Reflections on Week 3 (solid strides in the right direction!)

Week 3 of the Spring Semester is now over and I feel like this has been a very solid week in making strides towards what I want my flipped classroom to look like and feel like.



All Reflections from This Year can be Found Here. 

*Each week, I spend some time personally reflecting on the week - what I did, what worked, what didn't, what I liked, what I didn't, etc.  I try to organize my reflections in a similar manner each week, since they do get pretty long: (1) Math Analysis; (2) Algebra; (3) Sharing and Collaboration; (4) Other Thoughts; (5) Running lists (Things I've heard this week that I love; Characteristics and qualities of my flipped classroom that I want to keep; Changes I've made this week that I like; Ideas I'm still contemplating and experimenting with).  I hope these reflections give you insight into my classroom and give you some ideas to try in your own flipped classroom.  I appreciate any comments, feedback, ideas, and follow-ups that you provide, so please comment and join in on the conversation!

Math Analysis

I am very happy with the growth I have been seeing with my Math Analysis students.  I have really been encouraging them daily to "take charge of their own learning" and "manage their time wisely to help them succeed".  I feel like that is really starting to click with a lot of my students.  It's definitely far from perfect, but I love the progress I have been noticing.
 
This week in Math Analysis we implemented the new "self-pacing/self-evaluating" process I described in my Week 2 reflection.  Basically, I allowed students to be "waived" from certain assignments once they could show me proficiency.  If it was super easy for them and they understood it after watching the video and completing the WSQ,  they could come to class and take the concept quiz and then move on rather than spending the period practicing a concept they had already mastered.

Here are my thoughts on it from the first week of implementation.  I feel like I need to continue to use this for at least a couple of more weeks to really get a grasp on if I like it or not:

What was good:

1. I had a lot of students take advantage of the opportunity to just take a quiz in replacement of 10-20 practice problems.  Then again, Unit N that we just started began with VERY easy concepts they had all learned before (converting from degrees to radians, converting from radians to degrees, drawing angles in standard position, finding supplementary and complementary angles, and finding coterminal angles).  Thus, even some of my lower level students were able to pass the quizzes perfectly within the first day after the video.  The sixth concept (finding reference angles) had fewer students taking the "waiver" and more completing the entire assignment.

2. It was pretty easy for me to give the students instant feedback on their work because there was one version of the concept quiz that was used each day (the version changed daily depending on what day the students decided to take the quiz), so I could grade it right away and go over what they got incorrect if they did not score a perfect 8.

3. I felt better about the work that was assigned to the students because they were doing it for their own good and for their own learning, not for the sake of getting the assignment done or feeling like they were doing busy work.

What wasn't so good - I will describe two specific scenarios with students that happened this week.

1. Student 1 came into my classroom on Wednesday morning to take Concept 6's quiz.  I was busy working with my Algebra 1 students, so I did not know what he was doing specifically.  He brings up his quiz packet to me for me to grade and he did Tuesday's version of the quiz (there is a big whiteboard right by the quizzes that says "Today's Version: ______".  I told him that he would have to complete the correct version because the answer keys to yesterday's version were already public and possibly floating around.  By that time, the morning bell was about to ring so he had to come back during our seminar class.  He took the correct version and I had time to grade it.  He solved one of the problems correctly, but the other incorrectly in a way that clearly showed major misconceptions about the concept (reference angles).  I asked him if he had watched the video the night before and he said no.  He did not watch the video and did not even look at his SSS packet the night before. He just came to class (cocky, in my opinion) and assumed he would know how to take the quiz.  This situation with Student 1 can happen very often in this "self-evaluating/self-assessing" model.  I think Student 1 learned from this lesson and I hope won't make that mistake again of just assuming he's mastered the content instead of at least practicing it.  I told this same story to my classes (anonymously, of course) and made the point that before you take a concept quiz, you need to have (1) watched the video because I do convey more important information than basic rote mathematical operations and examples - the stuff I describe and talk about, the connections I explain, etc are all important to the overall understanding of the material, (2) completed the full WSQ to really cement the information in the student's head in their own words instead of mine, (3) tried at least a few of the homework problems on their own to make sure they can do it without my help on the video.  I think this is something I will have to continually remind my students of.  They waste their time (taking the quiz instead of practicing) and mine (grading) when they come in unprepared and cocky.

2. Student 2 is one of my top students.  He had an A all first semester and received A's on all of his tests so far.  I just graded the Unit M (Conic Sections) test last night and he received a 70.5%.  I watched his face when he received his test back today and he was in shock.  I think it is the lowest test grade he has ever received.  When I had a chance today, I went over and talked with him.  I sat down and went through the places he made mistakes.  A lot of the mistakes were not major misconceptions, but small missing pieces of content that connected with each other led to a "train de-railing" effect as the problem went on.  I explained his mistakes and then talked to him a little bit about his actions over the last week.  To be honest, I had a feeling that something like this (a low test grade for him) would happen, but I wasn't going to say anything about it ahead of time, because I don't think it would have done any good.   He needed to experience it to realize what needs to change.  He is a student he wants to do the minimal amount of work but still receive the good grades.  In certain units, he has been able to get away with it because the content has been easier.  He took advantage of the "waiver" in this unit, meaning for a few of the concepts he did a little practice, took the quiz and did well on it, and that was it.  He didn't "practice practice practice" the concept until he knew it like the back of his hand, didn't see the concept in a variety of different setups or formats to make sure he still knew how to work with it... he basically just did the littlest amount of work he could get by with - and look what happened.  I didn't really have to explain much of that to him because he realized it.  He knows he was trying to do as little work possible and now he has first hand experience with what lack of hard work does.  I really hope Student 2 takes this as a learning experience and changes his effort and focus in class.  He is capable of great things and is very bright, but he needs to realize that laziness does not pay off.

