It takes a teacher

Summer vacation is just about over, and as usual, I did not achieve my yearly ridiculous goal of having my entire school year mapped out, with all my lessons, assignments, assessments, etc. ready to go, by the first day back. I guess it's time to let that dream go, because life just isn't like that, which means school shouldn't be either, right?

But I did do a heck of a lot of reading, thinking, experimenting, and learning, thanks to my colleagues and the lovely folks at twitter. And I noticed that a bazillion other teachers spent their summer the same way. So many new ideas, so little time! Project based learning, google+, skype in the classroom, student blogs, alternate assessments, collaborative problem-solving....but some of what I've read has been aimed against the flipping model. Since I remain resolved to use the model this year, and since I have never before been as proud to be a teacher as I am now, I felt compelled to respond to those objections.

Here's what I've read:

1. It really isn't that much different than the traditional model, since it is still the teacher delivering content rather than students discovering and collaborating.
2. It could be used as an excuse for giving busy work during class.
3. Getting students to watch videos, like those at Khan Academy, doesn't help them to solve real problems.
4. And besides, those Khan academy videos are boring.

Now here's what I THINK :

1. Sure, I am still delivering content.

I still feel compelled to, as I bet we all do, and maybe that will change one day, but for now I need to know that at least the minimum is out there for the kids to get.


But that's just it! Now the content is just the minimum! 


It's just the starting point. From there I can go wherever I or my students want! We get to have time to work on those collaborative projects, or blogs, or student-led discussions, or WCYDWT problems, or whatever we didn't have time to do when the entire class was taken up with content delivery.

2. As for the busy work, well, two things:

First, I found that the process of flipping forced me, even freed me, to come up with much better activities than I ever had before. And I think they are about as far away from busy work as possible, but you can check that out in this post. It freed my mind, and the rest followed! (Thanks for the inspiration, ladies of En Vogue!)

Second, the whole busy work problem didn't start with flipping. Any teacher abusing class time that way was probably doing the same thing in the old system too. That's just not a good enough reason not to try something new. The vast majority of teachers are in the profession because they love to teach, not because of the light workload or the easy money, so please. And young Matt Damon agrees with me:



Sigh. Matt Damon. What was I talking about? Oh yeah!

3. True, but the videos aren't the whole story. And neither is flipping.

Within the systems in which the vast majority of us find ourselves, where we're handed a rigid curriculum in which students are measured by their end-of-year exam results, flipping is, at the very least, a BIG step in the right direction. It gives us (and by us I mean kids, teachers, and parents) two things: some sense of security that we're covering the content, plus, and more importantly, a taste of what things COULD be like.

I got to show a small group of keener beaners how to do a bunch of cool stuff on their TI calculators (see the post here) that I NEVER had time to do before, and that led to a discussion that was of their own interest. See? Flipping led to more student-centered, constructivist learning, so there!. I also got to help many students learn how to use tech tools, like Word and Geogebra, and in the process, cleared up some math issues they were having. Efficiency, technology, plus authenticity, so there!

4. This blog claims that the Khan Academy videos are boring.

Surely there is a nicer way to express that opinion? Talk about peripheral learning - is this good modelling for our students? I think it's great that that opinion has resulted in many teachers' creating their own high-quality videos, don't get me wrong. But we teachers are the harshest critics - of each other and ourselves. And besides, it's what the kids think that really counts, and I can say from last year's experience, in which all my students belonged to Khan Academy, that there are a lot of kids that love Sal Khan. They love his friendly, casual yet enthusiastic style. They also love having another teacher available to them if the one they've been tossed isn't cutting it. One student was honest enough to tell me that he understood way better from Sal than from me. I have no problem with that. Ahem.

And my main point, finally...

I see flipping as a natural response to a system that doesn't work. We needed to individiualize instruction, but couldn't with 30 kids in a class. We needed to encourage collaborative problem-solving but couldn't find the time in class. We needed to teach holisitically, because life isn't just one thing at a time, but we had to prepare them for single-subject exams. So someone came up with a work-around.

It's a step, a big, brilliant one, and it just figures that teachers came up with it. I can't wait to see what we'll come up with next!

Flipping 101

I've been running into lots of teacher friends over the course of the summer, what with us all being on vacation, and as it turns out, lots of people are interested in hearing more about flipping the class. I'm also hoping to do a presentation about flipping at the next QPAT convention here in Montreal (if they accept my late proposal, that is), so hopefully this post will help me prepare for that. I'm sure someone else has already written something like this before, but here is my attempt nevertheless at outlining the basics of flipping, as well as ideas for more advanced flipping.

What is "flipping the class"?

What gets flipped are the time and place that the teaching and the homework happen. The teaching happens outside of class time, and the work is done during class time, which represents the opposite of what most of us experienced in school.

In order to do this, a certain amount of technology is involved.  Flipping the class isn't about the technology, BUT how successful it is certainly depends on access to and facility with technology. For example, computers with internet access for your students are a huge advantage, if not absolute necessities. The most common vehicle of delivery of the lessons is via some kind of internet site, although some teachers provide their students with CD's, which of course would still require a computer to be viewed. Then there are the many tools that the teacher needs in order to make the lessons and keep track of their students' progress. I hope that doesn't scare anyone off the idea, because there is a TON of support out there for anyone who wants to have at it, including my own humble blog. You are reading the ravings of someone who does not know a lot, but has been able to progress nevertheless!

