My Flipped Classroom

Unrealistic Summer Plans

2013-06-11T07:12:00.001-07:00

Below is a list of things I want to accomplish this summer...I'm thinking I may have bit off more than I can chew.

1) Determine which math videos I have still work with the CCSS, then create the videos I need to fill in the gaps. I'd LOVE it if I could start school and have all the videos made for the first 3-4 units.

2) Teach my son how to play Rummy. I love playing cards with the family :)

3) Create/Find explorations to go with as many CCSS as possible. I'm going to need some help here, and I plan on relying heavily on my tweeps (@lisahighfill, help a girl out!)

4) Sit by the pool...and read random Juvenile Fiction books, b/c that's how I roll.

5) Plan a "Celebration of Learning" that makes cross-curricular learning a priority. I'm basing this off an idea from Todd Nesloney about a "Math Fair" instead of a "Science Fair".

6) Read Teach Like a Pirate and Energy Bus. TLaP has been recommended by lots of people I respect, and EB was recently recommended by a good friend (thanks Julie Hughes)...I need to mix in some educational reading along with my not-so educational reading.

7) Think about/plan/organize a Flipped Classroom Writing Project. This idea arose from last night's #flipclass chat. A lot of people were talking about their students blogging, which isn't uncommon. What I found most intriguing was that most of the teachers were NOT English teachers. Science, math, etc. were the norm. I got to thinking, wouldn't it been cool if we could connect classes of different content areas and different grade levels...Wouldn't that be an authentic audience? I still have lots of ideas in my head about this one...stay tuned!

8) Play with my kids. Even though this is number 8 on my list, it's number 1 in priority...I've gotta play with my kids more, while they still want to play with me!

9) Figure out exactly how I'm going to weave writing into math on a more consistent basis...my grade level partner and I are expanding our math & sci/ss time to include our writing and I want to make sure I use it effectively. This might tie into #7 on my list.

10) Pick up my tennis racquet again and actually get out and play (it's been too long).

I'm fairly certain I left something (or somethings) out, and I'll probably end up coming back to this list as the summer gets rolling, but I wanted to write it all down so I don't forget about all the ideas I never have time to do during the school year, but just might have time to do in the summer...you know, when teacher's are on "vacation" and don't do any work.

Genius Hour (part 2)

2013-06-10T19:11:00.003-07:00

After deciding on topics for Genius Hour, it was time to start getting down to the nitty gritty. As I mentioned before, I decided to attempt Genius Hour in May...not normally a time you'd want to try something new, but I am so glad I did. My students spent the first couple weeks researching and planning out what they wanted to do. They were so engaged! I think I might have had to redirect 1 or 2 students...that's it!

From there we spent the next few weeks prepping for our presentations. Most of the students presentations were simply showing off their knowledge. Here is where I ran into my first couple if issues...

Issue #1 - Be very clear about your expectations with your students. If they aren't supposed to be walking around the school asking other teachers for supplies (which seems common sense, right), then be sure to tell them. Learned that the hard way. Your kids are going to be excited...really excited...but not all the adults in the building want to hear about it, especially if they're interrupting their teaching.

Issue #2 - If your student's want to build something that might be considered a weapon, you should probably get the principal's permission...oops. I didn't think a pen bow & arrow would be a problem, but I guess I was wrong.

Issue #3 - Genius Hour is messy, so be prepared to need 10 minutes at the end for clean up, otherwise you might get an email from your administrator wondering what you're doing, and why it's such a mess. Yup, learned that one the hard way too.

I've worked through all these issues, and NONE of them would stop me from doing it again. My recommendation is to be prepared...really prepared...and prep anyone and everyone who your students might be in contact with about Genius Hour & what it's all about.

And now for the exciting post...the results. My next post will be all about how the presentations/projects turned out. You can find it here.

Genius Hour (Part 1)

2013-06-10T19:11:00.002-07:00

A few months ago one of my twitter buddies Karl Lindgren-Streicher (@LS_Karl) had an Innovation Day at his school. The sheer excitement from his tweets was infectious and I knew I wanted to try it out. If you want to read more about how he ran his Innovation Day, check it out here. Innovation Day, in a nutshell, is a day where the kids come to school, but don't go to any of their regularly scheduled classes. Instead they come to school knowing that throughout the course of the day they will be learning, creating and sharing something that THEY want to learn about. Unfortunately, I didn't catch wind of this until May, and that there was NO WAY I could get something like Innovation Day together before the end of the year.

So I decided to do a little research and I came across Genius Hour. Genius Hour (at least to me) is like a mini-version of Innovation Day. The students get a small chunk of time each week to learn about something they want to learn about. Seeing as I had finished my writing curriculum, I thought that might be a good fit for our writing time for the last month of school...and boy was I right!

I started Genius Hour by showing the YouTube Video "A Pep Talk from Kid President". After that I put up Angela Maiers quote, "You are a genius, and the world needs your contribution." We discussed what it meant, and how passion plays a role in their education. I could see the kids doubting me already...

Then I put up 4 giant pieces of paper with the headings:
- I want to learn about how to...
- I want to learn about why....
- I want to learn to...
- I want to learn to solve...

Then the kids put up sticky notes under each one. Already I could tell this was going to be quite an experience because they were coming up with some amazing ideas. I was also a little nervous because I knew I couldn't help them with a lot of their ideas...I certainly couldn't teach someone how to create a mod on the computer. But that was part of the excitement...they had to figure it out on their own!

The next step was picking one thing...one thing they wanted to spend the next 4 weeks learning about. Below I have some of the topics:

- I want to learn to play the guitar
- I want to learn how to sew a blanket
- I want to learn how to build a dollhouse
- I want to learn how to make a mod on Minecraft
- I want to learn how to bake a chocolate cake
- I want to learn more about the history of the Bengals
- I want to learn how to build a pen bow & arrow
- I want to learn about prehistoric sea creatures
- I want to learn how to make crayon art
- I want to learn how to whittle wood
- I want to learn how to make a volcano
- I want to learn how to air brush
- I want to learn how to make a pineapple upside down cake
- I want to learn how to become a better catcher

There were more, but that is a pretty good list of what my kids came up with...in my next post I'll talk about everything that happened between the introduction and the actual presentations. You can find my next post here.

Genius Hour (part 3)

2013-06-10T19:11:00.001-07:00

I'm simply going to say that our Genius Hour presentations were incredible. The students were extremely proud of their work. Below are some shots from our presentations. In hindsight, I will probably rework our presentation rotations, I felt like they didn't run as smoothly as I had hoped. But that was my problem, not my students.

Crayon Art

Sea Animals

Making a "Mod" on Minecraft

How to Build a Dollhouse

How to Whittle Wood

Drills to be a Better Catcher (she made a whole video on it)

How to Make a Blanket

How to Make a Pen Arrow

Origami Master

History of the Cincinnati Bengals

How to Bake a Chocolate Cake

How to Play the Guitar

How to Make a Catapult

Different Forms of Art

How to Make a Volcano

I tried to compile a bunch of the projects. Here are all the ones I could photograph :)

This was one of the most meaningful things my students accomplished this year. They worked hard, and were very proud. This is definitely a keeper!

Spreading the Flipclass Love!

