How I Flipped my Classroom

In a previous post, I explained the difference between a Blended and a Flipped classroom.  While I used both approaches this past year, I am going to concentrate on how I flipped my classroom in this post.

As I have mentioned before, have a plan.  Plan for every conceivable outcome.  I did this ahead of time, so I knew how I was going to handle issues as they came up  ...... and they did.

The methods I used may not work for everyone, or work each year, but this is what I did.  I have a few things that I am going to tweak for this upcoming year, but let's get to that in another post.  In the meantime, let's start with a typical day.

I didn't assign videos every night.  I only assigned a video if there was a new concept that I wanted to introduce.  I also didn't search for videos online already created by others.  Although there are some very good videos out there, I made my own.  This way, I knew exactly what my students were going to watch and made sure to address all content that I wanted them to come away with.  I already had all of my lessons created in the Notebook software from SMART Technologies (the people who make Smart Boards).  This is the software that comes with the Smart Boards and since I use them pretty exclusively in my classroom, I already had these lesson.  To create a video, I would just bring up my lesson (what I would normally bring up in the classroom during typical instruction) and use screen casting software (I used Screen cast-o-matic; it's free!!) to record my lessons.  I said exactly what I would say during classroom instruction and show all work like I would do in the classroom.  I needed to make sure to have a microphone to catch my voice.  I actually used my webcam because it had a microphone built into it.  However, I did not use the video from the webcam.  Most of my videos were created the weekend before the video was assigned.  At home, on a weekend, hair a mess, no makeup.  Believe me, no one wanted  to see that.  After I recorded my video, I would then do 3 things with it.  I would upload it to my YouTube channel, save a copy to my Google Drive folder, and also put the link to it on my web page.  Sounds like a lot, but I try to make the video accessible in numerous ways so there is no excuse.

In class the day that the video is assigned, I also put the link to the video in Google Classroom (see an earlier post about Classroom).  Now, here is where planning comes in.  Students can access the videos through Classroom, go to my web site, or some of them actually subscribed to my YouTube channel and got to it that way.

There were always some students who had devices, but no (or very slow) internet access.  To help these students get access to the videos, I would require them to bring their flash drive.  Remember I said that I also uploaded the videos to a folder on Google Drive?  This is where that comes in handy.  At the beginning of the day, prior to class, I would download the video from the folder in Drive, to my school computer (remember - I recorded the videos at home, so they were not on my school computer).  I had a folder on my computer for the downloads so they all stayed in an easily found place.  I would then just copy the video from the folder on the computer to the student's flash drive and, bingo, they had their video.

Well, what about the students that don't have a computer or any device?  I ran across this too, which is why I planned for it ahead of time.  If a student doesn't have a computer at home, I have found that in the majority of cases, someone in the household has a cell phone.  I know that videos eat up a lot of data, but I let them know that there are public wi-fi hotspots all over.  The public library also has computers available for use.  But there are just times when this is not an option for some students, so I allowed those students to watch the videos in class the following day with no penalty.  They missed out on some of the discussion and the beginnings of some activities, but as soon as everyone else was engaged, I could go to them and catch them up.

I also graded the videos as homework grades.  I required students to fill out a form where they had to list the title of the video, a summary of the video, and any questions that they had while they were watching that they wanted addressed in class.  This sheet (called a WSQ sheet for Watch-Summarize-Question; I can't take credit for that.  I found the idea online.) was then shown to me the following day.  I knew the content of the videos so I knew what should have been written on the sheet; including examples and vocabulary, so it was kind of hard to pull one over on me.  If I didn't think that the student wrote enough (like a sentence? Really!!) then the student would not receive full credit for the assignment.

This is what worked for me.  I am changing a little for this upcoming year based on things that I noticed during the year.  This may not work for everyone, but all in all, I say that I had success with it.  Enough so that I am going to continue the flipped model for this year as well.

Level 2 Google Certification

As of today, I am officially a Level 2 Google Certified Educator.  Got the badge to prove it.  This test was actually longer than the level 1, but I didn't find it quite as grueling.  Now considering what other Google certifications to take.  Decisions, decisions ......

Blended, Flipped, or Both?

This past school year, I tried a lot of new things.  Going paperless was just one of them.  l also experimented with a Blended and Flipped classroom.  Before I say how that experience went, let's first go over what each means.

