Friday, November 9, 2012

Evolving as a teacher...

Check out this blog post first --I used to think…  - By Shelly Wright

I saw this blog and can't stop thinking about it.  It is fantastic and hits on so many things that I am feeling right now as an educator.  I feel like recently the conversation about teaching, technology and learning has gotten skewed in some minds.  I hear teachers say that we are just doing this for "technology's sake" or that if there is no homework there is "no learning."
I feel privileged in the last four years or so to be a part of a conversation with my district and with my PLN online to discuss this shift in education.  I think those that are "getting it" can be reflective about this process, like Shelly Wright, who wrote this blog post.  When we start thinking of all of these tools as pieces of a puzzle that are put together - not separate, it makes everything more engaging and students more vested in the learning process.
As part of what I am trying with flipped learning and using video as a medium in the classroom, I can see myself evolving as a teacher  When I go back and try something the way I had done it in previous years, I can see the lack of engagement and focus in the students.  It reminds me of why I am "running forward" (notice I use running because part of this is exhausting) as a teacher to place where my students are finding their voices as learners and are taking strides to become more independent learners.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Flipped Classroom Data...

As I started thinking about data today, I wanted to create a place to view my data from the pilot group to my sophomore group.  So, I created a presentation to showcase and add to this.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ptdgblHaGvmdL__fB1Nc0Lyqg-QI-bHoyecfTPasODw/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

First round of feedback...

I think that it is really important with the flipped classroom to seek out feedback from my students about what they are getting out of the experience.  I frequently use google doc forms to anonymously survey the students to find out if this is working for them or if there is anything that I can tweak to help make their learning experience better.
Here's what I've found out from my first survey of my sophomore year of flipped classroom:




Friday, August 17, 2012

What I wished I knew then...

Last year, I piloted the flipped classroom for the first year.  Around this time last year, I began to explore this idea to see if this would even be a possibility for me.  I, of course, didn't hesitate and just dove on in.  It was an exhausting, but extremely rewarding experience.  I feel as though I have grown so much over the past year.  As I begin to make my second lap in the pool of flipped learning, I think back to this time last year.   There are a few key things I've learned that I think is worth sharing for anyone who is considering this journey during the next school year.

  • Start small - In the beginning, it feels incredibly overwhelming and I really feel like the pilot experience was the best way to begin.  Through my 1 class pilot, I tried out and tested different techniques and began to establish what worked best for me.  
  • Seek feedback from students - During that pilot class, I frequently asked students for feedback.  I probably surveyed students every 3 weeks to get feedback.  This was really helpful to me to establish my flipped technique. 
  • Relish your uniquenessAfter exploring other peoples' flipped classrooms, I realized that everyone interprets this differently.  You have to do what works best for you.  If you are not authentic, your students will not buy it.
  • Even a short video, can "buy" a lot of face-to-face time. This was the most surprising fact to me!  I was able to spend more time assisting students who needed it and give guidance to help students grow.  We had more class time to review concepts with students who really needed it!
  • Classic problems don't go away with the flipped classroom - Videos for homework...are still homework.  And as teachers know, there is usually a percentage of students who will not do the homework, no matter what it is!  However, I do feel as thought the percentage did shrink to a smaller number, but I feel as though the speed of the other students in class magnified those students who did not complete the homework.  It is a classic teaching problem that teachers will always be addressing.
  • Advanced notice is important! My situation was not a 1-to-1 school.  So, I had to make this work with more limited resources.  About 90% of students had internet at home or a study hall during school to access the internet.  I still had to account for 10% of students who did not have daily access to the internet.  After my 1st month, I established a rule with my classes that I would always give them 4 days of advanced notice before any video was due.
Good luck to all of you trying out the flipped classroom for the first time this year!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Experimenting with the Mastery Flip..

In the fall of 2011, I piloted 1 class with the flip classroom.  In January of 2012, I decided to roll it out with all four sections of 8th grade science and not only that (at this point, I must have lost my mind), I decided to try to the mastery flip technique.  I am not going to lie, I spent most if not all of my Christmas break in 2011 assembling the pieces of trial run.

Since my school district is not 1 to 1, I had to be creative and design a way that could work for my classroom.  I was able to sign a laptop cart out for every Monday and Friday during the course of the unit.  I would have loved to have allowed students to try self-pacing, however with the lack of computer access, I struggled with a way to accomplish this. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!  Each week of this unit was designed around a content standard.  I asked students to have the video(s) watched by the time they came to class on Tuesday of each week.  I gave students one week's notice for each of the videos.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each week we did interactive and sometimes very physically active labs that I pulled from different resources like Project Wild or Project Wet and some that I designed on my own.  I selected each of these labs for their inquiry components and connection to that week's theme.

