CLE Conference

This week I'm attending the Creative Learning Environments Conference at Mid-Prairie. I will be posting my thoughts and reflections from speakers and work I've done this week here.

Day 1 Journal Entry - Speaker Kevin Honeycutt

There is a strong importance to tapping into emotions.  Emotions inspire.  Emotions make it memorable.  How many teachers want what they are doing in their class to be memorable?  That is the key to what motivates so many of us!  

There are a few quotes that jogged some thinking....

...Why do we force students to “wait to think” with hand-raising?  What if the environment of the classroom was not linked to an answer provided by a student who was brave enough to raise their hand? Do students think that they only need to come up with the answer if they put their hand in the air?

...tra-digital learners? Can students be both traditional and digital learners?  Are they to the place where they can problem solve in real-world situations? What would happen if you unplugged the internet during class?  Well, I know that all of them become completely helpless and they all look to the adult in the room.  In this case, the internet is controlling them, they are not controlling the internet.

A key to this is to make it real for students.  How does this become real?  Kevin shared the story of creating an author in a student.  That made it become real for the student the moment that they held their own book in their hands.  What if students did make their own product, their own book and it only sold 1?  Could a shark tank environment work in a middle school where they evaluate WHY it didn’t work?  Could they give constructive feedback to each other?  What if they studied sharks to understand how a shark tank works (video)?

Self Paced or Using Class Time

I've thought a lot about flipping the classroom as it has been a practice that I have adopted since fall of 2011.  There have been many benefits and many challenges that I've encountered along the way.  I truly believe that when I adopted this practice, it made a positive impact on my teaching and shifted the focus of learning in my classroom.  

As a non 1-1 school, I have felt a little left out, left behind when I learn of others who have truly flipped their classroom as I feel a but stuck in a flipped 1.0 mode.  I have experimented with some different techniques I have learned from other flippers, but have yet to figure out how to allow for complete personalization and self-pacing.  So, this idea has been rolling around in my mind that there are two avenues that flipping can be focused: self-paced learning or best use of class time.

I have embraced the idea of using the videos to make the best use of class time.  It was what made me fall in love with flipping.  But yet once I began this journey with flipping, I had no idea how much my class time would shift.  We are no longer spending time with the basics, but I am redesigning and restructuring lessons to encourage students to create, analyze, and apply the topics we are covering in class.  And I feel like my role as a mentor and coach have really shifted to focus on collaboration!  I did not know how much I would be teaching and modeling skills of collaboration, because these things do not come naturally to students at the middle school level.  

I wish that I could wrap my head around a way to include more self-paced learning in my classroom, but I'm not there yet.  I'm still trying to understand the fluidity if there is not a computer available for all students.  I live in an inquiry-based science world and personalization is key in my room, but I'm not quite sure how to completely release the reins...

Virtual Science Fair

So, inspired by Google's Science Fair - I've decided to try a virtual science fair, for students in my 8th grade science class in a rural school in Iowa.

This year, I'd like to collaborate with others and open the doors past the walls of my school building.  I am inviting people in virtually to view the top 10 scoring 8th grade science projects to help us decide on a winner!  Those who would like to participate will be asked to view and evaluate 10 student science fair projects - seen in a short (2:30 minute max) video the students created to explain their project & complete a short evaluation form for each video.
Let's break it down:
Who: Anyone who is interested in student science fair projects, could be people working in the science field, people who are passionate about science, teachers, or even students at other schools
What: review 10 videos created by students explaining the project they explored and complete a short evaluation form for each video during a two-week period
Where: At your home!  The videos will be posted on an online site and I will email you the evaluation form
Why Would I Do This?  To help give students an outside perspective on their projects that they have created and encourage students who participate in science inquiry!
How Do I participate? If you would like to participate, please just send me an email (abridge@mid-prairie.k12.ia.us) telling me your name and location and if you are a teacher who wants your class to participate - what age group will be participating.
The videos will be posted online April 14 - 26th I would ask you view the projects during this two-week window and complete evaluation forms by April 26th.

Google Hangouts

We all know that Google is taking over everything, but man is it making my life better and easier!

I can not say enough good things about Google Hangouts!  Have you ever done one?

I had seen the sweet commercial of dad & daughter at college & the muppets, but didn't think much about it.  Then I was asked to do a Google Hangout that would be record the interview that I was doing which would be uploaded to YouTube...and I was like WOW!  I learned a lot about this program and so since some of my best friends live far away I decided to invite them to a hangout.  My friend Jen calls it the "Space Meeting."  It has been awesome.  We have fun with the crazy hats and sound effects and it has been even better because we can all talk at once!  We have been trying to make a weekly/biweekly event.  And I've really loved it - it's reconnected us in a whole new way!
Today was a snow day for my school district.  We knew the crazy snow was coming, so I asked students if they would want to try to work on conferences online with me today.  For the most part, it has worked awesome!  With the screenshare feature, I was able to see their projects and give them notes of improvement.  I was able to get through 10 conferences today and I count that as a success!  10 conferences that I don't have to try to make up on Monday along with everything else that we missed out on today.  It was fantastic - I got so much done...I think I should be able to count this as a school day!!

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.

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: