I had a good understanding of both Problem and Project based learning, but it was interesting to explore more around Challenge Based Learning.  To me it seems even more relevant, generating questions that move students to a concrete and actionable challenge.  And learners document their experience as they move through gathering evidence and reflecting upon possible solves.  In Resilience it was a timely challenge for students with the New Zealand Natural Disaster, and their results were relevant and moving.  My struggle with a focus on CBL, similar to PBL, is how to lay out an effective project that has standards embedded, with measures to make sure students are learning those standards.  It is hard to begin with a challenge in mind, then craft questions to get there and then include standards. 
Daniel Pink's Motivation video was very enlighting to me, to flip things and see them in a different way, learn in a different way.  CBL is similar to this, but as I mentioned above, I struggle with planning how best to PLAN something like we saw in the Resilience film.  All the content we have reviewed in this class has provided so much background knowledge as to the WHY we need to make a shift in teaching, and that it is obvious we need to make learning more relevant to the world around us, and the world these students will live in, work in, and lead in.  The Flipped classroom idea is so enticing, especially after experience it myself as a student in this class.  I was at a IB school a few years ago, and learned so much about how to craft and plan in an inquiry based learning evironment, As long as there are planners where teachers lay out the intentions and guide the learning of the information, then I think it is a totally viable model, and one that needs to be implemented with more consistency in our classrooms.  To begin that process sometimes seems daunting.  There is so much passion behind PBL (both problem and project) and CBL, and the more we as educator can collaborate in the digtial age the better off we will be.  With PLCs and the trust we have built through those, teaching has become much more collaborative, and needs to be!  Nussbaum-Beach's work around The Connected Educator that I read last class really enforced the need for us to be more innovative in how we work with each other.  Someone out there is doing the same work as you, maybe  a classroom, a school, a district, or even a state away.  Breaking down some of those walls and sharing what we plan will be key to making PBL/CBL effective.
I am not currently in the classroom, but spending a lot of time working with teacher leaders.  We have worked hard to try and shift the traditional model of "Spray and Pray" and "Sit and Get", and provide less content and more process and application time.  So the idea of a flipped classroom is what we are trying to do with our Blended Learning Enviornment, Edivate in NVUSD.  We will have one of our sessions for Elementary ELA/ELD Leads within the Edivate courses, and much of the collaboration is starting to happen there.  This will be key to us truly operating as an effective District PLC, sharing ideas across classrooms and school sites.
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I have enjoyed this class a lot, as it really gave me a chance to bring it all together.  It provided the content needed for me to think differently about how I am teaching, and also provided a place for me to explore new aspects of technology within the classroom.  
In the beginning of this class I had a more narrow vision of Project Based Learning, one that began with BIE (Buck Institute of Education) and then New Tech Network.  Throughout this class, processing through the content, as well as collaborating with my cohort, my view has broadened.  The shift that is happening with PBL, CBL, etc...is so spot on for what we need in education.  Crafting the background with Linda Darling-Hammond's book, the Creativity and Brain-based research we looked at provided the support and examples that help me better understand the goal of this learning.  There is a fundamental change that needs to happen in teaching, and even though we are over 5 years in at NVUSD, we are still recognizing what that is and what we need to effectively implement it.  As teachers understanding the WHY behind things is key for us to truly be invested in a shift in our teaching.  This class provided that WHY, and with my work as a District Academic Specialist, I intend on sharing this WHY more throughout the work I am doing with Elementary ELA/ELD Leads.  It can't feel like one more thing, we have to highight the needs, and begin slowly with things we know will engage the students.  Just the shift away from teacher as distiller of knowledge, and to a facilitator of knowledge is a start.  Providing some questions for the students to grapple with, and then have them guide where they want to go with certain learning.
I look forward to delving deeper in 702 into better understanding how we can move our current model forward.

