Where My Brain Is At: Project Ideas

 Where I am starting: Things that went well in my class



  • Music
    • My students and I instantly connected through music (lofi versions of popular tv and movie themes) 
  • Want To Know Days
    • I had days where I answered all of the random science questions my students had. These days were full of joy and fun and usually spurred even more questions for the next want to know day. 
  • Showing students bits of my "real life" 
    • My students were always asking about what I do outside of school and wanting to follow me on social media (for obvious reasons I do not let them do this)  

I believe students learn when they have ... 

  •  Access
  • Autonomy 
  • Support 
  • Connections 

Major Influences on my ideas: 

  • Sugata Mitra
    • Self Organized Learning Environments
    • "It's not about making learning happen; it's about letting it" 
    • Start with a question, gather the resources, and let students do what they do best: learn.  
  • Rita Pierson 
    • Learning requires connections- "Kids don't learn from people don't like" 
    • +2 not -18: I am not all bad 
  • Danah Boyd 
    • Teens do not inherently know how to use the internet 
    • Teens need guidance on what is and is not harmful media and how to find reliable information 


Project Idea: Website 

  • Why 
    • One barrier I have found, is that students are given massive amounts of resources and information, but it is typically spread out and unorganized. A webpage can be a simple 'home base' for students to come back to. 
    • A website is dynamic and can contain multiple elements. 
  • General Idea Dump: 
    • Music page : links to my spotify playlists as connection point 
    • Pretend Instagram feed to serve as connection point for students and I 
    • Google Form where they can request additional resources for things they like
    • A tab for videos that cover what we talked about and other review materials 
    • A tab for extension activities based on Mitra's research for students who complete work at a faster pace. 

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