Mind = blown

I decided to use this week's checklist to ask my students for some feedback on the flipped class, and the result is "Mind = blown". Here are some really positive ones (I didn't edit for spelling):

Frankly I LOVE evrything about it! I really like the fact that the VTs can be watched from home even if my internet is slow and hates me :) BTW cool checklist

Wow! I just love Flipped classes.It’s great to be able to have group-work, or even class-work, without having to be afraid to ask questions about any of the work. And it’s great homework-wise because it gives us more time for other class’ homework and assignments.Flipped classes FTW!

I like it, I like how i can look at the checklist and do a bunch of notes whenever i want and not have to wait to do them in class everyday. It makes things less stressful, because i don't feel like I have a bunch of homework when I know what is planned for the week and get it done as soon as possible. I'm happy with the flipped class, i can't think of anyway to improve it.  

 Coming to school and doing the work here, getting the help I need, and actually discussing the work with the other people in my class is awesome!:) :) I also like the fact that on nights that I don't work, I can go ahead and do the homework for night/days to come! :) Lovin' It!

Honestly, I've been sitting here for a minute trying to think about what I don't like and I can't think of anything.

And here are some that are mixed (my bold): 

I like that we are able to ask you questions during class about work we are having problems with during class time, although i dont like that when we are sent home with homework we only have a voice thread to learn from and cant ask questions about the lesson. Nothing to be imporved.

I think it is a lot easier not having homework in the evening, but it is a bit harder to take notes and do examples from voicethreads than it is during class.

 I like it but in class we dont have that much time to work cause we always have to go over something first so it only leaves us with like 30 minutes to do work. sometimes not even that.

I like the voicethreads better than the khan videos! The voicethreads are not that bad its only when we have voicethreads every night plus the worksheets you give us plus all our other homework it really gets too much but one or 2 per week is fine. I also think the flip classroom works part time because seriously you have time to answer like 2 or 3 people a class and a lot more so i think this part dosnt work at all but doing the work during class i dont mind. I wouldnt mind either if it was the other way because i think it wouldnt really be different than what is happeneing now.

So important for me to hear all of this. It makes me realize a few mistakes I've been making:

• I have been talking too much. Partly that is because I can't see them, and I feel insecure about what they are doing or not doing. Why? I don't know. But they could have used more class time to work.
• I also have been piling on the lessons in too short a time in one particular class. That class has a lot of kids who are very weak and need almost constant help, so I need to slow things down a bit. Letting that government June exam get the best of me I guess...
• I have tried to answer all questions posted on the voicethreads asap but then I forget to tell them that. They could always check back themselves, but it would be nice if they could get a notification when I do that. SO remind them to ask questions but when they do check back.

It also makes me realize a few things I didn't know:

• That they actually ARE doing group work even when I haven't specifically asked them to.  It IS happening organically, at least in some classes, just as I had hoped!
• How well flipping works, and the way it works in general, can be so different from one class to another. My Science Math kids seem to be almost 100% in love with it, but my Tech Sci kids, not all are lovin' it. All the mixed comments came from that group. Makes sense, because they need more time to get their work done, and they need more help, and they are not getting either. I can't honestly say I didn't know it, but I definitely didn't know THEY knew it!

What I shall now do:

• I shall renew my efforts to shut up.
• I shall be more systematic helping individual students. 5 mins per, and if that's not enough, they work with someone else, or rewatch the lesson, or go to khanacademy for a video or a practice.
• I shall ALWAYS include, in each week's checklist, a open-ended question, that gives them a chance to speak their mind. Maybe this will be a natural progression for them into blogging.
• I shall tell them that was my evil plan all along. Then they'll have Minds = blown.

(I sure hope that expression is ok, not some reference to something, well inappropriate!) 

You are not your mark.

After a few weeks of flipping, and having time to actually talk to my students and listen to them, I now realize how much I've been missing all these years. I used to give tests, mark them, give them back, and that was it. No discussion, no probing to find better strategies for success, no insight gained into the child, only a number recorded. This week I asked for a self-assessment on their last test. I have read some pretty heart-wrenching entries, this one in particular:

My results are poor. First, I don't really understand why i failed. I went to tutoring and really studied hard because of my other test result which wasn't that good either. I don't really know what happened. Maybe I need more practice I guess. 