On the Friday, students chose how they wanted to demonstrate what they understood from the week.  They could choose to take an objective test or they could create their project by themselves or teamed with 1 partner.  I created the objective tests using the senteo clickers, so no grading was necessary on my part.  The projects I graded on a scale of learning levels from mastery to unacceptable.  I asked students who created a project to post their project on a class wiki by the end of class on Friday.  If any students finished their quiz or project early, they could begin working on the mastery project or they could use their class time to watch the videos for next week.  A lot of the flipped classroom is about allowing students to make choices that help them understand themselves as learners.  Students know better than me of what is going on in their life and if using their class time to watch the video is their best choice, then I say, "Watch the Video!"

The mastery project was something students would continually come back to throughout the course of the unit and use it to extend their learning around a singular topic area that they would keep stretching and learning about.  This mastery project was set-up around the class wikispace where students would write in the style of nonfiction fiction.  Students would write about accurate facts about an animal of their choice (our unit was ecology) in the context of them as field researchers "seeing" these things for the first time.

I was amazed at how much stronger these students understood the concepts compared to past years.  They also retained and applied the concepts so much stronger.  I was blown away...it was awesome!

However, it wasn't all roses.  I have now added three more sections of students to this process and I did feel some backlash.  Many students are used to the sit-and-get method and did not want to put in the work.  Or as middle schoolers sometimes did, they would put in the work, but complain about the process.  As a teacher, it did make me question whether or not this was the right thing for these students.  But, I couldn't ignore the results of how much better the students were understanding the concepts!

For the next time that I try the mastery style, I will be tweaking somethings.  I think many students chose the objective tests because they thought it was the "easy" way out.  However, there grades saw that objective tests weren't always easy.  I think I would add a layer with the objective tests for the next time.  Perhaps, having students correct the answers that they got wrong and explain what the correct answer is.  I might also ease up on the depth of the mastery project.  I mildly altered the assignment from the pre-flipped days, but I may need to ask myself, "What is really important?"  I may want to simplify a few of the requirements to make sure that students do not feel too overwhelmed to succeed.

Flipped Classroom Reflection Year 1

In the 2011-2012 school year, I piloted the flipped classroom all based on 1 photo.


I had shock and awe and excitement when thinking about this idea.  It seemed so huge!  Yet, it seemed so simple!  I was all over the place.  I decided to jump in and see what would happen.

I began with 1 class. I was very upfront with this class.  I told them I wanted honest feedback as we went through this process.  The first class was very enthusiastic and really liked the idea about "just watching videos" for homework.  However, it was just so much more than that.  With the 1st class I was able to spend more time talking with students 1 to 1.  This class needed that extra time and attention.  There was a very high population of IEP and 504 students in this class.  With the extra time, I was able to spend the time reviewing with this class, which they needed.  At the end of this pilot semester, the majority of the students really appreciated this technique and learned.  They were able to explain to me the process better than other classes.

From what I know now about screen casting, I started this process very old school.  Or as old school as you can be with an iPad 2.  I recorded my lectures by setting up my iPad somewhere in my house and using the $5 app of iMovie started to record myself.  Sometimes my cats would make appearances in my videos, but I teach middle schoolers and many of them grabbed on to that to make connections with me.  One student told me he was mad at me when I made a video at school.  So, I continued to make the videos at home and post them unlisted to YouTube.  I would then put the link to the video on my wikispace and create and print a QR Code for my classroom for students to scan with their iPod Touches.  I have found that the more ways that you can give them to watch the video, the better.  I also quickly learned the more time you give them to watch the video, the higher the watch rate is.

The one question that I was faced with and this process was in motion was: What do I do with the kids who didn't watch the video?  The idea of accountability was one that stressed me out.  I had no ideas.  I felted tapped out.  I had been doing all of this to create these videos for these kids and they didn't even watch them??  And then I realized that I'm back to the age old teacher question - How do you make kids do their homework?  I realized for middle schoolers some of them needed a reason to do this.  A reason to get started.  Since the videos were their homework, then they should receive a grade for doing their homework.  A couple of times I made quick senteo (clicker) quizzes where students could use notes to answer the questions, but I realized that I'm back to passive classtime.  So, for each video, I created a short google doc form with two questions related to key points in the video that I wanted them to understand.  In the last two minutes of the video I would put up a tinyurl that had the link to the google form.  For the students to complete the google form, I gave them full points.  If they didn't, I gave them a zero.  This way, I also could see before the students came to class, who was understanding the main concepts!  It was great!