My thoughts on the process as a whole:

1. Students need to learn and experience through the process of self-evaluating and self-assessing.  We can talk to them about it as much as we want, but sometimes they just need to experience the process themselves.  They will try and sometimes succeed right away, but I think they learn quality lessons when they try and fail and then realize what they need to do to succeed in the future.

2. I'm still hoping this "take the quiz when you are ready" thing is working as far as student honesty goes.  Integrity is one of the character traits that I highly emphasize in my class, and during the first semester, we always took the quizzes together at one time, in rows, no talking, etc.  With this method, however, students take them at any point during the period and are supposed to put everything away and not talk while they are quizzing. I am monitoring and can tell who is quizzing and who is working.  However, I know that a kid who wants to cheat will find a way to cheat.  My goal is that they fully realize that the concept quizzes (worth 15% of their overall grade and can be retaken an infinite amount of times) are for their own good and for their own learning and if they choose to cheat on them just to get out of doing homework problems or some other reason, they are only hurting themselves, because when the tests come (75% of their overall grade), they will not know how to do it.  I really feel most of my students understand that fact, but I think cheating is always a valid concern from any teacher.

Other thoughts on Math Analysis from this week

The Unit M Test results were really great.  I will be posting some more detailed information in a post later this weekend as I am collecting data comparing the test scores from last year (not flipped) to this year (fully flipped).  I will be doing a "Data Analysis" post after every assessment to post the results and talk about the differences between the years for both Math Analysis and Algebra 1.  I will link to that post here when it is complete. DATA POST #1 - UNIT M

If you have any data that you have collected about your flipped classroom, please feel free to share it.  That is one major request I have seen from teachers thinking about flipping - they want to see the proof in the numbers!

Algebra 1

Remediation:

This has been a pretty crazy week overall for Algebra 1 with the mandatory remediation my students have had either before or after school every day.  The attendance has been pretty good, ranging from 29 students up to 46 students for each day (2 identical sessions offered each day).  I had a total of 76 students assigned to the remediation sessions and only 11 of those 76 students attended zero sessions.  Everyone else attended at least one.  Today was the final session before they take the test on Tuesday, and I had 46 attendees.  Unfortunately, that means that 30 students did not get the "practice test" or answer key that goes along with it.  I will be posting it on Edmodo, so the proactive students will still be able to access it.

I am excited to see the results on Tuesday.  I hope there is a correlation between the number of sessions students attended and the increase in their test percentage.  I want my students to realize that hard work, time, and dedication does pay off.

A few concerns did spark my attention this afternoon while students were working on the practice test.  Concepts we had covered in Session 1 and 2 were already forgotten!  Once I gave them a couple hints they could follow through with it, but I won't be able to do that on the test Tuesday.  I gave them a "study schedule" to follow over the weekend, but we will see who really does it.  I don't want them to feel like all their time was wasted.

One awesome thing I saw at the remediation sessions was the aspect of the flipped classroom that is really growing - students working together, asking questions, pointing out errors, explaining how they solved things, etc... all that was happening without my complete direction or instructions in these after school sessions!  They made me proud!

The "Flipped" part

I made a few important adjustments in the flipped classroom this week in terms of the expectations I have for students and their WSQ's:

1. Students cannot ask "yes/no" questions.  I was getting far too many of them and students were not thinking deeply about the concept.  So, I took a lot of my class time this week spending at least a few minutes at each group's table reading their questions and answers, probing them to think deeper, asking them follow-up questions, and then having them write their new answers down in their own words.  I wouldn't sign off their "Q" until this was done.  At first, I was like "Oh gosh, this is going to be a never-ending process, isn't it!"  But, the second day they were better and by the third day, I was seeing a lot of progress.

Here is the progression that I took my students on this week.  I am looking forward to seeing more progress next week.

A lot of students will ask questions like:  "Do you always have to use the box method to multiply?"  They would write answers such as "Yes because if you don't you'll get the problem wrong."  I told them that if their answer consisted of a "yes" or "no" and then any phrase that had to do with "because you'll get the problem wrong" or "because that's the way you are supposed to do it", or the like, I wouldn't accept it and they had to think more deeply.

So, I started to get questions like this: "Do you always have to use the box method to multiply?  If so, why? What makes it useful?"  I would get answers like this: "You do not always have to use the box method to multiply, but it is helpful because it keeps you organized and makes sure you don't forget anything".

Here is an example of a student WSQ and what my comments would be to them (click on the picture to make it bigger):

 This student asked: 

Q: "Does [sic] the degrees have to be in order from biggest to smallest?  Will it be wrong?"

A: Yes because it will be wrong if it isn't in order from biggest to smallest...we need to keep it in standard form

The discussion we had in our group was:

-Give me more than "it will be wrong if it's not in order from biggest to smallest".  

-Follow-up/Probing questions: Why is it important to put it in that order?  What will it help us do?  How does it help us stay organized?  if it is in standard form, what can we quickly identify?

-Even with a "bad" question, I was able to probe and use follow-up questions to get the deeper thinking I wanted out of my students.

-As the week went on, I saw improvement in students' original questions, and we could still continue to ask follow-up questions.