2013-04-21T08:30:00.001-07:00

It seems like recently I've been asked to participate in a lot of flipped classroom trainings. I don't want to lose track of the different activities I've participated in, so I wanted to write it down. I also haven't had a chance to talk much about them, so I'm going to dedicate this posting to spreading the love (of flipclass, that is). Already this year I've participated in the following trainings:

Flipped Classroom Podcast - Troy Cockrum hosts podcasts on the Flipped Learning Network, and I had the privilege of being his "guest" on the 15th episode. You can listen to it here. You might have to search for my name, or episode 15.

MiFlip - This was the first flipped learning conference for teachers in Michigan. I helped plan this conference with some well known flipped classroom masters: Dan Spencer (@runfardvs), David Prindle (@dprindle), Karl Lindgren-Streicher (@LS_Karl), Doug Ragan (@dragan39), David Fouch (@davidfouch) and Anne Thorp (@athorp). In addition to planning the conference, I also presented a session with Brian Bennett on Flip 101 and a session on Elementary Flipping. I wrote about my take-aways here.

Fire Up - This conference is for student teachers within the Grand Rapids area. Teachers, principals, etc. present at this conference on a variety of topics. I spoke about Flipclass (obviously), to two full sessions. If you are interested in the information I presented during that time, there is a link to it all on the upper right corner of my blog.

Monday night #flipclass chat - I participate in the Monday night #flipclass chat on twitter as often as I an (usually 2-3 times a month). Last week we tried something a little bit different. Rather than the normal chat, we had google hangouts that were broadcast live that were based on content. People could either join us in our Google hangout, or watch the live feed. I got to help run the elementary session, with the help of Todd Nesloney (@techninjatodd) and Lisa Highfill (@lhighfill). I have no idea how many people were actually watching the live feed, but it was really nice to get a chance to talk to Lisa & Todd about what they're doing and and how #flipclass works in their classroom. If you missed the chat, the links to ALL subject areas are posted here.

I have the following trainings coming up, yet this year.

Flipped Learning Network Podcast - I will be part of the team who is doing the "elementary flipping" webinar from the series "The Many Faces of Flipped Learning". We are the last of the series, but all other webinars are archived for your viewing pleasure :) Go here and you will be able to sign up for any content that interests you. I will be one of the hosts, along with Lisa Highfill and Amber Mueller. Our webinar will be hel on May 8th at 4:00 EST.

Flipped Learning Workshop - I was asked to be a member of a panel of educators who will be presenting to a group of administrators on #flipclass. This training will be on May 8th (the same day as my FLN podcast !?!). As far as I can tell it is already sold out, which is a beautiful thing! I look forward to talking to them about how it's working in my classroom, as well as how it has made me a better teacher.

Looking back, I'm pretty amazed at how many opportunities I've had to share what I do. It makes me proud to be a part of something that is so important. Flipclass is so successful because it is a movement started by teachers...not administrators. Administrators are crucial to making it successful by being supportive of something new and innovative, but the power of the flipped classroom comes from the teachers. So I end with this, please share what you're doing in your rooms, we can all learn from each other.

Math Circles...an update

2013-04-09T13:35:00.003-07:00

So I started our math circles with my class yesterday and I was really excited about how it went. If you missed that post, click here. The kids were engaged when we were talking about the different jobs, and they liked that they all got to pick their jobs. We also got an opportunity to begin the night's homework, so everyone had a head start. I was nervously anticipating the next day when we would be able to put our math circles into action.

Today was that day. We did a very guided type of math circle, where the students all did their responsibilities in their group, but I led them through the discussion steps.

I wanted to share a few really cool things that happened during this time:

1) All students (even the ones who quizzed out of this learning goal) participated in the discussions.
2) Almost all students did their homework.
3) Many of the students had to step up and become a leader, or their group went down the drain...and they did (become leaders, I mean).
4) After the discussions were done, the students got a chance to work on their practice problems.

Here's where things got really interesting. I had a large amount of students who didn't need to do the practice problems because they already quizzed out of the next unit. I know students do best when you give them choices, so they had a whole bunch of choices.

Do the back side of the practice problems (review problems)...surprisingly, I did have a few that wanted to do this.
Make a short example video of how to solve problems that are the same as our learning goal

Work out of the 6th grade book (similar topic, slightly harder).

Help other students if they were stuck.

I was pleasantly surprised by how many different students chose different things. I will continue to keep you updated on all this as I learn...

On a final note, I also had a student who was absent today. Her group attempted to record their entire discussion because they didn't want her to miss out...unfortunately, they hit stop, not record, and the lesson didn't work :( However, I love the idea, and I'll work with the next group with an absent kid so that we don't have that problem again.

Math Circles...Discussion Groups...Collaboration...You get the idea

2013-04-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

UPDATE (4/9/13): For an update to my math circles, click here.

As you can see by the title of this post I am a bit conflicted on what I want to title my new math project...for now I'm going with Math Circles because the idea stemmed from Literature Circles.

So here was/is my dilemma. I spend the majority of my time during math class having discussions about the videos the students watched the previous night. I do think this is valuable, but I want my students to take more ownership in this part of their learning. That being said, if I just told my 5th graders to go off & start sharing, they would either:
A - look at me like I'm nuts
or
B - head off to discuss many things (very few being math related)

Since I want neither of those things, I needed to find a way to make their group work both meaningful and spelled out for them.

What I came up with was Math Circles. I have had success in the past using Literature Circles in my classroom. Each student had a job, and they held each other accountable. That is exactly what I want for my math kiddos as well, so why not take the idea of Lit. Circles and mold it into something that works for math. After talking to my co-teacher, we came up with the following "jobs" for our math groups:

Discussion Director - Leads the discussion and keeps everyone on track.

Calculator - Makes sure that the groups answers to the questions from the video are actually correct.

Spokesperson - Is the voice of the group. This person summarizes the groups guiding questions (HOT question at the end of the video) and shares them with the teacher.

Task Master - Keeps track of who did/didn't come prepared, and how often people within their group share.

I have a list of procedures spelled out for the groups.

I plan on beginning this after spring break with the students. I hope they get as excited as I am (although that's unlikely because I'm pretty dang excited about it).

I'm not one to pimp my own stuff, but if you'd like a copy of my Math Circles information, you can get it here.

Reflection brings about change

2013-03-24T09:24:00.003-07:00

Last week I spent some time reflecting on how the year has been going, and some of the data I've gotten. This week I want to talk about some changes I'd like to make.

I've been struggling with a couple things in my classroom, & I think it'll be easiest to just list them out here:

Students who aren't meeting with me during a discussion have a tendency to not work very efficiently (that's a nice way of saying they tend to mess around).
Students are finishing up their "practice problems" before I get a chance to see how they did. I'm finding that most of the students who get some wrong (as shown on the quizzes) had just marked their practice problems wrong & then tried the quiz. They missed that important step where they had to actually seek out why they got the answers wrong.
While I love meeting with students and talking math with them, I wish I had more time to help them with their application problems.
Once students finish up their practice problems, and they quiz on the assigned lesson, I don't feel like I have something really good for them to work on. They have a few choices, but the only one I really like is student made videos.

