Daily Goals - April 6, 2011

My goals for today are to get as much of the sculpture done today as possible.

Daily Goals - March 30, 2011

Today I am going to be working on my other PBL project that needs to be finished. I plan on getting the effects of the chemicals all written in the Prezi. I also want to work on my paper today and see if I can find any materials for the sculpture.

I am very excited for this new project! I think it is going to be very fun not having to do a lot of research about  our topic and just use our creativity. I am very happy so far with the project!

Water for Elephans - Chapters 17-25 (Personal Connection)

Water for Elephants is a historical fiction novel, so there are many connections to the world. The author, Sara Gruen, did a lot of extensive research on traveling circuses during the 1920s and 30s. Many events that happened in the book were actual events that occurred in American circuses.
Jacob and Marlena, the main characters in Water for Elephants, both deeply cared for the animals in the circus and would do almost anything to keep them safe. I feel like I made a personal connection to Jacob and Marlena, because I would have made some of the same decisions concerning the animals in the circus. Animals in circuses were repeatedly mistreated and abused by their trainers and being an animal lover I could not believe some of the things the trainers did to their animals.
Water for Elephants is a beautifully written book that pays tribute to a very extraordinary topic, American traveling circuses.

Reflections - March 28, 2011

For the last project of the year Joanna and I are going to be constructing a sculpture of Salvador Dali's elephant out of recycled materials. Since almost everybody agreed to do the last project on, creativity our essential question is "What is Creativity?" During the day Joanna and I brainstormed ideas on what our sculpture will be and once we decided in the elephant we started to think about what recycled products will be used in the sculpture. On Wednesday Joanna and I will start to gather the different materials that will be used and start to assemble them to make the sculpture.

Project Ideas - March 28, 2011

Some project ideas that I am interested in are:
dreams
recycled scupture
destroy objects using a blender

Water for Elephants - Chapters 9-16 (Summary Response)

Setting:
Water for Elephants has two main settings. One is set in present day in a nursing home. The other is set during the Great Depression on the Benzini Brothers traveling circus, either in the circus tents or on the train.

Main Characters:

• Jacob Jankowski: He is the main protagonist. Jacob is a "ninety or ninety-three" year old man who lives in a nursing home. During the book he reminisces about his life during the Great Depression as a veterinarian on the Benzini Brothers traveling circus.

• Marlena: Marlena is the star of the equestrian act in the circus. She is married to August, but is Jacob's main love interest.

• August: He is Marlena's husband and head animal trainer for the circus. He is a very charming man, but he has a very wide mean streak. Later in the book it is discovered that he is Paranoid Schizophrenic.

• Uncle Al: He is cruel, brutal and the violent owner of the Benzini Brothers traveling circus.

• Walter/Kinko: He is Jacob's roommate on the train. Only Walter's closest friends call him Walter, everybody else must call him Kinko.When Jacob and Walter first met they had a rough start, but eventually they become very close friends. Walter is a performer in the circus with his Jack Russell Terrier Queenie.

• Rosie: She is the elephant that brings together Jacob and Marlena. When Uncle Al buys her she is supposed to be the savior of the show, but is thought to be useless and stupid until Jacob discovers that she only understands Polish.

• Camel: He is one of the first people that Jacob met when he hopped the circus train. He plays a major role in getting Jacob a job on the circus. Towards the end of the book Camel gets sick with "Jake Leg" after drinking poisoned Jamaican Ginger. So Camel is not thrown off the train Jacob and Walter hide him in their cabin and take care of him since he is paralyzed from the Jamaican Ginger.

• Rosemary: She is Jacob's nurse at the nursing home. She is very sweet to Jacob and he becomes very fond of her.

Conflict and Conflict Resolution:
The main conflict in Water for Elephants is that Jacob has fallen in love with Marlena who is married to August. Marlena has also fallen in love with Jacob. The situation becomes very dangerous since August is schizophrenic.
The conflict is resolved when Rosie, who has been the subject of August's violent beatings, gets her revenge on August by killing him. Since August no longer posts a threat to Jacob and Marlena they happily run away from the Benzini Brothers Circus with their beloved animals in tow.