2.  This led me to adjustment #2.  Students must use at least three math vocabulary words (mine are bolded below) in the "Summary" part of their WSQ and also in their answer to the questions.  This would change the previous question and answer to look like this:

Question: "Do you always have to use the box method to multiply polynomials (specifically, monomials with trinomials)?  If so, why?  What makes it more useful that simple distribution?"

Answer: "You do not always have to use the box method to multiply monomials with trinomials because you could use the distributive property and get the same answer.  However, when we multiply larger polynomials later, such as binomials with binomials or binomials with trinomials, the box method will be the most useful because it will keep us organized, help us to not forget any terms, and help us to notice which like terms we need to combine together.

3. Come up with several different ways to share our summaries and encourage discussion in class.  I am trying to vary the way that I have students working with their summaries and questions so they don't get bored or used to the same thing.  At some point, I want to start keeping a list, so be on the lookout for a new page up top coming soon.  I'll link to it here when it's ready.  Here are some of the ways I've tried so far along with any pros/cons I have found:

-Summaries as a whole class - pick one or two students and put their summaries on the screen.  Read through them, talk about them, critique them, add to them, and then "score" them.  Then have students read their individual summaries and "score" themselves, adding what is necessary based on our conversation. PROS - whole class norming, accountability with whoever's name is "drawn" to be read, whole-class discussion. CONS - takes more time, not engaging for all learners, sometimes embarrassing for student whose summary gets read if it is not good.

-Summaries in small groups - students turn with their groups and a specified number (one, two, three, or four) of students have to read their summaries to their groups.  The students in the group are supposed to stop the reader, question the reader, ask the reader to repeat or clarify, etc as the summary is being read.  At the end of the summary, the group discusses anything that needs to be added or changed. PROS - all students engaged in discussion, students more willing to ask questions and make comments because it is not in front of the whole class. CONS - less accountability since I cannot listen in on every group at all times, possible misconceptions or non-accurate comments or phrasing since I cannot correct immediately, can take a long time if all four share; students can "get out of it" if only one person shares.

-Our "Perfect" summary - in small groups, one student is chosen to have their summary be "made perfect".  The group reads it together and as they are reading it, they cross out words that don't make sense, add sentences or fragments to increase the value and comprehension of the sentences, replace general terms with math vocabulary (and highlight the math vocabulary so it stands out), and otherwise make the summary "perfect" - four brains are better than one. PROS - all group members focused on one common goal, students required to think and speak mathematically, easy to check up on because it is one per group. CONS - teaching students to think and speak mathematically with confidence is a process and is not always easy!

Random note - I love teaching math vocabulary with songs!  Here is the one we are using this chapter to help students remember all the stuff about polynomial names and degrees: "Polynomial Degrees" (to the tune of ABC's/Twinkle Twinkle).  The great thing was that when students took their concept quiz, I saw them all counting on their fingers and whispering/mouthing the words to the song to help them remember the names.  


To see more of the songs & chants I use in my math classes, click on this link.

Coming Prepared to Class... issues and solutions

This was a huge week for Algebra 1 in terms of coming prepared to class.  I understand that there are sometimes issues with students not being able to watch the video at night (or sometimes just not making it a priority).  I don't necessarily have a problem with that as long as it doesn't become a constantly re-occurring issue.  What I do have a problem with is students not taking control of their learning and taking responsibility for themselves.  When I begin class, I assume that all students have done what they were supposed to in order to be prepared for class unless they have already spoken to me.  I have mentioned this on several occasions, but this week I decided to really make a point about it.  There would be some points last week where I would finally get around to a group about 35 minutes into class only to find out that one or two of the students in that group hadn't watched the video.  They didn't say anything to me, and there were open computers waiting for them, they just didn't care!! If students came up to me before the bell rang and told me they didn't watch the video yet, they got right to work on one of my classroom computers or were told what number they were in line to get a computer.  I started class and we started whatever intro activity/discussion we had planned while the students who needed to catch up did so.

However, on Tuesday, when I tried the "Summaries as a whole class", the first three names I drew did not have their summaries complete.  At that point, a little frustrated, I told the students, "If you did not watch the video or complete your WSQ last night and have not yet told me about it, get out". I had them go outside my door and wait for me to talk with them.  I got the class started on "Summaries in small groups" and then talked to the students outside.  I told them that I understood that things come up and they may not always have the video watched, but they need to show some sort of concern or care for their education and take responsibility for that action by letting me know in person before the tardy bell rings that they are not prepared.  I told them it was unacceptable to come into class not having watched the video and to then just sit there and not say anything about it.

On Tuesday, I had about 8-10 students in each class that I had to "kick out" and have the short lecture with.  On Wednesday, it was about 4-5 students in each class.  On Thursday,  it was two girls in my first period and nobody for the rest of the day!  That doesn't mean all students watched the video every night - it means that the students who didn't took responsibility for their learning and came and told me in person right away so we could get them started on catching up and joining the class!

So, even though it seemed harsh to have to "kick out" kids three days in a row, I think the point is being made and I will continue to have that rule in place.  If you don't have your WSQ done and you don't come tell me, I will be talking with you outside personally about what it means to take responsibility for your learning.  I really think the kids are starting to get it.