So what am I going to do about it? I'll take these one at a time & work through them...as always, I would love to hear any recommendations you have.

Students who aren't meeting with me during a discussion have a tendency to not work very efficiently (that's a nice way of saying they tend to mess around).

I have literature circles in my reading class that requires each student to have a "job" in their group. I would like to start putting students into groups that I assign (until they get a little bit better at choosing their own groups), and assigning them jobs. I think I'll open up the discussion of jobs to the class & see what type of jobs they come up with. I'm thinking groups will have 3-4 students in them.

You know what, I might just share this whole problem with the class & see what they come up with. I can always recommend the assigned groups idea if no else comes up with it.

Students are finishing up their "practice problems" before I get a chance to see how they did. I'm finding that most of the students who get some wrong (as shown on the quizzes) had just marked their practice problems wrong & then tried the quiz. They missed that important step where they had to actually seek out why they got the answers wrong.

I think that if I end up putting the students into groups, this might help alleviate this issue. On the flip side, it might breed another issue (students just copying their group's papers). Perhaps a contract of some sort might help. Something along the lines of "I swear to help everyone in my group understand the questions and answers." In my dream world, I would love it if everyone in the group took it upon themselves to make sure that everyone understood the math. Since the students have to pass one quiz to move on to another, maybe the group can't move on until everyone understands. I think that could go 1 of 2 ways: First, students hate it because they can't move ahead when they know what they're doing. Second, students become great collaborators & see the value in helping others.

While I love meeting with students and talking math with them, I wish I had more time to help them with their application problems.

Perhaps taking a step back from the discussions & letting the students lead them would help here...but I do find that I can easily help troubleshoot issues before they become issues when I'm there for discussions. To be continued, I guess, I'd love some feedback on this.

Once students finish up their practice problems, and they quiz on the assigned lesson, I don't feel like I have something really good for them to work on. They have a few choices, but the only one I really like is student made videos.

As of now, here are the options when my students finish their work...

start the next lesson - this works out really well for students who hate having homework, or for students who don't have access at home
play some on-line math games - my honest opinion on this is, meh (imagine with a shoulder shrug)...it does allow students to get some additional practice, but it's usually practice on what they already know
create videos using Educreations - I actually really like this one, but I need to do a better job teaching students what must be included in their videos...some get a little sidetracked trying to make them funny & entertaining, and lose the math along the way

I need/want more meaningful activities that are going to make the kids WANT to finish early. Say what?!? Yup, I want the kids to want to finish early because the extra activities are THAT awesome. An idea I have now become just a tiny bit obsessed with is Video Story Problems. I haven't done anything with Video Story Problems yet, and I really really really want to try. Has anyone out there tried these with their class? If so, please let me know how it went, what you did, etc. I found a really informative video by Ben Rimes that explains Video Story Problems better than I could...check it out if you're interested.

Where do I go from here?

2013-03-20T02:58:00.002-07:00

It has been a year and a half since I flipped my classroom, and I feel like I'm in need of some time to reflect.

2010-2011 School Year (my first year teaching 5th grade)
Number of students: 22
Style: Traditional
Beginning of the year RIT: 202.3
End of the year RIT: 212.5
Growth: 10.2
Average on in class assignments: 82.92%

2011-2012 School Year

Number of students: 28
Style: Flipped 101
Beginning of the year RIT: 208.1
End of the year RIT: 215.2
Growth: 7.1
Average on in class assignments: 84.55%

2012-2013 School Year (thus far)

Number of students: 30
Style: Flipped Mastery (sort of...self paced within the unit)
Beginning of the year RIT: 203.8
Middle of the year RIT: 210.9
Growth so far: 7.1
Average on in class assignments: 86.67%

So what do I notice when I look at the numbers?
#1 My class keeps getting bigger!
#2 The average on in-class assessments continues to improve.
#3 My students did not show as much growth on the MAP test in my first year of flipping as they did the year I taught traditional...interesting...I need to come back to that one.
#4 This year is looking really positive, as they have already met the growth (mid-way through the year) that my class made last year as a whole.

Hmmmm....
I want to go back to #3 on the list above. I was quite surprised to see that the growth for those students was lower than my traditional group. Besides the flipped classroom, what was the difference? Well, there were far fewer students, for starters. In addition, my flipclass group started higher, which makes it more difficult to show as much growth. It's not an excuse, just one possible factor. Another factor might be behavior. The class in my first flipped group had a video a night...but it also had a large group that didn't do their homework. That led to some of the changes I made for this year. But looking back at the numbers, I feel like I might have let my high kids down a little by making them follow my pace. I look at this year's class and I see my high students being able to skip lessons they already know and given a chance to stretch their knowledge. I also have implemented math inquiry projects at the beginning/end of each unit. The students absolutely love these projects. This year's class also has to do a lot of writing within math.

So where do I go from here?
I definitely want to develop more inquiry projects, and more time to do real-world & hands on activities in the classroom. I think the issue I'm having is trying to figure out the most useful way to handle in-class time. Keep in mind, I flip math, so one of the things I want my students to be able to do is during class is practice solving math problems. The issue I'm running into is that I spend most of my in class time doing discussions in small groups on the board, which leaves me with very little time monitoring the students who are working.

I think next year I might begin having somewhat assigned groups, where each student has a "role", so-to-speak, that way they can get their discussion started, and I can come over when it's time to try some problems.

So what else? I'd love to have all my quizzes on the computer, but until our county updates to the newest version of Moodle, and I get some training in it, I won't be able to do that either.

Finally...and most important (in my opinion), are the inquiry projects. I'd like to integrate these throughout my different lessons, rather than just the end, just the beginning, or both. Honestly, I'm running into a bit of a wall trying to come up with them. This is where my #pln needs to help me out. As I mentioned in a previous post, John Fritszky & I created a google doc that has all the ccss for 5th grade math in it. We are trying to compile good inquiries to go with all the standards. This is a massive undertaking, but you know what they say, we're better together, so please, if you teach 5th grade, or know someone who teaches 5th grade, share this document. Ask (or beg if you must) for them to share what the math projects they have done. We need to stop working in isolation and sharing out what we know is good teaching.

Some things are starting to come together

2013-03-09T10:23:00.000-08:00

This week was a good week...looking back on some recent posts, I've noticed they were a touch on the negative side, and I need to make up for that. So here's the skinny on some really excellent things that were happening in my class this week.

Monday
On Monday I got to speak at the "Fired Up" Conference for local student teachers. I love talking to educators about #flipclass. Especially excited, energetic student teachers who want to soak it all in! If you're interested in any of the information/resources I shared, please check out this document.

Monday night I joined the #flipclass twitter chat, which I've been missing lately due to life/kids/work/kids/exercise/etc...you get the point. I'm so glad I was able to join in because I got to connect with @JohnFritzky. Independently, we've both been trying to come up with math investigations that are more than solving problems. We're talking real world application where the kids have to do the thinking. Rather than try to do it all on our own, John put together a google doc with all the 5th grade ccss on it, & we're slowly filling it in with projects. So far we have projects involving Bungee Jumping Barbies and Strawberry Shortcake recipe disasters. If you want have any projects you can add...or you just want to check out what we've got, go here.