Blended and Flipped are two of the new buzz words in education.  The meanings basically boil down to this:

A Blended classroom uses a combination of traditional learning with an integration of online resources to supplement and enhance the learning.  This is more than just putting worksheets online.  This is using a plethora of resources available online to make the learning experience more meaningful.

A Flipped classroom takes the traditional role of the teacher as instigator of instruction and flips the role to facilitator.  Traditional instruction is delivered at home usually via video lessons and what was normally considered "homework" has been moved into the classroom with the teacher as a guide to help the students use what they have learned at home and apply it to class activities.

In a math classroom, I absolutely loved this idea.  During normal instruction, I typically only have the attention of about 20% of my students.  Some students already know the material, or pick up on it quickly, then become bored and tune out of the lecture.  Some students are missing background knowledge or are a little slower to pick up on key concepts.  These students quickly become overwhelmed and tune out because they feel like they have no hope of keeping up.  The students whose attention I have then become distracted by those students who are not paying attention.  The result is that I inevitably have to reteach key concepts to students who did not hear it the first time; or the second.

A flipped classroom model takes care of this.  Students watch video lessons of the instruction at home.  This allows them to progress at their own speed.  They can go faster through the video if they want, or back it up and rewatch it if necessary.  They also have time to process what they have watched and learned before they are asked to apply the material.  The next day in class, they already come in knowing what is going to be discussed and with a good idea of how to apply the material.  This is a real confidence booster for some students.  The class time is then spent with direct application of the concept learned.

Here is an infographic that explains the concept of a flipped classroom and has some data to back up the concept:



Created by Knewton

More on how this worked in my classroom in the next post.  Stay tuned ......

Exciting News!!!

Ok, are you ready?

Yesterday, I , along with two other colleagues, took the Level 1 Google Certified Educator exam.  And ...... we passed!!!!

I can't describe how excited I am.  While I cannot give details, I can say that this exam was difficult.  We were allotted 3 hours to take the exam and it took every bit of the 3 hours to complete.  Now, being somewhat technology savvy, I went in thinking that this would be a breeze.  Boy, was I wrong.  This exam was very challenging and I feel that I had to work hard to earn that certification.  

We now plan on preparing ourselves for the Level 2 exam and, believe me, I will make sure to put in some extra effort in my preparation.

If this is something you are interested in doing, check out this website:

Google Training Center

And to show what I've earned:

Feedback, please

If you would like to comment on any of these posts and share what you have done, please consider doing so.  Also, if you have specific questions that you would like to ask, do that as well.  Your question might end up in a post.  :)

Decide on a Platform

If you decide to go paperless, how are you going to get the assignments to your students?  You will need to decide on a platform.  What will be the method of getting assignments, papers, and quizzes to your students.  There are a few out there.  In the past, I played around with Edmodo.  It is a pretty good platform and it has a very "facebook-ish" feel to it so students will instantly become familiar with it. But, I never could get that excited about it.

A few years ago, my school division made the change to Google Apps for Education (or GAFE).  In my opinion, this was the best decision that my division has ever made.  The collaboration and sharing possibilities with GAFE are incredible and has made the paperwork a lot easier.  There are so many Google Apps that have very powerful use in the classroom.  One of these is (appropriately named) Google Classroom.  Classroom is the main source for my students getting all of their assignments.  

Now, as I am singing the praises of Classroom, remember that you will only be able to use it if your school division uses GAFE.  If not, then you will have to research other platforms to use (really, consider Edmodo as a viable alternative).  In order to access Classroom, students will have to log in using their GAFE email address.  In my division, only students grades 9 and above actually have email (internal school accounts) but all students starting in grade 2 have this login. The email part just isn't turned on until grade 9.  The nice thing is that this login follows them through their entire school career as long as they stay in the division.  So no need to memorize a new one each year.

Here is a short video created by Google showing some of the features of Classroom.  One thing that I absolutely love about Google is that they actually LISTEN to those of us using their product to make improvements.  So what you will see in the video is somewhat different from what actually appears now.  All changes for the better.

One new update is that now teachers have the ability to schedule posts.  A tremendous improvement so that now I can add announcements or assignments when I want and have them show in the "Stream" at a scheduled date and time when I am ready for students to view them.

There are lots of ways to set up your Classroom.  For mine, I have given students the ability to comment on my posts, but not to make a post of their own.  And, as always, you will have someone try to be funny and put in an inappropriate comment.  Don't worry, you can delete the comment and then "mute" that student until you feel that they have learned a better way to communicate.  This way, they can see everything, but they cannot make comments on any of it.  The point is, you have the control over what students can do.

