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
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
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:
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 uniqueness - After 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.
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.
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...
http://en.linoit.com/ love the organization of this tool!#mp21st
clea.nr is AMAZING! Thanks@betswan !! #mp21st
http://en.linoit.com/ 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.
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.
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