Flipping with Kirch: June 2012

Friday, June 29, 2012

#ISTE12 - my "Table of Contents"

After a good night's sleep (or two), I think I'm finally ready to look through all the notes, handouts, business cards, websites, and QR codes that I accumulated over my four days in San Diego. I literally have no idea how to make sense of it all, so we will see what this turns into.

The purpose of me blogging through this is for me to make sure

(1) I remember what I heard

(2) I think about what I heard

(3) I consider how I am going to use what I heard.

If you have further questions about anything, feel free to ask; otherwise, I have tried to also get the presenter's contact information so you can contact them directly as well.

ALL TITLES BELOW ARE HYPERLINKED TO A BLOG POST ABOUT THEM

See who else is blogging about #ISTE12 here http://www.isteconference.org/2012/communities/blog.php
ISTE's YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/istevideos

ISTE posts to start off...

People I met (Relationships, Connections, and Conversation!) - one of the best parts of ISTE - meeting people, both tweeps and newbies, and having conversations about just about anything.
My Random list of thoughts and resources - this is the "smorgasbord" post of everything random I found or heard about that doesn't really fit elsewhere.

My personal focus for ISTE was to attend sessions on the following:

Flipped Classroom

The Many Faces of the Flipped Classroom (Aaron Sams, Brian Bennett, Jonathan Bergmann, two ladies from Clintondale HS, April Gudenrath, Eric Marcos, Ramsey Musallam, Stacey Roshan, Dan Spencer, Kristin Daniels) and Many Faces of the Flipped Classroom: The Conversation Continues

Blogging in the Classroom

Web Tools

Apps in the Classroom

Differentiated assignments/assessments/products and ideas for the math classroom

KEYNOTES (links to YouTube videos only)

Keynote #1 - Sir Ken Robinson. Redefining Horizons: Encouraging Students Passion to Achieve
Keynote #2 - Dr. Yong Zhao. Defining High-Quality Education
Keynote #3 - Dr. Willit Smits. A time for learning in Action (need to watch VOD)

CONCURRENT SESSIONS (grouped by day)

POSTER SESSIONS (COMING SOON)

Information Fluency: Getting students to Evaluate what they find (Carl Heine, Dennis O'Connor)
Creating an environment for students to succeed using technology (Ben Smith, Jared Mader)

Blog/Podcasts - Audacity
Wikispaces for collaboration
"Be vague"
Kids update class blog on schedule
Have tutorials on website

Top 10 Learning activities for Meaningful integration of Web 2.0 tools (Shufang Shi, Sophia Tan)

CTLT.weebly.com

VoiceThread: Students communicating, collaborating, and loving it (Lisa Butler)
Teachers become movie stars: Muscogee County Educators Make Podcasts (Tony Vincent, Tina Cross, Shawn Cruzen, Richard Green)
Curriculum 2.0: integrating digital age skills into instruction (Katie Hecklinger)
Building the edtech toolbox: Professional learning in bytes (Leslie Perry)
Educational iPad App Database (Kyle Calderwood)

Blog What? Blogging in the middle school math classroom (Jane Germany)
Math Tappers: Apps for iOS device (Leslee Francis-Pelton, Tim Pelton)
Hot iPad Apps for the Math Classroom (Margaret Thombs, Kimberly Frezza, Sara Spellman, Jenny Tsankova)
Algebra 24x7 through the use of iPads (Loretta Asay, Jennifer Andricopulos, Sherwood Jones)
Algebra: The interactive way to learn with HTML5 (Caesar Villareal, Ramon Aragon, Eriberto Castillo, et.al)
Coaching teachers to implement student-centered, technology-rich instruction (Davis Brock, Alice Christie, Kyle Kallhoff)

Making the Common Core Uncommonly Exciting (Jamie Hagan)
Apptivities: Creative Classroom Lessons for your iPad (Jon Samuelson)

ipadsammy.com
@ipadsammy
jsamuelson@eanesisd.net

No Boundaries: Using iPads to Reach English Language Learners (Heather Parris-Fitzpatrick, Lisa Estrada, Laverne Mitchell, Regina Moraitis)
Flipped Math Classroom (Wayne Feller, Kristin Daniel)
Flipped instruction in the language arts classroom (Troy Cockrum)
How can we use geometry to build a game? (Karolina Piedra Segura, Oscar Perez)

WANT TO WATCH V.O.D. (approximate titles) (COMING SOON)

http://www.isteconference.org/2012/program/search_results.php?selection_id=77415345&nocache=1341258376

Monday:

Ignite #1
Elementary Math
Comic Life
Creativity
iLearn
Change
Apps
Creative iPad Apps
Textbook
Smartphones
Digital Work
Google Apps

Tuesday

Blooms
Graphic Inequiries
Applying Apps
Edugames
Ignite #2
Overcoming the Algebra Barrier with Mobile Devices

Wednesday

Digital Content
Media Makers
Mentor Teachers
Multiplayer math gaming
Did they get it? Assessment and Edmdoo
Beyond Literacy
Curators of Knowledge: Students' new role in the digital collaborative classroom
Film Festival
Google Tools
Hollywood Squares
99 free resources and projects for digital age learning

#ISTE12: The Many Faces of the Flipped Classroom

Presenters:

See a picture of all the presenters here!

