EDT+674

__**Discussion Question Responses:**__ I watched many of the 21st Century videos and enjoy them a great deal, but I was looking for something I hadn't watched or read yet. The first article I read was "21st Century Skills: Getting From There to Here". This one caught my attention because I know it is important to use these 9 skills with my students, but I am always wondering how. Although the article wasn't very in depth, it did give a few good ideas like starting with a few of the skills to start with. It also made a point of mentoring other teachers in your school to get them on board with technology. The more people we have on board, the easier it will be. I explored the Route 21 web-site and found many great ideas. Off of this web-site I found this: http://21centuryedtech.wikispaces.com/Web+2.0. It was great and had so many Web 2.0 ideas as well as a blog for 21 Century skills that could be used in the classroom. I got a little caught up with all of the information and found something new that I could use in my classroom to incorporate the 9 skills. It is visual ranking. It had a lot in common with PBL's. There were guiding questions that the students would research and then rank items that related to them. It looks like once the ranking is done, students could use the information to see what others thought.
 * Question #1:**

The one video that I watched was at []. It talked about how the state assessments the way they are now, are not an accurate assessment for students of the 21st Century. There were project based assessments that were discussed and I really liked this idea. I don't think there are a lot of educators that believe 1 test should be the only thing that we base school and student performance on. It has to be used as only 1 snapshot of a student's performance. These assessments haven't been changed in so long and they are just behind the times.

Question #2: I looked for a long time on a video about colonization because, honestly, this is not a subject that I get really excited about teaching. It is very blah to many of my students and I wanted to jazz it up some. My students are very visual learners and many also are musical, so I searched for a video that had some music in it to teach the 13 colonies. This video starts out a little cheesy with Dora the Explorer searching for the map, but I thought that would get my students into it and wanting to see what would be next. The creator then goes into a song to teach all of the 13 colonies. It is very repetitive, but that would help them get it in their head. When we were studying about Columbus, I found a video that had a funny song in it and my class loved it. For the same reason, I think they will like this one too and it will help them learn the material much better than our social studies text!

Question 3: I have a very interesting bunch of students this year and although I see all types of learning styles, most of them are visual and verbal. Since I have started to use technology more this year, I have noticed that my students are more engaged. I have already used the following technology related items with my class: Wikis, blogs, VoiceThreads, various web-sites, Thinkquests, videos and my own web-site. I am constantly trying to think of new technology ideas to use because one other thing I noticed about my student's learning styles is that they get bored with doing the same things. I would really like to try using Skype in my class, but was first told from my district that this could not be done. However, now I have heard a different answer, so I am considering asking again about using this type of technology. I would love to find an author or another class that was reading the same book as my class to have a literature discussion. I think it would give my students a purpose for learning if they knew they would be talking to other people about it. The other thing I would like to incorporate more is our Flip video camera. I am fortunate enough to have one checked out to my class at all times and I have rarely used it. This week, my class is going to use it to create "in 3 words" videos. They are doing a project on colonization and each group has a region of the 13 colonies. Like the project on Good Morning America where people write their 3 important words on paper and then are video taped holding the paper, I am having my class do this. They will write 3 important words on each piece of paper and video tape them holding them as their presentation to the class. I would also love to get into podcasting, but not sure where to start with this. I have an Epals account and have tried to hook up with another class, but never got any response. I'm not sure if I will continue to try to find a match anymore this year.


 * __Project Based Learning Proposal:__**

__**Project Based Learning Plan on Ecosystems:**__



__**Chapter Summary Assignment:**__

Chapter 3: Providing Recognition

"Giving students rewards or praise for accomplishments related to the attainment of a goal."

Recommendations for recognition: personalize, use the pause, prompt and praise strategy, and use concrete symbols of recognition

-survey where students rate other students and give them a grade [|www.surveymonkey.com]
 * __Data collection tools to encourage praise and recognition:__**

-use classroom response systems to give a quiz to teams and award teams extra points if the teammates receive a certain percentage correct. This helps motivate all students to work together and gives them immediate feedback. Students receive verbal praise from the teacher and their classmates.

__**Multimedia:**__ -Hand student a certificate that you create through a software program or web-site -We discussed how this didn't like a great example of "multimedia", but schools could put this over their announcements or on a podcast.

