Journal+Reflection+5

Week 6

I have been thinking a lot about project learning this week. Project learning is really enjoyable for a teacher and student. This year and last year i have tried to find new ways for students to demonstrate and even create their learning in new ways. I think that allowing students to create things that demonstrate their learning appropriately is much more useful to their educational growth than a 100% traditional approach. At the same time, it is imperative that teachers develop students knowledge traditionally or otherwise prior to the project. For example, my students just simply cannot be let loose on a project to explore their learning. The exploratory learning works for students who are self-motivated and have a strong value of education. My students need a strong traditional base before they tackle a project. Once that base has been established the sky is the limit, but it is important to remember that the base must be built.

This year i have tried to incorporate technology into the projects i offer. For example, I have utilized digital cameras to create photo projects, video cameras for video projects, mock elections, politician creation, political party building, declarations of independence, webquests, movie making projects, wordle as a supplement to their projects, technology to create placards for interest groups, citizenship skits, citizenship projects, and more. I think these projects are very useful in getting students to use the concepts they are learning about and put them into practice. For example, our photo project demonstrating democratic principles was an excellent chance for students to think through the democratic concepts and find them in real life. Their photographic demonstrations of the theoretical democratic constructs was amazing.

Students deserve the ability to be creative and think through the concepts they are going through in traditional class. While I do have reservations (as mentioned in previous blogs) about going gung-ho into a classroom that is 100% 21st Century skills, I do believe that all century's skill sets included critical thinking and creativity as a base. No matter what your classroom is doing if thinking, creativity, and individual worth are valued your classroom will be better.

There is one interesting hurdle for some teachers when it comes to project-based learning. Iif a teacher decides to let students create their own project and interpretations then the teacher must be flexible enough to embrace that the students viewpoint, thoughts, or interpreations may differ from the teachers. For example, during our mock election one student wanted to create an initiative that would allow for the legalization of marijuana. This argument was well articulated and embedded with processes that would allow for the gov't (our fictional gov't in the mock election) to tax the sale, it limited where it could be sold, regulated how it could be produced, and more. While I would not have come up with this initiative, if I truly want the students to feel comfortable and creative within the project learning model I must allow for their minds to craft the learning in their own image. The teacher cannot get upset and shut down student interpretations. A teacher should guide, assist, suggest, and help craft ideas into finished products. However, a teacher cannot restrict the learning to only those interpretations of the world that the teacher finds as "right".