Tuesday
My students took their fractions test...I'm not going to lie, I was afraid...very afraid. One kind of cool thing I did on this unit was have the students write story problems before the test. I picked a few, and made them our extra credit problems. The students LOVED this (especially when theirs got chosen).

So I took the tests home, and low-and-behold, the two classes combined to average a 92%...I'll say it again 92% ON A FRACTIONS TEST!! Whoop, whoop! I was so ridiculously proud of them that I did a happy dance for all to see. One of my students mentioned that he'd rather see my breakdancing than happy dance. I told him they'd have to something even more amazing for me to breakdance ;)

Wednesday
Students worked on an inquiry project applying their newly acquired knowledge of fractions. The overview of the activity was the students were to make strawberry shortcake with a given recipe, but their dog ate all the measuring cups they were going to use & they had to recreate the recipe with the ones they had left. Then they had to advertise the grand opening of their bakery.

Thursday
Earlier in the week I had a few of my students ask me about our next inquiry (they're really starting to like the projects), and I told them the truth...I don't have it done yet. Then they asked me if they could make it. Ummm, let me think about it...YES! I gave them the learning goals for the next unit, very little instruction and said, "Good luck!" Our next unit is on volume, standard & metric measurements & converting those measurements. They came back to me with a project that would require the students to measure the volume of given buildings (which they created on the computer). They also worked in problems the builders were having that would require the students to use standard and metric measurements. Wow. That's all I can say about that.

Friday
During math the students all got to present their advertisements. I had students who don't normally have an opportunity to shine, get up and blow the rest of the class away with a full on commercial. I had a pair of students actually bring in strawberry shortcake. I had yet another set of students create a webpage to go with their advertisement. I was impressed.

It may seem like I talk a lot about math, because that is the subject I flip. That being said, I work in an elementary school, so I also teach reading and writing (my partner teaches science/social studies). In reading we are finishing up a study of the fantasy genre. Friday I took the kids to the lab, gave them a rubric of what they needed to have on their fantasy projects & said, "Have fun." As of now, I have the following projects in the works: keynotes, websites, posters, video book reviews and dioramas. But the most exciting thing of the whole week happened when I was searching around the computer and found an application I forgot we had, called "Comic Life". Basically, it allows you to make comics using pics you have. I mentioned it to the class & I had a few students say they wanted to try. In this group of students included one child who shows very little motivation in class. He gets very little work done, and his work isn't always his personal best. He latched on to this comic strip with a passion that I haven't seen in him all year. He even asked if he could work through recess (his most cherished time of the day). While our projects aren't done yet, I am really looking forward to what I find next week.

So, like I said, this week was a good week, and it's important to remember that things like this happen every day. The important thing is to not let the bad things trump the good.

What's the real issue?

2013-02-26T03:33:00.004-08:00

Yesterday was a day like any other day. I went to school fully expecting some of my students would not have watched their video from the weekend. As always, my students came into class, and got their WSQ out on their desk. It amazes me, still, how many students look at me with wide eyed terror

There was a video last night?

Yes. It has been 2 days since our last video (longer than normal, but the last learning goal was particularly difficult). We also wrote it in our planner.

We did?

<sigh>

So the same 6 students of my 30 spent the beginning of their day calling home. We have a little sticky note next to the phone with a script of what they need to say.

"Hi Mom/Dad, I'm calling because I didn't do my homework last night. I realize that completing my homework is essential to my success. Please help me remember to do my homework tonight. I'm sorry for interrupting your day with my bad choice."

This is actually a pretty normal start to the day. Then I went to the other class to check on their WSQ's. This is when I lost it. 6...yes, that's right, 6 total students did their work over the weekend. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

After taking some deep breaths and finding my happy place, I realized that there were 3 absent that day, and 5 who had been absent the day before, bringing our grand total up to 14 completed assignments. That means a whopping 50% of the other 5th grade class did their work.

I don't get it.

I consider myself a fairly empathetic person. It is easy for me to relate to my students and their situations, but this I just don't get. How a student can just not do their work...ever. It got me to thinking about what the real issue is.

Do we have accessibility issues in my school? For sure. Do we work around them? Yes! I burn DVD's for anyone who doesn't have a computer. This should be a non-issue.

Do my students come from unstable homes with little parental guidance once they get home. YES! What do I do for those students? I've talked to them about setting up a schedule for when they get home. We have after school tutoring that I've recommended. I'm here before school and they know they can come in and work. The labs are always open during lunch and 2nd recess. And the icing on the cake...if the students actually used their math time effectively they would never have homework! Let me repeat, if the students actually used their math time effectively they would never have homework! The thing is, the math is not too difficult. Every single student in my class can do this math if they tried. But they don't. They spend more time and energy avoiding their work than it would take them to actually complete it.

So what is the deal? Honestly, this is one of those posts where I don't have the answers, and I'm hoping that you do.

I know that motivation is a factor, but I am having a really hard time motivating some of these kids. They'd rather go home and play video games than do their work. They don't see the relevance, even though I make a huge effort to help them see why math is important.

I know that organization is a factor. I have many students who watch the videos multiple times because they lose their work. They get frustrated, I get frustrated, but at the same time, they need to realize that they are being held accountable for the same work as everyone.

What more can I/should I do? I do truly believe that the students need to start taking some responsibility here. But what about when they don't? Do they just fail? It goes against my core beliefs to let a kid fail because they won't put in the effort. But the amount of time and energy I put in to getting them caught up is exhausting. And is it even fair to them. Maybe it's better to let them fail early so they will succeed later.

This is why good teachers get burnt out.

Again, I don't have the answers...Do you?

How Collaboration Has Changed Me

2013-01-30T18:33:00.002-08:00

Collaboration...what does that make you think of? I've recently had a bit of a revelation about collaboration and I want to share my insight with you.

The word has been around, but my definition of it has changed dramatically. That being said, I'd like to take you on a little journey through my inner dialogue as the word collaboration has come up in the past.

High School - I get to collaborate on a project...sweet, that means I get to hang out with my friends to "work" on a project. Really we'll spend about 2 1/2 hours of gossiping and 30 minutes of working. I love collaboration.

College - I have to collaborate on a project...really, ugh. Now I'm going to have to do all the work on my own because I don't trust my group mates to do it right.  I hate collaboration.

Graduate School - I have to collaborate on a project...thank the lord, I am so busy I am barely going to have time to do my own share of the work. My group better know what they're doing.  I love collaboration.

First 10 years of teaching - You want me to collaborate with other teachers in my building...okay, but when? I have lesson plans to complete and curriculum to learn (because lord knows I haven't taught the same grade level for more than 3 years in a row). I'd love to collaborate, but I don't know what I have to offer. I am still a rookie, here. What if they don't like my ideas? What if I say something stupid? I'll collaborate, but I think I'll mostly listen. I'm afraid of collaboration.

Last 2 years (aka - since I started my love affair with Twitter) - Collaboration...no problem. I have developed and excellent PLN that I can go to with questions, ideas, etc. and I KNOW they can help. Want to know how I know? Because they are amazing, intelligent, passionate people.  Collaboration...can't live without it!

Are you ready for my revelation about collaboration? For you to collaborate, you don't have to be in the same room with someone...heck, you don't even have to be in the same country! The world we live in right now is full of opportunities to connect with people all over the world, and you know what? They have incredibly insightful things to offer...who knew!?!