Thanks to Troy Cockrum, listen to the podcast of this panel here!

The Many Faces of the Flipped Classroom and Many Faces of the Flipped Classroom: The Conversation Continues

Aaron Sams
Brian Bennett
Jonathan Bergmann
Meloney and Dawn from Clintondale HS
April Gudenrath
Eric Marcos
Ramsey Musallam
Stacey Roshan
Dan Spencer
Kristin Daniels

Websites:
flippedlearning.org
flipped-learning.com

Article about the panel here.

Notes (All from presenters except from me in red):

Who is on the panel?

Brian Bennett - Flipped two whole consecutive years high school biology and chemistry
Eric Marcos - Sixth grade public math teacher, Santa Monica
Stacey Roshan - High school math teacher in Maryland. Bullis school
Ramsey Musallam - Sacred heart cathedral prep in San Francisco
April Gudenrath - K-10 IB school in Colorado springs
Kristin Daniels - Tech integration specialist for Nine elementary schools
Dan Spencer - Former teacher, now tech specialist
Meloney, AP at Clintondale and Dawn, director for ninth grade center at Clintondale; School of choice

What is your definition of a flipped classroom?

Integrated, holistic, adaptive, humanized learning
More engaging... It makes sense. Better use of time for students to learn more efficiently and better in the class
A way to transform traditional classroom dynamic, hear more from the students, get some of the stress out of the classroom. Calm, inspiring environment
What does good teaching mean to me... Flipping blooms taxonomy. Lower end blooms at home... Higher end blooms done in community

This will be one of my "focuses" next year when I am presenting the flipped classroom to students and parents.

A way for her to make learning come alive to my students
Applying it to professional development...a way to give teachers what they need to so they can do what they need-want in their classrooms
Flipped classroom PD lets teachers actually USE what they are being trained on
Allowing all teachers and students to learn at their own pace. Individualizes learning. Kids who need more help can go at their own pace and get more help. Kids who want to go faster can.
Helped with lowest level learners and levels the playing field for all - Not just for high level learners
An environment that encourages students to try, to make mistakes, and to think about their learning,
It's just good teaching

What is the use of video in your class?

The one question your kids ask all the time... Screencast it! Even just directions (how to get to google docs)

I am going to do this for lots of basic stuff next year - using Edmodo (gosh it was so frustrating having to re-explain myself over and over again!), project instructions, etc

Thinking about things that will stay the same from year to year... Procedural steps... Those make good videos.
He (Ramsey) doesn't want the first exposure to content to be from teacher. Explore,flip,apply. Videos in response to their misconceptions. When do they need him? After they've had a chance to work with it.

I'm still not a full EFA advocate. I still believe there is importance and value in explicitly teaching math, especially to my lower learners (see article here that supports that). However, I would like to do a little more "previewing" of content this year - that is, having students do some sort of thinking, brainstorming, etc of the content before watching the video. I'm not sure what this will look like yet.

Mathtrain.tv Students make math videos...the kids want to make them! (no ec or grades!)
Could be used to frontload a lesson
Front load a lot of information, offload common questions (MLA format!!)
Hear critical information that is needed for discussions, etc
Students create videos, vodcasts, podcasts... Students have to interact and respond with

What is the bigger picture?

Recognize what is good direct instruction
Videos are a resource, it's just one thing we use
Personalized the learning process because students can choose how they learn
Maximize and leverage the resources we have!

This "bigger picture" is another area I want to focus on this year. This last year, every lesson was delivered via video and students were required to watch my videos. I would like to expand that this year to include other methods of delivery, including textbook, online resources, other videos, etc. At this point, I'm not sure if I'm ready to allow students to have full control over where they receive content - that's a scary step! Right now, I'm thinking I will start the year off with just my videos, and then teach students how to find good content on their own, and then allow them to have a little more choice. We'll see :)

Key benefits of the FC

School was not meeting their needs, they weren't doing hw and it wasn't because they didn't care...they just needed more support. They were supposed to process their learning in an environment that didn't support that.

Another key point I am going to make - I want students to process their learning in an environment that supports it - my classroom!

Students in charge of taking a role in their education
Maximizing learning!!!

TRADITIONAL FLIPPERS

Where do you put the videos in the instructional cycle

PD- front load with video of how to use the tool so PD is actually integrating and implementing tool into their teaching
Dan spencer- videos should be 3-5 minutes (This is a little short for me. For Alg1, sometimes I have 5 minute videos... most often it is 7-12 for Alg1 and 8-15 for Math Analysis)
10 minute video is 15-20 minutes to make It also depends on how much editing you want to do. Before I used Camtasia, the videos were one take, no editing, just finish and upload. I could get a 10 minute video done in literally...10 minutes. Now, I would say a 10 minute video takes 20-30 minutes to make, edit, and upload.
Stacey- 20 minute videos. Expect students to take 40 minutes to watch it. That is their only hw for the night. Students like that they know how long the hw is supposed to take them. They can PLAN on how long it will take them Love this and will definitely be emphasizing this with my students in the fall. According to my end of year survey, 28% of my students said that a 10 minute video would take them less than 12 minutes to watch. That means they aren't pausing it very much to write things down. They need to be taught how to watch an educational video - it's not just put your feet up and watch mindlessly like you'd watch a TV show. I need to emphasize to my students the following "suggested protocol" for a 10 minute video:

approximately 20 minutes watching (52% of my students said they would spend 15-30 minutes on a 10 minute video)
5 minutes completing "Secret Questions"
10 minutes completing WSQ

Where do you see this going? Clintondale teachers

Having students start making the videos

Biggest benefit to FC

It is individualizing instruction and reducing anxiety in the classroom
Transforming teachers and teachers raising expectations for themselves (pd)
Who owns the learning??? Teacher or student
Closing the achievement gap
Students having control of their learning

Hosting videos

YouTube
screencast.com
Local Lms
YouTube edu
Mathtrain.tv
Vimeo
Educreations

NONTRADITIONAL FLIP

Ramsey-

Front loading can be a better version of a bad thing. Video needs to be a technique used strategically.
Finds his students are more motivated to learn once they are confused and perplexed first.
Cognitive load theory.., we assume our students are fully invested in the learning process
Just in time teaching
Google form underneath has two questions... Just a conceptual summary and then a multiple choice question that is worked out partway thru in the video so students have to watch it to know when he stopped working it out
Edit confirmation in google form. Add links to other videos, pages in book to look at, etc.
I like the idea of having a multiple choice question worked out partway through so students have to watch it to know how far you got.
I like having other links in the confirmation for further practice. Generally what I do is actually give the link to the Google Form (view-only) so students can read back through their responses, read their classmates who have submitted, as well as read mine (the first row) and find the correct answers to the Secret Questions. Generally, I put a link to an Educreations video working out the SQ correctly on the form for them to click on if they got it wrong.
My biggest concern with this is a lot of my students this last year would never click on the link to view the spreadsheet...and I'm not sure why! When asked, they would always say "Oh I forgot" or "You can do that?"... comments that made me think they weren't really paying attention to what they were doing. I don't know why they WOULDN'T want to know if they were correct or not! Wouldn't you?

FC . Does the term accurately reflect what is actually going on?

I have made a choice to leverage video in such a way that I am able to do more with my class time (Bennett)
Flipped learning vs. flipped classroom... It's about the learning not the classroom
"offloading direct instruction using videos"... It's just a buzzword
We are identifying good teaching
We are using video to leverage this

Why is it exploding? Why is it resonating with teachers?

One on one time to make an impact on our students
Rehumanizing the classroom, students actually feel like people who matter!! Students can feel that success that is squashed out of American schools
Students are empowered to believe in themselves

Random Comments

Guided notes should not just be copied From mine, it should be THEIR notes... Promote good note taking skills

Important point I don't think I emphasized enough this year. I made a point that everything I have written down should be written down as well. However, I think it is important that the notes are written in words that the students will understand, and that they often have things written down that I just SAID and maybe didn't write.

Students always start the class... From THEIR DISCUSSIONS, that is what guides the discussion in class and what she goes over. Stacey does not start the class with a discussion that she thinks of, it is all based on the students

Since my WSQs are submitted online, I can see where they need help before class begins. However, I like the idea of students just getting into groups and starting their WSQ chats right away, and see what they can work through just by themselves without me having to re-explain things. Then, if there is the need, I can pull them back together or pull up a small group.

Still include reading.. Articles and blogs.

I hope to expand my library this year!

Students have choice in what they learn and how they learn and how they demonstrate understanding. "you-choose" assignments. Students take ownership of their learning.

"Menus" or "Choice Boards". I'll be blogging a lot about that later this summer as I get to reading and researching the links I have saved.

Mathematicians are people, too...Books, short stories that students read and then lead to discussion... IN MATH CLASS!!!

Hmmm I like this. I had to take a "History of Math" class in college and it was actually pretty interesting. I always tell my kids stories about Pythagoras and Descartes... I should find some more fun stuff!

"You're gonna ruin my kid when they go to college"

Dan -I'm trying to help my students become individual learners, I am trying to teach them how to learn. How to actually think about what is being presented to them and make sense of it to them.
Kristin - We are giving them the chance to learn about their thinking and think about their learning I love this quote.
My hope is that by being in a "flipped classroom" my students are more independent learners who know HOW to learn and HOW to use their resources to help them succeed.

I can never get enough of amazing people talking about #flipclass! Let the conversation continue!

#ISTE12: Digitizing Math Metacognition (Jennie Magiera)

Presenter:
Jennie Magiera

Website:
@msmagiera
tinyurl.com/istemagiera
Session Prezi - https://sites.google.com/site/istemagiera/today-s-prezi
teachinglikeits2999.blogspot.com

Notes (from presenters in bold, from me in italics):

A lot of times when we talk about math we are talking about the answer... but isn't it more about the path?? About HOW they got there? Yes Yes Yes :) My students hate this because it makes them think, but it is so much more valuable! I still am looking for an effective way to make it clear to my students the importance of the path vs. the answer.

These standards focus a lot more on the "how" and not the "answer". It is more about the process and not just the finish line! The more I hear/read about Common Core, the more I feel that my flipped classroom can help me to provide opportunities for my students to really develop these "habits of mind of productive mathematical thinkers"

SAMR model by Dr. Ruben Puentedura - "Bloom's Taxonomy of Tech Integration" Surprisingly, I've never actually heard of this model before. I think it does a good job of organizing how we truly do integrate tech in our classrooms. It is easy to "enhance" the classroom by substituting or augmenting, but it takes more thought, planning, and research to truly transform your classroom with technology.

Substitute - replacing flash cards with an app that does the same thing but is prettier. Augment - a little bit extra. Keeps score and has a timer. Modify - Objective still the same but applies it a little more. Redefine - Take the objective but disrupt the activity into something you can't do without technology (example - kids facetiming with kids in other schools...sharing ideas and helping each other)

Three little pigs analogy

Third little pig comes and tells the straw house that he should be using brick. So, the first little pig just starts taping bricks to his straw house. Of course, the straw house just comes tumbling down! He needs to tear down the straw house and build from the ground up!
We can't just tape technology onto our paper and pencil classroom... we must restructure!
This analogy was brilliant. I think it is easy when we hear of all these cool tech tools to just start "taping them up" in our classroom when in reality, that is just going to make our classroom come crashing down. We must redesign and restructure our classroom when we are incorporating the technology (when of course the technology enhances the learning goal, not just because it's cool!)

Moving from teacher-centered to student-centered
Digitizing Differentiation

Record different videos at different levels... assign different videos to different kids

What an interesting idea and great way to differentiate. That would take a LOT of time and planning, and really knowing your kids. This might be an idea to try out this year, but not one to adopt completely because it's a lot of time.

Mathademics YouTube Channel - another place to possible curate content from
Think alouds - modeling metacognition because I am talking through my thought processes

When recording my FC videos, make sure that I am modeling that metacognition and not just working through the problems.

Great for Special Education
Not "flipping the classroom" but "cloning the teacher"

Interesting perspective

Collaboration

Airplay by Apple TV

Wall flowers don't have to come to the front of the room, and goof-offs don't completely waste time and distract class... yet everyone is participating and involved.

Kickin it up with Doceri ($30)
Skype in Schools
Kidblog.org
Edmodo

Silent discussions with iPads having a chat on Edmodo. Class conversation projected on big screen as well. All students are involved, not just the "loud" ones.

Assessment

Google Tools for assessment

Exit Ticket on google forms
Ask for the answer, but then also ask "explain your answer"

I need to add this to my online WSQs for the "secret question" part - instead of just asking for the answer, I should have a followup question asking them to "explain their answer". They can choose to write in words the explanation, or talk through it on a screencast or short video and put the link there.

PaperPort notes

Doesn't record screen movements

Educreations

Students talk through their thinking

Toontastic

Student created problems
Seems somewhat elementary, but my high school students may still have fun with it
They don't publish the resolution, then they trade and solve each others

Digitizing Math Metacognition

Dan Meyer's Three Acts

Show Video
Watch the video twice
Ask any questions that you have
Have kids either find info, or give them the needed info
Have students explain how to solve the problem with educreations, focusing on their metacognition

Real World Problems

Actually recording a problem myself from the real world for my students to use

I would like to start thinking of these things throughout the course of the school year. It hasn't been at the top of my priority list, even though it probably should be. One of these days :)

#ISTE12: EduTecher's Web Tools will make your classroom rock! (Adam Bellow)

Presenter:

Adam Bellow (@eduTecher)

Website:

http://edutecher.symbaloo.com/ - this site has links to all the web tools he presented, so check them out!

Note: Why use symbaloo? Then students don't have to type in URLs, they just click on image to go where you want them to!

http://www.edutecher.net/ - 1500 tools
Educlipper.net - coming soon - like an educational "pinterest"

Notes (from presenters in bold, from me in italics):

42 million new websites since last year's ISTE
Web 2.0 - that's a term that is 12 years old... call them "web tools" - then you can categorize them by type
It's not about the tools - it's about what you do with them... and more about what your STUDENTS do with them!
Avoid the pitfalls

Free webtools are not always free...they have to stay afloat somehow!
Always have a plan B
"If the pencil breaks, you get another pencil and move on"
Positives outweigh the negatives for using these tools
Keep Learning! There is no finish line!

Try one new things at a time, and figure out if it works...and do it well!

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - the number of new "web tools" I was exposed to this week is astronomical. We can't try them all out at once - we will overwhelm ourselves and our students.

WEBTOOLS SHARED in presentation:

Money-saving web tools

Aww (a web whiteboard) - can all log in and learn together. Just click on "share" and invite others to the URL, then you can all work together.
Mentimeter (like a smart clicker, but free). Students can vote on any device that has access to the web (phone, computer, etc.) Graphic automatically updates as votes come in.

Social Webtools

Edmodo.com
Schoology.com
Tildee.com - a way to create "how-to" tutorials incorporating a variety of media.

Study Apps

ThinkBinder.com - students (or teachers!) can create study groups where students can collaborate by talking, video-chatting, sending files, etc. I'm having my students pilot it to see what they think. I like it as a better alternative to my "chats" I had via google docs this year.

