A Puzzling Account of Videos in the Flipped Classroom Through EDpuzzle!

After a long absence, I've finally unpacked my bags and have gotten a chance to sit down and blog once more so that I may share with you all the trials and tribulations of technology and pedagogy in the classroom.

This entry is about EDpuzzle, a technological classroom tool that has long sat on my shelf, unused, but with no other good reason than it never came to pass in my classroom (e.g. I got lazy). So let's get to it!




What is EdPuzzle
Edpuzzle is a web-based tool that allows you to use videos across the web and annotate them with audio notes, audio tracks, and questions. It is truly as necessary a tool in the tool-belt of a flipped classroom aficionado as a hammer is in a real tool belt (though I assure you, that analogy is the extent of my handy-man knowledge).

How Do I Use It? See the Images and Animated Gifs below to guide you!
1. First thing's first (I'm the realest)-EDpuzzle supports single sign-on from Google Accounts, and Edmodo. You can also sign-up and sign-in using any other valid email address! EDpuzzle offers you a tour, if you are the type of person who reads the VCR manuals in order to change that time from 12:00 to something relevant to the actual time. If you choose to skip the tour, that's OK! I always adopt a trial by fire approach with technology.

2. You can add classes and students 1 of 2 ways: A-Importing from Google Classroom, if your district/building/you use(s) Google Classroom. B-You can generate a code, and have students join by logging in themselves and entering the code (or emailing it out to them...or even by TWEETING it out!).

Method A

Method B

3. Click on "Assign Lesson". On the top right of the next screen click on "Create" then "New video". You could also click on "Upload video", "Student project", or "New folder". Once you click "New video" you will be brought to a screen that allows you to access videos from many different websites, such as: YouTube, Khan Academy, National Geographic, TED Talks, etc. 

4. Type in the title of a video, once you have selected a video website/service. Click on the video you want. Click on "Use it" (or "Copy" if you want to add the video to "My Content" for later use!) Once you click "Use it" you will be brought to an edit screen. From left to right on the top menu bar, you can crop the video with the first option on the left, add an audio track, add an audio note, or add a quiz question!

EDpuzzle offers brief video tutorials for all of the editing options. Here is a summary of each:

1. Crop Video: Allows you to crop out parts of the videos. 
2. Audio Track: Allows you to overlay audio on top of existent audio within the video. You can add your own commentary or translate pieces of the video, if you choose!
3. Audio Notes: Allows you to add an audio note that will pause the video and play before the video resumes. This could be helpful to remind students to take notes or focus on certain parts of the video!
4. Quizzes: Allows you to add A-open ended questions, B-multiple choice questions, C-comment, which will display a comment to the students. NOTE-quiz questions will require an answer before the video resumes for the students. 

Here is an example of a video with a question embedded: 

5. Click on "Finish" and assign the video. You can do so through Google Classroom, or through a weblink, embed code, or email.

Now here's the great part! Student data!

Students can rewatch parts of the video and/or watch the whole video again. After students watch the video, you will get feedback on each student! If you're a dataphile like I am, EDpuzzle will give you a lot of great information like:

• Who watched the video? 
• What was the student's score on the quiz questions (the multiple choice ones)?
• When did the student last watch the video? 
• Did the student complete the assignment on time? 

Clicking on the student's name reveals a deeper analysis. You can even export the data to an excel file!

• How many times did the student watch a particular segment? 
• How much of the video did the student watch? 

Finally:

There is an app for this through Chrome and through the iTunes app store to help students complete this work, as well. So many options exist; why aren't you using it now! 

I'm sure that this is a lot to digest, and you may want to go back and read parts of this blog. (Don't worry, I don't get data for how many times you reread certain sections of this blog entry!)

You don't have to slog through the time of making your own material as EDpuzzle has a library of teacher-created activities, such as the one I have shown you above.