After viewing these very different videos, I feel I have learned so much more and seen so many different viewpoints.  Ken Robinson lays the groundwork with his video focused on "Creativity".  His believe that we "get educated out of creativity", and that "creativity is as important as literacy" goes counter-intuitive to what our current education system emphasizes.  That said, with CCSS we are shifting to a new way of teaching.  The teacher is the facilitator of knowledge, there is not always one right answer, and there are many different ways of solving a problem, understanding a piece of text.
The CAASPP highlights there is not always one right answer, and the importance of reasoning which is new and different, can be a form of creativity.  A student can get the answer to a math problem wrong, but if they can reason why they got the answer they did, then they can receive credit.  This to me is progression toward what Ken Robinson is saying.  
In Daniel Pink's The Science of Motivation video, he discusses that importance of intrinsic motivation and the idea of looking at things on the periphery.  The Carrot and stick doesn't work, and with globalization changing what is classified as a "white collar job" we have to teach our student's that there is not just one track.  When looking at the candle problem, being able to turn it on it's head and think about something that might not be right there in front of you is VERY powerful.  This lends itself to the inquiry based learning we are striving for as a district.  But, how can you craft this learning, make it powerful and hold student's accountable?  This is the balance I feel like I need to find.  There is something to Google's 20% time, where they give their engineers one day a week to work on something outside of their job description.  This is where Google Drive came from.  The idea that there are some "Must Dos", but then you are able to work on some "May Dos", and if structured correctly that is where the creativity comes in.  
To bring it home  John Seeley Brown talks about the Blended Epistemology: Homo sapiens (Man as knower) and Homo Faber (Man as maker).  He states meaning emerges as much from context as content.  Our context used to be relatively stable, and now it isn't with our new world of social media.  He uses Blogging as an example of how it can change the context.  We consume information in a new, different way.  Our students are being raised in a world where there is not just one word, message; they too can craft their own context, which can change the content.
It is not just Man as knower, and man as maker, Brown introduces that idea of Homo Ludens (Man as player).  Currently, I am working on developing a Maker Space for my child's elementary school.  There is such power in this maker's movement.  This drives home the idea that Brown is highlight a new type of "deep tinkering" that plays with change.  Knowing, Making, playing cultivates imagination.  This theory puts into context for me the importance of this "play" aspect.  Again, this lends itself to the inquiry based.  We are all looking at the content, but how can we shift the context and allow student's the imaginative opportunity to "play" and come up with a potentially different outcome.  The Entrepreneur spirit is a Must have vs. a nice to have to be successful in our new, changing world.  Cultivating that is key!
Lastly, there are Mobley's 6 insights.  How can that help my student's think creatively?  It really summarizes all the content we looked at in this class.  Touching back to Robinson's sentiments, Mobley states that creativity is "unlearning rather than a learning process".  This also touches back to Pink's thoughts on seeing the periphery vs. what is right in front of you.  You can't learn it, you have to BECOME it.  He also states the importance of failing-you have to be wrong to understand what went wrong and how to come about it in a different way.
In my current position I do a lot of work with teacher's professional learning.  One of the big ways we have shifted how we are thinking is less sit and get, spray and pray, and more processing and application time.  As teacher's we need to plan out the journey for student's to be creative.  This needs to be done explicitly.  Project learning can go wrong when there isn't a plan.  Need to knows NEED to be revisited, they need to be crafted with focus, and student's need tight learning objectives.  They need to know the confines so that they can then be creative in how they learn.  There needs to be that balance.

​I spent that last several days going through all the Content in our iCare document, and for the first time I am finally feeling like I have a better grasp on the goal of 21st Century Learning.  It is summarized in the quote above...it is not ONE more thing, but the PROCESS of learning.  These 4Cs, plus culture and citizenship, which make 6Cs in our district, should resonate throughout our teaching.  The biggest ah-ha moment for me was when I was facilitating our NVUSD Grading Summit for Kindergarten last week.  As a group of teachers we were working to define what Collaboration and Critical Thinking looks like for a grade-level student.  In our discussions, many were going back to instruction and what we needed to do to change instruction to address these.  But it is not simply "covering" these in our content, but allowing students to "uncover" thinking for themselves.  It is the shift we have all discussed about the teacher no longer delivering content, but facilitating it.  This is a major shift, not one done in a year or two.  How can we begin to recognize the 6Cs as skills that transcend content.  They live and breath, and change form depending on the CONTENT piece.