One of my top students in Algebra 1 stayed after class on Wednesday to talk to me.  He was frustrated that I had to take class time out every day to lecture the students who weren't prepared and didn't think the "flipped classroom" was working because I just had to get mad every day.  He didn't think it was fair to him that I waste class time getting "mad" at the students who didn't care. I appreciated him feeling open enough to come and talk to me about it and offered some guidance and solutions.  First, I made him aware that I do look at the clock and no more than five minutes of class is spent on getting the class started and "kicking out" the kids who need to be talked to.  Second, I reminded him that the beauty of the flipped classroom is that you can work at your own pace - whether that be slower or faster than the students around you.  I told him that he is more than welcome to be working ahead and starting the assignments before I actually tell the class to get started.  He needs to participate in the whole class portions (activities, group discussions, etc), but otherwise he can be working on his assignments.  I told him that he can even choose to watch all the videos in one night if he wants and then just work by himself on the problems if he chooses.  He was (somewhat surprisingly) very happy and satisfied with my responses and very grateful that he sensed that the flipped classroom could really help him.  All in a 5 minute conversation!  I am hoping to see him start to stretch and push himself next week; we will see!

Sharing and Collaboration

So far (as of 2/17/12), I have received 31 responses to my Flipped Classroom Questionnaire.  If you have not yet had the time to fill out the survey, please try to do so before I close the survey in about a week.  I would like to see between 100-200 responses, as I know there are thousands of teachers out their flipping.  Please send the link to any and all teachers that you know are flipping, thinking about flipping, or have tried flipping.  The survey is meant for all teachers in all subjects, all grade levels, all countries, all levels of experience with flipping etc.  The link to the non-embedded survey is here.  Feel free to email it, tweet it, post it, etc.

I have had several requests already for the results of the survey and I will be sharing as soon as the survey is closed.  Responders do have the option to keep their responses private, so I do need to go through and edit the Google Docs survey and take out any unwanted public information before posting it.  At that time, I will post the survey responses as a whole as well as blog about anything I feel is important.  If you would like to personally be contacted when the results spreadsheet is available, please let me know by commenting below or sending me an email

I have also finished collecting information and questions from my staff from the presentation I gave about a week and a half ago.  I will be posting a blog on that later this weekend as well and will link to it here when it is complete.

Please check out the list of blogs on my right hand side for other "Flipping Teachers" and check out #flipclass on Twitter for lots of great articles, insights, and experiences daily from teachers all around the world!

Other Thoughts

It was a pretty exciting week overall with feeling great about the flipped classroom every day when I came home (just ask my husband - sometimes the day is just full of complaints, but this week I had positive and exciting things to say every day!).  What topped it all off was being voted by my colleagues as "Educator of the Year" for my school.  It was an honor and a great surprise.  It is nice to know that your hard work is being recognized and that people appreciate the effort you are giving to help your students succeed.

I have had several conversations with colleagues interested and exciting about trying to "flip" next school year.  Most of them are going to wait until they have time to prep and prepare over the summer, but I am excited to see the excitement growing! :).  I am hoping with the information I get from the survey I mentioned above will provide support for all of my colleagues of different subject areas with a contact of someone who also flips that same subject area and to whom they can look to for questions, support, and tips.

THINGS I'VE HEARD THIS WEEK THAT I LOVE: 

(I asked students to send me notes on Edmodo about these two questions 1. The flipped classroom THIS PAST WEEK has helped me as a student in these ways... 2. What did you like most about the flipped classroom activities/learning experiences/work we did this week AND WHY? 

STUDENT 1 (Math Analysis):
- This week when I watched the videos, mainly Concept 8 Part 1, I had chances to see if I could get things on my own, by pausing, and then have it explained, which is something that is rarely seen in a regular class and helps me see my mistakes.
- If I want to go back and learn the steps in detail I can, and I won't have to stay after class or get weird looks like I'm stupid . . . 
- The video for the unit circle is a video and not a one time lecture, so I can go back and watch instead of just looking at paper with numbers on it. It explains why everything is what it is, the patterns and the tricks and is an actual help at learning. It's not just mindless memorization, it gives reasons to why thing are what they are.
-It's fun and I feel like the flipped classrooms are a less stressful way to learn and if more teachers try it then less people will be stressed out, so it's like helping the world!

STUDENT 2 (Math Analysis):
-The flipped classroom this past week has helped me as a student because I could work at my own pace. Concepts that I had once covered were refreshed in my memory, and for concepts which were a bit more challenging I was able to still learn at my own pace. I did not have to worry about falling behind because I got to learn on my own time and ask questions in class. Flipped classroom allows me to spend more time on concepts that I need more help on than lessons that I already know.
-The "take the quizzes when you're ready" and "waiver" were a great idea because I could actually decide what to do for myself. We have to make our own choices later on anyway, so why not start now? :) It also helped me because I didn't have to spend too much time on something that I already knew and I could move on to more challenging concepts.

STUDENT 3 (Math Analysis):
-it allows me to review and understand the explanation and the concept from the videos.
-The "waivers" allowed those who understood the concept the following day a sort of reward or a pat on the back; exempting from additional homework (mandatory), but does not take away from additional practice. 
-Also, answering our questions opens additional understanding of the concept (if the question is well-written). It allows a discussion within the group and opens different explanations/answers to one question (maybe/depends).
-Well, there was a particular discussion concerning the similarities and differences between the formulas of the ellipses and hyperbolas. We took into account the similar variables and formulas. But there were minor differences within the formula that played big roles to change the shape of a ellipse into a hyperbola (i.e. a^2+b^2=c^2 vs. a^2-b^2=c^2 or we switch a^2 and b^2 in ellipses while we switch the terms (y-k)^2 and (x-h)^2 in hyperbolas). Such discussions like these help me remember like "Oh yeah! I remember talking about that with my group."

