Blog Reflection # 4

"What would be the impact on students if a project ended by just ceasing work without any of the suggestions in this chapter?"

    When a project just ends and sort of fades out; we feel incomplete. Students who often work in collaborative settings notice students tend to drop out, and that's why closure is such an important part of celebration. The impact on students if a project ended by just ceasing work without any celebration or reflection could be crucial. Celebration and Reflection are key ending a successful project. Although celebration is held at the end of the project, reflection should always be an ongoing process. Ending a project by just ceasing work will leave students confused, pondering, and stressed.

Blog Reflection # 3

What are the reasons for giving students choices in their learning?

We have the ability to choose what we want to do because as humans we have inherited the freedom to make these decisions. These decisions can be as simple as what color shirt am I going to wear today? Choice is important, so why would we not allow our students to choose a learning style that works best for them? It's silly to think that we can reach all of our students delivering the same method of instruction to all students. Differentiating instruction allows for teachers to adjust instructional approaches so that each individual and diverse learners needs are met. Choice is defined as a strategy for differentiating instruction to meet all learners. It's important to give students choices in their learning because choices can increase student engagement, research has proven the effectiveness of choice, and it provides students with the critical thinking skills needed in order to be successful in the future. 

Creating a "choice" environment for learning

Teachers should keep the Seven Spaces of Learning by Ewan McIntosh in mind when creating a choice environment for learners. 

Seven Spaces of Learning:

 

"Students should be given choices and the ability to question, build, invest, connect, have meaning, learn, and excel in ways that promote an environment where learning flourishes. It is possible to build on solid research-based best practices and to learn from classrooms and teachers already leading the way globally, to have a classroom utilizing these concepts and have student confidence and achievement rate." -Davis, Vickye and Lindsay, Julie

Lindsay, J., & Davis, V. A. (2013). Flattening classrooms, engaging minds: Move to global collaboration one step at a time . Boston: Pearson.

Blog Reflection #2

How to Collaborate effectively and be 'visible' online while contributing meaningful content in conjunction with others around the world?

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Collaborative learning begins with dependable contribution. In order to collaborate and communicate effectively with our peers we must be 'visible' online while communication and contributing meaningful content in conjunction with others.  There are 3 R's to take into consideration when dealing with collaboration and communication: receive, read, and respond.

STOP & THINK 

If you are wanting to connect and collaborate with someone across the globe, how do you plan to do so? You cannot share your thoughts and ideas without communicating! It's very evident that collaborate and communicate play a key role in each other. 

It's important that as educators we keep in touch on a weekly basis. It's a good idea to send out weekly activity reports to keep other teachers in your groups know that you are present, up to date, and checking e-mails daily. 

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Ways to stay 'visible' while contributing and collaborating online: 

• Wikispaces
• Ning
• Edmodo 
• Diigo
• Google Hangouts
• Skype

Creating a profile will be the first step in beginning a digital footprint in the online community. A good profile with appropriate information will lead to communication and outreach from other online collaborators. 
  
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Feedly

I absolutely love feedly! I cannot express to you enough how much I am diggin' feedly right now. Feedly is so useful in so many ways. It allows me to find and follow all my favorite blogs and websites, so that I can stay up to date when they post something new. Since I've created my account I've added over hundred educational blogs! I'm telling you...it's introduced me to a whole new world. I love it because I can also add some of my personal favorites like current events and photography. From adding feeds, I learned more about formal assessment tools, technology resources, and behavioral management strategies. I am  thankful fellow educators share their thoughts and ideas, so that we can continue to learn like our students.  I hope to hear back from some of the feeds I left comments on :)