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Week One:
During our first week of work on our Library unit Debra and I worked well together as a team. We are both familiar with working together as we have worked together before for several years in the past. Debra and I were part of a team that spearheaded the organization of a group to pull together the Salem Keizer Library Media curriculum to match State Standards as well as add focus and unity to what was being taught through out the district in the K-5 library media program. I feel that Debra and I share an equal role in the work on the unit we are creating. I will say that I am always amazed at how strong Debra is in the command of the English language. I can suggest thoughts with a few words to convey our idea and Debra can pull it together in a neat succinct sentence that makes my suggestion sound so good. Debra is key to the speed of our document taking shape as she is much more comfortable in the typing than I am under pressure. Debra's typing skills have been key to us staying afloat with this project. It was helpful for us to have worked together and know our curriculum for both of us to bring to the table ideas that could quickly be implemented into the the unit. Some of our group strengths are that we know each other already, have worked together before, we have a positive outlook on most things, yet we can also both be lost at the same time and not feel intimidated. There are times we compliment each other when one gets it and the other one does not and we can easily except that about each other and not feel intimidated. Currently we are working on writing our lessons for the unit. We have split this up equally yet Debra will do the proof reading of my lessons as I tend to miss what I type as my mind works faster than my fingers. For me personally the successes are leaning to better use Google Doc though this is also a point of frustration as I would like to be able to organize the documents even better for finding things quickly in Google Docs. I think both Debra and I are feeling good about what we are seeing come together. Week Two: Now that I know how this works it will be easier to journal about progress and process. It seems like this week is off to being more productive of a week. Google Documents and working within the Mac computer is starting to become second nature. I am beginning to see how doing a journal in Google Documents could be useful to my students in my classroom! The Google custom search was a great feature of today's class and I wrote in the margin of my notes to teach others in my building how to use this feature. I think some might actually try this new tool if I get a chance to share it with staff in the fall. We have completed our "Unit Template" and we are now working to complete the unit lessons. We are both feeling good. "Ourstory" was the web tool to note for my classroom use. This site looks like a great site for us as we teach timelines in library media. Whether it is student created about themselves or created on a topic students researched what a great web tool. Learning more about creative commons and the list of placed to find photos was new to me and I will need to look more into this as time allows. Final: My title was project manager, but we were a team! I don't believe I would work any different next time unless I was working with a different group. That might cause me to work differently. I am happy with the final project. I walk away with a lot of new technology from this project as documented from the journaling above. (Google doc, website building in something other than Blogspot, and other web 2.0 tools). I plan to look at my current units and see how I can begin making simple adjustment to make them more PBL units with more technology and bringing in outside sources and going outside our walls with student experiences to take students beyond the classroom setting for their learning. |
Week One:
Diana and I have been working together for more than seven years. We fairly regularly touch base regarding our teaching and lessons. We formed our own PLC in which we began the process for the district of framing a scope and sequence for library media where there was none. We have a good working relationship and a mutual respect for one anothers' ideas. Diana's energy and determination are qualities that keep us going in a positive direction. We have separated the tasks for this activity equally and agree upon what will be done even before the formal written contract we have been asked to write. I look forward to this collaboration. The first week of class took an enormous amount of energy to stay on top of the direction in which the individuals in the class had to move. Without a broad overview of “Project Based Learning”, I was a lost. When I signed up for this class, I imagined I would be creating in a direction which I already teach, ie. I take library media standards and match them to grade level appropriate, potential projects. Once that decision has been made I begin collecting readily available materials to support the instruction. I attempt to match that instruction to the technology available. After support is established, I begin writing the units. I've worked in multiple districts, with a plethora of standards and curriculum scope and sequence, I’m better than average at weeding out and culling through the incessant fad instruction of the day. Day after day of attempting to understand “Project Based Learning”,however, eludes me. I am a positive person. I am a determined person. I will prevail in understanding this class. Okay, maybe not. Week Two: Thank goodness I'm with my colleague and friend Diana. Our partnership helps me stay grounded amidst a constant barrage expectations I'm really not grasping. What would I do without that? What would I do? I would work to the best of my abilities to understand, and I did. I do not believe I did understand though. I did produce attempts at unwrapping standards and BIG QUESTIONS. I did produce a unit and learned a multiplicity of Web 2.0 tools that were so cool. Some of those tools are time consuming. I attempted a website in Weebly and it gave me no end of trouble and Prezi's quirky little problems burned quite a bit of my time. I did participate, time and again, in team building activities that tried my patience and made me want to thank the universe that I could go home to my solidarity. Will this 1990’s cooperative/collaborative mandatory never end? I know Einstein did not create in a vacuum. He did not always give credit to those with whom he did create, but his IDEAS did not belong to a collaborative. His ideas went down in history as his own. Okay, besides that, I’m going to be bigger than this. I had problems with the constant interruptions while we worked. I was feeling as if direction was given and then it was interrupted randomly with a new direction or yet another team building activity, or wait, an introduction to a new 2.0 tool. Who can follow? I can not function it that type of learning environment. The interruptions continue. I can think at home, which is where I do my work. However, there I cannot ask questions. There I must rely upon my judgment and confidence in wrangling the learning. I will, I do. I'm not sure how this approach to teaching can in any way shape or form fit into my reality of instruction in a finite, limited, once a week session with a multiplicity of skills and standards that must be taught. Final Self Reflection: I played the part of Project Developer. Essentially Diana and I traded roles back and forth. At times she would take the lead and flesh out the activities or request more, then she would say she's had enough and I would step up. An example of this was when we discovered that we were supposed to be setting our project up in a website or blog. We had all the info on Google docs but we had no way to present on evaluation day. Though I knew it was going to take a lot of time, I just said we have to do this and took the task on. I'm happy with our final project. Community mindedness and hands on activities don't lend themselves to understanding the library. Why create a project to meet the class requirements that we'd never teach. It's pretty near impossible to take students on a field trip because we can't be gone that long from the building since we see so many classes each day. If I knew what I know now, I would have begun the website sooner. I ended up hating Weebly. It has some issues with formatting. I'd go back to Google sites. Diana and I worked to the best of our understanding and ability. I'm really celebrating all the new 2.0 learning I'll be taking back to the school year. I have some great ideas for Prezi and the new digital story telling tools I've learned to use will definitely add to my lessons. |