STUDENT 4 (Algebra 1):
-It helped me see that I have done my work correctly. Help me focus more to make a GREAT summary. Also, it helped me prepare for a review of the concept that we learned.
-What I like most about the flipped classroom is that we get to do activities that apply to the concept we are learning. I like doing homework in the classroom rather than at home because it feels relaxed. When I need help on a problem, I can ask the teacher rather than wait the next day to get the answer. This week was very fun because it was a very easy week. We did activities and reviewed concepts that we had trouble on. The flipped classroom is great!

CHARACTERISTICS AND QUALITIES OF MY FLIPPED CLASSROOM THAT I WANT TO KEEP (running list each week):

1. Students MUST ALWAYS have a written answer to the question part of their WSQ.  This can be written by them individually or answered with the help of a group member or myself.  The questions must require more than just a Yes or No answer.   This ensures that their question does get answered, and it forces students to practice using academic language in writing.

2. Picking a place in the classroom next to a group and sitting on my stool for a while, helping if needed, but listening in and guiding the group along.  (did not do that as much this week, but I like it)

3. In the videos, always have at least an example or two that students need to work out on their own.  Two ways to do this - #1 - in the middle of the video, tell them to pause it and try it on their own.  Then they can follow along with me once they get stuck, and then pause me again and try from there. #2 - at the end of the video, assign 1-2 problems for the students to complete on their own before class.  Work out these problems in a "part 2" of the video for students to reference if they still get stuck.

CHANGES I'VE MADE THIS WEEK THAT I LIKE: 

1. Our "Perfect" summary - I really like it!

IDEAS I'M STILL CONTEMPLATING & EXPERIMENTING WITH (running list each week):

1. "Waiver" for assignments once students have shown mastery on a quiz

2. Coming up with a list of "key questions" myself for each concept to have handy to ask students, to have students discuss in groups, and to show students what "good, HOT questions" look like and sound like (modeling).


3. Splitting the class into three groups (Math Analysis - maybe have them split themselves; Algebra 1 - I would need to split them, at least for a while).  High, Medium, and Low.  High kids work together on their own (or tutor low kid).  Medium kids work with me.  Low kids work with a small group led by a "high kid" tutor.  Will this work?

Thoughts, comments, ideas, your own experiences? Please share!!!

All Reflections from This Year can be Found Here. 

Exciting Day...

This doesn't really have to do with my flipped classroom, but I thought I would share anyways!  Today I was honored as my school's "Educator of the Year", voted on by the teaching staff.  The administrators came in during my 5th period class and surprised me with the announcement!  What an exciting day!

Here's me and a group of my Math Analysis students right after the announcement.  Click on the link to go to my school's website announcement.

It's been a great week in my Flipped Class and I'm excited to blog this weekend on my reflections from the week. :)

Do you flip your class? Please fill out this survey!

If you are an experienced flipper, a new flipper, or a contemplating flipper, please take a few minutes to answer this questionnaire I have put together.

 Thank you for your time!

  Questionnaire link is here!

What would YOU say? (part 1) - MY ANSWERS

Last week, I posted my first "What would YOU say" blog post with questions, concerns, and comments, I have received about the flipped classroom.  I received a few responses in the comments, on Edmodo, and on Twitter... but now it's time for what I would say, or what I think I would say :)


STUDENT PERSPECTIVE (How would you respond to these complaints?):



1. "I want to go back to a traditional classroom!  I used to be able to do all my homework for math in my other classes during the day and I wouldn't have any when I got home, but now I actually have to watch a video at home and I can't just be done during school." 

With the flipped classroom, now students are able to completely go at their own pace and work ahead to whatever suits their fancy and level of understanding.  If they would like to dedicate one night a week to watching all the videos and the rest of the week to doing the practice problems, that is fine. That is obviously not ideal, as I find great value in the daily discussions that are held in my classroom that serve as building blocks to each lesson.  However,  my ultimate goal is that they learn, and getting the lessons via video should not be a stumbling block.  The only thing that I require of them is that they stay on pace or ahead of pace with the expectations of the class.

2. "I would rather have you teaching in front of me, live.  I pay attention more when you are in front of me than when I watch/listen to you on video."

Students will always have different preferences.  This is one thing that I have had to learn in the last few months since incorporating this major change.  I feel like a Flipped Classroom enables me to teach to a larger variety of learning styles than a Traditional Classroom.  While the video does lend itself to audio and visual learners, the time it frees up in class to do activities or just to work one-on-one with the students is so huge that it is worth it.  

Teenagers in general tend to have a hard time staying focused on any one task for an extended period of time.  There are just way too many distractions.  I feel like it is a skill that can be developed and improved upon if a student really wants to.  I would much rather give my students lectures via video where they can pause, rewind, and re-watch me if they didn't hear or get something then in class when I know they will space out and miss out on something - and they won't be able to hear it again.

3.  "It takes too much time to watch a video and write my summary, and coming up with a question is really hard to do.  Why do we have to do that?  Why can't we just come to class with the video watched and that's it?" [refer to My Favorite WSQ for what I have my students do nightly] 

Student complaints.  Take them with a grain of salt.  Especially when they are complaining about something that you actually really value them doing - Thinking, Writing, Reading, (and in class, Speaking and Listening) I find it funny when they try to prove a point to me about something but only further confirm the value of what I am having them do.  Usually when a student says "this is too hard", it is because we are actually making them work.  Yes, there are times when we need to re-evaluate assignments and consider modifications, but a lot of times student complaints like this are just that - complaints.  Move on :)

4. "I'm used to traditional teaching. That's how it's always been.  That's how I want it to be."

