My favorite PBL website was the 1st grade PBL called "My Healthy Self" (URL: http://www.dukeschool.org/files/My%20Healthy%20Self%20Project.pdf). I chose this project as my favorite because it was an important topic that often gets left out of the curriculum in schools (especially with the lack of funding to pay for health/PE teachers). I also really liked how students were able to pursue a direction that they were interested in (i.e. if a student wanted to test how many sit-ups they could do then they could run an experiment, while another student may be taking samples of the average temperatures of their classmates). The final aspect of this project that I liked was that the students got to experience many different aspects of healthy living in this unit. They were able to pursue areas that they had an interest in and they also participated in activities as a class (i.e. using the computer to learn about nutrition, learning yoga from an instructor and visiting a grocery store). It seems as though the broad range of activities that were included into this unit helped the students to retain the information long after the unit ended.
In this unit students are being exposed to higher levels of thinking such as analysis and evaluation. Students are able to analyze their findings from different experiments (i.e. number of sit-ups a group of students could complete) and figure out how this may be reflective of the number of sit-ups that the whole class may be able to complete. Students are also able to evaluate and make judgements based on their findings. For example, when students visited the grocery store they are able to make judgements on the packaging of healthy food versus non-healthy foods and analyze why there may be differences.
I would not change anything about this PBL unit.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Reading Response #2
Telecollaborative assignments help students of any age to engage the highest levels thinking (according to Bloom's taxonomy). The highest levels of thinking are synthesis and evaluation. The ability to synthesize means that students have the ability to originate, integrate and combine ideas into a product, plan or proposal that is new to them ("Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain"). Students working on telecollaborative assignments are able to tap into this skill because they are able to work with other students and exchange ideas. In doing so, each student is being forced to interpret the idea's of others against their own which in turn will help students to learn how to have a discussion in a non-judgemental manner and explore others ideas which can establish ownership of the material ("Commonly Asked Questions about Teaching Collaborative Activities").
The highest level of thinking is the ability to evaluate. Evaluation is when a student appraises, assesses or critiques on a basis of specific standards and criteria ("Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Development"). Telecollaborative assignments are extremely valuable in helping students to tap into this highest level of thinking because at the conclusion of their experience working with the group the students are able to look back and evaluate themselves and the overall group. Students are able to evaluate if they as well as their group members were successful at fulfilling their role (an important part of collaborative activities is when the teacher assigns individual students roles to fulfill within the group). However, evaluation goes beyond simply stating whether or not someone fulfilled their role, it expands to questioning and judging what it was that someone did or didn't do to fulfill their duties. Peer assessment forms can be a very valuable tool that teachers use in order to help the students evaluate their experience in a group.
The highest level of thinking is the ability to evaluate. Evaluation is when a student appraises, assesses or critiques on a basis of specific standards and criteria ("Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Development"). Telecollaborative assignments are extremely valuable in helping students to tap into this highest level of thinking because at the conclusion of their experience working with the group the students are able to look back and evaluate themselves and the overall group. Students are able to evaluate if they as well as their group members were successful at fulfilling their role (an important part of collaborative activities is when the teacher assigns individual students roles to fulfill within the group). However, evaluation goes beyond simply stating whether or not someone fulfilled their role, it expands to questioning and judging what it was that someone did or didn't do to fulfill their duties. Peer assessment forms can be a very valuable tool that teachers use in order to help the students evaluate their experience in a group.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Reading Response #1
Tech Past:
Looking back over my own K-12 education I realized just how little exposure to technology I really had. My elementary school had a computer lab that was visited as a class fairly infrequently and it was often simply to play the "Oregon Trail" game. In middle school I have almost no recollection of using any type of technology (including computers). Progressing onto high-school, I used a computer lab on a fairly inconsistent basis. I was however, enrolled in a marketing class in which the use of computers was necessary and available on a daily basis.
Tech Present:
Looking back over my own exposure to technology (or lack there of) I realize just how lucky I was to be exposed to technology in my home because I was receiving little to no technological instruction in school. This makes me wonder how my classmates who didn't have access to technology outside of school fared when it came to their own knowledge of technology. For this reason I think it's extremely important to integrate technology into the classroom at an early age (ex: 1st grade) because our society is so technologically driven and it is important to help students get started on the right foot. Introducing students to technology in elementary school enables them to become familiar with it and prevents them from seeing technological equipment as "scary" and something they don't have the skills to use. I also think it's important to integrate technology into all aspects of the classroom rather than designating for example "time for computers". This helps students to connect the use of technology into everything they are learning. Students can use technology to play math "games" that test their addition and subtraction knowledge, they can use a smart-board to practice writing letters and words and they can even use secure, age-appropriate websites to research information regarding a subject they are studying.
Tech Future:
A factor that I see as posing a threat to the use of technology in my future classroom is inadequate funding. It is no secret that funding for education is low and I see this as a problem in being able to provide students with enough materials so teachers aren't having to fight over their use and also in providing students and teachers with technological equipment that is up-to-date and applicable to the students lives.
Looking back over my own K-12 education I realized just how little exposure to technology I really had. My elementary school had a computer lab that was visited as a class fairly infrequently and it was often simply to play the "Oregon Trail" game. In middle school I have almost no recollection of using any type of technology (including computers). Progressing onto high-school, I used a computer lab on a fairly inconsistent basis. I was however, enrolled in a marketing class in which the use of computers was necessary and available on a daily basis.
Tech Present:
Looking back over my own exposure to technology (or lack there of) I realize just how lucky I was to be exposed to technology in my home because I was receiving little to no technological instruction in school. This makes me wonder how my classmates who didn't have access to technology outside of school fared when it came to their own knowledge of technology. For this reason I think it's extremely important to integrate technology into the classroom at an early age (ex: 1st grade) because our society is so technologically driven and it is important to help students get started on the right foot. Introducing students to technology in elementary school enables them to become familiar with it and prevents them from seeing technological equipment as "scary" and something they don't have the skills to use. I also think it's important to integrate technology into all aspects of the classroom rather than designating for example "time for computers". This helps students to connect the use of technology into everything they are learning. Students can use technology to play math "games" that test their addition and subtraction knowledge, they can use a smart-board to practice writing letters and words and they can even use secure, age-appropriate websites to research information regarding a subject they are studying.
Tech Future:
A factor that I see as posing a threat to the use of technology in my future classroom is inadequate funding. It is no secret that funding for education is low and I see this as a problem in being able to provide students with enough materials so teachers aren't having to fight over their use and also in providing students and teachers with technological equipment that is up-to-date and applicable to the students lives.
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