ImagineIT Phase 6 - Implementation Report
Where do I begin? I began laying the groundwork for our Patterns Project a few weeks after school began. Because I had learned so much from the QuickFires and WOW’s I implemented both into my class instruction time. Both were embraced and loved by my students and we do two to three WOW’s every Friday morning. As a class we talked about the Patterns Project and students were overwhelmingly excited to get started. We started our project in late October initially discussing what we knew about patterns, where might we study patterns and where might we encounter patterns in our daily lives. The project was off to a great start.
Over the past six weeks our project has taken us from sequencing and patterns in numbers to visual pattern interpretation. We seemed to be moving along quite nicely until the past two weeks. This time of year brings many different types of learning experiences and these experiences have cut into our Pattern Projects time. Initially, I started to feel overwhelmed wondering how do we make up for lost time how should the project change if we do not get everything accomplished. Then I sat at my desk after, after-school last week and a weird calm came over me about all of this. This is a new, different, exciting, useful, fun, learning experience that goes beyond our daily class schedule. As a class we are going to get out of this experience what we put into it. Although there are going to be times between now and the end where we have days that need to be rescheduled we will get it done because everyone is vested in the project. The students get excited when we work in the project and they have great ideas about how to get things done. I believe I will just pattern on.
Where do I begin? I began laying the groundwork for our Patterns Project a few weeks after school began. Because I had learned so much from the QuickFires and WOW’s I implemented both into my class instruction time. Both were embraced and loved by my students and we do two to three WOW’s every Friday morning. As a class we talked about the Patterns Project and students were overwhelmingly excited to get started. We started our project in late October initially discussing what we knew about patterns, where might we study patterns and where might we encounter patterns in our daily lives. The project was off to a great start.
Over the past six weeks our project has taken us from sequencing and patterns in numbers to visual pattern interpretation. We seemed to be moving along quite nicely until the past two weeks. This time of year brings many different types of learning experiences and these experiences have cut into our Pattern Projects time. Initially, I started to feel overwhelmed wondering how do we make up for lost time how should the project change if we do not get everything accomplished. Then I sat at my desk after, after-school last week and a weird calm came over me about all of this. This is a new, different, exciting, useful, fun, learning experience that goes beyond our daily class schedule. As a class we are going to get out of this experience what we put into it. Although there are going to be times between now and the end where we have days that need to be rescheduled we will get it done because everyone is vested in the project. The students get excited when we work in the project and they have great ideas about how to get things done. I believe I will just pattern on.
ImagineIT Phase 6 Final Report
To begin the final ImagineIT report I want to revisit the ultimate goal of the Patterns Project. The goal of this project is two fold: when the school year has ended and the websites are published these students will leave elementary school with a greater knowledge of technology and an appreciation for how science, mathematics, writing, technology, and aesthetics all mesh to create a much larger picture of learning. Throughout the project I will be looking for student transitioning. The transition I am looking for is where students become comfortable without a set of directions or a template from which to follow. Students will design their own website in the way they see is the best design. The intent of the project is to allow students to begin to tackle tasks and/or problems from a thinking, doing, trying, and re-trying approach. Rather than having a specific template to follow or exemplars to model from, students will have a rubric that details what must be included in their end product. How they get to the end product is their design and decision.
What did I learn from my dilemmas and the dilemma reading? Ultimately I am learning to let go. Let go of the prescribed methods of operating and gently challenge or change the ways of operating. This idea works for both how to change and handle classroom day to day as well as being aware of the underlying cause for why a student may be reluctant or unwilling to engage in the classroom culture. Today's student faces dilemmas of their own that may keep them from challenging status quo when it is most appropriate to challenge. Many students are comfortable with what they know and what is safe. To help students recognize when and how to challenge is a delicate balance. From a round about academic approach I want the Patterns Project to start to help them challenge through thinking on their own by taking the requirements of the project and developing their website on their own. Autonomy that is safe.
