Reflection #10

It is very important to set aside time for reflection either during or after your project. It is a good idea to give the students time to reflect on their accomplishments that they achieved during the project. School can be fast paced with all the objectives that need to be met within a short period of time. It will be good as teachers too to reflect on the outcome and process of the project for any future changes that may need to be made. I know as a college student in one of my classes our teachers asks us to write a letter reflecting on what we learned in the chapter. She asks us to reflect on how we have grown as writers and readers during the section. She asks us to think if there was an "a-ha" moment when something clicked. I love doing this type of reflection because I can see if I made any progress and I know that my feedback will be beneficial to the teacher.
Students need to reflect and elaborate. While they are being asked to reflect have students elaborate as to what they are wondering about next or what do they want to learn. Their responses will lead teachers to even better projects which can be developed by the students. This will guarantee that the students will be interested in the topic because they are the ones picking and developing the project.
Some schools have a specific reputation or traditions that create their identity. Project based learning is a great way for your classroom to build its reputation which can hopefully make its way into more classrooms. Younger students will be excited to be emerged into project based learning as they see the success in their peers. Community members will also notice the accomplishments of the students and may offer support which can better your project.
It is also very important to celebrate a project. Displaying student work is a great way to show among their peers and school. Holding a party or celebration where the parents and people in the community can come in and see what the students have done is a great idea. Having the students be able to show off their hard work to other people will be very rewarding to them. Another good way to show students work is to have a "Year in Review" event. Compiling all of the students work is a great way to show how much they have learned and accomplished as students. Pictures, blogs, sketches, drawings, are all great things to include to remind them what they did.
I really like the "Year in Review" event idea. With our project I think it would be a good idea to even do it at the end of the unit just because we have two major sub units, nutrition and physical activity. This can show where the students started and how much they have learned. Having the students reflect on what they learned will be a great way to understand what knowledge they gained from the unit as well.