If you don't follow @TheNerdyTeacher or read his blog, you are missing out. After listening to him speak at ISTE 2011 and reading his posts, I know that his classroom is a dynamic learning environment where every student is given the chance to succeed. He is also the type of person who looks at a negative situation and immediately begins to work out how he can spin it to work in his favor.
In some of his recent blog posts, he has charged the education world to begin to change the negative views the country seems to have of schools. His most recent mission asks teachers to post on Twitter something positive that happened to them in school while growing up and add the hashtag #SchoolDidAGoodThing. Inspired once again by him, I would like to share 2 stories that shaped my teaching philosophies:
The Best of Intentions
Middle school was not kind to me, as is the case for many kids. I wanted to be an athlete, but I didn't have the coordination. Academics came extremely easy and I was that kid who always had his hand up to answer the teacher's question. I was not obnoxious, I just worked hard so I knew the right answer. This led me to be bullied excessively both in and out of school (one incident actually gave me a concussion when a locker door was slammed into my head). When I brought this information to the school counselor, he told me that I drew too much attention to myself and that I should think about not raising my hand in class anymore. As any of my friends will tell you, I am extremely strong willed and do not let others dictate how I should act. I ignored his advice and decided to stand up to the bullies. Well, as most MS bullies are, as soon as I stood up for myself, they back off. I look at this situation and wonder what I would have become had I taken this short-sighted counselor's advice. Even worse, how many people did listen to what he had to say? I am sure that he was doing what he thought was best, but he never considered how his words could have destroyed the confident man I was becoming.
Give a Boy a Chance
When you are growing up, you don't realize what adults are secretly doing for you to give you the opportunity to reach your potential. I was on my HS fencing team and to be really honest, I sucked my freshmen year. I never missed a practice, worked my tail off and ended the year 0-12. We didn't have a large team which is why I got a chance to fence 12 times, but the better point is my coach had enough confidence in me to keep putting me in even though he expected me to lose every time. Fast forward to my senior year. At the end of the year banquet, I was captain of the team, held 3 school records and was on the All-State Team. My coach pulls me aside afterwards and says, "Marc, to be honest, you were so bad your freshman year that I secretly wished you wouldn't return. Thank goodness I never recommended for you not to come back out for the team." My coach did exactly what he was supposed to: gave me support. I didn't know how important it was at the time, but as I look back it was exactly what I needed to try and find out who I was going to be. I could have given up, but instead I surged forward because I was given the chance.
Thanks to @TheNerdyTeacher for getting me to reflect on the people who helped me become the person I am today.
18 July 2011
04 July 2011
What I learned on my ISTE vacation
Ok, vacation is not quite the right word as I live 90 minutes from Philadelphia, where ISTE 2011, was held and commuted in every day. But, my wife commented that I was excited about going to a edtech conference as she was about attending the Dave Matthews Caravan 3 day conference the previous weekend. Let me say simply WOW. Hands down best conference ever! I have already posted about Day 1 and Day 2 and while I should make comments about Day 3 I wanted to spend some time talking about all of the other things that I learned about the conference. The things that everyone failed to mention in their advice columns for newbies.
Tidbit 1: The conference is actually 5 days long.
When I first read about the conference, I saw that the opening keynote was on Sunday afternoon. As I didn't want to pay for a full day that didn't involve workshops, I decided to skip and stay home. Huge mistake!! Apparently TEDxPhilly was that day and was closed by the opening keynote for ISTE. That was not on the website. Also, many educators came in on Friday/Saturday and held sessions that were indicated on the conference website, but were not emphasized. Most conferences don't begin until after the opening keynote, but not ISTE. So, if you are attending, spend the extra money and be there every day.
Tidbit 2: It is impossible to do everything.