Another one that's hard to read, because he is being a bit hard on himself, but on the other hand, he is doing some self-analysis as a result:

Extremely disapointed in myself...It was leagues below my self standards. That did not go well at all, some of my errors were just lack of paid attention but I'm a bit troubled by others that I was originally quite confident about. I suppose tonight I may need to ask you about them should the oppotunity arrise and you have time. I apologize for that

Then there is the child who feels she must "redeem" herself, as if she has committed a crime:

I was very disappointed with myself in this test because many of the mistakes should have been easily avoided. When I look at the test, I understand all my mistakes. I found it very easy while doing it but I am a very fast paced person so little details always escape me. If there is a way I could redeem my mark I would gladly take home an extra assignment or something.

And I got to have a chuckle at this one:

BOO YAH, little errors but still VERY HAPPY

How many kids have I missed out on during my 20-odd years of teaching?

Today I would like to say to my students, past, present, and future, that in my class:

1. You are not your mark. Just like my salary does not represent me. I know that right now, to the colleges or universities you're applying to, it seems like you are your mark. But you know better. And I do too.

2. The goal is not perfection, it's growth. And the growth doesn't even have to be in math, it can be that you learn something about how you learn best, or a better way to get organized, or you discover that you love factoring! Yes, factoring!

3. When you learn something, and you share it, everyone wins. When you don't share it, it stops with you. Almost no point to that. What you shared with me in this self-assessment is WAY more important than your mark.

4. When you answer your own questions, you get inspiration. You cannot attach a number to that. When you answer the test questions, all you get is a mark. I'm a math teacher, a number geek, and even I prefer the inspiration over the number.

5. Math and science are not the most important things in the world. The arts are just as important. Just try living without movies, music, photography, books, poetry, dance. Or blogs!

I guess this is what they mean (and I forget who said this) by don't teach the content, teach the student!

And the evolution continues....

I have written a lot about how I use googledocs to track my students in my flipped classroom. If this is your first time reading my deep thoughts, then here are a few of my earlier posts that lead up to this one:
the googledocs checklist, how it looks to the teacher, handling all the gorgeous data, parent reactions.

Well, now I'm using my beloved checklists as a two-way communications device.  I'm finding that just showing the kids the results of their updates is having a huge impact. At the very least, the ones who update everyday love to see how pretty it looks as a spreadsheet, AND, believe it or not, that seems to motivate the others to update more often, and hence be more organized, because they like to see all the pretty colours! And no one wants to see any red.

More importantly, though, showing them their own week-at-a-glance gives me a way to communicate with them in case I don't get to them in class. It also enriches our time in class in ways I hadn't even anticipated!

Here's the routine I've fallen into so that I can quickly assess their progress on the fly, give feedback, and more importantly, get feedback:

Every day:
     To handle the INCOMING info (from students to me): I:

• check for their updates
• colour updates with day of the week, using an abridged and pastelled version of roygbiv:  (Mon = orange, Tue = yellow, Wed = green, Thur = blue, Fri = pink, Sat/Sun = lilac, any day after that = deep purple)
• check for items I can verify, ie if they say "I left a comment on voicethread" I go to voicethread and verify, or if they say "uploaded to dropbox" I check their dropbox

     OUTGOING info (from me to student): I:

• insert comments aimed at the students (not just at me like before) as necessary "ie received" or "not rec'd" or "good comment" or "way to go" (to insert comment, right click on cell in spreadsheet)
• flag, with bright orange, anything that doesn't check out - ie they say they handed something in but I don't see it, or the comment didn't appear at voicethread
• check for any entries with "need help", then flag that with bright orange also
• after all comments are in, and all flags shaded, rearrange in order by student (using data > sort)

      IT'S GO TIME: Now I'm ready for the dialogue! Next class I:

• give them whatever feedback I have put in the comments
• talk to them about anything that's flagged bright orange - ie if they say they did something but I can't see it, or if they said "need help", we talk about that (note that if I don't get to someone, I know that they will still see my comment, at least at the end of the week)
• document that by inserting another comment, like "helped with #3" or "did the worksheet but forgot to upload"

At the end of the weekend:

      Summarize the week's communications, INCOMING, OUTGOING, whatever, as soon as the Sunday
      night deadline is up. I:

• check each student's data  for missing items, and flag those items with red.
• check for students that haven't checked anything all week and make a manual entry for them, which I then shade completely red.
• go to "view list", "show colours", then display one child at a time
• take a snapshot, and send it to them
• if necessary, send their parents the snapshot
• next day in class, process, discuss, suggest, encourage self-assessment

Interpreting their snapshots:

• If it looks like this:
  
  
  I can safely assume they are at least checking in on a regular basis. Note at the bottom are my comments, in footnote form.
• If it looks like this:
  
  
  
  they might be cramming everything in too short a time.
• And how unappealing is this:
  
  
  
  This is someone who is either forgetting to update (in which case, they're missing out on a lot of connection potential with me, and I'm missing out on a lot of data about how they work), or they're not doing anything, in which case, intervention of some kind is needed, and easily set into motion with one look at all the red.