So there it is. A non-puzzling answer as to why you should be using EDpuzzle in your classroom. As always, tweet me @SrBonito1 with any questions. You can also explore my other posts such as:

• Using ClassDojo in the classroom for positive behavioral support
• Using Google Maps in the classroom
• Creating HyperDocs
• Using Kahoot and Quizizz in the Classroom
• Leveraging Twitter as a professional
• Using Goobric and Doctopus to assess student work
• The basics on flipping the classroom, and
• Gaming to teach vocabulary

Thank you for reading an until next time,
Scott

Bow to Class Dojo, An Amazing Positive Behavioral Management Tool

Happy Summer, educator friends!

I hope you all are enjoying your breaks (if your school is on such a schedule). I just came back from the ISTE conference in Denver. If you've never been, you should go! (San Antonio 2017!) It was a religious and technological experience. I learned a lot from the conference, which will likely furnish future blog posts. However, in the spirit of mindful and zen-ness, today I'll be talking about Class Dojo today.

What is Class Dojo?
Class Dojo, for those who have not used it, is a positive behavior management resource that is available across all platforms (iOS, Android, Desktop, Laptop, Mac, etc. etc.). I tend to use it on my mobile device for the mobility and immediacy of the feedback.

With Class Dojo, students sign up, create avatars, and receive behavioral feedback from you on a day-to-day and macro basis. You design and assign behaviors that you can reward and behaviors you can "punish" (or behaviors for which you can deduct points). From your (the teacher's) daily point awarding, students receive points and can see their trending behavior. For middle school students and below (and I've even used it at a high school level), the kids love to "Do it for the Dojos" (to quote my colleague Carolina!). They also love to create their avatar creatures and take great pride in this task. As a teacher, you get a great overview of your classes (as seen below).

With Class Dojo, in addition to rewarding points and getting some great reports, you can even message parents, take pictures of student work, and soon you will be able to compile student portfolios! You can group students and award points to the groups and you can use "Stories" to display the inner-workings of your creative classroom. Essentially, Class Dojo is very close to a one-stop-shop.

How to Get Started with Class Dojo?
1. Sign up for Class Dojo. It's free! (www.classdojo.com then to "Sign up").
2. Once you've signed up, log-in to www.classdojo.com
3. Once you've logged in, you can fiddle with the settings and your profile. Your start screen will look like mine below.

4. From your "dashboard screen" you can add classes. The options you have, once you click the "Add Class", you have to name your class and specify grade.
5. To add students, you will type in their names. It is a little tedious, but I promise, Class Dojo is well worth the time investment!
6. You can then prepare invites as PDF files which you can then pass out to students on the first day. In fact, when I was late on handing them out, students were clamoring for them.
7. The next step is establishing the behaviors, both the "Positive" and "Needs work". I usually align these with my class participation rubric. You can even customize the icons for that. Piece of advice: keep the behaviors few and student-friendly.
That's it! You are ready to Dojo!

Using Class Dojo
1. On your phone, iPad, desktop, you can do the following from the class view you can do the following:
a. Award full class points
b. Award individual student points
c. Award group points
d. Add students (by hitting the plus button)
e. Take attendance
f. Select a random student (which I do instead of hand raising now)
g. Set a timer
h. View score reports
i. See your class story (if you take pictures of your class on Dojo)
j. Send messages to parents (if they sign up)
k. Adjust settings

In short, you can do A LOT. See my graphic below.

Usable Information


When you go to reports, you will see a screen similar to what you see above. With that screen, you can see the following:
-Whole class progress
-Individual student progress
-Pie charts to illustrate behaviors
-Narrative "events" on when you award a student/class points
-Attendance records

You can adjust this data's time frame as well. You can also view it in a spreadsheet. I find that it helps students, not on an analytical level, but on a holistic level what to see what their participation looks like in class. I also found that parents liked the feedback to foster those conversations at home. As a bonus, it also helps me to fill out their participation rubrics at the end of the marking period.

I'm attaching a few videos below to supplement what I've written above.

-Student introduction to Class Dojo video (to play in class)
-Getting started and using Class Dojo
-My video review of Class Dojo

I hope this has been helpful and that you love Class Dojo as much as I do! Soon they are launching portfolios, which will be an exciting addition!

