The contest

Well, the presentation went very well.  I have some choice remarks for the NJSC committee, but that is for a different post.  Let's just say next time they shouldn't tell me my presentation was for an hour, but then give me an hour and a half.  Didn't really matter as the presentation went 2 hours.

I just wanted to thank everyone who attended for the fantastic questions.  I hope I was able to express how important it is to make the flipped class your own.  Simply adopting mine or Jon's or Aaron's methods will absolutely result in failure and frustration.  Make the method meaningful and centered around YOUR students and you will see how well they will adapt to it.

Since the presentation took so long, I totally forgot to raffle off the Camtasia Studio software (a $299 value!) TechSmith was nice enough to give me.  So, instead I am going to hold a contest on this blog.  Here are the rules:
1.  You must leave a comment related to your impressions of the flipped classroom.  Include your first name, last initial and what town and state you are teaching in.  Please also include whether you use a PC or a Mac.
2.  You must be a resident of the USA (sorry, international rates are too expensive).
3.  I will use a random number generator to select 2 viewers of the blog.  The winners will be posted on the blog on Monday, 10/17.
4.  The winners will be responsible for direct messaging me on Twitter with their email address so I can get the address to send the software to.

Good luck to everyone!  And winners need only be viewers of my blog; you did not have to be at the NJ Science Convention.

My first presentation

Tomorrow I am presenting at the NJ Science Teacher Convention about the Flipped Classroom.  This will be my first conference presentation so I am both freaking out and really, really excited.  I really love what I do and I want to share that with as many people as possible.  The flipped classroom is really growing in popularity and the attention it is getting is fantastic!  In fact, tonight's #edchat topic was focused on it.  Some great discussions on both sides about what it looks like and what it could/should be.  I wish that Jon and Aaron could have seen it, but, alas, they are training teachers in Norway about it.

Below is the Prezi I made for my presentation.  When I learned that my proposal was accepted, I contacted TechSmith, the company that makes Camtasia Studio (the program I use for my podcasts), about possible door prizes.  Well, when the box arrived, I was blown away by their generosity.  I have 2 T-shirts, 30 pens, 30 evaluation software CDs and 2 full copies of Camtasia Studio to give away (FYI they are $299 each!!).  It is amazing how dedicated this company is to helping teachers improve their instruction.  If you haven't used their software, I HIGHLY recommend you do so soon.  Jing is great for creating short screencasts.  And, of course, Camtasia Studio is the tool for anyone doing lengthier, more involved podcasts.

I hope you enjoy the presentation.  If you are at the conference, please stop in and say hello.

The Flipped Classroom: A New Way to "Teach" on Prezi

It's the little things

I am a huge fan of smoothies so it is with great fortune that there is a Smoothie King in the same parking lot as my sons' daycare.  The owners are a pair of brothers.  One is a trained chef, the other a market analyst.  When the economy started to tank, Bill (the market analyst) was afraid of losing his job due to downsizing so he called his brother, they pooled their money, and they bought a Smoothie King franchise.  Eighteen months after opening their first, they started work on their second.

Bill and I chat whenever I come in (he remembers me because of how I spell my first name).  We were talking about how he never considered himself an outgoing person, but there is some down time while the smoothies are mixing so he sometimes talks with the customers.  He told me this story:

An elderly man (84 years young), comes in 4-5 times per week.  One day, I asks the man how he likes the smoothies since he comes in so often.  The man says that he hasn't tried any of the smoothies he has purchased.  He said his wife has stomach cancer and he brings her a smoothie to give her some additional nutrition.  The man said that it is amazing to see his wife's face light up when she sees him walk in with the Smoothie King cup.


Sometimes we don't realize how the little things we do can have such a huge impact on those around us.

Writing in the science curriculum

So having the day off for Rosh Hashanah proved to be a great time to collaborate with educators from across the country.  I started with a post by Brian Bennett where he talked about using a picture-prompt to have his students perform a writing task in his biology class.  I thought this was a pretty clever idea and after talking with him over Twitter, we developed a couple of tweaks for the assignment which I tried out today.  Here is the picture I used:

The funny thing is the same thing happened to me as Brian.  As soon as the picture came up I got:
"Does it have to be about science?"  No
"Can I write it in bullets?" Sure
"Does it have to be about the picture?"  Don't care.
"Are you grading this?"  No
"Can I make up a story?"  Don't care.
"What's that a picture of?"  No clue.  Write a story about it.