Other enrichment that's happening:

• The things I discover during some talks: one student has been asking me for help before watching the videos! He was frank about it, and knew it couldn't go on. Another admitted she was simply copying her answers then handing it in like that. All I had to ask her was where is your work, and she caved like a tower of jello. I'm not saying I am the first teacher to discover this kind of thing, and I'm not really shocked, it's just that it seems to be their own consciences at work here, because we are talking one one on one.
• Some kids will never ask for help in class, but they will via the checklist.
• Whenever they have the chance to type an answer, rather than check off one from a list, it makes for interesting reading. I asked for their feelings about their test results, and here are some of the things they wrote:

Should have taken my time but I think my score was pretty good, but I should have done better

I hate the fact I made a silly mistake on a MULTIPLE CHOICE question.... But I'll survive. Loved the test, not too hard! :D

I had 100% already so i compared my solutions with my classmates to discover the different ways of solving the problems

I think i did very well considering how difficult it was for me to understand all the work. I studied hard and it paid off

Next:  

• Some kids won't ever ask for help, no matter what , so I want to more regularly question kids individually.
• I still need to get them collaborating more. I had hoped it would happen organically, like they would group themselves according to what they were currently working on. Today, 4 kids actually asked to work together, which is a first, but for the most part, they don't.
• I need to give them work that lends itself to collaboration. Malcolm Swan comes to mind.
• Time to use those google accounts for self-correcting quizzes, a la Andy Schwen! I wrote my own set of instructions for this back in July, and now I'd better re-read those and hope my own post makes sense to me....

Now I just have to figure out a way to do all this and NOT spend every waking moment on the computer, so that my family won't disown me.....another post entirely. Maybe even another blog entirely.

The tip of the geogebra-berg

I have a few lessons that, over the years, I have worked hard on to improve, and that, as a result, I felt not-embarrassed to share. (Is that the best teachers ever feel - not embarrassed? Aren't we ever pleased with our work? But I digress.) This year, I am using geogebra right out of the gate, and I am amazed to see how much of a difference it has made, even on those not-embarrassing lessons.

Here's an activity I did last week, along with one I plan to do this week that builds on it. I wanted them to work together to develop a procedure for finding the rule of an absolute value function, so I made up some geogebra worksheets. In each example, they are given some points, and they have to input the rule that fits all the points. And of course, change the function's colour to match the points, since I am a geek for colour-coding. I started out easy, by giving them a few examples where they know the vertex and one other point:


This is a Java Applet created using GeoGebra from www.geogebra.org - it looks like you don't have Java installed, please go to www.java.com


Note that geogebra doesn't give them the rule, it just graphs the rule that they type into the input bar at the bottom, so they have to put the vertex into the rule properly, and they have to figure out the value of parameter a. The hardest part for them seemed to be getting used to using geogebra, but in no time, I had all kinds of ggb files uploaded to their dropboxes:

Note that for the black one, all I gave them was the vertex. "But that's not enough information!" some objected. "Well," I said, "it might not be enough for you all to get the exact same answer, but it is enough to get AN answer..." just to warm them up to the idea of minimum conditions.

The next worksheet was a bit more challenging:


This is a Java Applet created using GeoGebra from www.geogebra.org - it looks like you don't have Java installed, please go to www.java.com


Again, I shut myself up, and just said, you know everything you need to do this, work together, check out each others' ideas...In the red function, some tried making A the vertex, which geogebra soon showed them couldn't be. The tool did the intervention, not me.

Most figured out the red and turquoise functions pretty quickly. I saw some nice discussions happening in the breakout rooms. Some found h, the x-coordinate of the vertex, by using midpoint, others found slope of one side of the function.

