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TEL 311 Signature Assignment

Classroom Project Proposal

Kedale Jevon Smith

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Abstract

The classroom project proposal will cover a project-based learning event that will be facilitated

by Kedale Smith, an educator from Kyrene Middle School who teaches 7th and 8th grade Social

Studies. The applicant and school environment background will be given, the statistics and

demographics of Chandler will be given. Next, a summary of the project and project impact will

be given, this will highlight the general day-to-day activities as well as the predicted impact the

project will have on the teacher, students and community. Following that will be the project

narrative where detail will be given on the specifics of the project; content standards, daily

objectives as well as assessments will be presented. Finally, the budget table and narrative will

be outlined, the total cost of the trip will be estimated and where the funds will be received from,

i.e. Donorschoose.org. This PBL event will be focused on the essential question “How do we

preserve our culture and history?” and will aim at bringing the community together for this

project so that it will be sustained in the future.

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Classroom Project Proposal

Applicant and School Environment Narrative

I am Kedale Smith, a teacher at Kyrene Middle School, a branch of the Kyrene School

District located in Chandler, Arizona. As a graduate from Arizona State University with a

certification in History and English, I have found myself regularly taking on different classes

within those subject areas. I do all I can to be where my district needs me, and that work has a

resounding impact on my day-to-day self-esteem. Knowing that I am needed and that I have a

positive influence on my students, fellow faculty members and community pushes me forward as

I continue teach and inspire every day.

I began teaching at Kyrene Middle School immediately after graduating from ASU due to

the great first impression I had when I was placed there for my internship during my completion

of the iTeachAZ program. My philosophy of education begins with my role as a facilitator, my

initial goal is to establish an environment that promotes and nurtures the growth of knowledge

and exploration. The students are there as citizens who are in-charge of their learning, they take

the information and resources provided for them and use it to propel themselves toward the short

and life-term goals they have set for themselves.

The student population is made up of a wide range of children that come from many

different walks of life. I have witnessed and resolved situations brought up by students who are

perceived as “problem children” and often wondered about the quiet ones. The general

population of the classes is so widely varied that it has been hard to establish a common

personality that can used to relate to every student, each student has different needs and as such

requires a different method of approach. Chandler’s population boasts a massive 162,023 total
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people, of that population 80% are white, 4.6% black, 2.6% American Indian, and 6.9% are

Asian (Proximity, 2015). Chandler’s unemployment rate is 3.4% while the greatest chunk of jobs

held relate to “Educational services & health care & social assistance” at 20.8% (Proximity,

2015). As of 2009, the average income in Chandler including benefits was $77,955 (Proximity,

2015). I have had students that required little effort to connect to, often they themselves would

come to me for anything and everything. On the flip side, I have experienced several situations

where I would encounter a student that has shut out their surroundings and this would result in

me having to trespass into their world, I would often fail. Whether I succeeded or failed, I

wouldn’t be discouraged because I knew at the end of the class period another opportunity would

present itself when my next group of students came rushing in.

My beliefs about project-based learning experiences and student engagement all stem

from my philosophy of education. Students are ultimately in-charge of what they want to do with

their lives and the teacher’s role is to merely present them with the tools and resources they

require. Through project-based learning, students can not only learn more about the world, but

their own perspectives and ideas as well as the ideas of their fellow classmates. This is what

makes project-based learning so crucial, students learn that they have their own unique reactions

to an experience as do others, which is why it is also important to teach students during these

exercises that respect is important to keep in mind. Only when this important lesson is taught that

the students will be able to flourish in an environment that promotes project-based learning, that

is where the proposal comes in.

During the trip, the students will have access to a wide array of tools and technologies

that will assist them in completing their assignment. Equipped with laptops and recording

devices, the students will take on the roles of Empowered Learners, Digital Citizens and
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Knowledge Constructors. The students will become Empowered Learners and Digital Citizens

by taking advantage of their laptops and information provided to them at the site to bolster their

knowledge regarding the historical goal they are pursuing (ISTE, 2019). By accomplishing these

two roles they finally become Knowledge Constructors who will use these skills and tools to

construct knowledge from their own unique perspectives (ISTE, 2019). That is the ultimate goal

of the project, to have the students establish ideas that are derived from their unique responses

and reactions to environment they are exposed to, a secondary objective is for them to

acknowledge and reflect on their peers’ findings.

