a great reminder that when I do this and any other project, students also need one-on-one teacher feedback and to build time into the lesson(s) for it. Thanks!