Rather than flip all of my classes in one year I decided to choose only for this noble experiment. Intentionally I chose a class that all had internet access at home. For the most part the experiment seemed to go well for myself and the students, however, as with all things there are some wrinkles to iron out. Hopefully those of you out in PLN world will be able to help me do it.
Why would I want to flip my class in the first place? More and more (especially in public schools) class time is lost every year due to a never ending myriad of tests that students have to take. Between tests, pep rallies, assemblies, and class meetings I would venture to guess that almost a month of school is missed because of distractions. I believed that by flipping my class I could make up for some of this lost time. Also, what I was doing was not working. Most home work was either not done and those that were finished were mostly copying someone's assignment. I would have to say the vast majority of my students did not do their home work. Lastly, I don't believe that traditional direct instruction leads to mastery of a subject or skill. Students need to spend more time doing and less time listening (which they don't do anyway). For all these reasons and more I felt like this was the way to go.
As a 1:1 teacher I felt like I had a good shot at making this concept work and in many respects it did. For examples, many students remarked that they enjoyed not having to take forty minutes worth of notes that they could get on their own in half the time. At first many students chose simply not to access the notes I'd posted, however, once it became evident to them that they other students knew more than them because they got the notes themselves they went and got them. Furthermore, by posting demonstration videos on an assigned project or assessment I was able to preserve more class time to answering questions about the assignment and helping students that didn't understand what to do. The students that "got it" were up and running before I started class. Lastly, students started to ask better questions which led to better discussions. I would post a video or link in Edmodo and instruct them to come up with their own questions about what they didn't understand or what they wanted to know more about. Again, this not only saved class time for instruction but gave the students time to watch and watch again if they needed to without me having to go back and reiterate a point made.
Not everything was biscuits and gravy. Flipping my class had some pitfalls, but they seemed to be the same pitfalls I would deal with in a regular class. Many students simply did not take the initiative to get the notes, watch a video, or read the instructions on their own time; they came to class totally unprepared. Fortunately I do teach in a 1:1 class so I could tell them to log on and get what they needed. This led to more students simply waiting until class to get what they needed which was why I wanted to flip in the first place. Also, when asked to come up with questions after viewing a demonstration or something similar students would simply copy questions off of someone else. Many of the problems I was hoping to avoid I ended up continuing to have to deal with. However, the most difficult problem was technical. Students often had old browsers at home or haven't updated various programs in a long time and often had no knowledge or parental permission to do so. This limited students from being able to view and or engage in whatever they were to do. All of these problems were frustrating, but not enough to ward me off of the flipped class forever.
This was my year first year utilizing the flipped class concept and overall I was happy with how it went. There were some ups and downs, but for the most part more ups. However, I know I can do it better. Please help!!!! Feel free to read, comment, leave advice or whatever you'd like to help me improve this concept for next school year. I hope to hear from all of you!
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Are the answers in the back of the book?
I can't imagine how frustrated Thomas Edison must have been the other nine hundred ninety-nine times he did NOT invent the light bulb. The easy thing to do would have been to say, "Screw it, it's going to have to be candles. Besides, in a few years they'll all be declaring my incandescent bulb a weapon of mass ecological destruction." I realize trying to move students from from the mindset that learning is not about completing tasks but discovery and mastery is not going to happen over night, but it certainly brings the Myth of Sisyphus to mind.
Recently my classes embarked on a PBL activity in which they had to create or move a professional sports team and "sell" that idea to a group of league officials (the class). Obviously there were certain tasks that needed to be completed, but the heart and soul of the assignment was to take the gathered data, analyze it, and determine if your chosen city was a viable candidate for a franchise. Students were to then take that data and persuade the class that the data made their city an ideal candidate for a team.
What I ended up seeing (after repeatedly encouraging people to go further) was a simple report on data that was gathered that included little to no analysis in most cases. A week of instruction has been wasted for the most part. Upon reflection there was a lot that I should have done differently. However, the modern public school pupil is steeped in a culture that moves you ahead and rewards you based upon task completion.
At the beginning of every school year they've been told that if they complete sixty-five percent of their tasks they will move on. With the exception of a government institution, no employer would ever accept that you've completed just a tad more than half of your job and still pay you! Of course this culture is going to lead to copying work, cheating, and worst of all completion without thinking.