Happy Dojo-ing and Until Next Time
-Scott

Road Tripping in the Classroom with Google Tour Builder

Ready for summer vacation? I know most students and teachers are ready for a much needed R&R and recharging of the batteries. Remember when road trips used to be planned using physical maps? Our students probably don't. Though, I remember sitting in the back of my parents' car with the AAA trip-map, cross-checking as we drove down I-95 to Florida. Then it was Mapquest, Google maps, and Apple maps. Google has provided an excellent opportunity to road trip in the classroom without ever having to pack a bag. Google Tour Builder is this opportunity!


What is Google Tour Builder
From the Google Tour Builder website: "Tour Builder is a new way to show people the places you've visited and the experiences you had along the way using Google Earth. It lets you pick the locations right on the map, add in photos, text, and video, and then share your creation." In other words, you can use Google Tour Builder as an opportunity to showcase a geographic tour of different locales, adding text descriptions, pictures, and YouTube videos.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Some examples of Tour Builder in Use

English/Language Arts

• Students can build book tours wherein they plot an author's life and add pictures and videos to enhance the tour. I've seen teachers do it with Shakespeare's life, Cervantes's life, etc. 
• Students can make a Google tour of a book itself. You can have students plot the events of The Odyssey, for example, adding Google images or even YouTube videos.  Here is a webpage dedicated to Google Lit Trips. 

Social Studies

• Students can build a tour of different wars, such as the American Civil War, adding descriptions to major battle sites as well as videos. 
• Here is an example of the war for Independence for the United States. 

Science

• Interested in Jane Goodall's life? Here is an example of a Google Tour of her life, where she has traveled, and what she has done!
• You can do nature tours of major biomes, such as the Amazon rain forest, adding pictures and video to enhance. 

World Language (my personal favorite!)

• Have students create guided tours of countries, instead of brochures, to bring a cultural research project into the 21st century!
• Have your students talk about their own travels within world countries with pictures from the trip or videos. Here is a very rudimentary trip I've created. 

There are many more examples that I haven't listed, as well as ones that I've yet to dream up!

_____________________________________________________________________________

How is it done?

1. Sign in to your Google account and go to https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/

2. Click on Create a Tour (or view tours by clicking that option).  

3. You will be brought to an introduction screen. Enter 

your details of the trip and a cover photo. You can customize the type of story, the path color on Google Maps and style of map. 

4. Begin to build the tour, adding locations by searching for locations or dropping a pin directly on the Google Map. You can add dates of travel and a description, as well as photos and videos

5. As the tour takes shape, you will see a progression on the left-hand side, much like a PowerPoint/Google Slides, etc. and you can drag and drop and reorder the tour as well. 

6. After your sweat, tears, and hard work (although, I think it's more like fun, laughter, and wonderment) you can share the tour through a link to either your domain (in a school district) or to the world (anyone with a link!). 

So, that is it! I'm planning on doing this with my students this week into next to replace a brochure project we have done in the past. Let your imagination run wild and have students enjoy doing research and presenting it in a fun and engaging way!

    Any questions? SrBonito1 on Twitter and happy traveling!

Until next time,

Scott

Making the Jump to Hyperspace with HyperDocs

Scotty-full power to the front thrusters to make the jump to hyperspace! Sometimes at this point in the year we need an extra boost to make it through the day. As we continue our march toward the finish line for the year, I have yet another excellent use of educational technology to shift how we teach and how students learn. 

Whether it is shifting our thinking on study guides or it is changing the culture of introductions of new concepts, Hyperdocs is an excellent tool to accomplish this goal. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

What is a HyperDoc?

Google defines a HyperDoc as the following: HyperDoc is a term used to describe a Google Doc that contains an innovative lesson for students- a 21st Century worksheet. Essentially, a Hyperdoc is a collection of learning materials that are put together in an easy to follow and interactive GoogleDoc. Below is an example of a HyperDoc that I have used to substitute study guides for students. 

*(You can also do this on Microsoft Word and post the file to a learning management system)*

_________________________________________________________________________________

 With this HypderDoc, I listed what multimedia students had access to, what was the guiding question they should following when watching/working through the multimedia presented, and a check-in activity to assess comprehension after each activity to guide their learning. 

The second HyperDoc I've listed is a self-paced, "Choose-your-own adventure for introducing the topic of the preterit tense". It allows students to learn the necessary materials without enduring lectures, maximizing the benefits of technology, and personalizing the learning experience in an engaging way.

Why Use HyperDocs?: Here are some uses of HyperDocs

• Create an interactive study guide to help guide students through effective study strategies and have them check for understanding in a clear way to demonstrate success or the need for extra support. 
• Create a self-paced lesson to introduce students to a topic in a more personalized, self-paced way. Post a "choose your own adventure" type of activity and allow student choice and voice in how they acquire the material. 
• Create a set of resources for students to investigate a topic that is connected to project-based learning or authentic project-based assessment (Example-Posing the question: Is Social Media harmful to interpersonal relationships?Follow up with different pieces of multimedia evidence that students self-pace through to arrive at a final decision). 
• Gameify and create a tic-tac-toe board of activities on a topic to practice a previously acquired skill. Students who get tic-tac-toe and demonstrate competency with a topic win! (See picture above for an example of this provided at THIS link)

_________________________________________________________________________________

How to make a HyperDoc/Tips for Making HyperDocs

1. Decide the purpose of your HyperDoc (study-guide? self-paced lesson? Gameify skill practice?).
2. Collect a list of multimedia resources (anywhere between 8-10 websites is a safe bet).
3. Create a GoogleDoc and design the visual layout with different images, fonts, links, etc.         (HERE are some examples)
4. Share the document with your students as a "view only".  (With word, post the .doc file online for students to download)
5. Design an assessment to evaluate students' understanding of the central concept of the HyperDoc. _________________________________________________________________________________

 Try it out! I guarantee it will change your thinking on presentation and assessment of material. Students will love the autonomy and choice! Finally, it brings personalized learning to a new level!

Enjoy taking the jump to Hyperspace with HyperDocs! As always, thank you for reading and please follow me on Twitter @SrBonito1!

Until next time,
Scott

Masterful Classroom Gaming with Kahoot and Quizizz

In an early entry I wrote about gaming in the classroom and how to use it to teach grit, vocabulary, and collaboration. Now I'm following up with two games that I have found to be amazingly helpful in engaging my students, utilizing technology, and reviewing content while the kids have a blast.

Yes, I said it, a blast. Ok, so my kids don't do a group jump with a freeze frame, but every time I mention Kahoot and Quizizz, my kids' adrenaline pump and they act like the best, most engaged, most interested students ever. They grab their devices or the Chromebooks in the room and await further instructions with bated breath. In the entry, I'm going to tell you what these holy grails do, how to use them, and how to get yourself started in 5-7 minutes.

What are they?
Kahoot and Quizizz are web-based gaming platforms that work on all devices and hardware. They use user-designed, multiple-choice questions, paired with music, and they establish a point system to add a dash of that oh-so-delicious competitive edge (which is the reason I always remind my students, like a morning yoga mantra: "Games are fun AND educational. Though we can be competitive, we use them to learn and practice our learning".)

                            

https://www.getkahoot.com                                                     https://www.quizizz.com

How to sign up

How to sign up for Kahoot                                     How to sign up for Quizizz
1. Go to www.getkahoot.com                                   1. Go to www.quizizz.com
2. Click "Sign up for free!"                                       2. Click log-in, and click "click here to sign up"
3.  Enter your details and click "Create account"     3.  Enter your details and click "Create account"    

How to use it: Kahoot
1. Log-in and your screen will look like this:
 
-You can click on "My Kahoots" (Kahoot games that you have created or added from the public realm).

-You can search "Public Kahoots" (of which there are many, believe it or not; you can even copy ones and adjust questions and add your own).

-You can create your own quiz, discussion, or survey.

-When you create your own Kahoots, you can add in images, videos, and add decide if you want to have the questions count for points, or not. You can also set time limits.

How to use it: Quizizz
1. Log-in and your screen will look like this:

-You can click on Public and search communal Quizizzes (of which there are many and, just like kahoot, you can copy/paste, add, change, etc.)

-You can view your Quizizzes that you've created or added from the public domain.

-You can create Quizizzes. You can add images, like Kahoot, time limits, change the text color, and even add a la carte questions from other quizzizes.

-You can view your reports (more on this later). AND

-You can even create your own Memes to add into the games

How students get playing Kahoot and Quizizz

In either website, after you have created or added a quiz set, go to that quiz set and click play or proceed.

 

Then, students will receive a website to proceed to and a code to enter, (once they go to either www.kahoot.it

or www.join.quizizz.com






Then, off you go! Set ground rules and you will watch as students play. With Kahoot, there is a status update after each question and with Quizizz there is a status bar for each student and lots of feedback as the game proceeds. I can go on about the details, but the best way to learn is to saddle up and to try it!

But wait...there's more. The feedback

The feedback. The best part of the game is the feedback. Kahoot and Quizizz give you post-game feedback that you can break down by student and by question so that you can plan your intervention after, or invite students in for extra help.

Sample Kahoot Feedback

Sample Quizizz Feedback

That's all she wrote! I wrote a lot of instructions here, but the main thing is to go out and try it! The kids will love it and you will have fun with them. 

Questions? Contact me at @SrBonito1 on Twitter, or comment on the blog entry!

Until next time,

-Scott

Spring is coming and the birds (and humans) are tweeting!

The sun is out and students are getting spring fever, at least those in middle school. Teachers are getting close to the finish line and starting to become introspective. Such is the circle of teaching. In this post, I want to share with you all my experience with tweeting in the classroom and hopefully convert you to a twitter super user!

I know...Twitter. Isn't that where I can follow the Kardashians?

-Sure! I don't but you can. 

In addition to seeing what Kim and Kanye feel about things, what you can also do is develop as a teacher effortlessly, daily, and rapidly! If you've held out from Twitter, which for years I did (though I maintained a "personal" twitter that I rarely use(d)), it might because you saw it as a.) ineffective, b.) a time occupier, or c.) scary. Until this year, I felt a, b, and c. This was until we started a campaign in our district: #wiltonwayct. 

Twitter as Classroom PR

We started using Twitter to advertise our work in the classroom. It was PR at it's best and easiest. Teachers saw student work and teacher effort. We liked each others' tweets and became digital cheerleaders (and robbers-for we took from them what we may not have had time to go and see ourselves!). Administrators started a presence on Twitter and liked our tweets, helping us to feel supported and seen, which is difficult in the age of one million evaluations (on top of every other administrative task they had to do). Parents and the community saw our tweets and got a view into the classroom, something they rarely get. We opened our classroom door to others around our town, state, country, and yes, world. 

Twitter as Free, Fast, and Easy PD

Another wonderful benefit is professional development. Twitter allows you to post your learning, it allows you to follow fellow teachers and learn from them, and even participate in Twitter chats! I've had the most WONDERFUL discussions, coming in at 140 characters a thought. With Twitter, teachers can post their thoughts, their work, and engage in conversations with fellow educators, all while in their jammies. 

-Not my jammies, but I sure WISH they were.

Now I know what you may think-social media presence, just another thing to do or a possible deterrent in opening myself up online. I have below some dos with Twitter, and a link to how to start a twitter and how to use it effectively. I hope that after you read on, you TOO become a super user!

The DOs

-DO start a separate twitter username (handle) to separate from personal accounts you may have. 

-DO post your twitter handle on your syllabus and in your email signature. I have several students who follow me, and it's a great way to keep in touch with graduating students, too!

-DO take pictures and videos of what is going on in your classroom and post it to Twitter, maybe even with a hashtag campaign with your fellow district colleagues! (Please check with your district's policy on student photographs online, and DO ask your students' permission each time). 

-DO try to make a post regularly. This may mean once a week, every couple of days, or every day. Posts can be sharing what you have read on Twitter (re-tweeting), original posts, or questions farmed out to teachers all OVER the world. A post takes only a minute to cobble together.

-DO respond to tweets you like by "liking" them or "retweeting" them. This helps to share the wealth and make digital colleagues (and it is exciting for your colleagues to receive accolades). 

-DO invite your colleagues and administrators to follow you. Twitter becomes such a cool virtual pep rally between colleagues. (Don't lie about how good it felt to see that little red heart light up when someone liked your work!) 

-DO try out Twitter chats. Nearly EVERY professional organization with teaching has a weekly Twitter chat (such as ACTFL for World Language teachers). If there isn't one you have found, make one yourself!

-DO set parameters for yourself. How will you use it with your students? How will you use it with your colleagues? How will you use it for the community? What will you post? How often will you check Twitter? Setting guidelines help to not get overwhelmed. Once you start tweeting, it's pretty awesome and fun, but let it fit in your life and your timeframe!

Important Links! Click to Learn More

1. A quick start twitter guide by Tom Murray

2. Twitter for professional development

3. 1 page Twitter Cheat Sheet

4. 10 Twitter Chats Everyone Should Know

I hope you enjoyed this post about Twitter and I hope you join (if you haven't already!) My username is SrBonito1. Follow, please! I look forward to tweeting with you!

Until next time,

Scott

All arms rowing in the same direction with Doctopus and Goobric

A little bit of a longer entry-stick with me for this ride! It is well worth it. There are lots of pictures to keep everyones' attention.

Stacks of paper just rife for the losing. This is a teacher's biggest fear. I remember as a beginning teacher that I would take home mounds of grading and I would guard these papers like they were Knoxville gold bars. When I got home, I would spread them out on my kitchen table in neatly laid piles (since my type A personality knows no bounds) and the piles would shift, move, and eventually be neatly re-stacked and added to my bag once more. I can tell you, I've ruined three bags with the over pregnant state from the contents within destroying the zipper.











This vicious cycle continued and I certainly lost papers in the meantime, leading to awkward conversations with students, begging that they check their jump drives one more time for a copy. Then my life was changed with Doctopus with Goobric for Google Apps for Education. I'd like to thank my colleague Darren for this life-changing introduction. For those who don't know, Doctopus and Goobric work in tandem to create, utilize, and disseminate rubrics for a variety of assignments. With the help of its partner in crime, Google Classroom, I began to have students turn in work they had completed online, graded it online, typed in extensive commentary (which was much easier than hand writing it, am I right?) and have sent back the completed rubric to the students via their Gmail. This process also helped to compile records of student work for parents, just in case students accidentally tripped and dropped a paper in the wastepaper basket, because they would never, EVER throw away passed back work, right? So, how does this magic work? If you've used it before, skip ahead to my take-aways, otherwise read on!


AFTER INSTALLING and AUTHORIZING DOCTOPUS and the Chrome Extension GOOBRIC..

1. Create an assignment for students in classroom and share out the template with students (or you can have students complete an assignment and turn it in through classroom, whichever you prefer). I would also share out a PDF of the rubric for reference.

2. Students turn in the work through Google classroom.

3. Create a spreadsheet for each class for this assignment, which will house all the details and grades of the assignment. Make sure to have a naming convention. (Ex. SpanishReview B Period).
                                             

4. Launch Doctopus in the Google Sheet and choose "Ingest Google CR assignment", select the class, and select the particular assignment you want to "ingest". Click "Ingest assignment".

















5. This will now create a new tab on the existing spreadsheet that has each student's piece of work: Their first and last name, email address, file key, file name, link to the document, status (turned in or not), last edited date, grade, and your written feedback.






6. Click on "Attach Goobric" and select the file with your rubric from your Drive. It will give you options to make rubric viewable to students, which I would check, allow self/peer assessment (your choice), and send email notification to students, which I would select. Click "attach rubric". This will add another tab to your spreadsheet. Now each category is broken down, if you want to tease out categorical data. NOTE-you will have to do this each time for each new Google Sheet you will make for each class.
 