I have attended conferences before including NSTA, but this was so much more. I thought that 45 minutes between sessions would be more than enough time for me to wander the exhibit floor for awhile and still make it to my session with time to spare. Well, for most sessions the room was almost full a full 15 minutes before the start time. When I went to the Flipped Classroom session, the doors closed and they started early. On the 2nd day, I decided to just skip one of my afternoon sessions to give me almost 3 hours to wander the exhibit floor. Well, after sitting in on a product advisory panel, giving ideas to Corel and collecting pens from just about everyone, I was literally running to my next session. So, next time I need to put aside a few hours each day for just the exhibit hall. The hall is absolutely overwhelming and there are so many people who are dying to get you to try out their products. They all knew we couldn't purchase anything so they just wanted to get us excited about what their products could do.
Tidbit 3: Don't go to the keynotes.
So the keynote was held in a ballroom that was literally larger than a few airports that I have been to. I was crammed into my seat to watch Stephen Covey, on TV. That's right, he wasn't even there. Ran into someone later who said that he sat in the Blogger's Cafe and watched the whole thing on a TV there and sat in a comfy chair. So, for Chris Lehman's closing keynote, I went to the Newbie Lounge and it was 1000 times better.
Tidbit 4: Be an extrovert.
I am not a social butterfly (in fact I went to the Social Butterfly lounge thinking it was the Newbie Lounge and high tailed it out of there) so I had a hard time meeting people. I was in the Newbie Lounge watching the Twitter feed and no one was talking to me. I look up and see William King. I have never met him before, but actually follow him on Twitter simply because I find his comments clever. Even though he was talking with someone I interrupted and introduced myself. As we were talking, I saw Paula Naugle playing with an ActiveBoard, yelled out her name and struck up a conversation with her, too. As I got out of my comfort zone, I knew that I needed to just walk up to people and shake their hands. I got to meet Steven Anderson, Josh Stumpenhorst, and Nicholas Provenzano, Aaron Sams and Jon Bergmann by interrupting what they were doing and shaking their hands.
Tidbit 5: Get on Twitter
I met several people who were not on Twitter and showed them the Twitter feed that I had running on Tweetdeck. I was getting links and comments from sessions all over the conference yet I was not there. Also, if I wasn't getting what I needed from the session that I was currently in, I was still learning from others as they shared their nuggets of information. I am sure those not on Twitter learned a lot. I just feel my experience was more varied because of it.
Now, ISTE 2012 is being held in San Diego so now I just need to figure out how to convince my wife to take a week long vacation in southern Cali.
If you attended ISTE 2011, I would love for you to share things you learned as well.
Tidbit 1: The conference is actually 5 days long.
When I first read about the conference, I saw that the opening keynote was on Sunday afternoon. As I didn't want to pay for a full day that didn't involve workshops, I decided to skip and stay home. Huge mistake!! Apparently TEDxPhilly was that day and was closed by the opening keynote for ISTE. That was not on the website. Also, many educators came in on Friday/Saturday and held sessions that were indicated on the conference website, but were not emphasized. Most conferences don't begin until after the opening keynote, but not ISTE. So, if you are attending, spend the extra money and be there every day.
Tidbit 2: It is impossible to do everything.
I have attended conferences before including NSTA, but this was so much more. I thought that 45 minutes between sessions would be more than enough time for me to wander the exhibit floor for awhile and still make it to my session with time to spare. Well, for most sessions the room was almost full a full 15 minutes before the start time. When I went to the Flipped Classroom session, the doors closed and they started early. On the 2nd day, I decided to just skip one of my afternoon sessions to give me almost 3 hours to wander the exhibit floor. Well, after sitting in on a product advisory panel, giving ideas to Corel and collecting pens from just about everyone, I was literally running to my next session. So, next time I need to put aside a few hours each day for just the exhibit hall. The hall is absolutely overwhelming and there are so many people who are dying to get you to try out their products. They all knew we couldn't purchase anything so they just wanted to get us excited about what their products could do.
Tidbit 3: Don't go to the keynotes.
So the keynote was held in a ballroom that was literally larger than a few airports that I have been to. I was crammed into my seat to watch Stephen Covey, on TV. That's right, he wasn't even there. Ran into someone later who said that he sat in the Blogger's Cafe and watched the whole thing on a TV there and sat in a comfy chair. So, for Chris Lehman's closing keynote, I went to the Newbie Lounge and it was 1000 times better.