Change is not easy in any area of life or in any time of life.  We all like to just go with the flow and keep it the same.  It's much easier that way.  However, we can never know if there is something else better or more beneficial out there if we are never open to change.  The doors that a Flipped Classroom opens to deeper learning are so amazingly huge.  Students must be guided and reminded daily that any change must be approached with a positive attitude before they make any judgments.

5. "It's really hard for me to put into words how to do the math problem.  I'm able to do it on my own - why do I need to be able to explain it?" 

Because when you can explain it to someone else in words, that shows that you truly understand it.  That is what I value.  Simple enough :)


TEACHER'S PERSPECTIVE (How would you answer these questions?):



1.  "If I can't get my students to do regular homework, how am I going to get them to watch a video for homework?"

You can't guarantee anything.  The students who never did traditional homework still rarely do the video homework, although there is some improvement.  It is almost a little more motivating - "Hey, look, you don't have to do problems on your own, you just have to pay attention, take notes, and try to make sense of the material on video.  Then you get to come to class and get help!".  The low motivated students who don't want to do anything regardless of how easy it is will still struggle, but the students who generally didn't do homework because they thought it was too hard or struggled through it will see the benefit.

2.  "How do you teach students to be responsible for their own learning and actually watch the video and not just 'watch' the video every night?  How do you hold them accountable?"

It's a process.  It is easier to train the older, honors-level kids, in my opinion.  However, my CP Algebra 1 freshman and sophomores are coming along.  It is a daily process and they must be constantly reminded of what the expectations are and the benefits of taking responsibility for their learning.  It is a concept not many of them are used to - "You mean I can't just sit here and absorb information and then go home and forget about it?"  I feel like my WSQ process helps hold them accountable, and I have even started to look into a more immediate form of accountability such as embedding a Google Form after the video and utilizing the capabilities of Moodle Quizzes (if you are familiar with any of those, a how-to guide would be greatly appreciated...I'm sure playing around with it I can figure it out, but if you know about them, please let me know!) 


3.  "How do you make sure that students don't just copy the notes from a classmate, just like they would copy homework?"

Students probably do this, but I hope they learn that they are only hurting themselves.  If this happens, it will be very evident to me in class.  For one, they won't have a good summary or question, and when they try to discuss the concept in their groups they will not be able to participate.  Just like copying homework is a way to "screw themselves", copying notes from the video does the same thing.  I think it's just easier to "catch" when they copy the notes than copying homework because they actually have to come with new information and knowledge from the videos to participate in class.

4.  "How do you actually make this happen time-wise the first year you are doing it?  How do you make it do-able AND successful?" 

Don't flip two classes like I am :).  I admit, I am crazy to try this.  However, once I saw how much I loved it in my Math Analysis classes and was struggling with my Algebra 1 classes, I had to try something new, so I jumped right in.

I set aside one night a week to be my "late night" at work (stay until about 7pm).  I finish school, go exercise with my teacher friends for an hour to get a break, and then come back for 2-3 hours and record as many lessons as I can.  Since I am flipping two full classes and have no current videos, it does take a lot of time.  However, next year I will already have the basics in place and will only need to re-shoot a few concepts or add in some new ones from things my students need more support on or that I decide to add in for next year.

Also, the fact that I have to do ZERO editing of my movies helps with time.  I use my AverVision 300AF+ document camera.  It saves to my Macbook as a .mov file, and I can upload it directly to YouTube and SchoolTube from there.  If I want to spend time editing it on either iMovie or with the YouTube editor, I can (I've had to do this for a few where I made a mistake in the video and didn't want to reshoot the whole thing).  However, I don't HAVE to edit anything and that helps a lot.  


My videos can be found at www.youtube.com/crystalkirch, sorted into Playlists by unit.

5.  "If I don't want to fully flip, but want to try it, how do I pick the lessons that I want to 'flip' and how does it work with consistency in completion, expectations (in and out of class) when students aren't doing this nightly?"


As far as picking the lessons to flip, think about the lessons in which you would be up front delivering content for at least 10-15 minutes of class.  That content can be delivered via video and you can use that class time for something else more beneficial and engaging.  


When I first started "playing around" with flipping, I had a "flipped classroom" 2-4 days a week.  It was hard for me and the students to find consistency in that.   It always ended up that some nights they would need to have both Traditional HW to follow up from the lesson in class and Flipped HW to prepare for the next class day.  Whether you have students watch a video every night for homework (which I do, except on nights before tests), a few times a unit, or once a unit, there needs to be consistency and a pattern so students (and you!) can catch on to what is going on.  Otherwise, it just gets too confusing.


So, those are my answers and opinions (at least as of right now).  If you have any other comments or anything to add, please feel free to comment!

Reflections on Week 2 (growth, learning, and new ideas!)

Week 2 of the Spring Semester is now over and I feel like this has been a week of growth and learning.


All Reflections from This Year can be Found Here. 