Why flip the class?

Well, it turns out that this simple idea produces some pretty amazing results. For example:

• You no longer have kids saying to you "I couldn't do the homework. I understood it when you did it in class, but when I got home I just stared at it and didn't get it anymore."
• You have more time to help kids during class, and I mean kids at both ends of the ability scale. Those that need help can get it from you OR their peers, and those that are interested in going deeper can do the same.
• Your kids become more responsible for their own learning, by virtue of the fact that they control the speed with which they work through the lessons and the assignments.

How do you do it?

I have just started, so I am a relative newbie. I started in March of this past school year (2010-2011), so I will tell you what I have done, as well as what some of the more advanced flippers have done. Keep in mind that it's all a work in progress for me and, really, for everybody. I have chronicled a lot of my experiences in older posts right here on this blog, so if you are interested in how it all actually unfolded so far, please see the archives beginning in March. For now, here are the basics:

1. Give your students access to a recorded lesson.

You can either find one that someone else has already created, like for example, one of the 2000 or so free ones at Khan Academy, or you can make your own. I prefer to make my own because I want my students to hear my voice. Most of the teachers seem to prefer making their own, or teaming with other teachers at their own school, for the same reason - familiarity and comfort for our students.

• What tools you use to make this recording is up to you of course - many use Camtasia, which I would love to try, but for now I am using Voicethread. Here are some of mine from the week of May 16:
  
• Voicethread: In an earlier post, I talked about how I make, use, and share voicethreads, so if you're interested, it's all there somewhere. Yes I am lazy. Or you can find out more at voicethread.com. 
• Smart Notebook Recorder: I would think that anyone with a smartboard would be able to use the built-in recorder to make their lesson recordings. Whatever you use, make sure your students can open it at home. As far as I know, the problem with using Smart Notebook is no kids have it at home, because it is SO not free. Maybe it's possible to export it to some kind of mpg format? Not sure.
• How you make it available to your students - if you're creating a video you can upload it to a website, or give them a CD if they don't have internet at home. For voicethread, the recording is stored on the voicethread site, so I just give them a link to the recording. More advanced teachers have a class site like a wiki, to which they upload their lessons.

2.  At the next class, assign work for your students to do to process the lesson. 

• For everyone who has listened to the lesson, you are now ready to give them something to do. You can just stick with the usual textbook problems, or worksheets, or you can get more creative. The point here is to get them to do something during classtime so that they have immediate access to someone - either you or another student - to help if they need it.
• I  found very quickly that I was compelled to do more interesting activities in class, (see post "Flipping with Fun Audrey") as well as assigning them more creative tasks, like using geogebra, or getting them to generate questions for a partner. It just felt like such a golden opportunity to get them to do more interesting things than just drill and practice. You can see one such activity in an earlier post that I did - it's a doc called operations on vectors. Still lazy.
• This is where you get to spend the most amazing time with the kids - individually or in small groups. You will find that the learning that happens is more authentic, because it will be tailored to the immediate needs or interests of the student. It will be a correction, or a suggestion, or an enrichment offered just in time.

3. Make it possible for them to go at their own speed.
This is why flipping has been called the magic bullet for differentiation. They can go as slow as they need to, or as fast as they want to.

• Which means you have to have as many lessons and assignments as you can ready to go in advance so that the keener beaners can go ahead. This is quite a challenge for the first year that you are flipping, as it takes time to put together a recording that you are happy with. Some mixing of your stuff and other peoples' stuff will likely be necessary. Feel free to use any of my powerpoints/voicethreads, such as they are!
• Next year, I plan to get them to watch a variety of lessons on the same topic, and get some critiquing from them. For the time being, I would still like them to start with me, then compare with other teachers. Maybe I am still a bit egocentric that way...

4. Check in with each student on a regular basis.
Of course you want to make sure they are working their way through the course in a timely fashion, and grasping it as they go, so you need to have some system of keeping track, for the purposes of evaluation and pacing.

• Some teachers have a regular Friday check-in/evaluation routine. Zero for anything not done type of thing. I use an online checklist that I created using googledocs, mainly because I don't get to see my students face-to-face. Every few tasks in the checklist is something they have to hand in to me, so that I can mark it. I also include online quizzes for them to assure themselves that they are on the right track before they zoom to the next lesson. Some of these quizzes are found at explorelearning, and some I create also using googledocs. Here is a checklist from the week of May 16:

• Next year I will be using the googledocs assessment system, created by Andy Schwen, about which I wrote in another post.

5. Share with other teachers who are flipping. Join twitter and/or the flipped teacher ning at http://vodcasting.ning.com/ 

Because, as I said, a lot of technology is really necessary, and a lot of time needs to go into creating good materials, and hey, we're all in this together!

Blipping report

Haven't posted for a looooong time mainly due to bad neck and shoulder pain, which is definitely related to being on the frackin computer all day. But I've been thinking of you, my little blog!