These are my main thoughts from my pilot experience of the flipped classroom.  I will soon be posting reflections about my trials with the mastery flipped classroom experience and my thoughts for moving forward.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Some cool apps that I want to remember...

From my twitter feed...
 love the organization of this tool! 

  • Linoit is more of an organized wall wisher.  Looks very cleaned up!

clea.nr is AMAZING! Thanks  !! 

  • Love, love love this!  Takes away all of the junk of youtube
Answer Garden
  • Easy way to get short answers from a group and the most used answers "float" to the top

Final Reflection from Learning for the 21st Century Conference

Phew!
It is been an incredibly engaging and at times overwhelming week - which is not a bad thing :) We have been lucky enough to have had three different presenters who worked with us to help open our technological windows to help us lighten our classrooms.  They have introduced us to new technology, they have shared their experiences, and we have absorbed and played, absorbed and played with each new idea they have brought to the table.
Through processing all of this, I am basing my action plan on the shift.  There are loads of videos out their talking about making shifts in education.  I have tried and tested many different types of technology, but instead of just showing and sharing these with my students, I'm going to try and shift my classroom to having the students not just experience these tools, but take ownership of these tools.  For example, I currently create videos for students as part of my flipped classroom.  From here I will shift to having them (hopefully) take part in creating video tutorials for other students about current topics. This shift will be laid out in detail in my action plan from this conference.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Day 4 with Shannon Miller

Shannon's enthusiasm for kids and technology is awesome!  She is created a brand around the term "voice." Everyone has a voice - an authentic voice.

Suggestions from Shannon:

  • Animoto - cool site to use to create videos.
  • Create and nurture collaboration between colleagues no matter where they are!
  • Importance of creating a team, including the community and connect to students
  • Create a voice for your classroom and remind students to find and use their voice.  Allow them to be heard!
  • Think. Lead. Serve.  - Van Meter's whole school motto, carried out and supported through the district.
  • Student clubs based on their interests - photo clubs, writing, skyping with authors, creating claymation videos.
  • Sending wikis out on twitter to encourage others to contribute.
  • Choose a simple curriculum based goal and see where it can go
  • hootsuite - can read twitter, schedule tweets, and add an icon to tweet from pages
  • Twitter suggestions - 
    • check out other's lists and add more people to follow
    • always respond to mentions & direct messages
  • Easybib app - allows you to scan book and email to yourself


Tweets from the day from
RT @betswan: Little Bird Tales - create an ebook - bit.ly/fi3p4n
Student clubs based on their interests allows them to ignite their fire! 
Passion matters because it fuels us to go forward. 

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Starting Day 3...Angela Maiers

I have never seen results accomplished without passion...Peter Druker

Starting the day with students by saying... YOU are a genius and the world needs your contribution

How do you change our focus to passion/happiness?

Personal Branding:  What is my title - Chief Creativity Discoverer? Creativity Explorer?
Renaming ourselves to discover our collective genius

Crab Bucket Culture - Does someone grab you and pull you back down in the bucket?
If there is a crab that is pulling you down, rename them to show their "blessings" that they can bring to you and your team/school

Passion is the genius of genius - How do we as educators to increase students' passion quotient (PQ)?
Passion-Driven Learners: optimistic, genuine, compassion, persistent, laser-like focus, couragous, risk-taker, confidence, visionary ---fanatically disciplined, fiercely determined, empirically creative, confidently unstoppable
---never lose your motion

Create a To Be list, not a To Do list!

**To watch - TED Talk - Start with Why - http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

ACT - A=agree, C=challenge, T= tangible action (for 30 days)
A= everyone has an inventive genius inside of them
C= getting out of the crab bucket
T=

2 By 2 -
1st and Last two minutes of the day: honor and acknowledge students -- last two minutes - honor and acknowledge accomplishments of the day

WOW - worthy of the world

Genius Hour Laws (not rules) Everyone begins with an A - you need to keep that A
*all genius matters  *contributions are nonnegotiable  *freedom -> reponsibility  *you matter
Identify a problem- ask for help from geniuses - actions

Creating a heart - sharing with others can be difficult

Tweets from the day from 
Never discount the value of students as problem-solvers whether they are classroom problems or world problems #mp21st #passiondriven #edchat
Create a To Be List, not a To Do list! #mp21st #passiondriven
My challenge is to get that extra inch to get myself out of the crab bucket #mp21st - but once I'm out...will I know where to go?
Where does your energy come from? 
RT : Best. Education cartoon. Ever.     
Student centered learning is engaging! 

