This chapter is about project management strategies for teachers and learners. Time management, teaming, and assessment are important strategies to learn to prepare a successful project, so that the best use of instructional time is present. Gathering the materials you need is very important before starting the project because without materials, it could cause delays in the process and unproductive instructional time. Other teachers, parents, and even recycling centers can be really good resources for materials. Another important thing prior to starting a project with your students is to get in touch with experts in the field, and find ways for students to communicate with them and ask questions. Whether these experts are in the community, or are accessed via Skype it provides the same type of communication, and it is important that these experts and who to ask questions to is set up before the project begins.
An important skill to be learned throughout any project is that the students are learning how to manage their own time. A way to do this is to plan a project calendar where students can easily see and follow along where the deadlines are and what is due on what day. This also provides students and teachers with the opportunity to organize all aspects of the project online. It is also important when making the groups that they are diverse in skill. Students need to “compliment” each other. For example, if one person is extremely organized and another person is great at using the Internet, they can feed off each other’s strengths.
Assessment is a very important aspect of project-based learning and should not only be done at the end of the project, but throughout. Technology is really important in these assessment activities. For example, students can take an online survey before they begin the project so you can test their prior knowledge. Technology is also used with developing a wiki. This way other collaborators can add to it at any time. This wiki can also be the center of where everything is about the project, and both students and the teacher have access.
Finally, this relates to our project because we need to know for our future in teaching, what to have planned out before a project, that doesn’t take the fun out of it. Also, creating a wiki is sort of like what we are doing with our website, so this will help us get the idea.
Very thorough summary! I really liked how you talked about the importance of preparing for a project so that instructional time is not lost. This is such an important concept since curriculum and standards set by the state are so high for educators. You also mentioned recycling centers being a resource for the classroom. This was something i did not even think about! What a great idea! Teaching students to recycle by coming up with ways to recycle but also demonstrating the use of recyling by using the center as a resource is such a great idea! Great job!
ReplyDeleteI really like how you mentioned utilizing recycling centers for helping collect resources for a project! Also I enjoyed how you mentioned that a wiki is a place that can be the central point for a project, a place that can be utilized and accessed by everyone in the group. This is extremely important to group projects and the wiki gives everyone the ability to make changes to the documents as they go along.
ReplyDeleteI like your summary! I agree with what you've said about assessments. Assessments are very important to project based learning and I agree that they should be done throughout the project. I like the idea of a wiki and using it with other collaborators and everyone having access to it.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that it's important to be prepared before your students come to class! Having everything mapped out makes for more learning time. I also like how you discussed getting materials from parents and recycling centers. It's inevitable that we as teachers will be paying out of pocket for a good amount of your classroom needs so every little bit helps! I like the idea about the project calender because the ultimate goal is getting your students to full independence and a guide will help them along the way!
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