Tidbit 4: Be an extrovert.
I am not a social butterfly (in fact I went to the Social Butterfly lounge thinking it was the Newbie Lounge and high tailed it out of there) so I had a hard time meeting people. I was in the Newbie Lounge watching the Twitter feed and no one was talking to me. I look up and see William King. I have never met him before, but actually follow him on Twitter simply because I find his comments clever. Even though he was talking with someone I interrupted and introduced myself. As we were talking, I saw Paula Naugle playing with an ActiveBoard, yelled out her name and struck up a conversation with her, too. As I got out of my comfort zone, I knew that I needed to just walk up to people and shake their hands. I got to meet Steven Anderson, Josh Stumpenhorst, and Nicholas Provenzano, Aaron Sams and Jon Bergmann by interrupting what they were doing and shaking their hands.
Tidbit 5: Get on Twitter
I met several people who were not on Twitter and showed them the Twitter feed that I had running on Tweetdeck. I was getting links and comments from sessions all over the conference yet I was not there. Also, if I wasn't getting what I needed from the session that I was currently in, I was still learning from others as they shared their nuggets of information. I am sure those not on Twitter learned a lot. I just feel my experience was more varied because of it.
Now, ISTE 2012 is being held in San Diego so now I just need to figure out how to convince my wife to take a week long vacation in southern Cali.
If you attended ISTE 2011, I would love for you to share things you learned as well.
29 June 2011
ISTE Conference part 2
So after an amazing first day, I was super excited for day 2 of ISTE. I actually miscalculated how long it would take me to drive in and ended up getting to the PACC at 6:30! Spent some time in the blogger's lounge and wandered around for awhile before heading off to the Keynote for the day.
Keynote
I was super excited to listen to Stephen Covey speak. I misunderstood where the keynote was and stopped by the ISTE bookstore to purchase The Leader in Me just in case this was a small session where he would sign my book. Well, not only was the keynote in a reception hall that is larger than some airports (and I am not exaggerating about this. I've been to Burbank Airport and this room was definitely bigger), but Stephen Covey wasn't even there!! His speech was livestreamed in. Complete disappointment number 1. Then, he basically just went over the important points from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Maybe I built the event up so much in my head that I felt let down, but I heard other people commenting that they felt the same. Here are some quotes that I wrote down.
The Flipped Classroom
Since the keynote ran long (and I even left early), it was a spirited walk to get to this session. The room ended up being full 15 minutes before the session started so they ended up starting early. I was one of the lucky ones to get a seat. I was amazed at how many people were so interested in this new method of teaching. Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams did an amazing job as always. Since they were swamped with questions and keeping things on track, myself and Brian Bennett (who was not at the conference) actually monitored the Twitter backchannel. Here are the important point about the Flipped Classroom:
Fantastic panel discussion talking about Web 2.0 tools that can be used help keep a teacher organized. Instead of listing all of the things I learned, here is the website that they put together and presented from. Great information here and more links than I what I had written down.
Advanced Moodle--Michelle Moore
Loved the presenter! She clearly loved what she does and was extremely knowledgeable about Moodle. I would love for her to come to my district and convince them to not only use Moodle, but teacher the teachers how to use it properly. The session was really about making your site not suck. The basic message was that Moodle is not a traditional website, but a way to manage the learning in your classroom. It can be made to look flashy, but is not meant for flashing things, spinning text and fancy fonts. Provide good content that's listed in a logical fashion and you will help your students improve their understanding of the content.
Later this week I will talk more about the people I have had a chance to meet. Actually talking with someone right now (William King) about making "What a Newbie Learned at ISTE 2011" post. Enjoy!
Keynote
I was super excited to listen to Stephen Covey speak. I misunderstood where the keynote was and stopped by the ISTE bookstore to purchase The Leader in Me just in case this was a small session where he would sign my book. Well, not only was the keynote in a reception hall that is larger than some airports (and I am not exaggerating about this. I've been to Burbank Airport and this room was definitely bigger), but Stephen Covey wasn't even there!! His speech was livestreamed in. Complete disappointment number 1. Then, he basically just went over the important points from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Maybe I built the event up so much in my head that I felt let down, but I heard other people commenting that they felt the same. Here are some quotes that I wrote down.