Summary of Project and Project Impact

The learning-based project being pursued for Kyrene School District revolves around the

question, “How do we preserve our culture and history (knowledge, behaviorisms)?” This project

is needed within the school, Kyrene Middle School, and district because many of the students are

having a difficult time relating the material with their own lives. When lessons are taught and

read to the students about previous wars, social change, and other impactful events, it is evident

that they have begun to disconnect from the academic resources. What the students need so that

they can become engaged and interested in the material is for them to embark on a journey to

find out how the research is collected, including the methods of collecting that data. The open-

ended question that personally asks the students how they themselves can preserve their

knowledge may prompt them to ask questions like, “Can’t we just write it down?”, “What about

interviewing my family or community members?”, or “How do museums preserve history?”.

This project will involve the students utilizing research methods and tools to collect and preserve

local history, as well as visiting a historical site, monument and/or museum to see what parts of

history have been preserved and more importantly, how they were preserved.
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The PBL will begin with an entry event that will grab the attention of the students. This

entry event will include mini-activities the students will participate in so they can get a sense of

how knowledge is collected and how crucial it is to accurately record it. The games that will be

played are “The Telephone Game” and “Telephone Pictionary”, these games, although fun and

engaging, will outline the importance of accurately collecting the data. how that history has been

preserved by exploring the methods of researching, recording and storing. The students will then

decide which aspects of their local history interest them the most and how they will go about

recording it. The students will also visit a museum where they will be taught by a historian the

local history of Tempe and receive professional advice on how they can best utilize their

equipment during this PBL. From family interviews that cover past events to collecting local

relics that will be recorded and preserved, and finally presenting their findings to an audience at

Arizona State University.

Student Impact

Seeing as the 7th and 8th grade class sizes range from 27-33, which can be rounded to an

even 120 students that will be impacted by the initial project and an additional 120 per year that

the project is completed only because the project is so far reaching and inclusive that it has many

bits and parts that will appeal to different kinds of students. The project will be made up of

sections that will include methods of collecting the data; interviewing community members,

finding artifacts and other jobs that include peer-to-peer collaboration. The second part that

opens up other possibilities is the job of preserving the data and making sure the information

collected is accurate, this may include checking with other sources to confirm the legitimacy of

the information and involves the hands-on work of analyzing and storing the data in a scientific

way so that it can be visited or critiqued by others.

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Teacher Impact

The impact this project will have on the teacher is that it will broaden their knowledge of

how research is collected and stored, meeting with experts in their fields will also give me the

opportunity to learn more about history. Much like the students, the educator will be taking in

new knowledge and experiences that will help them build better lesson plans in history courses

as well as giving them a new perspective into the world of history. By having a first-hand

experience of collecting data, they will know and appreciate the hard work that goes into the

field, this will make them more appreciative and open-minded of all the little things that are

taken for granted when learning history.

Community Impact

Finally, the impact this will have on the community is students will be more assertive in

their efforts to reach out to community members to learn about their culture, values, traditions

and general history so that they can preserve it for future generations. The community will

realize the importance of its culture, history and traditions, this will bring the community closer

together in their pursuit to preserve their findings. Another positive is this will also give the

community a chance to rediscover who they are and surely be proud of their history when they

learn about it, share it and secure it for the future.

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Project Narrative Chart

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Innovation

The group project will be student-driven but the technology and methods of research will be

provided by the school IT staff and historians during the school trip. They will be on standby to

provide support for laptops that may malfunction, as well as provide students with the

knowledge to operate the video cameras, microphones, laptops, and the usual programs they will

use like Google Slides, and Drive. The students will take on many roles regarding the ISTE
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standards, they will not only learn how to effectively use technology, namely their laptops,

microphones, recording and editing programs, but how to collaborate with each other using these

resources for their project. The teacher will take on a facilitator role on this project, they will

provide the tools and wanted feedback when needed but will stray away from direct instruction

in favor of having the students explore their community topics and methods of research.

