Rewind and start over. This is what I would like to do with this past school year. It undoubtedly has been the toughest year so far in my 17 years of teaching. BUT, I am not going to focus on the negative and am actually looking forward to an exciting year for 2014-2015!
Three positive things about this past year that I want to mention are:
Technology! I learned so much this year on different ways to incorporate technology, including many sites to make instructional videos. Others apps or sites I used were Doceri, Nearpod, and Kahoot. All great ways to help the kids interact more and stay ENGAGED (which was a big word this year)!
Activities! I loved this year that I learned a variety of new activities. Activities where I could take a worksheet and turn it in to get up out of your seat activity. I also learned a lot of Kagan strategies and used foldables.
Flipped Classroom! This year I did a lot of experimenting with how to use the Flipped Classroom model. I created multiple videos using my Ladibug, ScreenChomp, Educreations, and Sophia. All were great, each having their own pros and cons. I found Sophia to be an excellent platform to park all of my videos and put other information for the students to use. My classes did the traditional Flipped model where they would watch the video at home, take notes, then we practiced in class. We also watched the videos in class individually on chromebooks or Ipads and then the students would start on their assignment. Both methods worked great and 95% of the feedback from the students was positive. Behavior problems also significantly dropped when using the Flipped model.
Starting Over
So what's new for this year? Project Based Learning (PBL) using the Engaged! Learning Model (ELM). My classroom now has tables and chairs, which is how I started 17 years ago with cooperative learning, and I am diving in ready to take on "Education 3.0"! I am glad that I learned so much about technology and Flipped classroom this year because both are going to be a perfect tie in to the ELM.
STAY TUNED FOR PBL PROGRESS....