- leadership is communicating people’s worth and potential so clearly that they can see it in themselves.
- Life life in crescendo
- Treat a man as he is and you make him worse than he is. Treat a man as he has the potential to become and make him better than he is.--Goethe
The Flipped Classroom
Since the keynote ran long (and I even left early), it was a spirited walk to get to this session. The room ended up being full 15 minutes before the session started so they ended up starting early. I was one of the lucky ones to get a seat. I was amazed at how many people were so interested in this new method of teaching. Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams did an amazing job as always. Since they were swamped with questions and keeping things on track, myself and Brian Bennett (who was not at the conference) actually monitored the Twitter backchannel. Here are the important point about the Flipped Classroom:
- Benefits:
- Independent learners
- provided guidance
- Objective based
- No gaps
- fewer misconceptions
- no place to hide
- quiet kid has to talk to teacher
- What it’s not
- it’s not about the videos
- not magic
- not an excuse for poor teaching
Fantastic panel discussion talking about Web 2.0 tools that can be used help keep a teacher organized. Instead of listing all of the things I learned, here is the website that they put together and presented from. Great information here and more links than I what I had written down.
Advanced Moodle--Michelle Moore
Loved the presenter! She clearly loved what she does and was extremely knowledgeable about Moodle. I would love for her to come to my district and convince them to not only use Moodle, but teacher the teachers how to use it properly. The session was really about making your site not suck. The basic message was that Moodle is not a traditional website, but a way to manage the learning in your classroom. It can be made to look flashy, but is not meant for flashing things, spinning text and fancy fonts. Provide good content that's listed in a logical fashion and you will help your students improve their understanding of the content.
Later this week I will talk more about the people I have had a chance to meet. Actually talking with someone right now (William King) about making "What a Newbie Learned at ISTE 2011" post. Enjoy!
27 June 2011
ISTE Conference part 1
Wow.
I seriously underestimated the power of this conference. I knew the energy flowing through the rooms would be tremendous, but the number of extremely motivated educators are dying to do more in their classrooms and with their students in stupendous. All of my notes for the day are being kept in a Google Doc (which I would be happy to share), but for some reason I can't figure out how to embed it here. So, I am going to include some of the major things learned at each of my sessions. After Wednesday, I will give additional comments about the conference and also any of the exhibits that interested me.
Using QR Codes in the Classroom (Names may not match what was in program exactly)
To preface, I have used QR codes so I didn't get as much as others, but here are some important things I took away.
I was actually supposed to see another session, but right before this I listened to Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) talk about student blogging and he lured me into watching ISTE Family Feud for Web 2.0 tools. Absolutely loved this!! So funny to watch 6 Twitter stars battle over web tools and hand out nice prizes. The site with all of the information is TLSmackdown.wikispaces.com.
Absolutely fantastic to listen/watch 6 administrators who love what they do and want others to love what they do. There was a decent amount of talk about technology, but what I took away was more about being a great administrator which I think was more valuable.
I seriously underestimated the power of this conference. I knew the energy flowing through the rooms would be tremendous, but the number of extremely motivated educators are dying to do more in their classrooms and with their students in stupendous. All of my notes for the day are being kept in a Google Doc (which I would be happy to share), but for some reason I can't figure out how to embed it here. So, I am going to include some of the major things learned at each of my sessions. After Wednesday, I will give additional comments about the conference and also any of the exhibits that interested me.
Using QR Codes in the Classroom (Names may not match what was in program exactly)
To preface, I have used QR codes so I didn't get as much as others, but here are some important things I took away.
- qrstuff.com for custom qr code creation
- can create QR codes for variety of information
- create QR codes in colors other than black
- Can use QR codes to send to hotspots on websites
- ask more questions related to specific parts of sites or images
- might have to create own site to add more advanced features
- Ways to use QR codes:
- turn QR codes into art projects
- answers to HW problems
- links to video tutorials
- send emails to teacher about status of work done (I did it!/I need help!)
