Filming seemed to be quite difficult for me.  It was very unnatural and forced for both me and the students.  I was almost like a robot and my students were very mechanical in their responses as well. So, as for teaching styles and methods I did not learn much from the video.  However, I did learn a great deal about what was happening during non-instructional time.

During the portion of the class when they were creating their poster I was attentive to make sure I went to every table.  However, I became hyper-focused on that table and their needs.  In most cases I was unaware about what was going on in the other groups.  You can see in several cases where my back was turned to the entire class and sometimes I did not know what was happening behind me.  As I watched the video I could tell when a group would get too noisy and off track.  However, there were several instances where the students would hop in front of the camera to dab, make silly faces, or even dance.  But, if the camera was not there then would they have been silly?

I also learned exactly how fast I talk and how loud I really am.  The wife, students, friends, and teachers next to my room have been telling me for a while about those three factors. How loud I am I do not foresee as a problem but I do see a problem with how fast I talk.  For some students when I talk that fast the instructions could be unclear.

Jonathan Terry - Video Selfie Reflection

Filming and viewing myself teaching was an extremely terrifying, but rewarding experience.  I did find it difficult at first to not focus on those insignificant aspects of my teaching or my classroom.  Once I was able to look past those distractions I really did learn some valuable things about my teaching and my interactions with the students.

I finished my PBL activities two weeks ago, so I chose a separate inquiry-based assessment to film for my video selfie.  During my PBL, I felt like I did not do a great job explaining and prepping my students during the gallery walk protocol.  To replicate that, I filmed the part of my lesson where I had students turn and present their mini-research project to their student groups.  To encourage them to be active listeners when other students were presenting, I created a guided listening sheet where students had to fill in pertinent pieces of information from other presentations.

As I watched my video, the biggest thing that stood out to me was how students responded to my instructions for the presentations.  Most of the students were so focused on skimming through the sheet themselves, they missed a lot of the instructions I was giving.  This came to light when I told the students to get started and I was immediately bombarded with questions of "What are we doing?" and "Where am I supposed to write this?"  I started thinking back to the various learning styles in my classroom.  Not every student is an auditory learner so I can't expect everyone to respond to just auditory instructions.  Next time I will provide some visual on the Promethean board to help guide my instructions.

I also noticed in my video selfie that I float from group to group extremely fast.  I don't think I stayed at one group longer than 10-15 seconds.  The main reason I move so quickly is because I'm overly concerned that my 7th graders will quickly stray off-task or simply do anything other than complete the presentations.  Part of this reminds me of the student "buy-in" of a PBL.  If I can create enough engagement and interest in the activities they are completing then students will want to present and share their ideas.  It is also important that I stay at one group long enough to hear their ideas and coach them in the correct ways to present, if a problem should arise.

At the end of my video, I had students switch groups and present their mini-project to students who were not in their original group.  While students moved quickly to their new groups, it did feel a little chaotic as certain students were confused about where to go.  This confusion could lead to frustration with my students.  And frustration could be a mechanism for them to shut down or not put their best effort into the presentations.  I will be more mindful of how students will move to eliminate anything that could be a distraction during the process.

Jeneane Allgood---selfie reflection

The first things I thought when I saw myself on video were: 1) My voice sure does sound different on video than it does in my head.  2) I'm really that heavy?

But, then I realized that that was not what I was supposed to be focusing on.

In the video, I was giving instructions for how to do their mock presentations in small groups. I gave them 2 handouts and went over the handouts with them.  I thought my voice sounded clear and easy to understand as I gave directions.  I even tried to model what they were supposed to do using students that sat up toward the front of the classroom.

When I mentioned to students that there might be people coming to observe their presentations, I could tell that my students started to freak out a little bit. So, I pulled back a little and tried to remind them of what the overall goal of this presentation was (to be able to explain a complicated disease-mechanism pathway in a simplified way that a patient could understand), and they seemed to relax a little bit.  I noticed this in the video and was proud of the way that I handled their anxiety about that.

One thing that I noticed in the video that I didn't' notice as much in person was that they started to get a little antsy around the 5-minute mark of my explanation (which lasted 8 minutes total). Maybe I took too long to explain things, or maybe I was a little bit repetitive.  Since they were working in 5 separate classrooms, though, I didn't want to risk students not knowing what to do. Maybe I could shorten my explanation a little bit next time. I also felt like I could have done a better job making eye contact with my students, but admittedly, I was really nervous about being recorded.

I also received feedback (via e-mail) from Dawn Mitchell, who was there observing my introduction.  It was very beneficial for me to see someone else's perspective on my lesson and how students seemed to respond to it.