So I throw this out there to you all. Get connected. Find people with common interests, teaching methods, and educational beliefs as you. If you are a flipped teacher, fill out the "connection forms" here and start meeting people. Believe me, it will change you.

Take aways from #miflip

2013-01-22T13:05:00.002-08:00

This weekend I had the privilege to help plan/host/present at a conference that is all about flipped classrooms. The conference was on a Saturday...in the middle of January...for free. Did I mention that almost 150 teachers showed up! Crazy! I wanted to share a few of my take-aways from the conference:

#1 Brian Bennett (@bennettscience) is an excellent keynote speaker! He managed to weave an elephant into his keynote and leave everyone motivated and excited.

#2 Karl (@kls4711) has an infectious laugh, and I am pretty sure he was the life of the party in college.

#3 There are some AMAZING teachers in Michigan!

#4 I got to meet Erin Klein...enough said.

#5 I got to present with Brian Bennett...enough said.

#6 Most importantly, this is what PD needs to be. We managed to weave some directed sessions (where attendees had a choice of where they wanted to go) and Edcamp sessions (where teachers signed up for what they were interested in talking/learning about) together. Everyone left energized and motivated.

So I ask the question...why? Why can't district PD be like this? It was useful, energizing, and dare I say it...fun!

I hope that I am asked to help again next year...if there is a next year. What do you think, was it worth your while?

I'll wrap up this post with some of my favorite tweets of the day.

COflipalicious

2013-01-22T12:38:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make...I have become a Twitter stalker. A few months back I saw a lot of teachers that I have mad respect for start throwing around the #coflip hashtag. I figured I missed some relevant discussion that talked about what #coflip was, but after looking back, I couldn't find anything...that was where my stalking began.

For weeks, I kept seeing #co-this and #co-that with no explanation. Finally, in a moment of weakness I finally asked. WTF is #coflip! As it turns out, #coflip represents collaboration...amongst teachers...without fear of being judged, laughed at, or made to feel inadequate.

To me, collaboration has always been an important part of my teaching. I've never been the teacher to shut my door, and I certainly don't have a problem sharing my ideas and input, so the idea of collaboration amongst teachers isn't anything new to me. That being said, after reading Andrew Thomasson's post about a little project we've been working on, I gained some new perspective. He mentions 3 reasons teachers are afraid to collaborate. The first 2 aren't me, per se, but the 3rd I have certainly experienced. He talks about being afraid to collaborate because you're afraid your ideas aren't good enough. I think that for rookie teachers, this certainly has a ring of truth. I felt that as a rookie flipper...still do at times.

One of the best choices I've made, however, is not letting that self-consciousness stop me from reaching out to others. I freely admit that I don't have everything figured out...and I probably won't anytime soon. What I do know is that by collaborating with other teachers (my flipping partner and my tweeps), I have become a better teacher...no doubt about it.

MIFlip 2013...BE THERE!

2013-01-03T10:53:00.001-08:00

For the past few months, I have had the pleasure of helping plan the first ever Michigan Flipteaching Conference with a number of other Michigan teachers (and one from Cali...thanks Karl). I realized this week 2 things:

1) I haven't blogged about it yet.

2) It's only 2 weeks away...yikes!

So here is what I can tell you so far. The conference is going to be held on January 19th from 9:00 - 3:00 at Byron Center High School. It is also 100% FREE!

The day will start out with a keynote from Brian Bennett (who, as an aside, I'm very excited to meet f2f). After that, we'll have 4 different sessions.

Session 1 - This session will be a little more guided, with topics you can choose from that range from PBL to flipped class 101 to flipped class for veteran teachers, etc.

Session 2 - This session will be EdCamp style, where we'll be getting topics from the participants...so if you're coming, bring some ideas with you ;) If you're not familiar with the EdCamp format, check out this short video from EdCamp Philly.

Session 3 - This will follow the same format as session 2...EdCamp style

Session 4 - For our final session we thought we'd do another session of "topics" you can choose from. These will all be content specific. I'll be talking flipped classroom from an elementary perspective, but there will be math, science, social studies, english and even administration covered in the last session.

To wrap up the day, we'll hand out some door prizes, give away some swag, etc.

In addition to the sessions that will be running all day, Techsmith will also be available to help with screencasting.

All-in-all it is going to be a most excellent day of learning & fun, so if you're in Michigan on January 19th, please join us!

To register, or for more information, please check out our website: http://miflip.wordpress.com/

Also...spread the word! We want to make our first MIFlip Conference a success!

Wake up call

2013-01-03T10:22:00.000-08:00

A funny thing happened to me before I left for winter break that I want to share. To start off, I need to give you a little background information.

My class has been blogging with two other 5th grade classes about flipped math (I've already posted about that). One of those classes is located in New Jersey, and they were hit pretty hard by Hurricane Sandy. My class was concerned, and wanted to do something about it. They decided to sell carnations at our music concert to raise money for some of the families that were impacted by the hurricane. We were able to purchase $300 worth of gift cards for those families...but that's not the point of this post. I want to tell you what happened after we sent the gift cards to the families.

The teacher in New Jersey (John Fritzky) tweeted to me because he wanted to surprise my students with pizza as a thank-you. We chatted back & forth about where he should order from, and what time it should arrive. We decided to have it delivered after 2nd recess as a snack. My students were THRILLED, and completely surprised, after all that's not why they raised the money...but that is still not the point of this post.

At the end of the day we have "guided academics" which is basically RtI for math. One of our RtI teachers (Mrs. Greemann) came down during the pizza hoopla & was talking with her group of kids. Their conversation is the point of this post...prepare yourself, because it's funny and a little sad at the same time. Their conversation went a little like this:

Mrs. Greemann: Where did the pizza come from?

Student 1: A school in New Jersey sent it to us.

Mrs. Greemann: All the way from New Jersey?

Student 1: Yup, they mailed it all the way from New Jersey.

Yes...he really thought that the pizza was mailed to us.

Student 2: No, they didn't mail it from New Jersey, it'd be all messy...they drove it here.

Yes...he really thought that they drove the pizza here all the way from New Jersey.

At this point Mrs. Greemann is trying (with much difficulty) not to laugh.

Student 3: Don't be dumb, they didn't drive all the way from New Jersey! They called a pizza place here & they delivered it.

Thank goodness, right? At least someone gets it! WRONG.

Student 1: Oh yeah, if they called & ordered it, then how did they pay?

Student 3: They just put some cash in an envelope & mailed it to them.

Needless to say, Mrs. Greemann scrapped her planned lesson & they talked through how someone from New Jersey could buy pizza for someone in Michigan.

I've had a few weeks to think about this conversation, and I continue to be amazed at the lack of real world understanding the students have. It also reaffirms my belief that I need to continue making the student's learning applicable to the real world.

Who would have thought that a nice gesture, like buying pizza for someone, could turn into a lesson in economics :)

There are no words

2012-12-16T18:53:00.003-08:00

Positive Publicity Makes for a Long and Exciting Week

2012-12-09T18:47:00.000-08:00

Last week was one of the longest weeks of all time. It started out normal enough on Monday, but Tuesday turned into something altogether different.