Daily Goals Reflection - March 16, 2011

Work Habit Rating:

Blog:
I feel like I am between meets expectations and exceeds expectations for the blog section because I do my daily goals every PBL day and explain how I plan to meet my goals, but I do not think I go above and beyond what is asked for the end of the day blog entry.

Check-ins:
I feel like I exceed expectations on check-ins. I send my work to Amy and Randy before the check-ins and I feel like I am prepared for the check-ins that I have had so far.

Pace:
I feel like I exceed expectations with my pace because I have turned my work in on time and I have not needed any reminders for this project so far.


I have met my goals for today, but I am going to keep working on my project at home so I do not get behind pace. My next steps are to continue working on putting my information into the Prezi. I still have to put in the effects of each chemical, what companies do to cover up certain chemicals and what are some safe non-toxic products to use. After all of the information that I can gather from the internet is put into the Prezi I will email the FDA and Ava Anderson on what their opinions are. The information that the FDA and Ava Anderson will give me will be put into the Prezi and then I will send my project to my experts.

Daily Goals - March 16, 2011

My goal for today is to complete about half of my Prezi. I plan to do this by working through each section of my outline individually so I can focus on one thing at a time.

Daily Goals Reflection - March 14, 2011

I finished all of my goals for today. Since I finished my goals I do not need to do any work at home. My next steps are to keep putting more information in my Prezi.

Water for Elephants - Chapters 1-8 (Introduction Response)

I am reading Water for elephants by Sara Gruen for this literary analysis. The genre of Water for Elephants is a historical romance novel. The book is set at the beginning of the great depression on the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth's circus train. Water for Elephants follows the story of Jacob Jankowski, presently a ninety something year old man, who in his twenties found himself on a circus train as their vet. While on the circus train Jacob meets Marlena, the star of the equestrian act who is married to the charming but cruel circus boss, August. The theme of this book is independence and self worth.

Daily Goals - March 14, 2011

My goals for today are to plan what is going to be included in my project. I also want to complete my outline and if I still have time start putting information into the Prezi.

My plan for getting work done is to take things one step at a time and focus on what task is in front of my now so I do not get overwhelmed.

Daily Goals - March 8, 2011

My goals for today are to revise my paper, finish taking the OHpedia lessons, and finish the project planning form.

Daily Goals Reflection - March 7, 2011

Today I picked what my project topic and it is how everyday products effect human health. I am really excited to start the new project and I am glad that it is going to be designed solely with my interests. I did not all of my goals today, but I did decide on a topic to do my new project on and I started the project planning form. I worked on my paper and the OHpedia lessons but I did not finish them. I tried to work very hard to get what I needed done today because I am very far behind, but I think I am getting back on pace.

Daily Goals - March 7, 2011

Today my goals are to finish writing my paper, finish taking the OHpedia lessons, figure out what my new project topic is, and start working on project planning form.


Ideas for Project:
History of fashion
Everyday products and health

OHpedia Reflection

OHpedia was a very interesting experience that many ups and downs. OHpedia was not my most favorite project that we have done, but it was the most effective in completing the rest of our benchmarks which I feel is very important. The OHpedia experience as a whole was very stressful. I always tend to sent my expectations very high and I normally reach them, but for this project I feel like it was not my best work and I am not very proud of it. I had to sent my expectations lower so I could actually motivate myself to do more. I was satisfied most with the different tools that I learned how to use and how professional they made my project look. OHpedia made very persistent as the weeks progressed. The project was taking a very long time and so I decided to things in my own hands and push through and finish the project. This project really did not match my learning style that much other than the use of new tools. I really like learning how to make my project even better than it already is with the use of technology. The thing that I will remember the most about OHpedia is that I had to be very persistent to finish this project.

Reflections - March 2, 2011

Today I worked on the end-of-standard exam and helped other people work out some kinks in the quizzes. I also put directions on the lesson page on how to complete the lessons.