If we want to create competent analytical learners this cycle must be broken. Nothing short of a radical transformation from a twentieth century "assembly line" method of education to a more mastery oriented mode of education will stop this. There are signs of life out there. STEM has proven to be very adept at achieving this goal, but so far implementation of STEM and other types of discovery education have not caught on institutionally. Until this is done we will be forced to deal with students and an institution that looks for the answers from the back of the book.
Recently my classes embarked on a PBL activity in which they had to create or move a professional sports team and "sell" that idea to a group of league officials (the class). Obviously there were certain tasks that needed to be completed, but the heart and soul of the assignment was to take the gathered data, analyze it, and determine if your chosen city was a viable candidate for a franchise. Students were to then take that data and persuade the class that the data made their city an ideal candidate for a team.
What I ended up seeing (after repeatedly encouraging people to go further) was a simple report on data that was gathered that included little to no analysis in most cases. A week of instruction has been wasted for the most part. Upon reflection there was a lot that I should have done differently. However, the modern public school pupil is steeped in a culture that moves you ahead and rewards you based upon task completion.
At the beginning of every school year they've been told that if they complete sixty-five percent of their tasks they will move on. With the exception of a government institution, no employer would ever accept that you've completed just a tad more than half of your job and still pay you! Of course this culture is going to lead to copying work, cheating, and worst of all completion without thinking.
If we want to create competent analytical learners this cycle must be broken. Nothing short of a radical transformation from a twentieth century "assembly line" method of education to a more mastery oriented mode of education will stop this. There are signs of life out there. STEM has proven to be very adept at achieving this goal, but so far implementation of STEM and other types of discovery education have not caught on institutionally. Until this is done we will be forced to deal with students and an institution that looks for the answers from the back of the book.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
The 850 Mile Social Media Group Project
This past Friday we finally completed our skype debate with the high school from Edina, MN. In retrospect everything seemed to go very well. The students were well prepared for the most part, hardly any camera shyness, and very well researched and thought out arguments.
Connectivity was no issue at all. I was able to Skype with our collaborating class withing five minutes of beginning each class period. Also, some of the students had some skype experience so they were a bit more comfortable appearing on camera. However, even those that weren't seemed at ease because they were prepared, and their partners were in the same situation as they were (misery loves company I suppose)
The most interesting thing to me was how much they completed outside of class. Numerous students told me about tweeting, texting, and googling outside of class and into the evening hours. This was something I was hoping would happen (naturally) and was glad to see in some cases that it did. In the workforce projects are no longer just completed by people in one office building; the some of its parts come from all over the world and the students need to be prepared to effectively engage in that environment. I believe they already are, they just needed to apply their social life to their academic/vocational life.
By using Google docs the students were able to work in real time with their partners in Edina, MN. Outside of class students could continue to use google docs or whatever means were at their disposal to continue their assignment. In class we Skype to host the actual debate and the other students back-channeled using Cover it Live. All students students were engaged and active participants in the debate be it by actually debating, debating in the back channel, and participating in real time polls and quizes.
Overall I was very pleased with how things worked out and couldn't have selected a more cooperative collaborating teacher/class. I would enjoy doing things like this more often, but until the assembly line nature of the public school changes finding enough time to plan and cooperate is a challenge. That being said, practice makes perfect!
Connectivity was no issue at all. I was able to Skype with our collaborating class withing five minutes of beginning each class period. Also, some of the students had some skype experience so they were a bit more comfortable appearing on camera. However, even those that weren't seemed at ease because they were prepared, and their partners were in the same situation as they were (misery loves company I suppose)
The most interesting thing to me was how much they completed outside of class. Numerous students told me about tweeting, texting, and googling outside of class and into the evening hours. This was something I was hoping would happen (naturally) and was glad to see in some cases that it did. In the workforce projects are no longer just completed by people in one office building; the some of its parts come from all over the world and the students need to be prepared to effectively engage in that environment. I believe they already are, they just needed to apply their social life to their academic/vocational life.
By using Google docs the students were able to work in real time with their partners in Edina, MN. Outside of class students could continue to use google docs or whatever means were at their disposal to continue their assignment. In class we Skype to host the actual debate and the other students back-channeled using Cover it Live. All students students were engaged and active participants in the debate be it by actually debating, debating in the back channel, and participating in real time polls and quizes.
