My thoughts about the Innovator project:

As I went through the process of choosing my project, I realized I wanted and needed a project that represented multifaceted learning for students (and myself). I wanted it to be a project that students would create. I also wanted a project that did not use technology just for the sake of technology, rather a project which utilized technology as a means for facilitating or showcasing learning.

The Bird Guide does represent multifaceted learning. In the process of creating our Bird Guide, we have studied science as we learned about our birds, their diet and adaptations, their habitat; we have learned about map-making as we created migration maps; we have used language arts first to read about our birds, and then to write in the best way possible what we have learned; we have used math to measure bird length and wingspan; and we have finally used technology to present our learning and share it with others.

The Bird Guide is student-created. It has been a project that they have been excited to work on, and yet one that has created a need for them to learn more. It has been a project that second graders could accomplish, and yet one in which they also learned a lot as they worked on it.

Finally, in the Bird Guide, technology was indeed used as a means of communicating their learning with others. It was a project that set before them a real purpose for their work, that of sharing with and teaching others what they had learned about their bird.

The resulting project combines all three elements, and we are delighted to be able to share the results!