Chapter 11

I have traveled a long distance on this journey. Because I have not yet taught in a classroom this book gives me great insights to creating and implementing projects into my classroom. I feel better about using projects in the classroom, and about creating projects for my students. I like how the book went about relaying the message of first you need to research and layout he projects you are thinking about. Then you need to create the project and bounce ideas off other teachers. Then you can bring the project into the classroom. Then as a teacher reflect on the project, and how your students handled the project. Then continue to improve the project and make it better. I believe that my students will benefit from what I have learned because I will create better projects for them. This will give them a better opportunity to further their learning.

Chapter 10

I am not yet teaching in the classroom, however, I would like to regularly make time for student reflection in the classroom. I think that the students can learn a lot from reflection, and it can give the teacher an idea of how their teaching methods are working or not working. I think that to make sure reflection is meaningful for my students would be to explain to them the purpose for reflection, and that all their experiences good or bad they can learn from. And reflection is a way to see what they have learned. I would like to use blogging in my classroom. I think another good way for reflection would be to have them create a Microsoft Word reflection document because some students might not want others reading what they reflect about.

Chapter 8 & 9

I believe that a good way to prepare the students is to have them discuss questions they would like to ask the expert before the meeting with the expert. After getting the questions from the students the teacher can then send the questions that might be asked to the expert. Also, talking to the expert about what you would like them to talk about would be helpful. It is hard to imagine how students would react to the kind of “buzz” the Flat Classroom Project created. I think that each student would react in a different way.
I have not taught in a classroom so I am not sure which role students fit in as consumers or producers. However, as a student myself I would say that I am a producer. For my classes I have had to produce many projects, papers, and presentation. I could also see that students could be more familiar with the role of the consumer because students spending more and more money, and not their own money but their parents money. I think that a good way to measure the distance of each student as a learner would be through a portfolio or e-portfolio. I think that creating a portfolio full of the students work over a year or a few years is a good way to measure and show the student what they have learned.

Chapters 6 & 7

I have not yet experienced developing rubrics with my students. I have just begun to develop rubrics for the lesson plans and projects I have been preparing for my classes I am attending. I have figured out that it is important to make rubrics very clear, and should say what the objectives of the project are. I hope to build my students foundation skills through classroom activities. I hope that the students will already have some skills needed to complete successful projects, however, I need to be prepared to teach them all skills needed.
“The art of teaching” to me means that there are many forms and methods to go about teaching. Every teacher will have their own “art of teaching”. I believe it is important as a teacher to be creative and to set high expectations for themselves as teachers. I have not yet taught in a classroom so I have not implemented strategies or tried out any to keep the classroom on course with many conversations happening at once. I do think that a good strategy would be for the teacher to walk around the classroom discussing with students their projects, and helping guide them with their conversations. I think that a away for students to share their challenges and/or setbacks would be to let them write reflections on their experiences. I believe that reflection is an important learning tool that can help the students and the teacher gain a better understand of the work accomplished.