So I've been continuing the flipping with all my grade 11's, combined with getting them to blog, as well as getting them to indicate their progress on the googledocs checklist.

Interesting things: Blog posts/comments:

• The blog posts/comments are a lot more interesting now, as a result of flipping. I adapted the scribe post model to reflect the fact that they are not all doing the same thing at the same time. They now can blog or comment on the lesson they're currently watching, or the activity they're currently doing, or anything else they want to share - for example, Stephen posted about his own work habits:
  

  Today I’m not going to blog about how I completed the task list then mention some complication I came across. Today I’m blogging about the task list itself.
  I find that the task is a pretty efficient tool when combined with the voice threads. Personally I prefer to work at my own pace, and the task list allows me to do so. I can run through the tasks on the list pretty quickly (as can most of us in the class I assume), so that gives me a lot of free time to work on other subjects that are a little more highly pressured at the moment, or even spend time getting ahead in review for the final exam.
  One of the best parts about the checklist is that we’re given a daily list that when followed, will have you finished by the end of the week. While most of us could get way ahead in the checklist and have much less math to do for the rest of the week, I personally find that I prefer to follow the daily schedule, so that I can balance out the work with my other subjects that might need a bit more attention, seeing that exams are coming up.
  However, I do think that it requires students who are willing to complete work without many checkups on our progress. You could say it’s more of a mid to end year thing, seeing that working like this at the beginning of the year could give you a habit of procrastination.

• Blog conversations have more authenticity to them - check this out, after I showed them this youtube video (thanks to Kate Nowak for finding and posting about it!). An actual conversation ensued, and I found out that one of my students is planning to be a pilot:

Today in class miss showed us a video about cross-wind plane landings and I have to say it scared me quite a bit. Vectors can really be dangerouse. Ill wear a hemet next time i do my homework:P Btw: I really love when miss gives us videos to watch. I find it useful to see how what we are learning actually happens in real life.:):):)

Today, Mrs Mcgoldrick showed us a video about Scary Aircraft Landings.

Here’s the link if you might want to re-watch: (Not sure if the link will work…)

<a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X_7Xt2ga-s”>The video simply shows an extreme scary crosswind landings. It is not just about how they approach to land but how the pilot balanced an aligned land on the runway to and on a better angle. Sometimes it also depends which way is the wind blowing.

•  
  kristopher says:  Yah it looks pretty scary of how the pilots come in sideways with crosswinds especially as a passenger on the plane or even an observer. The wind causes the plane to go sideways especially on landing when the plane is trying to do so many things. Even thought this looks scary, pilots are trained to land liek this in these conditons. Before they land they know the magnitude and direction of the wind. So if it’s a crosswind, then the plane shifts to the side. To counteract this, one of the things the pilots do is by using the rudder peddle, this shifts the rudder on the plane. This quickly turns the plane back straight just before they land. Pilots dont do it right away because the plane can over transistion. Pilots also have to follow different techniques while landing like change in flaps, speed and time of decent etc, but the main theing is the rudder peddles.:P The reason why i know this is because I want to be a pilot and I know a lot fo things and techniques of pilots:
  
  
  shelley says:  Yeah the video was pretty awesome and scary at the same time! We really can observe how wind affects the trajectory of the plane. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in one of those planes in those situations
  
  
  fred says: Same here Kris I wanted to be a pilot but my eyes are to bad Also the pilots turn the plane so the engine thurst is aimed in a direction that will cause the plane to fly straight, while its side ways. They have to reduce the engine thrust so its low enough that the wind pushes the plane. This is just like adding vectors, the resulting vector would be or should be aimed straight down the runway. This can be dangerous because if the speed is reduced to much the plane can stall, which measn theres not enough lift under the wings to kepp the plane up. Also like Kris said if u give to much rudder the pilots can completly lose control of the plane. Its rough stuff

Interesting things: the googledocs checklists

• The checklists continue to be an amazing tool for me. I found out that you can rearrange the results spreadsheet so that it shows you just one student at a time, and when I do that, I can see this:

• Because it's in order by date, it's like a graph of the speed at which this child is working, as well as a simple checklist. I don't have to manually accumulate things.
• If I am more interested in how many are done, say, activity A, than in who has done it, I can arrange the spreadsheet by simply going to that item, and selecting "done", and I get this:

.......so that I can know when it's time to process it together, or correct it.
• I feel so absolutely empowered by this checklist! I realize now why I have suffered from being a wimpy teacher all this time. And by wimpy I mean not calling kids out on stuff that they really needed to be called out on. Like kids who don't do their homework - I can speak frankly to them about it because THEY have admitted to it in writing by virtue of the checklist! So that part of the discussion is done, which is the part I always had trouble with!
• I have fallen into a pattern. First part of the class is about where the majority of the class is, and the second part is about individual students.
• I start the class by discussing the work that the majority have finished, say activity A. Then they continue on their own, and I have individual talks, either initiated by them, or if not, by me!