*Each week, I spend some time personally reflecting on the week - what I did, what worked, what didn't, what I liked, what I didn't, etc.  I try to organize my reflections in a similar manner each week, since they do get pretty long: (1) Math Analysis; (2) Algebra; (3) Sharing and Collaboration; (4) Other Thoughts; (5) Running lists (Things I've heard this week that I love; Characteristics and qualities of my flipped classroom that I want to keep; Changes I've made this week that I like; Ideas I'm still contemplating and experimenting with).  I hope these reflections give you insight into my classroom and give you some ideas to try in your own flipped classroom.  I appreciate any comments, feedback, ideas, and follow-ups that you provide, so please comment and join in on the conversation!

Math Analysis 

My Math Analysis students continued to work on Unit M (Conic Sections).

I remember teaching this last year (and the last three years) - I would spend two days on each conic: one day going over a few examples, one day having the students practice. These questions are pretty complex - imagine having to take an equation, identify the conic (we'll go with hyperbola for this example), complete the square with two variables, identify which direction the branches open, identify the center, identify a & b, use that information and apply your knowledge to find the vertices and co-vertices, identify the transverse and conjugate axes, use the formula to find c, apply your knowledge to find the foci, pick one of two methods to identify the asymptotes, and then plot everything I have mentioned and graph it accurately. 

Okay I just lost some of you on that description :) My point is, this is A LOT to go over, learn, and understand.

In class, with all the questions, comments, and confusions when teaching the examples to the whole class, we would MAYBE get through two examples in class. The students would go home and practice a few, generally still confused, and then come back to class when my goal was to have them practice all period but so many of them were still confused that I had to go over another example in class, leaving them little time to practice on their own and actually get help. 

Now, let's transition to this year with a flipped lesson: one night watching four examples on video (20 minutes of video total split into two parts - Part 1 and Part 2), one day in class practicing in groups getting questions answered and confusions clarified, another night watching two examples (Part 3) on video and completing two on their own (with video support (Part 4) for those two if the students still didn't quite get it), and another last day in class working through examples and practicing. 

When students arrived to class this week, they were already "pre-loaded" with all of the vocabulary, relationships, examples, etc that would give them the tools to succeed.  I had them get in their groups and the first thing they did is have a discussion.  I had one student read their summary out loud to the group. (If you don't know how I do homework yet in my Flipped Class, check out My Favorite WSQ for a description) Group members have been shown how to be actively engaged in this process and to "stop" or "pause" the reader if they feel like something is missing or wrong or needs to be clarified.  Some groups are getting good at this, some groups still need some practice; however, overall I really liked what I was hearing.  

After the summary is read and discussed, each group member reads their question.  I did the "question" process in two different ways this week: for ellipses (the conic section we studied on Tues & Wed), students had to trade their notebooks in a circle and a different group member had to actually write down the answer in words to their question.  If they couldn't answer it themselves, they could ask a friend or me, but it was a test to see if they could answer it themselves.  For hyperbolas (the conic section we studied on Thurs & Fri), I had students write down the answer themselves to their own question and then share with their group members.

For the rest of the period time, the students worked in their partners and small groups working through problems.  I started a new thing this week with a stool that I have in my classroom.  Instead of mulling around the whole period and monitoring, I actually took my stool and plopped down in front of a small group of students and just watched and worked with them for 3-5 minutes.  Then, I would pick up the stool and pick another group of students who needed some help and sat down.  Sometimes, I picked a group who had raised their hand with a specific question; sometimes I just picked a group who I wanted to hear what they were saying, talking about, and working through.  I thought it was neat.

I made a few other changes in Math Analysis this week that I will be experimenting with for the next unit before deciding if to continue.  It has to do with the students self-pacing and self-evaluating.  What I told them on Thursday is this:

"Some of you need to do all 10 hyperbolas for practice in order to understand the material.  Some of you probably need to ask me for more practice.  Some of you could probably master the material after 8, or 5, or even 2.  Once you feel you have mastered the material, you can prove it to me by taking the Concept Quiz for Hyperbolas.  If you can get an "8" [a perfect score], you will be excused from the rest of the Hyperbolas assignments and can move on.  If you try and don't get an "8", you need to go back and practice more until you understand it better.  Basically, you have the right to receive a 'waiver' for certain assignments once you show me proficiency on a certain concept."

By class time Friday, I had seven students who had showed me proficiency on the Hyperbolas Concept Quiz and were "waived" from the remaining practice and were able to work ahead on the next assignment.  I had two students who tried the Quiz right away on Thursday and made several mistakes.  So, they had to go back and practice some more and could take a different version of the Quiz on Friday.  The second time, they all passed.

Excitements about this:  

1. Students don't have to sit around feeling like they are doing meaningless work.  Once they get it, they can show me they get it and can move on.

2. Students will have to learn how to self-evaluate they progress.  They have to "know what they know" and decide if they are ready for it.  If they think they are, but then end up not passing the quiz, hopefully they will learn from this and discover how to know when they really have mastered something.

Nervousness about this:

1.  In math, there are always different ways to set up or phrase a question.  Students could practice a few of them, and then take the quiz that has the question set up or phrased in a different way and not know what to do because that certain set up/phrasing was supposed to be practiced in question #5, but they didn't get that far.

2. Students could practice a few, show proficiency on the Concept Quiz, and then think they know it well enough to still pass it on the unit test a week later.  They don't look at the material at all or review it; they don't practice the questions they have been "excused" from; they don't review the videos they have been "excused" from... and then they fail that Concept on the test.  This is obviously a learning experience and if it happens once, I would hope the student would take charge of their learning and learn from that mistake to not let it happen again.

