Week 3 Reflection

What I am enjoying most about this class is the fact that everything we are using and learning is going to be easily applied in my own classroom. I was worried entering the EDTECH program that I would find us studying lots of concepts and theory without any practical application. This class has done just that in providing practical application. Another aspect that I am greatly appreciating is how nicely this is coinciding with our district wide English department approach to Common Core. California is just now entering the full transition into Common Core and with that we have had a series of trainings. In these trainings we have been developing units and at the end of every unit we are coming up with summative assessments called "Engaging Learning Experiences." In many ways I see these as synonymous to PBLs, but it is out districts' twist on it. Thus, the abundance of PBL resources we have been exposed to in this class have been extremely thought-provoking. I find myself now constantly thinking how I can teach standards, novels, and big ideas in alignment with the unit PBL topic that allows students to creatively demonstrate their understanding.

This is greatly beneficial as our approach to teaching is now going to require that students engage in levels 3 and 4 on the depth of knowledge chart, and not remain at level 1 where they are simply held accountable for memorization of material. More specifically, with my project, I am looking forward to seeing it fully developed. I believe this project will create student "buy-in" for learning, which is something I wrote about in my week 1 log. The series of assignments I will be creating leading up to the final presentation of this project all allow for student freedom and creativity. There isn't a set right or wrong way to complete these assignments. Rather students will have the flexibility to innovate and create. To do these things students will have to apply critical thinking skills, which is my main objective in my classroom.

I also like the fact that my project will teach students life skills in regards to communication, collaboration, logical reasoning, and making educated judgments. No matter the professional field students chose to enter one day, all of these skills will be required. Lastly, I have very much enjoyed learning more about how to facilitate Google sites and other technological resources. While I have been acquainted with these tools I am not extremely well versed. There are a lot of small things that I have always wondered"How do I do that?" This class is forcing me to answer those questions that I have put off for so long. This is huge because I intend to take these tools and teach my students how to effectively use them in class. I already have students maintain a digital learning log, but next year I intend to have them use Google presentation, blogger, Google+, and even some of the mind-mapping tools we were referred to this week. I know that once literate in how to use these devices students will find themselves engaged and excited about whatever project we are working on in class.