Because I was almost done with my PBL unit, I felt like the best lesson to record was this one of me introducing their mock presentations. However, if I could do it all over again, I might have liked recording a lesson where the students were more directly involved, instead of one that primarily involved me talking---maybe their 4-square protocol activity from a few weeks ago or their computer neurotoxin lab.

“What I Used To Think/But Now I Know” 

Ray Tedder

I have known for years that the way that we deliverers of education were teaching in ways that were not as effective as we would like it to be.  But it was the way that it has always been done.

Over the years, I have tried different delivery methods with varying degrees of success and with varying degrees of opposition.  After some very bad experiences, I was--and am still--apprehensive about this method. 

PBL has a lot of similarities to the methods that I have tried in the past: having students do guided research and independent research.  I took classes and went to seminars and made modifications in my methods.  Most of the modifications had to do with scaffolding for students.  I knew that it was a struggle for students but I also saw the benefits.  For a number of reasons that I do not feel comfortable in revealing publicly, I chose to back away from these methods.

PBL takes what I was trying to do another step--or maybe several--toward introducing more scaffolding.  This is good.  The benefits of students doing truly independent research is teaching--or allowing them to learn--what it is to be a scientist and that is what science teachers ought to be teaching.  If more scaffolding will get them there; fantastic.    

I used to think that something needed to change.  I used to think that my methods were the way to effect that change.  I now know that PBL has the potential to be an improvement over what I was trying to do.  

Final Assignment

“What I Used To Think/But Now I Know” 

Austin Baker

After participating in the Introduction to Project-Based Learning course, I realized that although many of the things I have been doing in my classroom are reminiscent of PBL, I still have a long way to go in creating a course that is truly rooted in PBL.  

I used to think that if the students were working independently to solve problems, then I was pretty much set on PBL. While that is a major component of PBL, what I have learned is that even though they do need to be doing this, it needs to be part of sustained inquiry. I guess I kind of had that going on, because the goal of the class is how to become a better photographer. After having learned more about PBL though, I have restructured and refocused my class to answer specific questions (that all tie-in together) that carry on throughout the duration of the course. I have tried to lay out the questions and assignments in such a way that the skills & concepts learned through the assignments all lead to a natural progression that answers the sustained questions laid out through the course. 

On top of that, I have tried to focus the assignments to have less of me disseminating information, and instead, creating lessons that are structured in such a way that I facilitate the students' learning by guiding them where I want them to go, but letting them discover the information on their own, mainly through research, trial and error, and practice. I realized that I spent too much time demoing and lecturing about the information I wanted them to get, instead of showing why the information was needed and then letting them learn the information on their own (after being guided to it).  

Another area that I changed dramatically after participating in the course is feedback. I realized after the class that too much of the feedback was from me to them; there was some between them but it was definitely focused on me critiquing them way more than them critiquing each other. I have since restructured my assignments to include weekly peer-to-peer feedback through various protocols such as critical friends and digital version of a graffiti wall (since the class is paperless). One of the points I'm going to hit hard earlier in the semester than I have in the past, is how to think and discuss their own as well as other's work with constructive criticism. In my own experiences, I have found that students feel critique is a negative thing, and I'm going to establish very early on that it is not negative but it is essential.  

A final thing I change in my curriculum is a larger focus on revision. Students have always been free to go back and revise their work before turning it in after having a constructive criticism session with me, but by including assignments that promote sustained inquiry and tie-in the various skills learned into a bigger picture, I am afforded an opportunity to incorporate a sustained project that spans the entire duration of the semester and allows for constant revision.  By shifting the focus of my website assignment from a "dessert" style project to a "main course" style PBL project, students not only are encouraged, but also directed to make revisions and updates to their project as their skill and understanding grows over the course of the semester. I believe most of them will learn the benefits of constantly critiquing and revising their own work after having done it on a long-term project that ties in all of the other learning they have been doing throughout the course of the semester.  

From here, I think the biggest challenge will not be the large amount of work I need to do in order to restructure the rest of my classes (three levels of photography and four of video), but will be incorporating PBL into my lone English class. Photo and video naturally lend themselves to PBL, and I know that PBL can be seamlessly integrated into the learning experience for those classes, as I've tried to have that mindset with those classes for seven years, but I realize now that I'm still stuck in the old, lecture-based mindset for my English class. I naturally started to break out of it a little bit last year by having students work through a couple of how-to texts about reading, analyzing, and discussing literature, but I'm going to have to work to find a way to make the work more meaning and relevant, other than just "this'll show you have to better appreciate literature in all its forms."  

Marie Darstein - Day 5

I had trouble including math in this text space and will save my file in it's learning (working portfolio) and on GoogleDrive

September Bennett-Cook - Final Reflection

Please click below or copy and paste the link to access my (very first) Prezi: PBL Final Reflection

http://prezi.com/bbmzg9_rylgk/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy