Flipped Classroom

It's been awhile since I've been on, but things are going well!  I've been using Flipped Classroom regularly in my Algebra I class and am a huge fan!

Why is Flipped Classroom so great?

1)  I don't spend half the class giving notes and sounding like the teacher from Charlie Brown!
2)  We get to spend class time doing activities and practicing.
3)  Students get to interact with one another and actually talk about math.
4)  I get to spend more time monitoring and answering questions of misconceptions.

How do I check to see if my students understand the video notes?

I do lots of things!  Sometimes I have video check quizzes in our learning platform, sometimes I do entrance tickets, sometimes warm-ups.

Today they had 2 "You Try" problems and I was able to quickly assess their understanding.

What kind of activities to I do?

Anything and everything!  My students love to work on white boards and they love to work with a partner.  One of my favorite things is to make a scavenger hunt and let the kids work around the room, in the hallway, or other areas of the building.  I love this because I get to interact more and help individuals who are really struggling.  The ones who get it also don't get held back waiting for me or the rest of the class.  The conversations are AWESOME!

The Adventures of PBL

So today I looked back at my blog that has pretty much come to a complete halt.  That right there should tell you what this year was like.  I know anyone who reads my blog is wondering how project-based learning went and maybe this is what I would say "the road to success is never easy."

Difficulties
As I reflect back here are the top 3 major obstacles that we faced.
1)  Getting all of our team on board.  Very simply, if your whole grade level team is not on board, don't do it.  This is especially if you are in a school where you must plan together and more or less being doing the same thing.
2)  Training our students how to learn from videos.  We think that young people are more inclined to using technology and use it for all purposes, but some are not yet to the point of being independent enough to go solo on their learning.  (I am happy to say though that by the end of the year they were ASKING for a video resource!)
3)  Finding the time to actually complete a finished product.  We had very few projects where the actual product was completed.  We did the learning, but we did not give the students enough time to complete the product.

Successes!
When had many successes, starting with we all survived and our students' scores compared to last year went UP!  We also closed several achievement gaps in our student subgroups.  Here are 3 more successes.
1)  Students TALKED and not about what they were doing that weekend, but about MATH!  Our math instructional specialist do a survey and found that in classrooms around the district 93% of the talking was done by teachers, BUT she pointedly said this did NOT apply to our PBL classrooms!  By the end of the year, it was a Hallelujah moment seeing how our students would immediately go into a round robin discussion.
2)  Students recognized that they didn't have to learn just from the teacher.  They recognized that they actually liked learning from their peers and they could learn from video resources!  Like I said above, they even ASKED for the videos!
3)  Students learned the importance of collaborating and autonomy.  They've learned early on how important it is to pull your weight in a group and how it feels when someone else doesn't pull theirs.  When was the first time you learned this..it probably wasn't at 13 years old?!

Rewind and Start Over

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....