What I truly love about Classroom is that a student can send me a private message through Classroom (so I am the only one who sees the message) and then I will get an email saying that I have a message from a student.  This has been very beneficial this past year to clear up student questions that the student was too shy or embarrassed to ask during class.  I can reply directly in Classroom, or if I feel that I really need a one-to-one conversation with the student, I can pull then aside the next day.  I always acknowledge that I have received a message from a student so they know that I am paying attention and care about their questions or concerns.

Now, I am in no way being paid by Google to market their products (but, boy, wouldn't that be nice) so when I am extolling the virtues of all things Google, it is because I have tried them out in my own classes and have realized their value.  But, if you are looking for a way to go paperless and for a platform to use, do your research.

Plan!!!!

I am a little OCD.  I admit it.  I try to have a plan for everything.  I am not one of these spontaneous people who can get up and go and have a wonderful time doing it.  I have to have a plan first.  How long will it take to get there?  Where will I stop along the way?  What will I do during each scheduled second of the activity?  Getting a little glimpse of my world?

But this mindset turned out to be very beneficial during my transition to a paperless classroom.  I had a plan for just about every scenario that happened during the day.  I think this is what helped me to keep my head above water.  I planned for it.  Now, I am not suggesting that if this is something that you would like to try that you plan out every contingency, but a bit of proper planning is a must for success.

Here are some of the things I planned for ahead of the first day of school that helped tremendously during the year:

1. I numbered everything.  I am a math teacher so we use calculators in my room.  I learned a long time ago to number my calculators and every student gets the same calculator everyday.  Makes them a little more accountable for them.  I figured, why not use this for the computers as well?  So I arranged my desks in groups of three (I learned a long time ago that more than three desks grouped together is just asking for trouble.)  Then I numbered the desks.  Each child is assigned a number.  That is the desk they sit at, the calculator they use, and the computer assigned to them.  If I had to move a student around (and you know it will happen) the computer stays and they just use the new computer at their new seat.  We are all on the Cloud anyway, so this was not a big deal.
2. I also used a Blended classroom model this year (more info about that in an upcoming post).  I had a plan for students who could not access technology at home so they were not left behind.
3. I had a list of consequences for certain behavior infractions that involved the computers.  These consequences progressively got steeper and steeper for those kids who were a little harder and catching on the first time (or the second, or the third ....).
4. Have a contingency plan for those days where the internet or the network goes down.  This will happen.  It is not fun, but I had planned for it so the day was not a complete disaster and we were able to continue with flow of the class.
5. Know your equipment!!  This is one of the most important pieces of advice I can give.  I bought myself one of the computers that my students were going to use and I learned it inside and out the summer before the school year started.  This way, I could fix anything that a student did (purposely or not) to the computer without having to call in the experts.  This showed my students that I was knowledgeable enough about the equipment that they could not pull one over on me.  
6. Check your machines.  Look at the history. See what got saved to the hard drive.  Be vigilant with your monitoring of students on technology.
7. Have a list of rules that must be followed regarding technology use and be consistent with it!!

Hopefully, this will at least get you thinking about how to use your technology in your classroom.

My First Year As A Paperless Classroom

A few short weeks ago concluded my 18th year in the classroom and my first year going paperless (or as paperless as I was able to get).  I learned quite a few things over the course of this year.  I learned what worked pretty well and what I need to work on for the future.  But before I get into that, here is some background:

I began my teaching career with the 1998-1999 school year.  I was hired to teach math, computer applications, and web page design in a middle school.  I really didn't know much about any of the topics I was hired to teach.  I spent a lot of time that first year teaching myself how to do everything.  With the computer classes in particular, I was literally one week ahead of the concepts I was teaching to my students.  Of course, it got easier as I went along and I developed a love of all things technology. 

When I transferred to another school district, I was hired to teach math only.  I really missed the technology, but I loved my new district and thought that the trade off was pretty good.  Fast forward to about a year ago.  Over time, I have learned to listen very carefully to that little voice inside that guides me and prompts me to do certain things.  Call it the Holy Ghost, intuition, or whatever.  I have learned that when it talks, I had better listen.  So this voice told me to shake things up.  I was fortunate enough to receive a class set of 25 small laptops to use in my classroom the following year.  I feel extremely lucky that I asked the right person, in the right place, at the right time for this.  

So all that summer, I researched.  I had a vague plan with an idea for implimentation, but no clear set plans.  So I got to work....