Interesting things: Flipping

• Really enjoying the private discussions. Because they are so much more authentic too. It's not only about the math, sometimes it's about how to use Microsoft Equation in Word, or about something that's happening in their lives, like a photography contest. And of course, sometimes, it's about them facing the music.
• I am more comfortable with the silent class because: I can watch their progress via the checklists as they happen. I don't even have to refresh, it just constantly updates the spreadsheet.
• I am also more comfortable because it actually isn't silent from my point of view, and that's because I am taking them one at a time into a breakout room (It feels like I'm a doctor seeing patients!)
• What's missing in the online setting is the spontaneous collaboration that happens naturally in the brick and mortar setting. I remind them that they are allowed to work together, but that seems to only be happening with the kids who are in the same school, naturally. How to get it happening spontaneously between schools is a problem to be solved....

And I just found, through the flipping teachers ning, that you can also use googledocs to make up quizzes that immediately tell the student if they're right and then sends the teacher the results for the whole class. Why would google do that? Why are you so good to me google?

First post-flip tests

Just corrected Tech Sci Math's first test since the flip - 81% average - pretty nice, by any standard! I still had two failures, and they were from students who usually do extremely well with the old model. Mind you, both were absent a lot during this unit, and so missed the class activities, and didn't manage to get caught up.

The most significant result is J, who got 80%, compared to discouraging results in every other test this year! Needless to say, this makes me really want to keep flipping! Just before giving them their marks, I asked them for their reactions to flipping. J said he found it a hassle, because it felt like there was more work to do this way. Then I told him his mark, and I bet he doesn't find it a hassle anymore! The rest of their responses varied, some preferred this way, some preferred the old way, and one said she is happy either way. One of the kids who failed, and who usually does much better, was not in favour of flipping, because she found it hard to remember to listen to the lessons at home. Which is weird, because when homework was just homework, she always remembered to do that.

My other group that was flipped, the grade 11 Science math, also had their first post-flip test. Class average was 73%, which is pretty standard for this group. My J for this group hasn't written it yet, though, and that's the one result I am most interested in.

Science math is getting flipped for their next unit as well, which is vectors.

As it turns out, Tech Sci Math is doing the unit that I just finished with Sci Math, and vice-versa. Which means that I already have a lot of material at the ready for each of these classes, which means I'll do an even better job of flipping this time around for both classes.

New this time around - geogebra worksheets, the googledocs task checklist, and the combo of flipping plus blogging.

Here are a few snapshots of their gorgeous geogebra worksheets, in which I gave them a set of instructions right in the geogebra file and they had to create various vectors using various criteria:

I love how colourful they are, and how geogebra automatically matches the colours of the vectors in the pic to their algebraic representations on the left.

And here is how the checklist is getting populated:

I've blocked out the names, but you can still see the info that is compiled for you - timestamp, name, etc. Really helpful in ways I hadn't even anticipated, like:

• now I have a reminder to go look for kids' stuff once I see they've checked "done and uploaded".
• I also have very concrete things to talk to individuals about during class, like "Where is that worksheet, why haven't you done it, c'mon cough it up!"

It's still about feelings

It seems that the main difference so far isn't the marks, it's more about how the whole process feels. It all feels so different to me. I am able to have those one-on-one conversations that I never had time to do before. I have time to go deeper into the content. I had hoped that that would give better test results, but so far that doesn't seem to be the case. So either things are at least as good as they were, or the test is not the best tool to measure whatever has changed as a result of flipping. Something has changed, no doubt about it.

Flogging or blipping?

I'm getting ready to start the last unit of the year, and this time I'm going to see how it works if I combine flipping with blogging. The groups will be grade 11 Sci Math, who have already been flipped and have also tried blogging, and gr 11 Tech Sci Math, who have been flipped but have not tried blogging yet.

I have come to the conclusion that in the live, online class, without the f2f, I absolutely have to have some activities that I witness them doing during class time. Which has led me to form a table to organize different activities by who works on it, when they work on it, and for how long they work on it. Here's the link to the table in googledocs:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cMQG49sjNofsL_TWac10YHk3aRpOmsLMXQdJnofD4pQ/edit?hl=en&authkey=CKW3hvsO

I also put together that checklist that I had posted about a while ago (see April 8 Keeping track...). It was sooooooo easy with googledocs. Here's how it looks:



....and here's how you do it:

Go to google > more > docs > create new form
Give it a title
> question 1 "Name:" > question type "text"
> select "make this a required question" > done
> question 2 > question type "checkboxes"
Then just make each "question title" an item of whatever list you are turning into a checklist. I gave them two choices for their status on each item "Begun" or "Done". Trying to stay positive...

I would love to be able to embed the checklist into our class blog, but alas, wordpress once again just won't cooperate, so instead I will post a link to the doc where they can get at it. These googledocs are published on the web, so as long as they have internet, it's all good.

I think, all things considered, blipping is the better mashup!

