RR#1

Your reflection should include:

Discussion on what you need to keep in mind as you start the journey through Project-Based Learning (PBL).

What we need to do as teachers and the things we have to keep in mind for Project Based Learning is focusing how we will get children to interact as well as making it very beneficial to the students. PBL will be very rewarding as long as we make sure that we are looking this as a whole, there is students, the schools facility and also the schools district. We need to get parents and other collages interacting. We also need to keep in mind that this is a great opportunity for working together, this helps getting students acclimated to working with teams. We also need to understand how we can present this approach to our students without having it be overwhelming to the students. We need to keep in mind as teachers that this could be a hard transition for the students if the teachers aren't’t making their transition as easy as possible.

Discussion on the overall benefits of the PBL approach.

The overall approach of the PBL approach is that a group of people can communicate and work together to solve questions and by the end of it a project has evolved. This gives the students the opportunity to work as a group and give them the correct skills they need in order to collaborate in group projects. Another benefit to the PBL approach is that you learn more than using just a text-book. I think that there are so many benefits to using this approach and overall I think it is more beneficial to have it be part of the curriculum because it gives children more than what they would learn with the stereotypical textbook teaching. I really love the idea of working towards a project.  I really like that the students develop better communication skills and students learn how to be flexible with their time because they have certain deadlines.

Discussion on the benefits to students who participate in PBL.

The benefits that students who participate in PBL are huge. This doesn't just teach a child about a subject, but also provides a learning opportunity at the end. The benefits of the students are that they are able to collaborate as a group and also learn just apart from learning. The benefits for this is that we as teachers are utilizing technology in our classrooms, which is a newer resource. Also it ties into linking learning with futuristic models. It also allows teachers in to change the curricula based on basic hand writing to teach with a newer model.

Discussion on what issues need to be considered in PBL approach.

The issues that need to be considered is that how will you as an educator pick what you will choose about the assessments. Also will the children be working as a group evenly? What will the consequences be if the students don’t help and collaborate as a group together? We also need to think of the stet up and also how we will be introducing this to the students. How can we make them feel that this is not a huge transition and what can we do as educators to make sure students feel comfortable with this.

Discussion on New Technology High as an example of New Technology Model.

The New Technology High example is really cool because it seems as if you have more opportunity utilizing PBL projects in school versus book work. I thought this idea was very fascinating, I had never seen or heard of anything like this prior to reading. I would have loved to have the opportunity to practice this in my school.  This gives students a very good sense of partnership and also lets the students get accustomed and form valuable relationships with other students. This is a great opportunity because it lets the students utilize computers and that seems to be the rate at which things are changing closer too.  I also feel like taking the approach could be better than relying on the stereotypical textbook ciriculum.