End of the Project

It is the end of the school year today. My students  almost completed the project works those were planned.Most of the works were well done, however some students had trouble with the time limit. Before the exam they reviewed the resources  which were collected on the wikispace and they shared their works with  other forth grade classes  at the school.The students from the other classes got inspired by the presentations.I asked them to give peer feedback via team up tool, but there was connection problem and we weren't able to record their feedback.
   My students really enjoyed working on this project.They've gained new skills using internet tools.They've gained self confidence and responsibility. While working in teams they have learned helping eachother. Sharing their works with other people gave them a sense of pride.And comparing with my other classes their grades are higher.

Our last plan and new groups

We started our new topics three weeks ago. We decided on the topics according to curriculum and the students were grouped via team up tool. They talked about what they had already known about the topics.For this we used 'lino' 

They all planned what they would do, and recorded flashnews about their plans.

Our last topics are the Toys and the Countries. My students have been highly engaged in these topics. They have been demonstrating their creativity with the help of technology resources. They created bingo games, some online games, quizzes. The students wrote short dialogues for writing activity and some of the students performed their dialogues as role play for speaking activity.

 Some of the students prepared PowerPoint and different presentations with the tools such as prezi. 

   While trying to find the resources online, most of the students are able to distinguish necessary resources from unnecessary resources about the topics. They can use online bookmarking tool Diigo but just for storing the resources not for additional information about online resources or for comments.

                                    http://www.diigo.com/user/class4c

The students are able to upload their works to wikispace
https://ahmetbarindirirprimaryschool.wikispaces.com/
and only a few of them can share their  works via facebook.

What happened during the implementation of the second plan

 After I had explained the topics to the groups, they all planned what each of them would do. They browsed the web to find the resources. A student from each group took the responsibility to record what they had planned to do.  A group created Bingo cards about food and drinks. And they played the game with their classmates.
An other group created animation,
http://domo.goanimate.com/go/movie/05yx5Kpombcg?utm_source=emailshare&uid=0qggGG49zHLs
 Then they wrote short dialogues about the food and drinks and presented role plays.
 

 Some students created quizzes and games and shared them. The others commented on them. They have started sharing their resources through the facebook.

 At the beginning of this Project my students hardly knew the web tools;  We haven’t got ICT lesson or teacher at the school. I have been introducing the tools as clearly as they can understand. They like team up tool, they have learned recording flash news but they only can record at school as they expressed me that they didn’t have microphone or camera at home. They can use diigo easily. I tried to show them how to use dropbox but it was confusing for them.But the web tools for creating games, puzzles and quizzes are highly welcomed.  Last week I introduced them Prezi, one of the students prepared a PowerPoint slide about their topic. We used that slide to create the prezi .
http://ahmetbarindirirprimaryschool.wikispaces.com/3-Wheather+and+Seasons+%28Ada%2C+Emir%2C+Elif%2C+Eyl%C3%BCl%2C+G%C3%B6ksuD%29%2C
I hope, some of them will be able to create new presentations via prezi.  

New plan and new groups

My reflections, End of the first plan

Our first plan was completed last week. Some of the students preferred handwriting and created worksheets to help their classmates get ready for their exam.

   The things went largely according to plan.  The students tried to handle everything well for the most part.However some of the students were unable to give feedback and do audio updates.
   Some of them have learned how to share their works via facebook. Hopefully, all the students will learn soon.

    I made a new plan for the next session. The students suggested topics about our new subjects and voted on them. TeamUp formed the teams. They were very excited. I thought it was great to see the students planning together what they would do.

My reflections 2

Reflections 2;

         The students went on gathering online data, creating their own quizzes, games and slides. They helped each other in browsing the internet and subsequently found some songs about their topics .They tried to teach the songs to their classmates and finally each group shared the slides, quizzes and games at the end of the course.

Testing the quizzes and games made by others and commenting on them took place after each session. Some of them were willing giving feedback via team up tool which were very constructive.

    The Students tried to record updates . But some of the students couldn’t post updates of their activities by themselves.

     They wrote the information; they collected and learned, on pieces of paper for identifying the relationships between findings. But at the end they preferred decorating them with pictures and drawings.

My reflections of first week

 The students were actively involved with the project.I grouped the students via team up, It was a very good way to group the students (avoiding best friend groups). The lower achieving students were  together with the higher achieving students in the same group. At first I didn't think the match up would work out. However, to my surprise, the lower achieving students were very eager to do the work.
      I had some problems with the introductions of the Web technologies (young learners). I guided them on how to  browse for online information, and how to gather data online,how to find links to make online quizzes, games, puzzles but it is still a problem that they can't browse by themselves. But they have learned how to make quizzes, games, and puzzles using the links those we stored in diigo library. My students are excited to use technology and learning .
     Using the iTEC collaboration environment is an other problem for my students. Most of them don't use facebook or twitter , and don't know how to join the groups. I've encouraged them and asked the parents to help them.Hopefully, they will learn.

    The students worked well with their partners and really enjoyed showing the rest of the class what they had done.