That's it! Now you can click the links to start grading! When you click the link next to each student's name, it will open their document. Now, this is where Goobric comes in.

ONCE IN THE FIRST STUDENT'S DOCUMENT...

1. Click the Goobric extension opener. It will then reopen the document you opened with a rubric at the top to add point values and a comment box to add your comments and email comments.
As you complete the rubric, you can send off the document to the student's email address with commentary and that rubric will appear at the bottom of the document as well.

Ready for the next student? Click "Next" (as you can see is next to "submit" in the picture above" or the drop down box above the comment box to jump to different students in that class. You can also record audio commentary as well. Next to the black box (which I used to black out student's name) on the top right you can see icons for record, pause, and stop. Haven't tried it, but I bet it's great!

PHEW! That's it. Let me show you a completed rubric Doctopus Google Sheet. You can see the authors' names, links for each document, timestamp, rubric categories, total score, and comments. The best part, it's ALL IN ONE PLACE!

TAKEAWAYS
-All students' written work stays in once place, in one Googlesheet, with the data broken down and written commentary. It's amazing and it saved me MOUNDS of time. It is amazingly easy to use and teaches students to check their emails, too! (added benefit).

-It teases out student data to see where they succeeded and where they need room for growth. This is great in the era of data collection.

-The first time using this is a bit taxing, but gets easier as time goes on, I promise.

Here is a video tutorial for YouTube (can't take credit for it, but it is very VERY inclusive!)

I hope I didn't lose you! Thank you for reading, following, and sharing this. Happy integrating!

Until next time,
-Scott

Flipping the classroom

If you were to walk into my classroom 7 years ago (which to me seems like ancient times) you would have seen a teacher going by the old playbook. Direct instruction, activity, check-in, wrap-up. Lather, rinse, repeat. This isn't bad teaching, by any stretch of the imagination, but for me it got stale and fast. I felt like I was caught in a tornado of tedium. I could see it on the students' faces.

 

I decided to do some research and break the cycle. This is when I discovered the term "flipped classroom". It changed my life. Now, I know what you are saying: "Scott, stop being so dramatic". No, no, honestly it did. From that point on, I began to phase out needless direct instruction, which YES has a place, but not in teaching verb charts as a world language teacher. I began to shift my focus to pre-learning at home for the kids, and stations and real life scenarios at school. I went from sage on the stage, to traffic cop to some mild, controlled chaos. 

The next plateau in this journey was when we began to integrate into a Google Apps for Education district. YouTube and Google Forms became my best friend. Walk into my classroom now and you will see (for the most part) students with notes already taken, misconceptions already worked out (again, for the most part) and ready to APPLY and CREATE. Now I do simulations, creation of infographics, Google walking tours with Google maps, videos, skits...it's wonderful. I'm just one person on the flipped bandwagon, but here is what I have found helpful. Happy flipping! 

Step 1: Identify the topic. 

What do you want your students to learn? Something manageable and age appropriate. I wouldn't go for differential calculus here. Vocabulary, verb charts, simple equations, they all fit here. 

Step 2: Find media to support the learning.

It could be a YouTube video you create, someone else has created, an article, an infographic, something that the students can consume at their own pace, on their own time, and repeatedly, if need be. Keep it short and sweet; don't give them War and Peace.  

Step 3: Connect the media to a survey/form for your students to fill out after. 

I use Google Forms. Edupuzzle is good too! Educannon is wonderful, too, though it comes with a price tag for some of the other features. 

Step 4: Distribute and collect.

Have the students complete the activity, collect the results, and plan for instruction. Who needs help? Who is exceeding? How can you adjust instruction, and free up classroom time for fun activities to APPLY learning and have students create. 

Step 5: Lather, rinse, repeat. I love Flipped learning. My students know the term flipped learning, and I teach them the benefits of pre-learning with a flipped classroom, and frankly, they get a kick out of it when I make my own videos. I think I have a mini-fandom. 

Until next time!

-Scott