- There was also talk about Augmented Reality Codes (AR), but Stephen didn't want to go into it.
- While the presenter was amazing, there wasn't much to really take away from this. A lot of this is very common sense, but here are my thoughts
- Setting the tone is critically to stopping the void from being filled with whining and negativity. (this was huge!)
- need teachers to look at other teachers and say that they inspire them to work at the school
- morale improvement doesn’t come from admin, but from masses
- No reason to have fear of tech with so many resources available
- Share tools in short bursts
- Need to do a better job of telling the good stories as they happen.
I was actually supposed to see another session, but right before this I listened to Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) talk about student blogging and he lured me into watching ISTE Family Feud for Web 2.0 tools. Absolutely loved this!! So funny to watch 6 Twitter stars battle over web tools and hand out nice prizes. The site with all of the information is TLSmackdown.wikispaces.com.
- Best sites for digital storytelling
- animoto, voicethread, storybird, photostory, prezi
- Best tool for digital collaboration
- google, wikis, twitter, Edmodo, Skype
- Best sites for organizing research
- Noodle tools, Diigo, Google Tools, Livebinders, Evernote
- Technology Innovation that has the greatest impact on student learning
- Internet, computers, mobile devices, projector/ELMO, laptops
- What is the best tool for social bookmarking
- Diigo, Delicious, Stublupon, Google bookmarks, Facebook
- Best tools for photo editing
- Picnik, bighugelabs, picasa, photoshop, aviary, Flickr
- Best tools for animation
- GoAnimate!, Xtranormal, voki, scratch, animoto
Absolutely fantastic to listen/watch 6 administrators who love what they do and want others to love what they do. There was a decent amount of talk about technology, but what I took away was more about being a great administrator which I think was more valuable.
- Regular vs. tech savvy admin
- no matter what, focus needs to be on what’s best for students
- TSA--more efficient and effective in what they do. Harness power of WWW.
- Start with why instead of the tool
- Tools for learning selection
- stay focused on the vision and match resources to meet the needs
- pick tools that are right for learners and teachers. Not every tools works for every teacher.
- Don’t use tools in isolation.
- model the practices you want to see in the classroom
- establish goals in how to use tech
- don’t use every tool out there--pick 1 or 2 and find its use
- Strategies to encourage reluctant teachers
- Admin should go in to model in the classroom and even create lessons based around it to show effectiveness.
- Tell teacher it’s ok to make mistakes and support them to improve
- Take things off of the plate so not to overwhelm
- What kind of tech are you looking for in obs?
- is there student choice?
- is there engagement
- is there an objective for what tech is using for
- is there an assessment of learning related to that tech
- Bad tech leadership
- throwing money to buy latest tech
- wasting time on equipment that no one finds meaningful
- not-understanding the needs of students and teachers
- not creating partnership with teachers
- Tools to help become a tech-savvy admin
21 June 2011
ISTE 2011
I don't know who the people of Philadelphia paid off, but it held the NSTA national conference last year, ISTE 2011 conference this year and I believe another national conference is next year (either AP or ASCD). Last year I went to NSTA and it was absolutely AMAZING! I loved being surrounded by so many great science ideas that I just tried to absorb as much as I could and make the appropriate changes in my classroom.
This weekend, ISTE 2011 begins. I will be attending Monday-Wednesday and am thrilled. I have been getting involved with a lot of social media discussions and this will be the opportunity for me to see so many more. There are so many things I want to see and do in those three days, but I think I have narrowed my goals down to the following:
1. See everything! I know I will be absolutely overwhelmed, but I don't think I will have another chance like this and I need to do it all. Thank goodness for the online program planner otherwise I would be running around like a crazy man even more than I will be. On my tentative agenda, I will be learning how to be a tech-savvy administrator, discussing the flipped classroom, joining in an online blogging project, learning more about QR codes, and trying to better use podcasts in my class.