Movie Making

PhotoStory
WeVideo (social editing and sharing software) 2-3 people can be on the same video at the same time!

Flipping the Classroom

Present.me (PowerPoint + webcam)
ShowMe (create your own lessons, or curate ones that are already made!) "Real Teachers using real content making videos"
Synchtube.com/r/edutecher Password: eduTecher

Gets rids of ads and comments, has chat/backchannel to use

YouTube EDU, YouTube for teachers

Put the computer to work for you

ifthisthenthat - helps you organize your tasks
philterit - organizes email

Just for fun:

Auto-tweeting

Keynotetweet2 - he got his tweets to live tweet as he was talking

Create Music

Ujam.com (it lets you sing - terribly - and then let's you fix it)

Other

Easel.ly - creates great infographics
Futureme.org - can send yourself an email in the future; great for reflection

From all this, the web tools I like the most and will be exploring first are:

1. ThinkBinder - To use for "chat sessions"

2. WeVideo - to encourage students to use for video projects

3. ShowMe - as a location to curate content from

The web tools I want to explore more and could see some use, but aren't on my priority list are:

1. Futureme.org

2. Easel.ly

3. Aww

4. Mentimeter

#ISTE12: Web 2.0 and other wonders for math (Karen Ferrell)

Presenter:
Karen Ferrel

Website:
Karenferrel.net

Notes (from presenters in bold, from me in italics):

This session just provided some good websites to use in math. Most of them have been around for a while, but here are some that I'm not using fully yet.

linoit.com - online bulletin board where you can add notes, pictures, videos, any type of file and organize them any way you want.
wordle.net/create - create word clouds when you input text. The more the word shows up, the bigger it is. Can rearrange the wordle until you like it.
flubaroo.com - an online grading tool that incorporates with GoogleDocs/GoogleForms. It looks like a lower-tech version of what Andy Schwen showed at #flipcon12. See instructional video here http://www.flubaroo.com/instructional-videos. It looks pretty cool and I'm wondering how I could incorporate it into my class. Ramsey Musallam just recorded a 10 minute full instructional video here! Thanks Ramsey!
edu.glogster.com - Creative way for students to "collage" projects. You can create a free account, or you can pay to be able to manage classes and stuff.
illuminations.nctm.org - Website with a lot of online manipulatives, games, etc. I've known about this site for the last 5 years and haven't taken the time to play around with it quite yet.
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (NLVM) - another site I've known about for the last 5 years but just haven't played around with yet.
shodor.org - More online activites on http://shodor.org/activities/ tab

#ISTE12: Real Apps, Real Classroom: iPads in the mixed-ability classroom (Amanda Allen, David Lopez, Javier Vega)

Presenters:

Amanda Allen @msallenla
David Lopez @mister_lopez
Javier Vega @fjvega25

Websites:

tinyurl.com/ipadsges
tinyurl.com/isteipads (session evaluation)
Searchable iPad app database here
Powerpoint of Presentation [COMING SOON]
Places to find apps and iPad resources

Appitic - http://www.appitic.com/
Appshopper - http://appshopper.com/
Teacherswithapps - http://teacherswithapps.com/

Notes (from presenters in bold, from me in italics):

Show Me:

Three levels of iPad deployment:

1:1
Class/shared set
Teacher only

Right now we are at teacher only, we do have two iPad carts coming next school year so that will definitely change things up.

There are over 225,000 iPad specific apps (not even including iPhone!)

Sample Apps (free or low-cost)

Primary Grades Science

Brainpop
Discover my Body
BodyWalk HD

Writing

Popplet
Descriptive Writing
Beautiful Planet HD

Math

6 in 1 kids math
(see powerpoint slide once I get the copy here)

Middle School Science

NASA
Solar System HD
DK Human Body
Animation Creator HD

Middle School Language arts

iBooks Author
Good Reader
Zite
Infographics
Comic Life for iPad
Maxie's Collage apps

Convince Me:

School Goal:

Reaching all learners of mixed abilities
Become better teachers
Engage Students
Student ownership over learning

Created a culture of self-initiated learning - students come to teachers with apps to use!
Zero student training needed!

Empower Me:

Places to find apps and iPad resources

Appitic - http://www.appitic.com/
Appshopper - http://appshopper.com/
Teacherswithapps - http://teacherswithapps.com/

Types of apps

Toolbox - work for any grade level and content area
Content-specific - very specific for a specific concept/content area and grade level

Downsides of iPads

No flash - it drains battery life = energy consumption
Distractions - They emphasized that the teacher is the best content filter and you just have to set expectations for your students.

FINAL QUOTES:

If technology helps us achieve learning, then we will use it. It is a tool for the learning, not the focus
Supplement your lessons, not supplant

Don't throw out your existing lessons and workflows.

Use technology as another tool to reach your learners
If the app doesn't fit, don't use it

Building my library of "useable" apps will take a while, and I don't know how much I will be able to apply to my classroom this year since we won't have iPads for most students on a consistent basis. If anything, I can find useful apps to have on my iPad and to recommend to students who have iPads or iPhones to use on their own time.