The Flipped Class Webinar

After attending this great webinar yesterday, which was hosted by Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sams, I sat down and tried to organize my thoughts. First, some snippets of what I heard, to the best of my memory:

• Jonathan, about the flipped model: "This is the magic bullet for differentiation."
• Aaron said that in their first year, they had everyone more or less doing the same thing at the same time, then it evolved over the years into what it is today, mastery, self-paced, active
• On a weekly basis, this is what happens: Monday the teacher gives the class the current week's benchmarks, then every Friday gives marks based on how much of the assigned tasks each student has satisfactorily completed. 
• During the week, the teacher roams around the room and talks with each kid, informally, to assess their progress
• How to monitor progress without collecting every single thing the students do: the teacher can tell during the daily walk-arounds who is copying, who is working, who is struggling, and can then redirect kids who need it when they need it, by saying ok by now you should be here so today you are doing this
• Students take tests using Moodle, and if they get 75% or better, thay can move on to another unit
• Noise can be an issue for kids taking tests - well it won't be in the virtual class!
• Students can do an alternate assessment if they can't get 75% on test
• moodle can generate a different test for each kid, even though it covers the same topics, which helps guard against cheating
• Aaron said that there is some debate about whether or not each teacher should make their own videos, or use some kind of a "master" video
• Katie (Jonathan's daughter and student) said that copying (cheating) still happens, like in any class, but she still thinks this is a better way to learn
• Anyone who goes to this June's conference gets a free copy of Camtasia!
• Jonathan said that he could never go back to lecturing.

What occurs to me about my own experience so far: 

• re: my discomfort with the quiet, not being sure what they're doing: the walk-around that Jon & Aaron can do in the brick and mortar class takes care of this, so instead of me waiting around for my students to come to me with questions, I will go to them one at a time and ask what they're doing, get informal assessments each day - if they won't initiate the conversation, then I will. Kind of my job.
• I need to get me some moodle
• I need to make my voicethreads shorter
• ....or my camtasia podcasts, if I can get my hands on that software
• Looking at what Jon and Aaron have put together over the years, as a team, for each unit...stunning and scary too...it's going to take me years to build the kind of system these pioneers have. I need banks of activities, all my lessons taped one way or another, a system for checking off who's done what and when, a marking system, everything packaged, a new website to house all this....a fantastic challenge but very exciting!
• I'm so glad I tried this now instead of at the beginning of the school year, when there is just too much going on. Next year, I'll be able to start off doing this and improve even more as the year goes on. It would have been too overwhelming in September.
• In fact, this is the time of year when I am typically running out of steam, and instead, I am energized and excited about the possibilities that are out there! Today I spent time trying to embed a geogebra dynamic worksheet in my blog, and even though I haven't gotten it to work yet, it's another thing to look forward to. Unheard of in April!
• I still want to continue the classblog, but one thing at a time. I had initially thought that it would be harder to have a scribe type blog with flipping, because everyone's doing something different, but it seems that overall the kids are at the same place more or less, so it should still be doable. In fact, it might help keep up the pace for everyone.
• I've had to do a few lectures since starting this, due to this and that, like one day only 1 kid had watched the voicethread in Tech Sci Math. And boy was I bored giving that lecture. Which has to mean my kids were, too. This is not how I want to teach anymore, and it hasn't been for a long time.

I don't think there's any going back for me either.

Flipping with Fun Audrey

Amazing and weird things are happening!

There are two of me now. One of me does all the work, and the other one has all the fun. The workhorse me does the delivery of the content, and then fun me gets to do the fun stuff with my kids. The workhorse is voicethread Audrey, and then in class I am Fun Audrey. I like being Fun Audrey.

For example, voicethread Audrey shows them that the equations of the asymptotes of the hyperbola are:

....but Fun Audrey gives them three different hyperbolas:

....asks them to find their asymptotes' equations, and surprise, surprise, they all have the same asymptotes!...It's the ratio of b:a that influences the slope...and now that they know the same asymptotes can belong to many different hyperbolas, I can give them this:

...and feign astonishment when I say".... "What? Which hyperbola, you say? Well, what else do I need to tell you so that you'll know which one I mean..." Now they know something about the hyperbola that voicethread Audrey would have taken 10 times as long to show, and that only one tenth of them would have gotten anyway.

Oh yes....Fun Audrey is having fun!

More thoughts:

• I don't think I am covering the content faster, but it sure seems like I am covering it better. I have more class time, for sure.
• But someone is paying for this extra time by getting less time to do something else. Who is paying and how much is it costing? Are they doing less written work than pre-flip? Are there some who are doing more work than they've done all year?
• My two J's continue to REALLY astonish me, no feigning here. There is no denying that they are learning more, working more, and participating more since I started this. Can't wait to see what their next tests are like.
• As I mentioned, I am having fun. Hopefully, I am not the only one. Soon time to poll. Or blog.
• At the very least, they are now getting two chances to get the content. I used to tell them over and over that most people need to listen to a lesson twice before they really get it. And I always made the recorded lesson available to them right after class, but very few actually listened to it a second time, even if they didn't understand. Now, by the time we're in class, anything I say in relation to the content is already the second pass. Theoretically.
• If I were a first-year teacher, there would be no Fun Audrey, maybe not even a voicethread Audrey. Because first-years don't already have a huge bank of powerpoints that they can just polish up and upload to voicethread. I do. Because I am also.....Powerpoint Audrey!

