Project Status & Assessment Thoughts

From the beginning of this project, I've been wondering about how to assess the students.  During class on Tuesday, Titus had a great suggestion.  Since my the final artifact of the project will be a movie why not ask the students' their opinion.  Ask them what makes a good video and what they would look for in a good instructional video.  Since this is a gifted class, there is a good chance that they will probably have some really great ideas.

I think my project has some real challenges and since I'm not from a teaching background it could provide even more of a challenge for me personally.  The ironic thing is that yesterday I had a teacher at the middle school ask for help with a technology related project.  Her idea is pretty interesting, she has 14 eighth grade gifted students in her science class and she plans on taking them off the curriculum plan for the next 9 weeks.  Students will work in pairs and she is going to give them the standards and they will develop the lessons but they are going to make them into podcast that the students can use for review.  She wants me to show the first pair how to do a podcast then they will train the next pair of students.  She did something similar last year but didn't use the technology piece of it.  I think her idea is a perfect match for  LoTi Level 4 or higher activity.

More to come later....  

Go Dawgs!

LoTi, My Project, & Me

The blog for this week is going to focus on LoTi, My Project, & Me.  The LoTi standards are a bit confusing to me but as I begin to read more about them I get a better understanding.  I do find it difficult to reach the higher LoTi levels with students in early grades.  Its seems that the projects that are for middle grades and high school have a better chance of being a higher LoTi level.  It all boils down to the design of the lesson.  As with anything a good design goes a long way.

This week I plan to have a meeting with the teacher whom I'm working with about the project and what we need to do get this off the ground.  She has some ideas and I have some ideas so we just need to discuss our plans for this project.  Since I'm working with a teacher on this project, I'm having a 6200 flash backs and working with the client.

I think this is going to be the most challenging project I've worked on in my graduate studies. Primarily because this is going to be the one of the few times I work with students as opposed to teachers.  It should a FUN challenge.

Initial Project Idea

My initial idea for my EDIT 7500 involves a group of 4th and 5th grade students at Long Branch Elementary School.  I've already identified the teacher, Mrs. Bonnie, who teaches the resource and gifted classes.  I've spoken with about working with her class and she is very willing to assist. She suggested a topic, insects.  My initial thoughts involve working with students and doing something with insects and getting them to use Apple's iLife software, which includes iMovie, iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD, Garageband, and iWeb.  I'm thinking I will most likely get the students to do some internet research and make an iMovie and share with the rest of the school.

I'm open to suggestions and any recommendations from my blogging buddies.