4th Grade Wordles

Click on the picture above and then click on Slideshow to see 14 Wordles created from project scripts.

Independent Project Reflections

Wow! 4^th and 5^th graders are finally presenting information learned during their independent project. The project lasted months due to winter break and snow days. I am happy to report students stayed focused and engaged in learning for the following reasons:

· Independent projects respect the uniqueness of the learner.

· Enjoyment is part of the learning process.

Here are a few examples of comments by students:

• I chose the topic “Poetry” for my project because it’s one of my favorite hobbies and a form of self-expression where you can put all you ideas and words on that paper. Out of all the things I’ve done during my project I enjoyed learning how to use all the cool technology like Garage Band, Wordle and blogging.

• I picked therapy dogs as a topic because I love dogs and I like to learn about them. I also picked therapy dogs because they help people and I like helping people. I really enjoyed this topic.

I will say, learning to use web 2.0 tools like Wordle, Glogster, Prezi, and Kidblog is exciting when you have something exciting to communicate using the web 2.0 tool!!

I just noticed I wrote the same ideas about interest-based learning in an earlier post. I must really believe what I say or I must forget what I say! Ha!