Looking forward to the flipped class webinar Monday! Fun Audrey will be there!

Keeping track of student progress in the flipped class

Sci math:

Today I decided to give as much class time as possible to letting them get through their work. SO first I spent a few minutes going over questions on yesterday's voicethread, and pointed out a mistake in one of the slides - which was discovered by Juan, and which he commented on right in the voicethread. Virtual nods all around..."oh yeah I thought so too but I wasn't sure". Fabulous. Maybe next time I should plant a mistake or two and tell them to find it. Hmmmmmm......interesting.

Anyway, after that, it was Hammer time. Here's the work you have to get done, kids, have at it!

Then.........chirp...chirp....aaaaaaannnnnnd it's too quiet for me I'm going out of my mind.

Adapting flipping to the online class:

I'm feeling a bit insecure about who's getting what done during our class time, because, as I've mentioned, I can't actually see my students. I have tried a few things to track them:

•  getting them to private message me twice about where they are - at the beginning and the end of our work time. What's making me insecure is that in between those two times, I get a few questions, from the kids I usually get questions from, which is great, but most of them I don't hear anything from. Worries me. Are they doing nothing? Or worse, are they doing something, getting stuck, moving on, and forgetting about it? And not asking me for help? Not a problem in my keener beaner class though, they are math terminators!
• I posted at the classblog "What did you do today?" a couple of times, and asked them to reply by telling me everything they've done. Not all did, so that's one more thing I would have to do a checklist of, not only the work, but the post about the work. Don't like that idea.
• I know I could just get them to hand in EVERYTHING, but, well, geez. I'm just one woman.

Which leads me to this deep thought:

What occurs to me as I ponder this is that making them report on themselves, however I do it, might be something big. It makes me think of the principle that measuring something usually changes how much of that something there is.

For example, in order to watch my fat and salt intake, I keep a log of what I eat, along with the fat and salt totals for the day. I have found over the years that the act of writing down what I eat not only keeps track of what I eat, but it influences what I eat. It makes me behave better, because as much as I love to eat a Big Mac and fries, I hate to write down the horrible numbers that go with them. So I might still eat food that's bad for me, but way less often than I would without the log.

Maybe something like that could happen if they had to write down what they've completed. Because they will not want to have nothing to write. And not just because they know that I will be looking at the log, but also because they know that it will be there tomorrow and the next day for THEM to look at. They could potentially become more motivated to work, to get organized, to take responsibility for their own learning.

And if I can come up with an easy way for them to do this...maybe a googledocs checklist type of thing? I'll have to check that out. I know how to do the online quiz with googledocs, which generated an excel file that showed me, and only me, who answered what for each question. Seems like there must be a way to tweak that into an online checklist.

And hey, that would be useful for anyone, online teacher or not, no?

Flip day 3:

First off, I have to say, that I am still using most of my class time getting them all to do the same thing at the same time. I am getting them ALL to do stuff on the board simultaneously, and then getting their observations, comparisons etc. This is a big change from my usual lecturing, but I know it is not the mastery learning model, wherein they pace themselves. I am reluctant to just let them work on their own at their own pace the whole time, because I can't see them. Until I come up with a way that I can do THAT online, that's how it's gonna be. Besides, they still have the rest of the class to do their "homework', which they are now referring to as "classwork".

But in the meantime, these classes are so much fun! We talk about so many little details that in the past maybe a small percentage of kids would have gotten, like today Raph asked "Is it possible to write the equation of a circle to make it look like an ellipse?" I've never had that question before, but I sure have shown examples like that in past years, with no idea if anyone got it or cared about it.

Tech Sci Math:

EVERYBODY watched the lesson this time, even one girl who was absent yesterday. I spent the lesson giving them plenty of brain and eboard exercise drawing angles - radians, degrees, positive, negative, big, small, you name it They had a workout like never before, and they ALL know what they're doing. J is unrecognizeable. I used to have to wait forever for him to respond to anything I asked, and he always claimed it was his computer. No computer problems this week, suddenly. Could this have happened without flipping? Probably, but I don't know how.
This class has been a real problem for me in the sense that they are SOOOOOO quiet. Very hard to get them to participate in any way, shape, or form. This week has been very different, though. Is it because of flipping? Well at least indirectly, yes, because I have had to come up with better class activities as a result of flipping. But they are so much keener than they have ever been, and it's because they get it! That HAS to be because they have the time to listen and re-listen.

Tonight they're watching this one:




Sci Math early class:

All but one listened, and that was due to bad internet at home. In this class, there are 2 or 3 who have been the main participaters, but again, this week, everyone's hopping. Still hearing more from J, she is a real bonafide member of class now, drawing right along with the rest of them, with no prompting from me. Stunning me. Also had lots of opportunities to correct little mistakes around the class, and even get good at using the ellipse drawing tool, which reinforced the procedure for graphing.

Sci Math Keener-Beaner class:

Everyone listened to the lesson, and we even had time to investigate how to get conics showing up on the TI calculator without using the Conics app:

I have tried to fit this kind of thing in in the past, but this time it just happened. We even got to why does the circle look like an ellipse in standard zoom, but not in square zoom! I cannot honestly think of a downside to this. This really is amazing so far!