Cheaha State Park Governments

Androcracy-
When we tried this form of government not much happened. The guys did not take control very well and it was very un-organized.

Pros:

• The guys wanted to do exactly what the girls wanted

Cons:

• The rulers were not in control
• Nothing got done

Dictatorship-
Joanna did a very good job as a dictator, but she did not really dictate people we just all sort of followed her around.

Pros:

• We had a lot of fun
• Joanna was a good dictator

Cons:

• We had to go a different way than what I wanted

Democracy-
I think the democracy went the best out of the three different types of governments. I think that it went the best because we had such a small group and almost everyone wanted to do the same things.

Pros:

• Everything went smoothly
• Decisions were made quickly

Cons:

• Some people did not get their way

My Family Government

My family government is probably a Constitutional Monarchy. This is because my dad is like "King" and my mom is like the "Prime Minister" and my brother and I are like the "Parliament".

Daily Goals - February 18, 2011

Today my goals are to finish the OHpedia page. This includes finishing the benchmarks, grammar and punctual editing, quizzes and tests, and publishing the website with the link to OHpedia page.

Daily Goals - February 16, 2011

My goals for today are to make more quizzes and tests for the OHpedia using ClassMarker.com, start correcting grammatical and punctual errors in the OHpedia, and if Taylor finishes the benchmarks today send the OHpedia to our experts.

Daily Goals Reflection -February 14, 2011

Today I made two quizzes for the OHpedia page and I finished the website that will link students to the OHpedia lesson page. I don't think Taylor got the benchmarks finished today so we could not send the OHpedia to our experts. Even though we did not get to send the OHpedia to experts I thought today was a very successful day!
Happy Valentines Day!

Daily Goals - February 14, 2011

My goals for today are to make the quizzes and tests for OHpedia information, make a page that links students to go to the OHpedia page to read the lessons, and if the benchmarks get finished today send the OHpedia page to experts.

Daily Goals Reflection - February 11, 2011

Today I finished goals and completed the lesson plan for benchmarks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11! I am hoping to be able to send our OHpedia page to experts on Monday, but it all depends on when Taylor finishes the last benchmarks.

I feel like the project work is going okay so far. I would have liked to have not have been so stressed out about PBL but I do feel like I am learning a lot through the PBL process.
I am working really hard to make this project as good as I can so when people read mine and Taylor's lesson they will have a better understanding of the events during the Roaring Twenties and Great Depression.

Daily Goals - February 11, 2011

Today I hope to complete the lesson plan for 3 benchmarks and if Taylor finishes his benchmarks send the OHpedia to our experts.

Daily Goals Reflection - February 9, 2011

I achieved my goals today because I was really determined to get my OHpedia work done today so I can move forward in the lesson plan. As a group I do not think we are on pace but as an individual I think that I am almost on pace. I think we really need to push to finish by the end of this week so we can start of the lesson plan and get feedback from our experts. On Friday I plan to keep working on the lesson plan until Taylor finishes his benchmarks.

Daily Goals - February 9, 2011

Today my goals are to finish benchmark 9 and help Taylor get the OHpedia finished.

Daily Goals - February 7, 2011

My goals for today are to finish benchmark 9 and start working on the lesson plan.

Daily Goals Reflections - January 24, 2011

I did not accomplish all of my goals today. My goal was to finish the research for benchmarks 3 and 5. I finished benchmark 3 and about half of benchmark 5. I am going to finish the rest of 5 at home this afternoon.

I do not think that I got benchmark 5 done because I was distracted after music.

I still feel like I need help getting my partner not so distracted by the internet and more interested in doing the work that needs to be done.

Daily Goals - January 24, 2011

My goal for today is to complete the research for benchmarks 3 and 5.

Daily Goals Check out - January 21, 2011

My goal for today was to complete benchmark 1 and Taylor to complete benchmark 2.
I completed the written portion of benchmark 1 and also added a table of the unemployment rate today. Taylor completed part of the written portion and added two pictures to his entry also.