Students have been so conditioned to write to specific requirements that they have a hard time when no restrictions are given.  There was an amazing difference between my Honors and College Prep students and not just in their writing.  I could go on and on about my interpretations of how each of these groups are being prepared in their English classes, but I would rather focus on the interesting responses I received.  Here are my favorites:

He was at McDonald's.  Jimmy spent most of his day there.  Oh how he loved the playground inside of the fast-food restaurant.  The ball-pit was always the first place Jimmy would head to.  The huge pit filled with different colored ball felt like home to Jimmy.


People make mistakes.  If you don't make an effort to fix them and amend them your not doing it at all.  I don't know what to write at all.  I mean theres an atom picture ans some words but I don't know what to write.  hmmm.  I'm tired. Wow 6:20 am is early.  I don't why school is so early in the morning. and what are those red things on the picture?  So many questions so little answers.


"Please" my teacher said "ask questions if you think you're doing it wrong.  Go ahead, screw up. It's ok as long as you ask questions."


Science is an incredible thing.  We explain the world with it.  When our ancient ancestors were around, they used gods and goddesses to explain things in nature they didn't understand.  It's fine for somethings to do it that way, but when someone is sick with say a cold, and people 'heal them'  by praying to the gods.  But we know that didn't really do anything.  They needed actual medical attention.  And ya know, it's a tricky thing because some very religious people still believe and do things that way.  Even though we have an explanation now a days.


neutrons, circles, blue, red, black, science, make mistakes, woo, CUPCAKES, 8 circles, red dots, black background, chemistry, Today is Friday.  I don't want to be here. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?  A woodchuck could chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.  Once upon a time....


There once was a man names Marc.  He was the captain of a ship called the S.S Daretofail.  Yes that is one word.  I believe it is of German origin, like ununquadium, except I think that's actually latin...But I digress.  Captain Marc had decided that he needed a crew for his beautiful ship so he sailed to the distant island of Room 244 to see if any of the natives were interested


I have been working hard for weeks on this but I finally created an amazing candy.


This is the first time I have used a writing prompt and I absolutely will do it again.  What ways are you using writing prompts in your classroom?

I think I did something right

So, it happened again.  Actually it happened twice.

I gave my students time to work on their post-lab questions during class.  One of the questions was "Prior to its discovery on Earth, how did scientists know Helium existed in the sun?"  Some students asked me questions trying to discover the answer and gave them the guidance to come up with it on their own.  But there was one group of students all looking around one person's paper and they hadn't asked me a single question.  I wandered over to find them intently reading something on one student's phone.  It turns out the reason they weren't asking me any questions was because they simply googled the discovery of Helium.  The article described the entire method of using a spectroscope to break down the light from the sun which is exactly what we were doing in class.

During the next period, my next class was presenting their Animoto videos for the element project.  I always like to give a small award to the video voted best by the class.  So, I passed out little strips of paper and had everyone write down their vote.  As I am collecting the votes, one student says "Mr. S, why didn't you just have us text our vote to polleverywhere?"  I had them use their phones earlier in the month, but it never occurred to me to use them for this.

Today made something abundantly clear to me:  give them the right tools and get out of their way.

Can you put a price on learning?

There is a limited amount of technology in my classroom for anyone to use, let alone students. I only have three netbooks, but I always keep them charged and have told my students repeatedly to use them if they want to do a search for something I was discussing.

I have 1 student whose computer has been broken for weeks and he still has not filled out the first day of school info sheet on the website.  So, I turned on the netbook, plopped it on his desk and had him complete the form.  I move on with the lesson and I notice that about halfway through the period he still has the computer open and is staring intently at the screen.  There's no way that it is taking him 20+ minutes to fill out this questionnaire, so I swing over to see what he is doing as the rest of the class is copying some notes.

In the course of the lesson on the atom, I mentioned that you can put a halogen lightbulb in a microwave and it will glow from the microwaves excited the atoms.  He heard this and decided to look it up on Youtube.  Well, that video led him to a series of videos of people microwaving different materials and explaining why the material that it was made of smoked or conducted electricity or glowed.  He was fascinated!  When I asked him what he was watching, he got so excited and started describing to the class what happened to a CD.

Can he write shorthand notation for identifying protons, neutrons and electrons in an atom? No.  Was he excited about learning and engaged for the entire period? Absolutely.

So, what was the more important lesson he learned today?

Flipclass Infographic

I hope that most people who read this blog have seen the Flipped Classroom Infographic.  But, just in case you haven't, I wanted to share it with you.
Created by Knewton and Column Five Media