Tonight they are listening to this one:




On the topic of voicethreads:

I finally organized my students into their classes within the school voicethread site, and my voicethreads as well. It was getting a bit crowded on my voicethread homepage what with all these recorded lessons. Classes are called groups on voicethread, and once you have your kids in groups, it gives you another way to give your kids access to the voicethread you want them to watch. It's amazing how quickly I can learn how to do something when I am ready to learn. Have to keep that in mind for my students as well.

And about the McGoldblog:

Nothing new here, except for the laTex editor. Will get back to getting a scribe poster, especially since now they can make it look so pretty.

Flip day 2:

Tech Sci Math:

1/4 listened to the voicethread. C didn't have time, M didn't have internet at home, and R didn't know she had to do that. But the good news, in fact great news, is that the one kid who did listen, is the last one I would have expected to! J always has an excuse for not handing things in, not doing homework...etc. So yay on that! He said he found it easy and he and his dad watched it together and figured it out. Sniff. Weeping.

So, change of plans, instead of giving them the work to do in class, I did the first half of the lesson (important angles in the unit circle) in class. I offered J the option to instead do the assigned work so that he doesn't have to listen again. He chose to listen again. NOTE TO SELF: Must ask him if he found that listening the second time was at all helpful - did he notice anything that he didn't the first time around! Or understand anything better the 2nd time around?

After getting through all the angles in degrees, I stopped teaching and had them fill in the angles from memory, individually, in breakout rooms. Interesting to watch them work. Some did them in ascending order, some by first doing the quadrantals, then the 45's, etc. Having this opportunity to watch them doing something was great for me, and it was great for them to organize all this info in a way that makes sense for them. I watched as J made a mistake, then self-corrected. Dried my eyes and moved on.

Now they have to listen to the rest of that lesson for homework, which is all about the same angles, only in radians. Tomorrow I plan to do the same BOR activity in class. So even though only 1 kid did what he was supposed to do, it worked out ok.

Sci Math classes:

Due to a minor glitch, the voicethread lesson (on introduction to the ellipse) was only available to them to view as of 8 pm last night (my permissions weren't set properly - don't know why). In today's early class, only 2/11 kids had listened to it. Interestingly, one of these kids is another notorious non-worker. Whose name also starts with J.....In the other class, the super duper keeners, 6/7 listened to it nevertheless. Wild horses couldn't keep these kids from doing their math homework.

Again, plan B for the early class, did the lesson, and offered the option of getting the work done to the ones that did listen. They chose to listen a 2nd time as well. Glory be - this J, who never, ever says one word in class, was answering and participating just great. It was like I had a new student in my class!

For the super keener class, I spent the first half of the class with all of them drawing on the eboard. Gave them each a section of the board with their initials:



...then told them to graph, as best they can, an ellipse with a major axis length of 6 and a minor axis length of 4. Got this:

...which led to the following discussion topics: (I shut up really well here)

• do any of these fit the description of maj = 6 and min = 4
• should everyone have the same exact ellipse (scaling, orientation)
• what made FL draw it that way (I am not human, was his explanation)

Next had them do it again, draw the foci inside their own ellipse, pick any point on the ellipse, draw the focal radii, find the sum of the focal radii, etc etc, just kept on getting them to compare their own work with everyone else to see what they had in common or not. I just found that having this time to process with them, instead of just business as usual, allowed me to be more creative with my questions.

Like suddenly I thought of this: I asked them: Suppose I took a string, fixed its two ends here, and drew this ellipse:

and then I took the same string, and moved its ends closer together like this:

1. Will the resulting ellipse be the same or different?
2. How will it be different?

There was quite a difference of opinion about exactly how it would be different. Rich discussion, might even have someone tomorrow who actually tried it!

My impression of flipping as of now:

Pro: better class activity, feels more productive, feel more connected to them due to questions answered as needed, some kids are watching lessons twice which is what they needed in the first place
Con: feel a bit disconnected from the content in a way, takes a lot of time to do the recording - lots of retakes, tech issues at home can grind it all to a halt

I am probably not spending enough time letting them go at their own pace, though, which is a key feature of flipping. Will work on it.

Followup on first full flip

First the facts:

• In Sci Math, out of 18 kids, 14 watched the lesson before class. In Tech Sci math, 6 out of 8 watched. All those who didn't had technical reasons.
• I spent the first 10-15 minutes of Sci Math class (they're the ones that have the classbog already) showing them the online latex thingy and giving them a chance to try it out (Got some really pretty posts!)
• I spent the first 15 minutes or so showing Tech Sci math our new classblog (they haven't been blogging, but by gum, they soon will be)
• I gave them all a chance to ask any questions they had on the lesson, and there were about as many questions on that as I usually get when I used to ask "Are there any homework questions?" which is not very many. Raph said "I had a question but then I figured it out" Aha! Must be because she had time to and she didn't have me to ask!
• gave a few warmup questions
• gave the assigned work - pretty standard stuff from the text
• asked them to check their answers (This is what I expect them to do with normal homework, so why not?)
• spent the rest of the time answering individual questions, taking kids into break out rooms individually as needed
• had the next day's lesson and accompanying notes at the ready for anyone who finished early - only one did, but hey I was ready for him!
• At the end of the period, I asked the blogging class to respond to my blog post called "So what did you do today?" to help me keep track of where they all are. We'll see how many remember....The non-blogging class - well, I am in the process of creating one for them at edublogs. I had totally forgotten that I created this one a year ago and abandoned it in frustration when it seemed too complex for me! A year ago!