Overall I was very pleased with how things worked out and couldn't have selected a more cooperative collaborating teacher/class. I would enjoy doing things like this more often, but until the assembly line nature of the public school changes finding enough time to plan and cooperate is a challenge. That being said, practice makes perfect!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Google Docs Class Collaboration
If you've never used the power of google docs to to work with another class (from outside of your school) I highly recommend you give it a shot. Currently my Civics classes are working with another class from Edina, Mn on a debate and it seems to be producing some awesome stuff.
My students have been assigned partners to work with in another school. They are working together and chatting through google docs, but also using their own time and a combination of twitter/facebook/skype/etc. to work with their counterparts on their own time. The students seemed genuinely excited to use their own devices and social media to complete this task with new people have way across the country.
This activity will culminate Friday in a live debate via skype. A good deal of planning between myself and the cooperating teacher needed to take place before this began and we naturally ran into some problems, but overall I am happy with how it is going.
My students have been assigned partners to work with in another school. They are working together and chatting through google docs, but also using their own time and a combination of twitter/facebook/skype/etc. to work with their counterparts on their own time. The students seemed genuinely excited to use their own devices and social media to complete this task with new people have way across the country.
This activity will culminate Friday in a live debate via skype. A good deal of planning between myself and the cooperating teacher needed to take place before this began and we naturally ran into some problems, but overall I am happy with how it is going.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Garageband on the iPad
The assignment was simple and something that I had done for the past eight years. The students (in groups) choose what they believe to be the top five amendments. They must also explain why their amendments are in the top five and what the nation would be like without those amendments.
In years past they've made posters, powerpoints, prezis, and things of that nature. Last year (my first 1:1 year) I decided to take a different route and let the kids make podcasts. The website I chose was podomatic.com. I had one master account the students uploaded to but could only work one at a time when recording and uploading.
This year my department lobbied to purchase a few iPads/iPods and I made the decision to utilize them on this assignment. Garageband is a $4.99 app and well worth it for use in the classroom. With the iPads and Garageband students were able to completely record, edit, produce, and upload their podcasts to iTunes which they could then pull into my iWeb website. Multiple students were able to work at the same time and uploading took seconds. Also, students were able to make their own original music to go with their podcasts using the smart instruments.
Pros
In years past they've made posters, powerpoints, prezis, and things of that nature. Last year (my first 1:1 year) I decided to take a different route and let the kids make podcasts. The website I chose was podomatic.com. I had one master account the students uploaded to but could only work one at a time when recording and uploading.
This year my department lobbied to purchase a few iPads/iPods and I made the decision to utilize them on this assignment. Garageband is a $4.99 app and well worth it for use in the classroom. With the iPads and Garageband students were able to completely record, edit, produce, and upload their podcasts to iTunes which they could then pull into my iWeb website. Multiple students were able to work at the same time and uploading took seconds. Also, students were able to make their own original music to go with their podcasts using the smart instruments.
Pros
- Very user-friendly for the students and the learning curve is very short.
- No disk space to worry about.
- No need to worry about copyrighted music (students make their own content).
- Easily manageable by the classroom teacher.
- Excellent for schools/teachers that have embraced BYOD.
- You still need a main computer to pull it into your website.
- As far as I know you cannot upload a podcast image to Garageband.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Diigo Teacher Console
Did you ever try a tool or website, not necessarily fall in love with it, and then come back a few years later to find that not only have massive improvements occurred but that you couldn't wait to implement it in your class? That is obviously where I stand today with the social bookmarking tool Diigo.
With Diigo you can create groups, bookmark websites, share them to the group, and even highlight and annotate the websites. You can literally bookmark an article or website and have a threaded discussion that is accessible 24-7. This is useful for current events, primary documents, webquests, or anything you would want to highlight and comment on for your students to see or ask questions themeselves.
I had originally gotten away from Diigo because when I created a group members didn't always see the highlights, sticky notes, or could see them but not comment. It was very frustrating and I spent more time troubleshooting than I did anything else; which is your worst nightmare in a 1:1 environment.
Recently I saw something come across twitter that talked about a teacher console for Diigo. I signed up just to try it out and the results were awesome. With the teacher console the teacher can create student accounts (massively if you want to upload a .csv file) and manage them, and email is optional. The students simply go to diigo and log in with the name and password you gave them and install the diigo toolbar. By they way, for you iPad folks there is a Diigo browser that you can get from the App store for free!
Once I did this my students could see everything! Highlights, comments, access, everything was available and visible to my students. Students don't read enough and with this tool it enables me to upload content from anywhere and discuss the material in real time from any place. As a social studies teacher it has improved my classroom for the better and brought the news of the world to my students' screen. Another great side benefit, no ordering highlighters and printing copies!