I feel like this process is going to take longer then expected. Taylor and I are in the research process. We are putting the information that I collected together so we can put it into the OHpedia. If we go at the rate that we are right now we will finish the research in about 2 weeks. We are really going to have to step on it to get the project done by our deadline.

Daily Goals - January 21, 2011

Today Taylor and I plan to finish the research for benchmarks 1 and 2.

Daily Goals Check Out - January 19, 2011

I did not achieve my goals for today. I am still working on the project planning form. The 3 sources for each benchmark is killing me!!!!! All I have done today is find sources. I felt like I was very focused today even though I did not complete my goals. The only thing that went well today was that I am almost done with the project planning form. I do not think I need to change anything next time I work on PBL I just need to get this project planning form done! On Friday I need help with starting to put all of the information that I have collected into some kind of format. I would probably rate myself a 9 as group member today.

Daily Goals - January 19, 2011

My goal for today are to finish the project planning form.

Daily Goals Check Out - January 17, 2011

I did not met all of my goals today. I finished the first draft of my Project Planning Form but did not finish my paper. After I sent my Project Planning form to Mrs. Amy I met with her and Taylor about it. She gave us some things to correct on the form and after the meeting I went to work on that. This prevented me from working on my paper.

The project planning form took a lot longer than expected and consumed my whole day. This project plan is a lot more extensive than it normally is and when I started it I did not plan accordingly. Since I did not finish everything that I needed to do today I cannot work on FLVS this afternoon which is really going to impact my schedule. I am going to finish my paper and project planning form when I get home.

I felt like I was very focused today, but the day went by really fast. The only reason I did not get all  my work of my work done today was because the project planning form is taking a very long time. I think that my work habits were good today. I did not talk much today and I stayed at school for half of kickball to finish my work. Today was good but I am kind of mad that I will not have time to finish algebra this afternoon.

Daily Goals - January 17, 2011

My goals for today are to finish my project planning form with Taylor and get it approved by Randy and Mrs. Amy. I also plan on finishing my Civil War paper and submit that Mrs. Amy.

Work Habits - Week of January 10-14, 2011

I feel that last week was a very good week. I feel like I got a lot of work done. I tried to be as focused as possible. I knew that if I got off task I would have to make up for it after school which is my FLVS time. I could not afford to cut into my FLVS time because I am still pretty far behind. The only day where I felt that I was not 100% focused was Friday. I think that I was not as focused because it was a Friday and there was a lot going on last weekend. The only thing that I did not get done last week was my project planning form. I had a hard time finding experts, but Randy helped me see that I was looking for experts very close minded way and gave some good ideas in who I was looking for.
I hope to be just as focused this week as I was last week and get as much done as possible.

Standard 5

Analyze the effects of the changing social, political, and economic conditions of the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression.

• The Roaring Twenties happened in the 1920's.
• During the Great Depression the economic situation became extremely bad and many people lost their homes, jobs and their normally way of life was completely changed.
• Food was rationed during the Great Depression.
• The Great Depression happened between WWI and WWII.

Reflections - January 1/12/11

Today high school and middle school worked on the OHpedia rubric Google doc on what we think a good online lesson should include. Then Taylor and I wrote a blog on the OHpedia rubric Google doc with themes and coding. Then we worked on the OHpedia rubric spreadsheet. Taylor and I brain stormed on what we though "met expectations" on the written portion of our OHpedia rubric. Amy then asked us to define metacognition and answer what does it mean to be metacognitive. After music Taylor and I worked on the project planning form.
We had music today and we worked on how to come in and perform.
It still feels weird to not do FLVS everyday and i kind of feel like I do not get anything done on PBL days but when I write out what I did, it actually looks like I did accomplish a lot of things. I think this new schedule will take some time to get used to but I think once I get passed this FLVS bump I will really like it!
On Friday I am going to finish my project planning form and meet with Randy or Amy about what our next steps will be. 

Metacognition

Definition:
metacognition- thinking about one's own metal processes; awareness and understanding one's thinking and cognitive process; thinking about thinking

What does it mean to be metacongnitive?
Metacognitive learners take time to think about their thinking; they also view themselves as continual learners and thinkers. These people actively seek to expand their repertoire of strategies for learning and ask for guidance from peers or the teacher.

