Class Sessions 1 & 2

My UTeach PBI class met on Monday and Tuesday, so I wanted to keep everyone updated with daily posts about what was discussed and assigned. Please feel free to comment if you want more information about this class. It is being taught for the first time at the University of Texas at Brownsville. It's probably the first time the class is being taught during a Wintermester period.

We used Google Hangouts to meet on a face to face format. Some of the work is being done independently and in groups by students over the Christmas/New Year Holidays. This non-traditional time period will require sacrifices by the students and the instructor. The course is being offered during the Wintermester because three students would be ready to do their student teaching (Apprentice Teaching) during Spring 2014 to which this course is a pre-requisite. Furthermore, it was designed to be taught in this manner because the instructor may need to be admitted in to the hospital for hip surgery any time between the beginning of the course and January 13, 2014.

The general format of the course is separated by the New Year. Discussions of the theoretical and instructional aspects of project-based instruction, the selection of a project topic for middle school math/science students, preparation for UTeach student observations, and the creation of lessons and assessments prior to the end of the year. Upon return from the holiday break, the UTeach students will develop and present their anchor videos; develop concept maps, lesson plans, and assessment rubrics; conduct field experiences, collect and prepare final field experience, and finalize readings, and analyze final project evaluations.

Unfortunately, Internet issues caused for some of this information to not be discussed on the first day; however, students were assigned to begin the research for a project (problem) that they would want to undertake with their students. They developed a paper on Google Docs from a Google search of those problems that could possibly be used. They were to also create and share their document with the instructor. Finally, they were to create a folder on Docs (Drive) to place their work and share with the instructor.

The second day we had a difficult time talking about formulating a problem since the students did not have experience creating and saving Google Docs into Google Drive. The instructor shared his screen to help students see how to create and save documents and to create their personal folder. Students indicated to the instructor that they understood these steps.

Students were given three assignments on the second day:
 (1) Prepare a short oral and written report about an assigned educational theorist/philosopher for class tomorrow.
(2) Read, Summarize, and Question (RSQ) what is thought about PBI by experts by visiting the Eduphoria website. What is the big idea each is expressing?
(3) Keep track of the time spent out of class preparing, researching, and discussing assignments.

In passing, we mentioned that their Project Topic would be Due next Tuesday.

Theorist/Philosopher Assignments:

• Jean Piaget - Amber
• John Dewey - Karla
• Lev Vygotsky - Jessica

To view the lesson for each day copy and paste the URL to your browser. Anyone with the link should be able to access the video.

Session 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKNrhBHlRD8&feature=share or click HERE.
Session 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uimTRcC1SA4&feature=share or click HERE.