BC+Outside+the+box+Project

For this project I focused on student expression and home/school communication. I focused on both of these areas because I feel they are equally important and I couldn’t choose just one. I created a class wiki page which the students will collaborate and work on projects, then add them to this class wiki. This will be an opportunity for the students to share their work with their parents and other classmates without having to get in front of the class to do so. Here is the link to the classroom Wiki. Wikipage  In addition to the Wiki I also created a class [|Glog]  using Glogster that will enable home/school communication for both parent and student. This page contains information about the teacher, school schedules, daily homework, newsletters and both a parent and a student page. The parent’s page contains many resources for parents in helping their children excel and succeed in school.

The student page contains link to a Delicious page I created. This [|Delicious Page]  contains educational websites and games to reinforce the skills the students are learning in the classroom. In addition I have placed a [|Blog]  using blogspot on the student’s page. Like the Wiki the blog will allow for collaborative learning. Lastly, I have added a Unit page entitled  "Incredible Me." This page contains all the information the students need to know about the unit and what they will be doing that week. There are examples and links to the tools they will be using to create their projects. For their projects they will be making wordles, chatting on their classroom blog, as well as writing a short essay about "Incredible Me" using [|Type with me].

In all the brainbased research I read keeping students engaged and interested seemed to be the one thing that stuck out in my mind as important, along with providing the tools students need to help reduce stress. One article stressed the point that if student's are less stressed and less overwhelmed they learn better. In the article The Neuroscience of Joyful Education they stated that "Superior learning takes place when classroom experiences are enjoyable and relevant to student's lives, interests, and experiences." I chose the tools I did because I felt they were a good representation of this quote. They will allow for enjoyable experiences and are definately relevant to our students lives seeing as we live in the digital age!