But the purple example was REALLY cool to watch. It took a while for them to absorb the significance of not having that vertex. You don't realize what you have until it's gone! I did have to give a few hints, like which one of those points is the vertex ("oh! none!"), would you expect the vertex to be above those three points or below ("oh! below! ok I got it!") A couple of kids jumped right into the algebra - found the rules of the two linear halves of the function, then solved the system to find their meeting point. But others just used the line drawing feature in ggb to DRAW the answer. They drew two lines with equal and opposite slopes, located their meeting point on the graph, then boom, they had the graph of the function, which then revealed the rule, instead of vice-versa:

Now I figured my job was to show that these two methods of finding the answer were related. That each drawing step corresponds to an algebra step. AND, something I previously only dreamed of getting through to my students, that if it's possible to draw one and only one function to fit the points, that must mean there is enough info to find the rule algebraically. So I spent some time next class comparing and aligning the steps:

I think, I hope, that this validated the kids who drew the answer, and opened the minds of those who algebra-ed the answer, to see that even the most abstract of ideas has a foundation in the concrete world. Geogebra is 100% responsible for however much of that idea made its way through their neurons.

Next job for geogebra:

This coming week, we're doing the square root function. When we get to finding the rule, I will re-use the first worksheet, by merely replacing the words "absolute value" with "square root", and see what happens. I am hoping like crazy that someone will say, "Hey isn't that the exact same worksheet?" "Same points," I will say, "but now they belong to another function." And I will have shown them that these points didn't BELONG to any one particular function to begin with, we are the ones deciding that - bending the points to our will, if you will. And who knows, maybe someone will learn something that I hadn't anticipated, or even known myself!

And my next not-embarrassing lesson to be geogebra-ed:

I call it "The Big Picture", which is coming up in a few weeks. It brings together a few different functions. Enough said. The problem is, for every idea I have about how I will do that, 5 more seem to bubble up. It feels like I'm standing on an iceberg. It's a bit scary but, as my yoga instructor says, "Bring it on."

By the way, I would love to share my ggb files here, but I'm not sure how to do that. They are embedded, but does that mean they can be downloaded? Don't know.  I know I can upload to the geogebra wiki, which I will, but as soon as I can figure out how to do that here, I will. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

My first video lesson

OMG it works!

Parent reactions to googledocs checklists

Since I am a parent, and I would love for any of my own kids' teachers to do the kind of tracking I talked about in my last post, I decided to contact a few parents. I started with the kids who needed a little, um, friendly boost to get them working. For example, I sent this snapshot of one student's summary to one parent, and cc'd the principal:

Remember, red is not good. The principal wrote me an email the next day to say that this snapshot had resulted in the parent coming to the school and meeting with a counselor, all for the purpose of getting her child on track. Apparently, this has been somewhat of a theme for this child. In short, this colorful snapshot had the impact that no other previous conversation had had in this particular household. The next snapshot looked much better:

Just another note about this particular student....notice the timestamp on the left in the last line.....this kid was doing math at midnight on a Friday night! I don't know what this says about me as a person, but that makes me feel....I don't know....like I have been given superpowers. Googlepowers! I am Thor! But I will not use these powers for evil.....

I want to empower my students, not just to tattle on them to their parents. If this doesn't result in anything positive for them, I'll just become a nag and it'll be more work that I make for myself and them. It HAS to result in growth.

But that's not to say that telling parents is a negative. Two other parents were very impressed and grateful for the information I sent them. In both cases, the outcome was positive and helpful for the kids involved. As it turned out, one was reluctant to ask for help with the math, and the other didn't even know where to find the checklists, but was too embarrassed to ask. He knows now, and so does his mom, and she was thrilled to have access to it!

Thoughts for the next phase of using these gdocs:

• How do I make this practice of updating checklists empowering for them?
• How truthful are they being? Some things I can check on directly, like things that are handed in, but not everything on the list is handed in. And shouldn't I find a way for them to value being honest other than just checking up on them?
• Should I give a mark for these checklists? They get marks for some of the items on the list, of course, but not all. A mark for keeping the list updated would be one sure way to get kids to do it. But I want their motivation to be deeper than that.
• Time to get some feedback from the kids - is this just another chore for you to get over with, or does it help? Have you learned anything about yourself as a result of doing this? Maybe I should send their own snapshots to them. I showed one girl hers, because it was a thing of beauty, as you can see:
  
  
  
  
  In fact, there's math here - when you check something everyday, you get a straight line, sort of....and she seemed to think it was pretty cool too. So before I ask for feedback, I should show them their own weekly snapshot maybe. Sigh. More work.