For this all to make sense, I need to give a little background information. My class has partnered up with a class in New Jersey (taught by John Fritzky) and a class in Texas (taught by Todd Nesloney). We have been attempting to have the kids in our classes blog with each other about math (as we are all currently flipping). We barely had one post under our belts when Hurricane Sandy struck. The hurricane hit New Jersey pretty hard, and Mr. Fritzky's school was powerless for 2 weeks. They ended getting back to school in a week & a half, but in a different building. Needless to say, our blogging got put on hold. As often happens when something devastating occurs, the good in people starts to come shining through. In this case, the good came from my students. As we were watching CNN throughout the week, and seeing the photos of New Jersey, my students first reaction was concern for their buddies in Jersey!

"Mrs. Bush, are they ok?"
"Mrs. Bush, have you talked to Mr. Fritzky yet?"
"Mrs. Bush, how are they handling not having power?"

And on, and on, and on...But the most powerful comment came from one of my quiet kids...

"Mrs. Bush, what can we do for them?"

I know, goosebumps, right?!? This made my heart happy, and I knew we needed to plan something, but we weren't sure what. Then our music teacher mentioned that our music concert was coming up early in December. We decided that we would sell carnations, and have all the proceeds go to the families in Mr. Fritzky's class.

I contacted a local flower shop, and they came through...BIG TIME! Alpine Floral donated over 350 carnations to our class.

Fast forward to Tuesday. My students were wired all day, looking forward to the concert and the carnation sale...but it was a good wired :) About 10 minutes before the bell rang, the office called and informed me that a reporter from our local paper was wondering if he could talk to me for a few minutes after school. This was the same reporter who interviewed me last year about my flipped classroom, so I figured it was just a follow up. I walked the kids out & came back to talk to the reporter. He noticed my room was in shambles (we'd been making posters and buckets for donations). I told what we were doing. He was impressed. We then spent the next hour and a half talking about the flipped classroom.

I had to take off, at that point, and get to the music concert, we had some flowers to sell! I had students beat me there (and I was plenty early). Throughout the lower elementary concert, my students sold well over half the flowers. We sold out by the end of the upper elementary concert. At some point in the evening, the reporter showed up: he snapped a few pictures, chatted with the kids, then took off.

Once I finally got home (8:30...still hadn't had dinner), I was oddly energized. My kids did amazing, and we made over $350. Our next step is going to the store, getting some gift cards & sending them out to Jersey!

My hope is that I can actually bring some of my kids to the store with me, but I'm not sure if the logistics will work out or not.

So are you wondering about the article yet? I expected that I would get a small article...I was not expecting this:

Kenowa Hills Teacher Becoming Expert in "Flipped Classroom" Concept

I don't really know how I feel about this article. It's really nice and very complimentary, I think I just have a difficult time patting myself on the back. And I certainly don't feel like and expert. None-the-less, it is still reassuring to get some positive press right now.

As I mentioned, this all happened on Tuesday...which felt like a Friday...which made the week take forever! As exhausting as the whole experience was, I would do it again in a second.

Some days I love my job.

Tightening up the reigns...to some degree

2012-12-02T07:51:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago I was venting here about my students not getting their work done, and I posed the question, "Do my students have too much freedom?" I decided the answer was, yes...and no! It totally depends on the kid (as is true in every classroom, huh). So here is the solution I came up with. On Monday, the students & I went through and set up a calendar for the entire unit. I told them they are allowed to work ahead of me, but they cannot get behind.

I love that the students have been able to quiz out of certain aspects of a unit, and it is a big point of pride for the kids who are successful in quizzing out. I didn't want to lose that, but I wasn't sure how to make it work with the newly, more rigid schedule. I mentioned this to the students because I'm all about being transparent, and quite frankly they have really good ideas! Once again, I wasn't disappointed. One child said to me, "Mrs. Bush, why don't we just skip that section and do whatever we have next?" Another child responds, "Or we can make our student made videos during that time." And yet another chimes in with, "Or we could help other kids." In my head I'm thinking, oh...you mean just like I had you doing before? DUH!

Sometimes it's easy to get stuck on the fact that if one thing isn't working, then everything needs an overhaul, and that isn't so. In this case, my kids who are responsible & on schedule still have the same options they've always had.

And so the week began with our new plan in place. On Monday, we all watched the first video together (it is agonizing to watch yourself on video btw). I made the decision to watch it together b/c I thought we could all use a little refresher on what's expected when we watch the video & complete our WSQ. Also, we had a few new students and I wanted them to get a clear idea of what is to be expected. In addition NO ONE passed out of our first learning goal, so I knew that everyone needed to see the video.

The next day, it was magical! Everyone had their work done (b/c we did it together), and was ready to move on (as a side note...yes I realize it was only magical b/c we did everything together in a group, but let me just bask in my moment of happiness, ok?) I was able to get to everyone and help with a very difficult concept. The fact that I was able to get around to everyone also helped me realize how difficult this concept was, and therefore led me to our next day's activity...angle bootcamp!

As luck would have it, on Tuesday I had some visitors in my classroom. I was just getting ready to send the students off to work & I mentioned how they were really lucky that day because there were 3 adults in the room to help (myself, my parapro & a parent helper). One of my students raises their hand & says "Mrs. Bush, there are a lot more than 3 adults." At which point I turn around & see our curriculum director standing there with a consultant from Alaska. Then in walks my superintendant with another consultant from Alaska (long story on the consultant part...but they are experts at mastery teaching helping out our district). I took a second to introduce myself to the consultants, then I was off & running. What I found really exciting was that they (all 4 of them) went around the classroom for 5-10 minutes talking to students. Asking them what they were working on, how the classroom runs, how they manage their work, etc. I don't know what the students said, but I do know that they all seemed impressed when they left...YEAH!

Of course on Wednesday there were several students who hadn't done their homework the night before. Being a woman of my word, those students stayed in for recess that very same day to finish up their work. By Friday they were pretty much all caught up again. While I am NOT a fan of making kids miss all their recess, I do think they need to realize what their priorities need to be.

Do my students have too much freedom?

2012-11-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

This year I've been dabbling in some mastery/self pacing with my math class. I've both loved and been discouraged by what I've found so far. I found out early on this year, that when you are the only person in the building who is attempting any sort of "mastery" teaching, holding students accountable to only moving on once they master a concept is not realistic. My report cards are not standard's based, the students are graded by unit. Again, making mastery teaching unrealistic.

So how have I loved my attempt so far? I have seen a large number of students blossoming this year. They have the freedom to skip out of lessons they already know, and move on to more challenging material that they might not get to otherwise. I see other students who see their peers moving ahead, and work really hard to keep up with them. It's been a beautiful thing...and for those kids (who are also uber responsible and always come prepared), it's working.

That brings me to the other chunk of my students (which is a lot larger than I'd like) who struggle to get any work done in class or out of class. This group of students gets to the end of a unit and still has several videos yet to be watched. Taking the test becomes pretty difficult when you don't do all the lessons! So what do I do for those kids? I feel like I have done so much hand holding already, do I really want to do more...aren't I trying to teach some time management skills this year too? Some independence maybe???