I like that at the end they really emphasized the fact that these are tools for learning and not the focus of what we are doing... just like with my Flipped Classroom - it is a tool that I am using to help my students learn more/deeper/better - it's not the focus.

#ISTE12: Making connections with blogging: Authentic Learning for today’s classrooms (Lisa Parisi, Brian Crosby)

Notes (from presenters in bold, from me in italics):

When having your students blog, you MUST talk about internet safety. You must teach them what they can and cannot say online.

Do all the safety early so you don't have to worry about it later.

I need to plan and collect resources, blogs, articles, etc of what I need to teach my students. Sometimes I have the habit of wanting to jump right into things without training my students good enough - then I get frustrated later on! This year, I really want to make sure my students are well-trained and understand the expectations from the beginning so hopefully that will reduce stress and anxiety later on.

Their students blog both at home and at school

I would like most of the blogging to be done outside of class time (and since I only have 3 computers in my class, it can't really be done all in class!), but I could see taking the class to the computer lab a few times at the beginning as they are being trained.

Math blogs

Solve a problem and explain their solution
One person starts a problem, next person has to respond to that with a solution... next person continues on, fixes the mistake, etc

I'm thinking if I did this, it would occur on the class blog at kirchmathanalysis.blogspot.com. I'm not sure if I'm going to be using the main posting feature of that blog, or just the pages with all my content hosted yet.
I'm also starting a blog for student work here http://kirchstudentwork.blogspot.com/ My thoughts for that is this is where we will be begin, and then this will branch off to individual student blogs linked here. I was contemplating having pages for each unit and having student playlists embedded one each page, but that is a lot of work on my part when instead, I could just put that in the students' hands and have them be updating their playlists on their blogs and just link it once from the main page.

Beginning of the year blog

Students write about their expectations for the year
Goals and dreams for the year (September; revisit in January and June)

I generally have students do something like this anyways - how great it would be to have it posted on a blog where they can go back to it at any time! My only thought is that I'm not sure if I am going to have students start their own blogs right away or if we are going to build into it.

End of Year - have students go back through blogs they have written earlier in the year and look back
This is a fantastic portfolio of student work

Yes :)

If/when they look back, don't delete original post. Do a "Redux: Original Post" and copy paste it over to new post. Then fix, rewrite, etc and leave link to original post
Great for our ELs to see how far they have come

This is what makes me want to do this with my Algebra 1's as well. At first, I'm thinking I was just going to do this with my older kids. However, I think with my Algebra 1's it would be a great place to see growth as well as practice writing.

One of the most important things about blogging is connecting and commenting!

I'm not sure how to effectively monitor the student commenting and keeping track of who is commenting and who is not commenting. Also, if my students all have their own blogs, how can I moderate comments? Will they need to add me as an editor to each of their blogs? Will that just become crazy on my part?

What I want my students blogging about:

Beginning of the year thoughts and goals
Mid-Year and End-of-Year goals and evaluations
Reflections on Units (normally I have them do a handwritten PMI, I could have them do this on the blog instead)

P = Plusses - what did you do really well on this chapter, what did you understand the most, etc
M = Minuses - what did you struggle with this chapter, what do you still need more help or practice on, etc.
I = Interesting - what did you find the most interesting about this chapter? It can be a specific concept you learned that you really enjoyed, or a learning activity you participated in

Special Posts - if I find an interesting article, post, video, etc that I want my students to reflect and respond to.
School-Wide Writing - we do this 4x a year and I could have my students post their essays online instead of turning them in on paper. I would want to provide a way for students to submit it privately as well if it is a prompt that might be somewhat personal.
Student's Learning Playlists via MentorMob.com - Playlists of student-created content. Don't know if I want this organized by unit, just put on the class blog, or put on each individual blog... gotta think about that one!
Student's curated content via MentorMob.com - playlists of content that students have found. Again, I'm not sure if I want this to be a "class playlist" where everyone contributes, or if I want each student to have their own playlist that they can add to as they find things to help them. (They can add things to their playlist that they like from other students)
(Math Analysis only) - Student's WPP's - I would have students create a page for this playlist to be on and they would add to it throughout the year.

#ISTE12: Want to stop students from copying? Change the product (Elizabeth Allen, Melinda Kolk)

Presenters:
Melinda Kolk
Melinda@tech4learning.com
Elizabeth Allen
Allenel@lc-ps.org

Websites:
Link to similar presentation: http://www.tech4learning.com/iste2012-change-the-product
Program they used in Model Lesson https://www1.wixie.com/

Notes (from presenters in bold, from me in italics):

The wealth of information our students have access to makes it easy for them to just go and data dump (copy-paste) into their project.
We need to make sure that what we are asking them to do is relevant.
If what we are doing does not reach for higher level thinking skills, it makes it very easy for them to just go into the Internet and copy-paste.

These are all very good points. In today's technological age, finding information is not the problem...I remember having to use the "World Book Encyclopedia" to write my Planet Report and State Report in elementary school. Now there is almost TOO much information online! We must teach our students how to make sense of what they find. We can't just ask them for information (because finding the information is way too easy), we must ask them to do something with the information.

We must introduce research to our students and teach them how to synthesize rather than copy.
Big 6 Research Method
We must work smarter, not harder - we aren't doing something additional, but we are doing what we already do BETTER
Why do students copy? Very rarely is it just because they are lazy...