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Brian Mull - Day 2


Beginning the discussion with a home based for me---the flipped classroom!
Eric Mazur - Twitter: @eric_mazur -From Harvard -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBYrKPoVFwg 
  • only creates lessons based on what students don’t understand 
  • students will only remember 2/3
  • Teaching by questioning and discussion – uses clickers to begin discussion – vote and revote – only he sees results of the voting
  • Discuss and defend answers and responses– he has a sophisticated system where he can group it so that 1 person in each group has the correct answer -- so cool!

Poll everywhere is a great tool.

Flipping the flip -- make it more student centered --Students create tutorials for other students.  Totally a goal for the future! - mathtrain.tv

Student scribe of the day.  Could this be a note taking form for my future videos? give feedback about what was good and what could be improved.

Creating student experts about a type of technology.  Students sign up for what they feel comfortable with and students can come to them.

Students collaborating on google maps together perhaps as part of the ecology unit?

Tweets for the day from 
 it would be cool to make connections with other buildings as well - students tutoring students - 
If you want to check out a video about my  experience, check this out -  
Using flip class, I had parents put the vid schedule on calendar at home 2 watch together as a family-Great parents here! 
I want my students to stand on the shoulder's of past students -- awesome! 
RT : Ignoring tech in ed will soon be equivalent to educational malpractice.   
From 1 of my 1st teaching classes. The best conversation is student to student. mathtrain.tv VERY Cool! 
Encouraging students to be independent learners has been my never ending goal! #mp21st #edchat
Instant feedback to students encourages motivation to correct and move forward 
Being open to changing the process is the first step to becoming better. 
Teach by questioning, not by telling. 

Monday, June 11, 2012

Learning for the 21st Century - Day 1


Here is where I'm going to store my reflections from a technology conference that I am attending the week of 6/11/12:
Day 1: Speaker of the Day: Brian Mull from November Learning

Topics:
  • Twitter: how to use it, what can it do?
    • As a teacher, students can use my twitter to attempt to make connections and get questions answered using appropriate hashtags to try and make connections
  •  Evaluating websites - use the REAL technique
R –read the url (web address) like looking at the cover of a book – what is the file cabinet? Starting at the beginning
E – examine the content on the page --skimming and scanning
A – author – look at top or bottom to start - ~ (tilde) – easywhois.com
L – links – forward links – where will this page take me? Does it only link to itself? Does it take you to anything that references the topic? Back Links – link:url –google will tell you what websites have linked to you

  • Diigo - social bookmarking


Below are my tweets from the day:
Amber Bridge
I love highlighting in diigo! Makes my life easier 

RT : Why digital literacy is important for science teaching and learning  relevant 2 discussion

How can we help students build libraries of knowledge that they will continually build on in future years?  

Need to teach students to constantly question! 

Websites to help students to evaluate sources from the Alan November site -  

Mental note - remember the gear button on google 

Who is the best source when searching for answers? 

Love comparing wikipedia & news article - would be a great activity b4 starting a research paper with students!  

Can my reflective journal for the Learning for the 21st Century be my twitter feed for the week? 

Did NOT know about twuffer! Very excited! 

Monday, April 9, 2012

Flipped Classroom Conference!

So EXCITED!
I'm signed up for the Flipped Classroom Conference this June in Chicago!  Got to love coming back to my "hometown" :) and learning more ideas about Flipped Classroom from the originators!

To learn more about the conference - http://flipped-learning.com/?page_id=5
And the bonus - free copy of Camtasia and Snapit -- sweet!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Flat Classroom

As we begin our discussion on the flat classroom on February 17th, take a look at the video below to get an idea of what the flat classroom is all about.  This video focuses on a documentary that was created at the flat classroom Qatar Conference in 2009.



From:  http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2011/11/flat-classroom-is-5-years-old-today.html

Please bring a laptop with you to Friday's inservice along with a lesson/unit that you love to teach.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Yes!

Friday was such an awesome tech day in my room!

The flipped classroom was in full effect today! I had students at all different places completely engaged in their tasks and I was able to individualized attention to students to help answer their questions, pushing them further, assisting in improving tech skills.  I relished every moment!  It was great!