I ask these questions not because I actually expect anyone to answer, but because they have been weighing on my mind lately.

As of now, we all set up a schedule together at the beginning of a unit. I give them the time frame for the unit. Our last unit we had 3 weeks to work on...there were 8 learning goals to be mastered. That worked out to be about 1 video every other night...not even every night. Not to mention our in class time. If a student actually works the whole math period, they could get everything done without ever having homework. To me, this seems fair. I'm not assigning homework every night. I even let them work with each other to help each other out. So why is it that I have students who (3 weeks later) only have 4 of the 8 learning goals done? Have they been absent? No. Is access to the technology the problem? Again, no. So what gives? I don't know if it's that they don't know where to begin, am I possibly giving them too much control over when they learn things. Is there such a thing as too much control? Apparently I have a LOT of rhetorical questions this week!

When I began this blog, I planned on using it as a place to reflect, and plan changes. Right now I need to figure out something to change to make this run more smoothly. I don't want to take away the potential for students to test out of learning goals...But I feel like my kiddos need more structure. So here is my solution...at least for the time being. For our next unit, we will again set up a schedule. I will continue to give students 2 days per learning goal. This time, however, I am going to mandate which video is to be watched. If they don't need to do that video, they can either have the night off, or they can move on to the next learning goal.

I like this idea because it allows me to give them a little more guidance on where they should be. But what about those kids who still don't do the work? Let's face it, there are still going to be kids that don't do the work. What do I do with them? I have a couple of ideas floating around in my head:
1) Keep them in from all recesses (I already do that with limited success).
2) Have them call home (again, I've done...success is short lived)
3) Keep them in from all other additional stuff (assemblies, etc.)
4) They miss their specials until the work is done.
5) Keep them after school & require their parents to pick them up.

I really, really, really hate to hold all those options over their heads, but quite frankly I am at a loss of what else to do. I have very good relationships with almost all of my kids, they just don't do the work. I don't understand their sense of apathy. It's hard for me to relate because I was never that kid.

So I guess I put it out there to you all...what do you do with the kids who don't ever do their work?

How am I making this work?

2012-11-11T13:44:00.002-08:00

In the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to talk to a few groups about my flipped classroom. First, I spoke at our "Fired Up" conference, which is a conference for all the student teachers in the area. It was a great experience, and they asked a lot of great questions. Many of them revolved around how I am actually getting this whole thing to work.

About 2 weeks after that, I attended EdCamp GR, where I led a session on the flipped classroom (with the help of another teacher from the area...thanks @davidfouch). That session also went well, and a lot of questions revolved around how the flipped classroom looks different to every teacher. Personally, I think that is one of the best (and most challenging) parts to a flipped classroom. You can make it your own. That, however, is also one of the most difficult parts to explaining a flipped classroom because there isn't a one size fits all approach. That being said, I think it really helps to see examples of how it could be done, to give you a starting point. Therefore, I'm dedicating this post to how I actually organize/run my math time.

Before I even get into the system I use, I want to mention that I have been working hard on having "I can" statements that go with every unit. I refer to those statements throughout the videos, discussions, etc. They are also always posted on my classroom wall.

To start out, the students all go home with a calendar that we have filled in together that maps out when each student should do each video. They can certainly move faster than our schedule, but not slower. They also get a cover sheet that has our guiding questions, required videos and required problems on it.

Each night (or every other night) the students come to class having completed their WSQ's. Basically, they Watch the video (and take notes), Summarize the video (answer the guiding questions) and write an example Question...get it, WSQ. We host our videos on our Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kh5thgrademath Here's one example of a video for those of you interested in checking them out. We try to add humor into our videos...if at all possible. I found that throwing in little songs at the end & not being afraid to be goofy helps a lot (for an example, tune in to 8 min 40 sec).

Here is an example of what the guiding questions looks like to the students. I try to make the guiding questions some of the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.

After they have their WSQ's done, they sign up to meet with me. I typically meet with a group of 4-5 students. The first thing they do is check each other's answers from the video. If anyone got something different from the group, it's their job to help them figure out what they did wrong, and why it was wrong. This is also a great way for me to tell who was just writing down what I write, and not really doing any practice. After they do that, they call me over to discuss the guiding questions. This has helped me a lot in regards to time management, otherwise I'd spend all my time in discussions, and no time working on practice problems.

Once they get the all clear from me, they work on their practice problems (these are what used to be homework). They self correct their answers and then can quiz on the learning goals. I keep track of this is a couple of ways. First, I have my master copy of who's done what (if I ever lost this I would be in major trouble!). The date of the discussion is marked on the chart. Once they take a quiz, it is either marked with pink or green (pink means they didn't pass, green means they did).

Each child also has a file folder where I keep all their quizzes. At the end of a unit I send it all home for them to study from. I also have a file for each learning goal, so the students can access the quizzes when they need them.

I think the last organizational tid-bit I have for you is my folder system. I have a folder where I keep my master highlighted page, as well as all the answer keys to the quizzes. I've found that having an answer key easily accesible makes getting the students immediate feedback much more doable.

I realize this is a lengthy post, hopefully it is helpful too!

Hmmm, something's not totally working right now...

2012-10-28T12:49:00.001-07:00

For the past few weeks I've been thinking about my Flipped Class and how it's going. I haven't been totally satisfied, and I couldn't quite put my finger on why. I think it was a sense of feeling like my math classes were fairly chaotic and that I was spending that whole time making sure kids were on task, rather than checking how their math was going. I also didn't like that even though I was have discussions about math every day, I didn't feel like I could tell whether they could actually solve a math problem! Knowing the why is great, but kids have to know how to actually solve the problems too!

All our discussions revolved around the how, but they kids never really solved problems until they went off to practice. The problem was, that I was so busy having discussions that I couldn't watch them solve their practice problems.

Last year, all I did was watch them solve their practice problems (minus the discussion). I think that now, after having reflected upon the process, I realize that I need both. So here's a little comparison of the before and after renovation of my math class.

Before
Students would complete a WSQ:

Watch the video, and take notes...often being prompted to "stop and solve"
Summarize the video (intro sentence, vocab sentence, answer guiding questions & give an example)
Question (what questions did you have, or could you pose to your classmates)

Then they would meet with me & we'd discuss all that

Practice problems come next (done and checked independently)

Once the kids practice the required problems & understand them, they quiz to show mastery

What didn't work

I never got around to checking the "stop & solve" problems from the videos
The summaries were not great...the intro & vocab were good, but not really as important
The guiding questions were a great discussion point, but often students forgot to do them.
The questions were terrible. The kids were just making something up because they "didn't have a question" and coming up with a question for their peers was "too difficult".

After

Students complete a WSQ:

Watch the video, and take notes...often being prompted to "stop and solve"
Summarize the video - students are now asked to answer the guiding questions only (but they better make them good)
Question (give me an example problem that is similar to the problems from the video)

What I like so far

I am checking their "stop & solve questions during our discussion time
I am making them solve a practice problem with me before I let them go to their desk to work independently
Students are getting more comfortable making student made videos, and it is starting to motivate the others.

Hopefully with these changes, the students and I will finally start to get into a rhythm during class!

Skyping in School!