From reading about metacognition I believe that one of the goals at OH is to be a metacognitive learner.

OHpedia Rubric Creation

This blog post contains the themes and codes to the OHpedia rubric. Mrs. Amy had middle and high school write down what a good online lesson would include. We wrote down anything that we though would make our lessons great. After we finished writing Taylor and I wrote down the themes that occurred the most. We then "coded" (from the OHpedia rubric Google doc) each student's opinion about what would make a good lesson.


Videos:

• I think what makes a great online lesson is when they are entertaining with videos
• Videos on how to actually do the problems right. (Geometry)
• lesson page should include videos
• A good online lesson also has videos
• Interactive videos
• Videos
• Videos

Pictures:

• Pictures to help you understand 
• interesting when there are pictures
• Having things like pictures make it interesting 
• I would like to see more pictures
• pictures
• Pictures
• lesson page should include pictures
• A good online lesson also has many pictures 

What You are Going to Learn:

• tells about what is going to happen in the lesson 
• what the lesson is going to be about
• "what you will learn"

Practice Page:

• Things to practice on before you do the test/assignment
• There is a practice tab to help review
• A practice page
• a practice section
• I would like to see that every few lessons there is an online presentation for a review

Music:

• I would like to see music
•  Music "Bar"
• It would be cool if there was music involved in our lessons. That would definitely keep me interested

Introductory Page:

• There is normally an introduction page, and that tells about what is going to happen in the lesson
• Introduction page telling you what the lesson is going to be about
• introductory page
• I think what makes a good online lesson is an introduction that captures our attention

Games:

• Interactive games
• Interesting lesson activities (like a game after the lesson or something.)
• Games

Bright Colors:

• A lot of colors not just one singular color
• Bright Colors
• I would like to see more graphics and colors

Links to Modern World:

• stuff to link it to the modern day world
• I think that it would be really cool if they didn't just teach it...like teach it through something that puts it into our everyday world
• external links

Short Lesson Page:

• Not to long of a lesson 
• Lessons that are the right length not to long because they get boring
• I lose interest in pages of text very quickly

Civil War Project Reflection

The Civil War is such a large topic, that it was hard to make a condensed project about it. I remember at the beginning of this project my group's main concern was Abraham Lincoln's view on slavery, but soon the focus turned to the causes, course, consequences, reconstruction and the effects on the American people. After the prezi was complete my group went through many ways to present the project. The best part about this project was filming the commercial for the project about the Civil War Superhero.

When we made our essential question it was all about the Abraham Lincoln. After my group and I started the outline of the project we realized that we had to incorporate the other aspects of the Civil War to fully meet the standard that we were working on. At this time we realized that our project was going to be much more extensive than it originally was. Most of the time that we put into the prezi was about the causes, course, consequences, reconstruction and the effects on the American people. We conducted a lot of research about Abraham Lincoln's opinion about slavery but the content about it in the prezi was very little compared to the other information. There was so much information in this project that to present everything would have taken about 20 to 25 minutes.

After talking with Randy and Amy about how to present the project we knew that we did not want to just stand in front of the school bore them with tons of information about the Civil War. So Alex, Leah and I decided we would make a video using Jing and Camtasia. After recording ourselves and making the the video we decided that the video was too long, so we had to come up with another idea. Alex, Leah and I started to plan again on how we are going to present when we came up with the idea to do a commercial for our project. The commercial was what we used to present our project.

The commercial was so much fun! My group and I came up with the idea of a desstressed kid who is saved by the Civil War Superhero. The commercial was to get people to go watch our video on the Civil War. This was a much more effective way to present our project without actually presenting our entire project.

This project was very interesting and I feel like I will never been done with learning about the Civil War. But the most significant things that I remembered about this project were that the projects focus changed over time, how many times my group and I changed how to present our project, and the commercial. I feel like I have learned so much more about the Civil War then just what would be in a text book. Each of the things that I remembered about the project are because of the unique way that I learned about the Civil War.