PBL and 21st Century Fluency Project

Well I know it has been a while since I have posted, but I have been busy learning from the Buck Institute and Lee Crockett.  Both of these professional developments were fabulous and the information given is a framework within a framework.  I am going to share my ideas on how I will implement this training with my fellow teachers and instructional coaches.  First let's start with the Buck Institute Training which was given by Tim Kubik.  He did a fabulous job of giving us clear and process information with time to collaborate as a group to develop our project idea.  The project overview template which I have attached below gives you all the key questions and things you need to think about when developing your project.  Creating your project idea, driving question, and how you will create an environment for your students that involves them in using their 21st Century Skills.  Please take a look at the link below before you move on.

http://www.bie.org/images/uploads/useful_stuff/Project_Overview.pdf

http://www.bie.org/images/uploads/useful_stuff/Teach_Learning_Guide.pdf

http://www.bie.org/images/uploads/useful_stuff/Essential_Elements.pdf

http://www.bie.org/images/uploads/useful_stuff/Project_Design_Rubric1.pdf

These resources that BIE provides helps teachers collaborate, design, and implement their projects using 21st century skills.  Lee Crockett's professional development included talking about the five fluencies to create a global digital citizenship for our students.  The solution fluency given me a framework structure to train my students on developing their project idea.  The solution fluency includes the 6 D's:  define, discover, dream, design, deliver, and debrief.  You can find all information on the 21st Century Fluency Project at:

http://www.fluency21.com/fluencies.cfm

The Buck Institute gives us a lot of "how" to design the projects plus making sure the learning is relevant and beneficial for our students were they are still learning concepts needed.  The BIE website will also give you rubrics for collaboration and presentation, but how I see Lee Crocketts fluencies woven into project-based learning is teaching the students "HOW" to collaborate.  How do we teach our students to be creative?  "How" do we teach our students authenticity with information on the internet?  The 21st Century Fluencies gives teachers a framework to facilitate discussions with students in order to increase their collaboration, creativity, and innovation.  Increasing in these areas is the overall goal of project-based learning.  What do you think?  Please leave comments on my blog to discuss.

PBL Lesson Design

     As our school is embarking on this journey to integrate project-based learning I have pondered how our school will change our everyday business when designing projects.  Designing projects using the critical friends model that incorporates collaboration of colleagues will be an essential element to utilize.  I'm looking for my PLN network to critique this PBL lesson template to improve this planning tool I want to share with the teachers at my campus.  I'm also looking for suggestions about how you go about planning projects at your campus.  How is collaboration taken into account when planning projects?  How do your colleagues reflect on projects to see what worked well, etc.?  I look forward to all your comments on my blog!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15jbSouKTmedn0UiOLk-oM4A4z_5qvVYDdNtyu2WGawY/edit?hl=en_US#

Blooms Taxonomy & Technology

     As I am reading several other education experts information on twitter I came across several links that support project-based learning that integrate technology.  Take time to look at these links and explore how you can incorporate different google tools and web 2.0 tools into your projects in order to keep students engaged.  The use of these tools support teachers creating an environment were students use higher-order thinking skills as part of their everyday work.
     Another attachment I have included is knowing the difference between using google docs, wiki, or a blog.  Teachers can utilize any of these technology tools with students in the PBL classroom, but  knowing when to use which one is the key.  The attachment will give you more detailed information on when to use each one and learn the basics of all the tools as well.

How will you use one of these technology tools to engage students in the PBL classroom?

http://bit.ly/e90gKY

 http://bit.ly/prerQ7

Twitter Beginnings

Education Next online magazine had a great article today talking about twitter.  If you are trying to create an online professional network this article is for you.  It gives you the top 25 educator twitter accounts that you can follow.  I have only been doing twitter for two weeks, but I have learned so much from other people already.  The top twitters I get good information from are coolcatteacher and web20classroom.  Check them out and other top twitters in the article to get your online professional network going.

http://educationnext.org/all-a-twitter-about-education/

Project-Based Learning Livebinder

Me and my partner finished presenting at CAMT today.  It is amazing the ideas you can get when you give teachers the time to reflect on their learning and how they would use the activity you showed them.
I finally finished the livebinder that goes along with the Reinventing Project-Based Learning book.  This books gives such a wealth of resources I had to organize all of them into a livebinder to make sure I didn't forget about all these resources.  Please respond with your comments on the question below!

How could use this livebinder to help you when designing projects for your students? 

http://livebinders.com/edit?id=131097#

Web 2.0 Tools & CAMT

The utilization of web 2.0 tools with project-based learning is essential when developing projects.  My school campus has created a livebinder that has several web 2.0 tools that have been seperated by tabs.  Even if you are not a technology person in the classroom choose one tool and try to learn it then integrate the tool within your lesson design in the classroom.  You will never make the leap to a 21st century learner until you start picking away at the technology tools that are available free to you. 

http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=139182

Twitter Beginnings

I have finished the book on Reinventing Project-Based Learning and through the book journey I have incorporated several new things in order to connect with other educators using social media.  I have started this blog which I will be attaching good technology information that will be useful to educators.  I have also created a twitter account and set-up several educational groups to follow.  I'm working on gaining more followers, but this will come with time.  One of the first new things I learned about twitter is using hashtags to link to a network of people.  I will be attaching an excellent link that will help you to understand what a hashtag is and how to use it.  Below is a link that will help teachers maximize their professional learning on twitter.  This was taken from a teachers blog on the Educator's PLN network which I have become a member of as well as add to my educational network.  Let me know if you have any questions.

http://edupln.com/profiles/blogs/how-teachers-can-use-twitter

 http://cybraryman.com/howtochat.html

PBL Book

     I just finished chapter 8 in the Reinventing Project-Based Learning book and have updated my livebinder with all the book URL ideas that were given.  This will be a great resource for me and other teachers on my campus to use when trying to look at different components of the PBL journey.  With all these ideas I'm still thinking about that initial set-up that needs to be laid out before we start the planning phase of classroom projects.  I'm looking forward to the Buck Institute professional development that I will be attending at the end of the month.  I'm hoping the PD given will answer a lot of those unanswered questions I have.  If you have any ideas on the up front planning before you start the planning phase of projects please share!

Introductions

     Hi my name is Bobbie Carter and I am a campus instructional coach at Harrison Intermediate School in Wylie ISD.  My campus will be embarking on a new journey this school year by using the project-based learning philosophy.  I'm currently reading the book Reinventing Project-Based Learning that the Buck Institute supports along with this PBL journey.  I wanted to start this blog in order to document my journey and collaborate with my fellow educators on ideas you may have to help me along my journey.  As a campus instructional coach I work with all subject areas so all ideas are helpful.  I look forward to receiving comments and I am currently on chapter 7 in the book.  The first two chapters focused on creating collaboration in social networking such as a blog.  I have also created a PBL livebinder to help document and organize all the ideas plus URL sites that the book shares.  When the livebinder is complete I will post it as a link to my blog.  I look forward to any beginning advise you can give me.