Spicy Nodes URL for Final

Link to my Spicy Nodes assignment.

Final Thoughts

     Jean Piaget once stated “The principle goal of education is to create men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done”. Teachers need to adapt to change. Technology is changing, and we should change and grow with it. This class has helped me to prepare to do just that. Before taking this class, I was unsure as to how to implement Web 2.0 tools successfully and effectively into the curriculum and the classroom. I only thought I knew a lot about technology and how to use it successfully in the classroom, until I took this class. 
     I have completed projects using tools I have never even heard of such as Comic Life and Voice Thread. I have been able to grow as an educator and a student. This class has helped me to learn by completing hands on projects. I need to take that with me and remember that students learn the same way. I have learned how to create and focus on students lead projects, rather than teacher lead. My main goal is to work on incorporating more project-based learning activities now that I know its important position in education. I am walking away a better, more prepared teacher, with a higher confidence in knowing that I have the tools to challenge my future students.  

Our Group PBL

Link to group website: http://groupapblmedt7464.weebly.com/

     Wow! What a project challenge. I was the lead disseminator for our group. Basically, I was in-charge of the technology part, and creating either a wiki or a website for our group to display our PBL proposal. For this project, our group collaborated using Google Docs. Using Google Docs was much easier than having to e-mail constantly, and possibly missing something. The Google Docs allowed us to communicate instantly, almost like a chat, and we were able to stay organized by having everything in one location. I created our group website using www.weebly.com 
     This is a free website creating tool, and is very simple to use. It offers great tools and creates a very professional looking website. I enjoyed having the task of setting up the website. It was challenging, but I enjoyed the learning experience. 

     Our group created a PBL for an elementary school of one of our group members. In our write up we would pretend to go out to schools and train the team member of each grade level on how to use Voice Thread, and Comic Life. I found this project to be the most challenging project of all. I enjoyed collaborating with a group and being able to depend on other members for help and guidance. This task has helped me grow in the area of Project Based Learning, when before I knew nothing about. In completing our project, and reviewing the other projects, I have gained more than enough knowledge to be able to effectively implement some form of PBL in my future classroom. I will save the lesson plans my group created, as well as the others, to put into my education resource file. I wasn't expecting to learn as much as I did going into this project, but am glad that we were faced with such a profitable project.
     Overall, this project was time consuming and challenging, but I enjoyed the challenge. I enjoyed seeing the different ways each group interpreted the directions and how we made our PBL projects our own. I could see school systems wanting to use and be able to incorporate something from each group. I found this project to be very beneficial to me as an educator because not only helped me become more aware of what PBL is, but how to be able to effectively implement it into my future classroom.

Insights Gained for Discusssion 8

     I found discussion 8 to be somewhat challenging. Before the discussion, I was still unclear as to what PBL was, what it entailed, or how it needed to be properly implemented into lessons. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to read it as Project-Based Learning, or Problem-Based Learning. After reviewing some of my peers postings on their PBL lessons, I began to research what a good PBL lesson was made up of. I read over so many lessons plans ranging for all grade levels, Pre-K - 5th. After I came up with two lessons, with the help of my book, and some online resources, I began discussing PBL with my peers. I quickly found out that PBL was more important than I thought. I talked with some peers that had administered PBL activities/lessons before, and with some who had never heard, nor used it, like myself. I enjoyed reading over the broad range of experience levels and gaining insight as to what exactly PBL was. The discussion helped me to realize that PBL could be used in any grade level, any subject area, and is more student lead than teacher lead.

Using MovieMaker

     The purpose of this project is so show upcoming Pre-K students what we (their teacher and assistant teacher) expect from them, and how we expect them to act. Since it is their first time in school, they have no clue as to what to do, how to act, how to play correctly (unless they have siblings), share, or speak to one another. This video will give them a quick introduction on how and what we are going to expect from them. I think it will help to bring some reality to the upcoming student’s because they are getting to watch other student’s that are just like them. 

     During this video the only challenge I encountered was with the students. I had to film my own Pre-K students and have to tell them what to say and do. They would stumble on some words, or get shy when I raised the camera up, but overall they overcame their difficulties. I added some bloopers at the end of the video to show some of the messes I had while filming my students. 

     I learned so much while experimenting with MovieMaker. I really had a lot of fun while creating the video. I had the pleasure to work with four year olds and try to help them remember short and simple lines, and make sure their voices were audible. I didn’t realize that as soon as you put a camera in front of a four year old, that is normally wild/crazy/loud, suddenly clams up and won’t talk over a whisper. However, my students did a great job at helping me. They love that I need their help to complete my work at college. I found the article, Enter Here: Personal Narrative and Digital Storytelling to be a great read. It was informational, but the story behind it was very touching. I loved how the author’s students excelled and surprised themselves at their accomplishments. It’s great to hear/read success stories in children because they are put down so many times. The author stated that her students were selective about effects, and chose ones that drove the story farther as opposed to those that mimicked what might be seen in the films/TV. I found this to be so true while I was completing my video. I could see how one could easily get caught up in the effects/transitions, but lose the movies content. I struggled with choosing certain effects/transitions because I wanted them to add to my movie instead a take away from it, or clutter it too much. I learned a lot in this assignment, and hopefully will be able to use my video several times over in the future. My students can’t wait for me to bring it to the school so they can watch themselves.

Citation: Kajder, Sara. 2004. Enter Here: Personal Narrative and Digital Storytelling. English Journal. Vol. 93, No. 3 (Jan., 2004), pp. 64-68. Retrived from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4128811