Limited reading ability
Limited vocabulary
Lack of research skills
Lack of understanding of assignment
Lack of motivation
A non-stimulating final product

This made me think. Honestly, when students copy in my class, I really have thought it was because they are lazy. But, maybe there is a deeper meaning or reason that I need to explore as I connect with my students. This is definitely something I am going to keep in mind this school year.

Bloom's Taxonomy

My focus is really on students applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating content. Like it was mentioned at several other sessions, I am trying to take the remembering and understanding parts out of the classroom (via video) and so we can focus on the four higher levels in class. This is my big focus for next year - doing a better job with those four levels during class time by providing a variety of learning activities for my students to engage in that will really challenge them.

Marzano - 9 things we want our students doing

We can't have our students do projects that are just remembering and understanding

I think this is a good description of what we call "busy work". It must go deeper than that!

Sample Projects (mostly for elementary level) can be found here.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

#ISTE12 - my random list of thoughts and resources

This is just a random list of apps, resources, and ideas that I came across while at ISTE this week. I'll be adding to it and making sense of it later...I just wanted to jot them down so I can throw some notes and papers away!!

Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Moodle
Caliquity (free)
Learnist

CTAP http://www.myctap.org/

Leading Edge Certification for Online Teaching (thru CTAP)
Contact: Teresa Lightle @tlukanik

Ebackpack.com

iPad app for students to basically be paperless
ideal for 1-to-1 schools

Display Rec

App to screencast directly from iPad

Penultimate

The original, easiest-to-use, and best-selling handwriting app for iPad. Penultimate gives you the fast, tactile gratification of writing on paper, with digital power and flexibility. Take notes, keep sketches, or share your next breakthrough idea -- in the office, on the go, or home on the sofa.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/penultimate/id354098826?mt=8

Tim Bedley (elementary teacher in Riverside)

Idea for classroom - Wireless mic. Put wireless mic on student desks (in groups) and have video camera further away so you can actually hear what students are saying and they won't be distracted by the camera close by
Timbedley.com
Reaching Consensus - students have to work together on their problems and "reach consensus" on answers. Students "argue" for their answers, and usually the person who is wrong figures out what they did wrong as they are trying to explain it.

Student Blogging Platforms

Kidblog.org (more elementary)
Classchatter.com

Inquiry-Based Math

Contact Meredith Swallow
Middle school math teacher from Seattle

Three Ring

"A simple platform for authentic assessment"
threering.com
"Threering makes it easy to create digital portfolios of pen-and-paper student work, in-class presentations, and more.

Tangible Blogging (a way to start teaching/training students about blogging)

Idea from Brian Bennett
Day 1:

Students write half-page blog post on real paper
Post around room

Day 2:

Each student gets four sticky notes
Comment on "blog posts" from around the room

Day 3:

Students go back to original blog posts and look through comments

Rules for commenting:

Connect with the reader
Ask a question back (create conversation)

#ISTE12 - Relationships, Connections, & Conversations

I am starting off my posts on ISTE by focusing on what I think it most important: relationships, connections, and conversation. By far the best part of ISTE was connecting with people I have been chatting with online for the last 6 months in person.

I'm normally a huge picture-taker, but for some reason I didn't really take many pics this week :(. I'm kinda disappointed in myself that I don't have pictures with all the amazing people I met!

Also, these pictures also serve to prove that yes, I have brown hair. I've always had brown hair :).

Some of you may be wondering what my "blonde hair" tweets were about. My husband knew how excited I was to meet my tweeps in person, but the last thing he said to me before we left was, "You know that nobody is going to recognize you because they are all going to think you have blonde hair". I kinda laughed and didn't believe him. So we made a little bet about how many people would think I had blonde hair. And I think my husband won. Oh well :) I took him to In-N-Out when I got home. And made him breakfast this morning :)

Case in point: On Sunday, I was walking to the conference and saw a guy walking in front of me. I thought it looked a little like Brian Bennett (twitter: @bennettscience Blog: http://www.brianbennett.org/ ), but you can never tell from people’s twitter pictures what they really look like [hence the blonde hair controversy]. So, when we both were stopped at the stoplight I made some friendly conversation and as soon as I heard him talk, I knew it was him (must be that Indiana accent??). So, I said, “Are you Brian Bennett?” (I must have sounded like a stalker :)). Then I said, “I’m Crystal Kirch”. Brian then says, “I thought you had blonde hair”. That was only the beginning...

Sometimes I think we "celebritize" these people in our heads when we don't actually know them in person. This week only served to remind me how real these people are and how blessed I am to have them in my PLN. They truly are brilliant, amazing, fabulous, rock-star, and so incredibly fun :)

So, here are a few of the amazing people I met, either for a short time or throughout the week. I've linked their twitter handles and blogs so you can follow them as well!

Eric Pitt from MentorMob. I've been chatting with Eric for the last 6 months or so, and it was great to finally put a real face to a name. Eric and the rest of his team are a blast to be around!

And, of course, the rest of the MentorMob Team (with two other MentorMob Innovators that were at ISTE). (R to L) Vince, Kristin, Erin, Charles, Eric, and James.