2. Meet the elite! I have only been on Twitter for educational purposes for about 9 months and there are so many people that I have developed a lot of respect for. I need to meet them in person. I don't know if I can do it, but I want them to know how much they have helped me grow.
3. Get involved. I feel like I am poised at the precipice of something great, but don't know how to get over the edge. I want to get involved more with the people who are leading the reform charge and find out how I can help. In reality, I just want to sit at the same lunch table as the cool kids and simply absorb. Maybe once in a while I will throw out a useful comment, but mostly I want to feel included.
When this event is over, I know I will have so much to comment on. I will try to tweet and make posts while at the conference and each night to discuss all the amazing things I have learned.
This weekend, ISTE 2011 begins. I will be attending Monday-Wednesday and am thrilled. I have been getting involved with a lot of social media discussions and this will be the opportunity for me to see so many more. There are so many things I want to see and do in those three days, but I think I have narrowed my goals down to the following:
1. See everything! I know I will be absolutely overwhelmed, but I don't think I will have another chance like this and I need to do it all. Thank goodness for the online program planner otherwise I would be running around like a crazy man even more than I will be. On my tentative agenda, I will be learning how to be a tech-savvy administrator, discussing the flipped classroom, joining in an online blogging project, learning more about QR codes, and trying to better use podcasts in my class.
2. Meet the elite! I have only been on Twitter for educational purposes for about 9 months and there are so many people that I have developed a lot of respect for. I need to meet them in person. I don't know if I can do it, but I want them to know how much they have helped me grow.
3. Get involved. I feel like I am poised at the precipice of something great, but don't know how to get over the edge. I want to get involved more with the people who are leading the reform charge and find out how I can help. In reality, I just want to sit at the same lunch table as the cool kids and simply absorb. Maybe once in a while I will throw out a useful comment, but mostly I want to feel included.
When this event is over, I know I will have so much to comment on. I will try to tweet and make posts while at the conference and each night to discuss all the amazing things I have learned.
20 June 2011
I blame the Flipped Classroom
A lot of things happened to me this year and when I started to analyze everything I realized that it is all the fault of the Flipped Classroom.
1. My teaching style has radically changed. No longer do I control my classroom, but give as much control as possible to my students. I still guide the learning, but they control how and when it occurs. I work harder than ever before and, but so do my students and they are learning more.
2. My students can't take traditional paper and pencil tests. When I first started this experiment, I made my tests available on Moodle, but didn't require it. About half of the students took the tests on paper in class. For the last test of the year 56 of the 58 students took the test on Moodle. I just gave my final, a traditional paper and pencil test, and the average was 10 percent lower than any test this year. The only students who scored at or above their average were the students who still, typically, chose the traditional testing method in class. I have always hated formal exams because I feel they don't mimic the normal testing situations and this proved it.
3. I have little free time. My students became so reliant on the podcasts that they would email me to post additional videos explaining more problems. This meant more time in front of the computer. I mean, how am I supposed to update my Facebook status ever 5 minutes if I am constantly trying to help my students learn outside of class?! Ok, that was sarcasm. But also, I have really started to grow my PLN and share my experiences on Twitter which has increased my knowledge and abilities in the classroom. My professional development now occurs any chance I can open Tweetdeck or get on my PLN websites.
4. I have made some enemies. One thing that has become apparent is the Flipped Classroom is not for everyone. My students loved it because they were finally in control in the classroom, but most teachers can't do it. They need to be the boss at all times. That's fine as long as you are adapting to the needs of the varied learners in your room. But, lecturing every day, even if it is for only 15 minutes, isn't what is in the best interest of today's learners. Implementing this non-traditional style makes it apparent the drastic differences that occur between teaching styles.
I love what the Flipped Classroom has given me this year. I am more confident, more ambitious and constantly searching for new techniques to try. Even if you only include some tiny aspect of the philosophy, I definitely recommend you try it. Trust me, your students will love you for it.
1. My teaching style has radically changed. No longer do I control my classroom, but give as much control as possible to my students. I still guide the learning, but they control how and when it occurs. I work harder than ever before and, but so do my students and they are learning more.