Then we think about Technology.  How can I integrate technology into an elementary level classroom?  It isn’t about me learning how to better use technology or even teaching with technology tools, it is about students creating and constructing with technology.  That is where TPACK resonated so much with me.  We can't just layer it on, we have to think thoughtfully about how technology relates to content and pedagogy.  How can we APPLY technology to teaching of a subject matter, vs. just using technology?

In looking at SAMR, this really made sense to me.  When thinking about integrating technology it begins at the surface level, but how can you take the application to a deeper level where it allows for a redesign of the task.  The TPACK framework brings to light that when designing a lesson with technology you need to think about technology interwoven within the content and pedagogy.  The content being the WHAT, the Pedagogy being HOW we teach, and the technology being part of the DELIVERY.

When looking for case studies, I was focused on finding lessons that showed the modification and redefinition level.  Where a teacher was using technology to either redesign or create a new task.  
I reviewed several examples of 21st century learning in Elementary classrooms.  The one I chose to focus on for my case study did a good job of representing what I discussed above.  I believe it represents how subject matter can be changed by the application of technology.

Case Study: 5th Grade Classroom, a Science and Technology Teacher
Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a90EvWfoLU
What is the Nature of the Case: A 5th grade Science teacher and an Elementary Technology teacher come together to show what Education Technology should look like.  
Share some descriptive Details: These two teachers (one Science, and one technology) came together to create a lesson that begins with Science content that is relevant to their daily lives.

• Students began with Research around the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (What is it, what harm it does, and then relate it back to their counties recent ban on plastic bags)
• They used this information to produce slides and then a commercial in movie maker.  
• They shared their videos to convince other municipalities to pass a similar ban on plastic bags.  

What new and useful information did you learn?
I chose this lesson because this very well could be an activity that lives in a larger Project.  The use of technology in this lesson REDEFINED it, making it a new task that would never have been without technology.
Could you potentially use this lesson?
I think the components and structure of this lesson could be used in a lot ways.  Research provided background knowledge for students, and there was strong student engagement as there was a current, relevant connection to their community's ban on plastic bags.  The teacher modeled what expectations were by showing previous samples of a similar product (gathered in an Edmodo folder for teacher planning).
Rate of Film Experience: Clear, concise and useful: 4

In reviewing the content for this week's class it was striking to me how passionate each of the speakers were about the importance of our Education system.  The theme throughout was the sheer amount of choice and information that lives in our world.  To quote Ken Robinson, "Students lay their dreams at our feet..." and we must carefully handle those.  That along with Adora Svitak's thinking that "Kids don't think of limitations", leads us to how vitally important our job is to protect those dreams and passions and help guide them into something that will ignite and energize their learning.

One of the biggest challenges that I think about daily is how to achieve that balance.  The balance between igniting the passion for those students, and ensuring that they learn the vital skills they need to pursue those passions.  Being a primary grade teacher I am foremost thinking about the foundational reading skills and math skills these students need to succeed in future grades.  How do we teach those explicit skills and still let students explore what their passions might be?  

We are a Project Based Learning District and we have recently focused on Inquiry. Getting students to inquire and the basic theory of Constructivism.  Student's construct their own understanding of knowledge.  We give them some content and they construct their own learning in the way that suits them best.  I love everything about this, but struggle with how to balance giving students this experience along with the basics they need to participate in this experience.  In order to construct their own knowledge, they need to know how to have a collaborative conversation, read a partner's writing, and respond to an opinion piece.  

When I think about elements to prepare student's for the future; which is full of unknown, rigorous jobs that will require them to process through reams of information, I want to retreat to the basics. Teach them how to think critically, speak and listen to each other (work collaboratively), how to process through a dense piece of text, and how to write effectively.  These are the places I want to start, and having them do this with rich pieces of literature, information text, poetry and pieces of art. This feels right to me, but I want to be more mindful of those passions and make sure to help build those instead of squelch them.