At any rate, a few cliches come to mind: A picture is worth a thousand words. To thine own self be true. But most of all, power corrupts! I am Thor!

Googledocs will you marry me?

First of all, a word about posting. I am not going to apologize for not posting in so long. The simple fact is that I haven't felt inspired to post until today. Yes, yes, I have been busy and tired etc but let's face it, that just doesn't cut it. The fact is that last year, I was always exhausted and busy but found the time to post anyway. I needed to. When you gotta write, you gotta write, am I right? And today, for the first time in a while, I feel that way again. I think it's because I have learned something, who knew? So here goes.

My ongoing affair with googledocs:

It is just unbelievable how much info I can keep track of with googledocs. And I did NOT have to get any training or spend huge amounts of time in order to get the payoff. I just follow the help instructions that come with a google account, that's it! My googledocs checklists make it possible for me to know, on any given day, who is behind, who needs help, who is ahead, who wants to redo a gizmo....and the quantitiy and quality of info they generate just keeps evolving. Here's the stage I'm at now:

The evolution of the quantity of info: It's in layers now!

1. Layer one: At the beginning of each week, I create a checklist for each class, using googledocs "create new form" feature. Just in case you're wondering how long that takes, not long. To demonstrate, I plan to do a video post about this soon - WITH MY FABULOUS NEW CAMTASIA STUDIO! (see later in this post!)
2. I share it with each class, and remind them to check things off as the week goes on.
3. I check the lists once a day for latest updates. Looks like this at first: (if you need to zoom in, click on the pic)

4. Layer two: Next I shade all entries for that day the same colour, so that I can quickly see the different days. Here's how it looks after three days: yellow day, green day, and orange day:

5. Layer three: Just by using the data > sort feature, I can now sort all the entries by name, so I can see each individual student's progress during the week:

6. Layer four: Scan entries for anything that needs my attention (like "need help" or "not happy with my results, please reset") or just the complete absence of an entry, and shade it red:

7. Layer five: Insert comments as needed, like "gizmo has been reset". This is also just a right-click feature on the googledoc. The comment pops up when your cursor hovers over it:

8. Next class, go through one kid at a time and discuss. Like "Wow you're burning through this stuff, let's check that you're really getting it." or "If you find this too easy, then check this out" or "You needed help with this, let's go over it".
9. Repeat from step 4 the next day. More colours get woven into the spreadsheet as the week goes on. It gets really pretty!
   
   
   I just want to emphasize that I AM NOT THE ONE FILLING THIS OUT! That's a HUGE time saver! That's been my major mistake all these years, keeping lists, checking things off, and I inevitably couldn't keep up. Now they do that part, which is good for them too, because it makes them take ownership of their own work ethic. But it's the combo of their entries, plus my layering of colours and comments, that provides the background I need to give them what they need. Truly, this is huge. And that's why I got so inspired to blog!

The evolution of the quality of info: It's about feelings now!

Another thing that has evolved is the choices I give them for each item. Last year, it usually looked like this:

Their only choices for response were kind of digital in nature - yes or no. Now it's more like this: (I made it extra big to make it easier to read white-on-black):

Now I want them to tell me not only what they did, but how they felt about it. The beginnings of self-evaluation, and I'm hoping self-awareness.

And now for my new love: Camtasia!

I don't know what is more exciting, that I have Camtasia now, or that it is SO FUN, or that it proves to me how flipping is really a more human way to teach and to learn. When I first tried to record, I found that I had to listen to the videos at techsmith first. Then I found I had to listen to a few of them more than once to really get it. I was thinking that if I were learning this in a class where everyone had to learn at the same pace, I would have gotten lost really fast. So it really is nice, in fact, perfect, to be able to control the speed of the lesson. Hmmm sounds familiar...... now where have I heard that before?

And now for the Camtasia. OMG IT IS SO AWESOME! I don't know how to do much yet, but I can just imagine the possibilities. Captions, sound effects, who knows what else.So excited to learn how to use this.

I made my first recording, but to embed it here, I apparently have to first upload it at either screencast or youtube, but then people there will see it, and it's just not good enough for that! I think I might become the Rebecca Black of teacher tube.....and I don't mean that as a put down of that poor girl, only of the reaction to her first video! Soon, though, I will have something to embed here, probably the googledocs demo.


 Man, learning is so good for you!