__**Web Resources:**__ -Posting student work on web-sites -Students can add their work to their Wiki page and then have other students add a discussion comment to this as well as share their work with their families -Teachers can take a picture of their class doing an activity and then post it on a photo gallery service, such as [|www.flickr.com] -Use online web-sites to send online certificates. Some good examples are: [|www.printablecertificateawards.com] [|www.americangreetings.com/ecards.pd] -Interactive games that reward students with sounds, points, and audio messages

__**Communication Software:**__ -Audio email message to praise a student about something they have done (simply done, open up your accessories folder and you should have a sound recorder under the entertainment section -Video conferencing with professionals and peers who can serve as an audience for student work. [|www.globalwrites.org] (This is a site that offers students the chance to compete with other schools on a poetry project via video conferencing.) [|www.dreamyard.com]

__**Reflection 1:**__

I watched many of the 21st Century videos and enjoy them a great deal, but I was looking for something I hadn't watched or read yet. The first article I read was "21st Century Skills: Getting From There to Here". This one caught my attention because I know it is important to use these 9 skills with my students, but I am always wondering how. Although the article wasn't very in depth, it did give a few good ideas like starting with a few of the skills to start with. It also made a point of mentoring other teachers in your school to get them on board with technology. The more people we have on board, the easier it will be. I explored the Route 21 web-site and found many great ideas. Off of this web-site I found this: http://21centuryedtech.wikispaces.com/Web+2.0. It was great and had so many Web 2.0 ideas as well as a blog for 21 Century skills that could be used in the classroom. I got a little caught up with all of the information and found something new that I could use in my classroom to incorporate the 9 skills. It is visual ranking. It had a lot in common with PBL's. There were guiding questions that the students would research and then rank items that related to them. It looks like once the ranking is done, students could use the information to see what others thought.

The one video that I watched was at []. It talked about how the state assessments the way they are now, are not an accurate assessment for students of the 21st Century. There were project based assessments that were discussed and I really liked this idea. I don't think there are a lot of educators that believe 1 test should be the only thing that we base school and student performance on. It has to be used as only 1 snapshot of a student's performance. These assessments haven't been changed in so long and they are just behind the times.


 * __Reflection 2:__**

I looked for a long time on a video about colonization because, honestly, this is not a subject that I get really excited about teaching. It is very blah to many of my students and I wanted to jazz it up some. My students are very visual learners and many also are musical, so I searched for a video that had some music in it to teach the 13 colonies. This video starts out a little cheesy with Dora the Explorer searching for the map, but I thought that would get my students into it and wanting to see what would be next. The creator then goes into a song to teach all of the 13 colonies. It is very repetitive, but that would help them get it in their head. When we were studying about Columbus, I found a video that had a funny song in it and my class loved it. For the same reason, I think they will like this one too and it will help them learn the material much better than our social studies text!   

__**Reflection 3:**__ I have a very interesting bunch of students this year and although I see all types of learning styles, most of them are visual and verbal. Since I have started to use technology more this year, I have noticed that my students are more engaged. I have already used the following technology related items with my class: Wikis, blogs, VoiceThreads, various web-sites, Thinkquests, videos and my own web-site. I am constantly trying to think of new technology ideas to use because one other thing I noticed about my student's learning styles is that they get bored with doing the same things. I would really like to try using Skype in my class, but was first told from my district that this could not be done. However, now I have heard a different answer, so I am considering asking again about using this type of technology. I would love to find an author or another class that was reading the same book as my class to have a literature discussion. I think it would give my students a purpose for learning if they knew they would be talking to other people about it. The other thing I would like to incorporate more is our Flip video camera. I am fortunate enough to have one checked out to my class at all times and I have rarely used it. This week, my class is going to use it to create "in 3 words" videos. They are doing a project on colonization and each group has a region of the 13 colonies. Like the project on Good Morning America where people write their 3 important words on paper and then are video taped holding the paper, I am having my class do this. They will write 3 important words on each piece of paper and video tape them holding them as their presentation to the class. I would also love to get into podcasting, but not sure where to start with this. I have an Epals account and have tried to hook up with another class, but never got any response. I'm not sure if I will continue to try to find a match anymore this year.