I had a hard time fully deciding on a project. Towards the end of this week I realized I just needed to make a decision, so I have and so far this has been the hardest part. I learned this week about Driving Questions and how they are like a thesis for the entire project. They need to be open-ended to avoid simple answers, but be something that the student wants to learn about and something that piques their interests. I worked to be open ended, but direct so as not to make a driving question that is too vague and misleads the students. Through each of the examples and videos that we read through and watched this week and last week, I noticed the amount of planning time that it takes to create an effective project and the amount of collaboration time are vital.
In the past I have tried to collaborate with the science department when they did science fair projects. I thought it would be a great way to incorporate their experiments with math. The science teacher said no and that he would just do it in his class and the department head said he doesn’t like to collaborate because the other departments do it wrong (like English does not write reports correctly and math does not present the information correctly or accurately enough). This is all to say that I think a PBL project would be a great way to work with other departments and has encouraged me to try again at implementing a project, in conjunction with other teachers, that can cover multiple disciplines.
To get back to the questions for this reflection, currently I am not using many tools to create my project, but I think I will implement some technology tools such as Excel, Word, and maybe a 2-D drawing program if I can find a free user-friendly one online. Students can create an advertisement and/or flyer using Word, Publisher, or even PowerPoint. This allows for choice on their part and a way to show their skills in a way that is comfortable to them.
Brian Smith: EdTech Portfolio 