Our multimodal composition focus group has proven to be an eye opener. To realize the plethora of technology available for classroom use is wonderment to me as well as mind boggling. There are so many websites and applications it requires one to seriously analyze which is the best and most useful for the application.
My colleagues have helped me fully recognize there is more than one way to skin a cat. (Actually, I am a cat person and would never skin one but you know what I mean.) Sometimes I am too hard on myself and tend to look at things as set in stone when really more than we recognize is very flexible and adaptable to change. Looking at it from a technological frame, everything is always changing, things are fluid. I see this more clearly and realize how fluidity can be very freeing.
Looking at my initial plan and what has transpired over the past 5 months the Patterns Project continues to have the same ultimate outcome with a lot less stress. Initially, I believed the lessons had to be skillfully designed and produce a desired outcome. Recently it has been proven that although good design and a meaningful lesson are necessary, if the lesson takes an alternate route or the outcome isn’t exactly what it was intended to be this is all good. This is a learning project for the students and for me. We can discuss and collaborate and in the end we have learned more than we previously knew and we can now add this to our repertoire of what we understand and know about patterns.
Looking forward I believe guided discovery is how we will get to the original desired outcome of the project. Discussing, researching, and tinkering with patterns in the world around us will give the students a guide. Allowing them to find their own way to the final product (Patterns Website) will be the discovery.
To begin the final ImagineIT report I want to revisit the ultimate goal of the Patterns Project. The goal of this project is two fold: when the school year has ended and the websites are published these students will leave elementary school with a greater knowledge of technology and an appreciation for how science, mathematics, writing, technology, and aesthetics all mesh to create a much larger picture of learning. Throughout the project I will be looking for student transitioning. The transition I am looking for is where students become comfortable without a set of directions or a template from which to follow. Students will design their own website in the way they see is the best design. The intent of the project is to allow students to begin to tackle tasks and/or problems from a thinking, doing, trying, and re-trying approach. Rather than having a specific template to follow or exemplars to model from, students will have a rubric that details what must be included in their end product. How they get to the end product is their design and decision.
What did I learn from my dilemmas and the dilemma reading? Ultimately I am learning to let go. Let go of the prescribed methods of operating and gently challenge or change the ways of operating. This idea works for both how to change and handle classroom day to day as well as being aware of the underlying cause for why a student may be reluctant or unwilling to engage in the classroom culture. Today's student faces dilemmas of their own that may keep them from challenging status quo when it is most appropriate to challenge. Many students are comfortable with what they know and what is safe. To help students recognize when and how to challenge is a delicate balance. From a round about academic approach I want the Patterns Project to start to help them challenge through thinking on their own by taking the requirements of the project and developing their website on their own. Autonomy that is safe.
Our multimodal composition focus group has proven to be an eye opener. To realize the plethora of technology available for classroom use is wonderment to me as well as mind boggling. There are so many websites and applications it requires one to seriously analyze which is the best and most useful for the application.
My colleagues have helped me fully recognize there is more than one way to skin a cat. (Actually, I am a cat person and would never skin one but you know what I mean.) Sometimes I am too hard on myself and tend to look at things as set in stone when really more than we recognize is very flexible and adaptable to change. Looking at it from a technological frame, everything is always changing, things are fluid. I see this more clearly and realize how fluidity can be very freeing.
Looking at my initial plan and what has transpired over the past 5 months the Patterns Project continues to have the same ultimate outcome with a lot less stress. Initially, I believed the lessons had to be skillfully designed and produce a desired outcome. Recently it has been proven that although good design and a meaningful lesson are necessary, if the lesson takes an alternate route or the outcome isn’t exactly what it was intended to be this is all good. This is a learning project for the students and for me. We can discuss and collaborate and in the end we have learned more than we previously knew and we can now add this to our repertoire of what we understand and know about patterns.
Looking forward I believe guided discovery is how we will get to the original desired outcome of the project. Discussing, researching, and tinkering with patterns in the world around us will give the students a guide. Allowing them to find their own way to the final product (Patterns Website) will be the discovery.