Impressions:

• theirs: Voicethread comments:

• Juan: I really liked the idea of doing the lesson at home, and then the work in class. My only doubt would be if the lessons start getting harder, maybe we would need some help, but then again, we have class to ask. This lesson was super clear and I'm looking forward to review this lesson in class. :]

• Kris: I agree with jaun that  the lesson was clear and i understand it very well but i would also question that when the material begins to get harder and the questions become more difficult then i may have more trouble understanding the lesson and picking up the fine bits of it but so far so good:)

• Abigail: I found that this twist is interesting where we do lessons at home and homework in class. The lesson was well explained, I like the how miss used a format of going showing back the slide after she explained it.

• About Abigail's comment - there is a great new feature, called M5, in voicethread, that makes using voicethread to record a lesson WAY easier. They just added it like 2 months ago. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!
• some (didn't do a full survey) found that getting through the lesson on their own went faster than our usual 50 minute class.
• mine:
• pretty quiet class!
• I'm pretty busy though, answering questions that are coming in privately
• I LOVE helping them out individually. My help feels SO much more effective, when it's delivered as needed
• So far the kids that are asking for help are the same ones that usually do.
• too calm somehow, and I am sure I will have to have a variety of activities in class, not just individual work, but group stuff
• Overall, I loved it!

Final deep thought:

I am thinking tonight of all the times a kid has said to me "Miss I get it when you do it in class, but at home I just stare at it and don't even know where to begin".  I hope at least one of those kids is going to ask me for help during class and change things around.

Tomorrow's "homework" on voicethread

As of this moment, the only voice on this is mine. As time goes on, of course, student voices MIGHT be added:

Flipping, Voicethread, and Sakai

I jonied a ning that is for teachers who are flipping their classes - "The Flipped Class Network" - a great place to get advice and ideas! I feel like a bit of an imposter, though, because so far I haven't done the true, full flipping of the class. Last week, I had taught a lesson on degrees vs radians, and didn't quite finish all the slides. The leftover slides were all they had to look at on their own. But those leftover slides were just worked out examples. Not really the meat of the lesson, and there was no teacher voice to guide them.

Now to try the true, full flip. To record a lesson, have them listen to it on their own for homework, then spend class time the next day doing assignments/activities, going at their own pace, getting help as they require it from me or from a peer.

Step 1: Recording
To do the recording, many people seem to use Cantasia or some other type of software, but I think I will just use voicethread. I have everything I need right there to display the slides and record my voice, writing, etc, plus the kids all have their own voicethread accounts, so they don't have to upload anything, I can just give them the link like I usually do.  One advantage voicethread has over other recording software is that while they listen and watch the lesson, they will have the option of commenting with questions, or by answering someone else's already-recorded question. So by the time we get together the next day, I will potentially already know what their questions or issues were, and we can get to the doing part of the learning...

Step 2: Wiki-ing
From what I've read, the idea is to have them go to a wiki to find out what their assigned work is, get files they need, and upload their completed work. There are more things assigned than most can get done in a day, so their paths begin to diverge as the week goes on. Once they have completed a certain body of work, they listen to the next lesson and repeat the cycle. I don't yet have a wiki of my own, but we do have Sakai, which for the time being will perform the same function. It is what is called, I believe, a CMS - content management system - that is used by my organization.

Questions/issues I will be posting for the ning folks:

• I must have to set a time limit of some kind? Like they all have to be at a certain minimum place by a certain time?
• Are answers made available along with the assigned work, so that students can self-correct and then move on, or does the teacher correct?
• Can anyone really do this ALL the time? Brian Bennett said that his students felt they preferred to have a regular lecture once a week to feel secure.
• I need to find a way to be able to see what they're doing while they're doing it, since I don't have the luxury of face-to-face. I don't want to only see the finished product, which they could do at home and then spend class time doing zip. Possible ways to deal with that:
• design activities that can be done right on the eboard in a breakout room which means minimal handwriting needs to be involved, since most don't have a wacom pen.
• tell them to keep checking in with me about where they are in their work
• stop everyone every so often and have a discussion or a round of private message anwers to key questions, which is the strategy many of us online teachers use to see who's working. This assumes everyone is going at more or less the same pace, though...
• have them use their cellphones to take shots of work in progress
• I could make a Skype video call and have them show me their work. Probably not enough bandwidth for that though. Hmmmm....something for my class checklists - who has a cell with a camera, and who has skype with a webcam...
• Have them blog about what they're doing...assuming the flipped class is the same one that is blogging, which is the Gr 11 Science Math.

Like anything else, you just have to do it, jump in the pool, and see what happens!