2. My students can't take traditional paper and pencil tests. When I first started this experiment, I made my tests available on Moodle, but didn't require it. About half of the students took the tests on paper in class. For the last test of the year 56 of the 58 students took the test on Moodle. I just gave my final, a traditional paper and pencil test, and the average was 10 percent lower than any test this year. The only students who scored at or above their average were the students who still, typically, chose the traditional testing method in class. I have always hated formal exams because I feel they don't mimic the normal testing situations and this proved it.
3. I have little free time. My students became so reliant on the podcasts that they would email me to post additional videos explaining more problems. This meant more time in front of the computer. I mean, how am I supposed to update my Facebook status ever 5 minutes if I am constantly trying to help my students learn outside of class?! Ok, that was sarcasm. But also, I have really started to grow my PLN and share my experiences on Twitter which has increased my knowledge and abilities in the classroom. My professional development now occurs any chance I can open Tweetdeck or get on my PLN websites.
4. I have made some enemies. One thing that has become apparent is the Flipped Classroom is not for everyone. My students loved it because they were finally in control in the classroom, but most teachers can't do it. They need to be the boss at all times. That's fine as long as you are adapting to the needs of the varied learners in your room. But, lecturing every day, even if it is for only 15 minutes, isn't what is in the best interest of today's learners. Implementing this non-traditional style makes it apparent the drastic differences that occur between teaching styles.
I love what the Flipped Classroom has given me this year. I am more confident, more ambitious and constantly searching for new techniques to try. Even if you only include some tiny aspect of the philosophy, I definitely recommend you try it. Trust me, your students will love you for it.
13 June 2011
Sharing the best
For the last week of classes, I always stop formally teaching and have my students work on a research project. The students are to select a science current event article and research an aspect of the science in the that article. The research they do can be something very specific (hydraulics used in rollercoasters) or something much broader (stem cell research) depending on what in the article really interested them. Then, the students create a presentation on the research they did to the class on the last day. This project typically has a rough start, but always ends well because they students are entirely in control over the content. They pick an article THEY are interested and then do research on something THEY found puzzling. The bumpy beginning comes because my students have a hard time wrapping their brain around the idea that they get to choose how they want to do the project. I only give them broad guidelines and a not so well designed rubric (sorry, rubrics are my weak point).
Last year, while I received some excellent posters (which were required so they couldn't just put together boring PowerPoints), I wasn't thrilled by the idea of watching 58 three minute presentations. So, I put a twist into the presentation. Rather than making a poster, I required all of them to make a one minute Animoto video about their research sort of as a 1 minute commercial of what they learned. At first, there were a lot of "a whole minute?? How am I going to find enough to fill it?" which the next day turned into "You have to extend it to 2 minutes! I have so many great things I don't want to cut out." For many of the topics, the video idea failed. The topics were too technical and the students didn't have a good focus for their research. But, some of the kids really amazed me at what they put together. I have included three of my favorites below. I liked them mostly because of their cleverness: the right music, the right background, the right combination of pictures and text. I don't share student work often (which I will change next school year), but here is some of what my students put together. Enjoy!
Landfills and Methane
Creating Meat in a Lab
Enhancing Food with Science
Last year, while I received some excellent posters (which were required so they couldn't just put together boring PowerPoints), I wasn't thrilled by the idea of watching 58 three minute presentations. So, I put a twist into the presentation. Rather than making a poster, I required all of them to make a one minute Animoto video about their research sort of as a 1 minute commercial of what they learned. At first, there were a lot of "a whole minute?? How am I going to find enough to fill it?" which the next day turned into "You have to extend it to 2 minutes! I have so many great things I don't want to cut out." For many of the topics, the video idea failed. The topics were too technical and the students didn't have a good focus for their research. But, some of the kids really amazed me at what they put together. I have included three of my favorites below. I liked them mostly because of their cleverness: the right music, the right background, the right combination of pictures and text. I don't share student work often (which I will change next school year), but here is some of what my students put together. Enjoy!
Landfills and Methane
Creating Meat in a Lab
Enhancing Food with Science
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