Here is the link to sign up for a teacher account, try it out and enjoy!: http://www.diigo.com/education
With Diigo you can create groups, bookmark websites, share them to the group, and even highlight and annotate the websites. You can literally bookmark an article or website and have a threaded discussion that is accessible 24-7. This is useful for current events, primary documents, webquests, or anything you would want to highlight and comment on for your students to see or ask questions themeselves.
I had originally gotten away from Diigo because when I created a group members didn't always see the highlights, sticky notes, or could see them but not comment. It was very frustrating and I spent more time troubleshooting than I did anything else; which is your worst nightmare in a 1:1 environment.
Recently I saw something come across twitter that talked about a teacher console for Diigo. I signed up just to try it out and the results were awesome. With the teacher console the teacher can create student accounts (massively if you want to upload a .csv file) and manage them, and email is optional. The students simply go to diigo and log in with the name and password you gave them and install the diigo toolbar. By they way, for you iPad folks there is a Diigo browser that you can get from the App store for free!
Once I did this my students could see everything! Highlights, comments, access, everything was available and visible to my students. Students don't read enough and with this tool it enables me to upload content from anywhere and discuss the material in real time from any place. As a social studies teacher it has improved my classroom for the better and brought the news of the world to my students' screen. Another great side benefit, no ordering highlighters and printing copies!
Here is the link to sign up for a teacher account, try it out and enjoy!: http://www.diigo.com/education
Friday, November 11, 2011
The Organized Chaos of PBL
For a few years now I have embraced project based learning as a way to foster greater engagement and understanding of my classroom content. Fortunately I am not the only teacher in my district that has done so, and now having students that have been exposed to this environment for a few years has led to some great results.
Bottom line, if you want to get the absolute best results from your students, let them choose how to give it to you!!!! Usually when I assign a new project I allow the students to cover the content in a variety of ways, if there is one they can think of that I haven't and it has value I allow them to do it. In the last ten days I've had so many students come out of their shell and for the first time and I am seeing what they are truly capable of.
To really get into this method you must be able to let go of the idea of a teacher focused class and embrace the idea of the teacher as a project overseer/manager. Instead of delivering the content you help them figure out where they can find it and give some ideas of how they can assimilate it and demonstrate understanding. Making website, videos, avatars, collaborative presentations are all great mediums for this. Also, allowing the students to be more creative and being flexible on time cuts down a great deal of information regurgitation.
Were there projects that were less than stellar? Absolutely! Are there projects that have yet to be turned in? Aren't there always. These are the same kids that never turned in their worksheets either.
In public education we often forget about the students in the middle. The struggling students get special attention and your high achievers would do well even if instructed by a well trained monkey. However, we often let middle of the road students sink or swim without as much thought for a myriad of reasons. It is my contention that if you want to get the most out of these students you should try at least a few PBL assignments and it's important that you let the students choose how to demonstrate their learning. I'm not an expert, but I know that I was a much happier teacher by the end of this past week.
For some examples of what I'm talking about please check out my student project wiki located here.
Bottom line, if you want to get the absolute best results from your students, let them choose how to give it to you!!!! Usually when I assign a new project I allow the students to cover the content in a variety of ways, if there is one they can think of that I haven't and it has value I allow them to do it. In the last ten days I've had so many students come out of their shell and for the first time and I am seeing what they are truly capable of.
To really get into this method you must be able to let go of the idea of a teacher focused class and embrace the idea of the teacher as a project overseer/manager. Instead of delivering the content you help them figure out where they can find it and give some ideas of how they can assimilate it and demonstrate understanding. Making website, videos, avatars, collaborative presentations are all great mediums for this. Also, allowing the students to be more creative and being flexible on time cuts down a great deal of information regurgitation.
Were there projects that were less than stellar? Absolutely! Are there projects that have yet to be turned in? Aren't there always. These are the same kids that never turned in their worksheets either.
In public education we often forget about the students in the middle. The struggling students get special attention and your high achievers would do well even if instructed by a well trained monkey. However, we often let middle of the road students sink or swim without as much thought for a myriad of reasons. It is my contention that if you want to get the most out of these students you should try at least a few PBL assignments and it's important that you let the students choose how to demonstrate their learning. I'm not an expert, but I know that I was a much happier teacher by the end of this past week.
For some examples of what I'm talking about please check out my student project wiki located here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)