Differentiation will be achieved by the teacher in that they may assign students with needed

accommodations with bigger groups that are willing to take on the extra work as a challenge if

they feel unchallenged. If the students that are unchallenged need further difficulty, they are free

to take on a wider project that goes further than the community. The exit tickets will be handed

out daily except for when otherwise noted, the final assessment will be the students' community

presentations at the public forum that will be held at the Arizona State University Tempe

campus. The students will present their findings at the ASU School of Earth and Space

Exploration where they will be introduced by Dr. Donald T. Critchlow. This wide community

outreach public forum will give the project the much needed attention so that it can be

established as a renewable project that can be picked up by other middle schools in the area.

Together, the future of the project will flourish due to the collaboration from different school

districts that aim to preserve their own culture and history as well as compare their findings to

neighboring districts. This all-encompassing project may grow due to its initial success at the

ASU Tempe campus where it will see exposure to the many community groups in the area.
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Budget Table
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Budget Narrative

Before discussing the items or cost of the items, the fact that there will be 35 students

involved in the PBL will be mentioned to remind or refresh the reader. With this number of

students in mind, the items were bought in quantities to match. As a note, there are items on this

list that cost no money or are contracted to the school prior to the event but their role and

involvement is pertinent to the event’s success, or they are directly tied in with another item on

the list, i.e. school lunches.

Beginning at the top of the list, the first group of items will be materials that the students

require for the day-to-day tasks in the classroom and when participating in the field trips. These

items include writing utensils, erasers, material to write on, and folders to store their findings in.

The quantities of these items match the number of students, the exception to this rule is the

writing utensils and erasers where the students will be allowed to take two for the duration of the

PBL. The funding source that will be used to retrieve these materials is DonorsChoose.org, the

items all will be purchased from one seller, Staples, for convenience. The donor project that will

be set up will highlight how the materials will be used in a PBL event in a pursuit to research and

preserve the local history and culture of Tempe, local donors may be more inclined to donate if

they know their money will go directly back into the community through enlightening research

that will bring the community together.

Secondly, the more expensive section of this event being the technology tools that the

students will utilize for their day-to-day research, and activities. These items will include a

notebook for each student, notebooks were chosen for their mobility and lighter weight in

comparison to full-sized laptops, and microphones to record their findings from community

interviews, auditory materials and other related sources. These materials will be sourced from a
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teacher grant that awards $10,000 per year for three years for projects that aim to increase active

learning and instill a passion for education through new teaching methods. Again, since this

project focuses on PBL, this may reinforce the project as a progressive learning experience that

may lead to the teacher receiving the grant for that one implementation of the events and future

events, up to three years.

The final section of the budget list includes food and people that will support the project,

the food will be sourced from a reputable company called The LunchMaster, the amount of food

requested will be enough for the 2 day trip to the Tempe History Museum where the students

will spend the entire day. Of course, lunch will also be provided for the teacher, historian, bus

driver and two possible chaperones. This number of lunches is accounting for all participates for

two days; 35 students, one teacher, one historian, one bus driver, two chaperones, which all total

to 80 lunches. The historians pay will be moderate in that he or she will be paid $150 by the

school and will be provided with lunch for both trip days. The same deal with be applied to the

bus driver, $150 pay per day and lunch. However, the chaperones will not be paid but will

receive lunch for the involvement in the PBL event. The funds for these items will come from

AdoptAClassroom.org, a crowdfunding campaign like the one applied for in the

DonorsChoose.org section will also be applied. This time, it will focus on the field trip aspect of

the PBL where it will explain the importance for the students’ to be fed nourishing food so they

can learn more effectively and soak up more knowledge. Of course, the pay for the historian and

bus driver will come from this source as well.

All in all, this budget narrative highlights the materials that will be needed for the PBL

event as well as useful resources where the funds can be attained. Although all of these materials

could be earned through a teaching grant, that avenue is not ensured so it is smart to look into
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more places for money and grants. These three sources listed are all possible ways that a teacher

can earn the funds for school projects. The students will be provided with the necessary materials

so they can achieve their learning goal during the project-based learning event.
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References

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2019a). ISTE Standards for

Educators. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2019b). ISTE Standards for Students.

Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students.

Proximity. (2015). Arizona School District Demographic Profiles. Retrieved from

http://proximityone.com/az_sdc.htm.