Taylor Pettis (twitter: @tpettis) from Sophia.org. I've also been working with Taylor the last 6 months and have even done a couple of webinars (May and June) as well as contributed to their Flipped Classroom Certification program. Taylor was super busy at his Sophia booth (giving away awesome free t-shirts!) but we got to chat a few times. I am glad that next time we chat I will actually know who I am chatting with!

“The Nerdy Teacher” (twitter: @thenerdyteacher blog: http://www.thenerdyteacher.com/ ) and “Cybraryman” (twitter: @cybraryman1 Blog: http://www.cybraryman.com/ ) – Two people that I follow on twitter. Cybraryman has an awesome website with so many great resources.

Jodi Kerble (twitter: @fabmathtutor blog: http://fabmathtutorjourney.blogspot.com/) and Pam Patterson (twitter: @PamLPatterson blog: http://camathmom.blogspot.com/ ) two amazing math teachers! We ran into each other at the #edchat booth and ended up talking for a while and then going to dinner. It is amazing that even though we come from very different schools, we still deal with the same things and could share our experiences.

I also ran into Jodi at the EdTech Karaoke Rooftop Party on Tuesday night, so of course we had to PhotoBooth it!


Dan Spencer (twitter: @runfardvs website: http://danielvspencer.org/index.html and creator/curator of one of the best Flipped Classroom resource pages I have found here. It was great to meet Dan and be able to chat for a bit - he's so friendly and fun! Help him out by giving him your examples of how you personalize learning in your classroom here.

My favorite Canadian Flippers! Graham Johnson (twitter: @math_johnson blog: http://flippingmath.wordpress.com/) and Carolyn Durley (twitter: @okmbio blog: http://flipperteach.com/), the hosts/creators of #canflip. We got to spend quite a long time together throughout the week and it was wonderful share ideas, stories, and thoughts from our "flipping" life :)

Kristin Daniels (twitter: @kadaniels blog: http://www.flippedpd.org/ ) was one of the first #flipclass people I met at the Flipped Learning Network partner booth in Sails Pavilion. I was very disappointed to miss her Flipped PD session with Wayne Feller (twitter: @fellbop), but the doors literally closed 20 minutes before the session began because it was so full! Kristin is one of those people who you feel you already know as soon as you walk up to her... and she had no problem making fun of my color coding addiction :)

And of course, I got to hang out with my amazing colleagues that came to the conference with me. Here we are at the EdTech Karaoke Rooftop Party:

My colleague Margaret and I made the front cover of the ISTE Daily Leader on Tuesday...

Some other #flipclass tweeps I met, that I so wish I took pictures with!

Jon Bergmann (@jonbergmann) and his wife, Kris. It was an honor to finally meet Jon in person - he is so friendly and humble! Check out his blog and great resources at http://flipped-learning.com/. I now have two copies of his & Aaron Sam's book "Flip Your Class" so I can't wait to read one and share one!
Aaron Sams (twitter:@chemicalsams blog: http://chemicalsams.blogspot.com/ , Stacey Roshan (twitter: @buddyxo blog: http://techiemusings.wordpress.com/), and Jac De Haan (twitter: @techwithintent blog: http://www.techwithintent.com/ ), and Ramsey Musallam (twitter: @ramusallam Blog: http://flipteaching.com/ ). Four amazing #flipclass folks! It was great to connect with them for a little bit.
Troy Cockrum - Troy does the Flipped Learning Podcasts that I have really been enjoying, so it was great to meet him in person as well. We got to chat on several occasions.
Kari Arfstrom - Executive Director of the Flipped Learning Network. It was kind of funny when I met her because I had seen her all last week virtually at #flipcon12 that I knew exactly who she was that I almost forgot we had never actually met!
Michael Schultz (twitter: @schultzwjhs blog: http://schultzwjhs.wordpress.com/) - Michael is a Middle School Math Teacher in Arizona. We've chatted on Twitter on several occasions this year, so it was great to spend a little time chatting in person.
Chris Long (@clonghb) from HBUHSD. Chris and I connected last week via twitter. I don’t know how he found me in the crazy Networking Lounge, but he came up to me near the #edchat booth and we were able to talk about the flipped classroom quite a bit.
Troy Stein from Techsmith. I met Troy a few months ago when he came and filmed my classroom, so it was great to see him again. He is so full of energy and ideas - the passion he has for his career overflows in everything he does!! It's inspiring! I also got to meet some others from the Techsmith team, including Dave and Rachael! So great to meet them :)
Tina Moricz, a 4th and 5th grade science teacher from Arizona. I went to the “Kickoff Celebration” on Sunday afternoon and was in a room with thousands of people. So, of course, we started talking to people around us before it began and introducing ourselves to them. I introduced myself to the two ladies in front of me and after I said my name, one of them said, “Kirch? As in Flipping with Kirch? I read your blog!” Turns out it was Tina, who commented on my ISTE post a few days ago about coming and hoping to run into me. What are the chances we would be sitting right next to each other?? It’s such a small world. Tina is launching a new blog soon at flip4learning.blogspot.com

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Friday, June 29, 2012

Thursday, June 28, 2012