2012-10-14T13:27:00.000-07:00

In my quest to include more writing in math, I've been trying to figure out a way to make it something fun...not an easy task. Enter Todd Nesloney (@techninjatodd) and John Fritzky (@johnfritzky) and our tri-blog project. I connected with these two on Twitter & was asked to do a quad-blog with them. We were unsuccessful at finding a 4th person, so our quad-blog became a tri-blog. The premis of our blogging will revolve around math (as we are all flipping our math classes to some extent).

Each week, one of our classes will be the "bloggers", where the students write blog posts. We haven't totally worked out what the posts will be about...specific math content, what we're learning currently, reflections on how flipped math is going, etc. are all some ideas I've been thinking about. The other 2 classes will be the "commenters". They will read the blog posts and will then respond to them. Our hope is that students not only think more critically about math (and are able to verbalize it), but also that they are more careful with their writing...after all, someone will be reading it.

This week the students got to "meet" each other via Skype. The process of getting Skype to work in all of our buildings (mostly mine) was a bit of a process. Luckily, my tech team came through with about 20 minutes to spare! The whole day my students were asking questions and watching the clock. A few of my kids were literally shaking with excitement. Me? I was more concerned about making a good impression & getting the tech to work! Once the Skype calls came through, the kids did great. They were asking some really good questions, and it did what we (the teachers) hoped it would do...got the kids excited about writing!

In all honesty, this activity was one of the coolest things I've ever done with a class, and I am very excited to see how it plays out this year.

Things are starting to click

2012-10-14T08:06:00.003-07:00

This week we have been very interrupted by the MEAP test (our statewide assessment), so I feared that I wouldn't get into the rhythm that I so much desired for another few weeks...Luckily, I was dead wrong! To give you perspective, I think I need to back up to the beginning of the week.

On Monday, the kids followed the same MO that they've been following since we started truly flipping (only a few weeks), and barely turned in their homework. It is one thing if a student doesn't have access to a computer, but it's completely another if they just don't feel like doing the work. By Monday I had students who hadn't turned in a single WSQ for unit 2 (and we had 3 days of in class to work on them). After another excellent #flipclass chat on Monday night, I decided to send out progress reports. So the next day I got everything in order, and everyone who wasn't through at least the first 3 WSQ's, practice problems and quizzes received one. Students were not happy about it...parents were even less happy (thankfully most parents were unhappy with their kids, and not me). The following 2 days of math were like a different class. My students were on task (with a few exceptions), and most of the kids were caught up by Friday. I also had a handful of students who, by the end of the week, were done with all the learning goals, so I got to try something I'd been wanting to try all year...student made videos!

My students finally realized why I'm asking them to write practice problems in their WSQ's...so they have something ready when they make their own videos. Many of my studentes were in the hallway when they were making their videos, and one of our intervention specialists was eavesdropping as he walked back to his classroom. He commented to me later, "They're really talking about math...their conversations are right on target!."

Below are a few pictures that show my students working during math.

Making student made videos on the iPad.

Sharing the iPod touch to complete their WSQ.

Creating a video together.

Teaching each other math during our discussions.

In addition to math starting to finally click, we also got a chance to Skype with two other 5th grade teachers. I'll be creating an entirely separate post on that topic...but in short, it was one of the coolest things I ever done with a class.

Once we got through Monday, the week was full of wonderful thinking, learning, creating and talking about math!

That was chaotic...and pretty cool too!

2012-10-07T07:49:00.004-07:00

This week was a week of firsts. We had our first assessment, our first front-loaded inquiry project, our first chance at watching videos & completing WSQ's independently, and our first chance to quiz out of a learning goal to prove mastery.

Let's take these firsts one at a time:

This week my students took their first assessment of the year. Last year (my first year of flipping), my class average on test 1 was a 90% (after the students had a chance to take the retest). This year my class average was an 83% (no retest yet). While this is not as high as last year, I also need to consider how my classes compare in their baseline scores. Last year's class averaged a 206 on the NWEA MAP test. This year's class averaged a 204. Slightly lower, but not a significant amount. What I'm finding is that so far this year's class is performing close (or slightly lower) than last year's class. So what was different? One major difference was that I didn't let the kids do any of the videos independently during the first unit (last year I did). While I find this necessary, I do believe that had they had a chance to watch them independently they probably would have done better. Secondly, these are different kids. I always find it difficult to compare one group of kids to another when personalities can vary so much.

After their first test, we attempted our first inquiry project. You can find more information about it here. During the inquiry project I had a chance to walk around and look at the students misconceptions that they already have. As I asked them question after question, it was clear (even to them) that they didn't know how to solve the problem correctly. That being said, I did have one group that were definitely headed in the right direction.

Upon completion of our attempted inquiry, the students were then assigned the first video in unit 2. This was the first time that they were able to watch the video & complete the WSQ on their own. There are definitely some kinks to work through, but overall it went pretty well. When they came to class the next day I found that most (definitely not all) students had done the work & were ready to have a discussion. That's when I ran into the problem of there being only one of me & a lot of them that needed to talk. We developed a sign up sheet & I got around as quickly as possible. One thing I found that helped speed up the process was letting the first person read their summary completely, then having the rest answer the guiding questions that were supposed to be in the summary. My student's summaries must include the following:

Introduction sentence - what was the learning goal
Vocabulary sentence(s) - in your own words, define the key vocabulary
Main points (5-7 sentences) - answer the guiding questions (these are HOTS questions)
Example - come up with your own example of a question that is like what we learned about

I'm not sure what I expected out of the discussions, but I was able to clear up some misconceptions as we talked (mostly confusion about perimeter and area).

One thing I want to adjust next week is finding a better way to manage the quizzing procedure. I spent a lot of time giving/checking quizzes for students because they wanted to move on to the next lesson. What I found was that barely any of time was spent actually working through problems with kids, it was all talking with them about math. I feel that was beneficial, but I still need to find a way to get around and check in on the kids as they're solving their practice problems.

I also am noticing a potential problem brewing. I have a few students who have a lack of motivation to do anything at home. This could be solved if they use their class time wisely because I'm not requiring a video every night. However, they also are the students who accomplish very little during class. With me doing mastery teaching, they are going to HAVE to take some responsibility in their work or they will not get very far. I'd love some advice on that particular issue from anyone who has had the problem in the past.

After math that day (because we only had one day of that this week) I felt many things: energized AND exhausted, excited AND frustrated...it's amazing how one person can feel so many emotions in the span of an hour! Luckily it was much more energized and exciting than the latter."

Our final first of the week was the students being able to quiz out of certain learning goals. As I mentioned in my post last week, I had the students take a pretest and mentioned that if they did well, they could potentially "quiz out" of certain learning goals (because they already know how to do them). This week those students had a chance to take those quizzes, and many of them did, in fact, quiz out of certain aspects of the unit. So as of now, I have 60 total students who are doing a variety of different things that span four of the five learning goals in our 2nd unit. It is exciting to see the students excited about the fact that they can learn at their pace. While this benefits everyone, I think this really benefits the "high" kids who (in my humble opinion) are often left to fend for themselves because they "already get it". I could write an entire blog post on that topic, but this is not the time or place for me to get open up that particular can of worms!

That being said, the week was full of exciting, organized chaos...and I loved it!