Wishing

Wishing:

How did the project go?

Well, I loved the journey but there were bumps, road blocks, and detours along the way. For example, When I interviewed my friend in Canada he did not have much details. The ones he had affirmed details I had found on sites etc.

Another frutration I experienced was my indecisiveness. I was like a kid at a candy store. Which site, which book…. I’ll take them all… but no I can’t. I believe that students of all ages would go through this stage. How can we as teachers help? Is it best to limit the number of sites etc. In the end, I reviewed LOTS.. and heck even enjoyed it. It became very much like a hobby with a deadline. Young Adults (like my daughter) are always struggling to stay with the deadline. I can emphasize much more now!

I believe one of the strongest stages for me was the Wondering Stage. Yes, I was frustrated but I truly enjoyed journaling and asking people their opinions on topic ideas. I selected something that I truly enjoyed and valued. Kids naturally gravitate to things they like. Being egosentric they tend to stay away (as much as possible) from things that are boring or non-relevant as they see it.

In the Weaving Stage, I truly began to gain momentum. I feel I have good organizational skills. I began to sort materials into files and collect images. One thing I could of improved on was to keep it all earlier on a flash drive. I tended to my searches at many different venues so that would of helped me to stay more organized and also not have to retrace my tracks.

One thing that was most useful was the creation of themes, lead questions and then using a chart to clearly see where I was going. I feel that students could easily do such a thing. I know that in language arts it is common to us webs to develop story lines. This would be a similar process.






I thoroughly enjoyed and saw the benefit of journaling through my blog, the process of inquiry. Once again this is quite easy for students to do. Journaling is something I constantly did as a teen. It was an easy transition. In classrooms, I do not feel that teacher realise the benefit. It is so often seen as filler and does not meet the standards. I really felt that it caused me to stretch in my thinking. The project became much more than a fact finding mission. This was a personal journey.