Final Posting

I cannot believe this class is coming to an end!  I have learned so much this semester on ways to integrate technology into the classroom effectively.  I really enjoyed completing each of the projects we completed. Our PBL proposal my group completed turned out to be really good.  We all collaborated and put our ideas together, which was actually a little hard since we all come from different backgrounds of teaching and teach different age students.  My favorite part about all of our projects was getting to see everyone's projects when we were finished.  I loved seeing the ideas that others had especially because there were other 4th grade teachers in the class.  This has been another great learning experience for me and I cannot wait to continue to learn more in my last three semesters at West Georgia.

PBL insight

So, I have recently been working on a group PBL project using Google Docs.  The project itself is very good I think.  In fact, my school just recently did something similar on the November 2nd teacher workday.  We had different staff members teach the rest of the staff different technology sessions.  Teachers were able to sign up for the sessions they wanted to attend. 
The PBL my group created deals with Comic Life and Voice Thread.  I found collaborating on a project using Google Docs to be very effective.  It is very hard to collaborate when you are not all face-to-face, and not everyone knows what is going on.  Google Docs helped to make the collaboration part a little easier since we could not be face-to-face to complete the project.  I wish there had been more editing by my classmates because to me that is one of the purposes of Google Docs...to be able to edit each other's work. 
I have learned more about how hard it is to complete group projects.  Being the type of person that likes to get my work done, I sometimes find it hard to work in groups.  Fortunately for this project we all got our work done in the timeframe we set for ourselves and I wasn't the person that had to wait on everyone to complete their work either.  We still have time to get everything put together to submit. 
I think PBL projects are very useful in the classroom and the more I learn about PBL, the more I want to use it in my own classroom.  I do some PBL lessons, but I need to incorporate more PBL lessons with technology in my classroom. 
Overall, I really enjoyed working on this project and think that PBL is a very effective tool to use in the classroom.  PBL needs to be shared with other teachers so that learning can be engaging for our students.

Movie Maker

Well, I have just completed my final individual project for this class. We created a Digital Storytelling movie using some kind of Character Trait.

I took a different approach than many of my classmates with this project. I chose to concentrate on multiple character traits. There are many times I feel that our students do not understand these traits and what it means to actually demonstrate these. My students really loved learning about the Native Americans, so I chose to do my project on how the Native Americans used these traits. I also provided a writing assignment at the end of my movie to be used more as a reflection piece. Native Americans really respected our land and used only what they needed. I think this is important for kids to learn today.

I am going to attach a link to my Wiki page that has a link to my description, assessment, storyboard, and movie.

Wikipage

Movie

Google Docs

Google Docs is such an effective tool for collaboration on projects. I have started to use it for my group PBL project we are doing for my grad school class, and I really love how we are all able to use the Google Docs to communicate about our project. It is much easier than sending everyone an email, especially because sometimes the emails don't get sent to everyone, or I sometimes forget to reply to all in the email. Gogle docs is also fairly easy to use. I like how you don't have to worry about saving your work because it automatically saves for you. I have not used Google Docs much before, so this will be a new experience for me. So far, I like Google Docs and how it allows for collaboration with group members. This is a great tool for students to use as well when working on projects. I am looking forward to learning more about Google Docs as we continue working on our group PBL project.

Creating PBL Activities

For my last discussion on PBL in my graduate class, we had to create PBL lessons. One lesson had to integrate Math, Social Studies, and Art. The other had to integrate Science, English, and Music. I think through creating these lessons and reading my classmates comments on creating PBL, many found that PBL is much easier to use with integration in the elementary level classes. Collaboration is much easier when the teacher teaches the majority of the subjects being taught. In Middle and High School, many of the subjects are departmentalized, which involves a lot more collaboration when planning an integrated PBL. Time seemed to be another issue. I often say to myself...If only there was more time in the day! Think of how many projects and fun engaging activities we could do in the classroom if we had more time or if standardized testing wasn't so pressured. I feel that PBL is a great way for students to learn, but it also hard for many teachers to see past the "fun activities" that engage students to see that they really are learning the same if not more than if they were doing a worksheet or work from the textbook. PBL definitely makes students take more ownership and makes them much more involved in their learning, as well as excited to learn new concepts. I really enjoyed viewing my classmates' activities that they created for the PBL discussion and would love to hear any other ideas or PBL activities anyone out there has tried in their own classroom! It always helps to hear what works for others!

Voice Thread

I have provided a link to my Voice Thread Project. It is also embedded in the post that shows up right after this one.

Voice Thread is a great program to use in the classroom! I completed my Voice Thread project by having my students record cinquain poems they wrote and posting them in the Voice Thread. My students left comments on each others' poems.

I have learned many great things about Voice Thread. It is a great tool to have students comment on each other's work. It is also a great way for me to post a lesson or project the students are going to be working on and having the comments available for them to ask questions while completing the project or on the lesson.

While completing my Voice Thread, I learned how important it is to not procrastinate. I didn't wait until the last minute, but I do wish I had done a few of the steps prior to the day I set aside to work on my Voice Thread. I chose a Friday because I only have half of my students due to Target. I thought this would be a lot more manageable than having all 25 students. Unfortunately that day our internet was working very slow at school. This caused uploading the poems to take a lot longer than I expected. I ended up spending the entire school day working on this project. I wish it had not taken this long, but was glad I was able to complete the project. My students really enjoyed leaving comments on each other's poems. I also learned that it good to be specific on what your expectations are for the students. I was not very specific on how I wanted them to comment on the poems. Every student left positive comments, but some of the comments just said things like, "I like your poem about cats because I have a cat at home." I would have liked for my students to be more specific about the parts of the poem.

I also wish I had more time to complete the project. I think it would have been very effective if parents were able to comment on the Voice Thread. I am actually going to add the link to my school blog, which will allow parents to view the Voice Thread and leave a comment if they wish.

If you have any suggestions after viewing my Voice Thread, or even without viewing my Voice Thread, of some other ways that Voice Thread can be incorporated into the classroom, please leave me a comment. I would also love for you to leave any feedback on ways I can improve my Voice Thread.

Cinquain Poems by students in Mrs. Turco's 4th Grade Class