There is one major issue with this as I have it set up right now - there are still deadlines for all of the assignments that students must meet or they will receive "red lines" (late credit) for certain assignments or WSQ's.  So, if a student goes home and decides to only practice 2 of the 4 questions because they feel they "get it", and then show up to school and take the quiz before class and DON'T get an "8", they will receive late credit for the remaining two questions they didn't complete on time.   Students either have to have the assignment completed or the "waiver" completed by its deadline.  Right now, I still feel like the daily deadlines are important for my students.  I know that some teachers just have weekly deadlines for students, (or no deadlines at all) but at this point, I feel like my students are not ready for that much freedom and need some guidance.

I will be experimenting with this for Unit N and then deciding how to tweak or modify it for the future, or get rid of it all together.

As far as the WSQ charts go, they were MUCH better for the Math Analysis students this week.  Most of the students got everything done on time.  I do have a few homework cards to write for students who didn't (1) watch the video on time twice in one week; (2) complete the required assignment twice in one week; or (3) scored less than 60% of the points in all of the categories (Watch, Summarize, Question, and Assignment).  Most of the students learned from last week and got their stuff done on time.  I still have one student who refuses to write any summaries (he "doesn't have enough time because he has sports practice") and I gave him a homework card even though he doesn't fit into any of the categories because I warned him daily, gave him a final warning on Thursday, and he still showed up on Friday with no summaries written.

Algebra 1 

 Algebra 1 class started off on a "fun" note with the horrible results from the Chapter 6a test.  Students were assigned mandatory remediation that began this week and will continue next week.  They have to come either before or after school every day for a focused "session" on a certain concept that they didn't pass on the test.  If students did well on a certain concept, they could get excused from that session.  Several students have gotten excused from certain sessions.  

When I presented the remediation, I gave the analogy of running a marathon (finishing the marathon is like passing the test).  I told them that if your goal is to run a marathon (pass the test), you have to prepare.  You have to train your body and your mind, or you will show up, try to run it, and puke all over everyone (fail the test miserably).  I told them we will be in training for the next 7 school days so we can successfully finish the marathon (pass the test).   The training will not always be easy.  Sometimes they won't want to come because they would rather relax, hang out with friends, etc.  But in the back of their mind, they need to remember that if they don't train, they will show up on the day of the marathon (the day of the retake) and it won't be a pretty picture.  I challenged them to think about that when their alarm goes off in the mornings (is it worth it to push snooze or will it pay off if I wake up now and get to school for the 'training' session) and after school (is it worth it to hang out with friends and socialize or will it just pay off to go to Mrs. Kirch's room and go to 'training'?).  

I have 77 students who got below an 80% on the test that are in the "training" group.  For Session 1, I had 36 students attend; Session 2 had 28 students attend.  Both sessions had about 3-5 students waived from that specific session.  So, attendance is just under 50%, which honestly is not that bad for the first week.  After a few parent emails/Edmodo messages and phone calls this weekend or on Tuesday, I am sure attendance will improve but I would be stupid and stressing myself out if I thought 100% of the students would show up for every session.  In my dreams, my ideal world, my perfect classroom - yes... in reality - no.

Let's talk about the "flipped" part of Algebra 1.  This week we were covering Chapter 6b, which was systems of equation word problems.  All along, I was planning on this test being an "Open WSQ" test - meaning the students could use all of their WSQs  and practice problems on their test.  I didn't tell the students until Friday, the day of the test, although I did give a new hint every day that most of them figured out before Friday.  I still need to grade those tests, so we will see how they did, but I hope the results are good.

I want students to realize that if they do a good job on their WSQs and don't just write crap down (which right now, most of their summaries are simply crap - two sentences that come straight from the first few things I say on the video with little or no thought beyond that), the WSQs can be very helpful for them in many ways.

I do need to take more time in my Algebra 1 class to work on the summaries as a class.  The only issue is, there are still several students (probably 5-10 a class every day, out of 36-38 students in every class) that show up not having watched the video and/or written the WSQ.  I guess I could still do it, I just need to make it a priority. 

In terms of the usefulness of class time, I feel like my classes made progress this week.  They still need daily reminders of my expectations for group work and even within the class period they have to be reminded to get back on task, but I still feel like there is progress.  I need to remind myself that these are CP freshmen and sophomores who are still in Algebra 1 because they have struggled with math in the past - and normally it's not just struggled in math, it's struggled with general study skills and time management.


The time that students spend on my class outside of class is still pretty pitiful.  They will, for the most part, watch the videos. [In fact, I stopped in and chatted with our librarian and one of our counselors who were supervising our "Library Late Night" we had this Wednesday and they said many of my students were in the lab watching my videos and they loved what they saw - the students were pausing, taking notes, rewinding, etc - everything they were supposed to be doing!].  However, if they leave class with one or two problems left unfinished, their assignment is to finish them before class the next day.  They don't.  For the most part, anyways.  The only reason they should leave class with a few problems unfinished is if they are off task.  They are given plenty of time to work through them. If I feel like the whole class has been on task and working hard and still don't finish the problems, then I will cut down the assignment.  But, when I see them off task and not focused, there is no way I will reward them for that behavior by cutting down their assignment.


Thus, so far, one of my goals of cutting down HW cards in Algebra 1 is not coming to fruition.  75% of my students in each of my classes for Algebra 1 this week will receive their first HW card.  I am hoping they will learn sooner rather than later that it really just takes a little bit of effort, responsibility, and focus to meet my expectations.  I'm not expecting them to work magic or to become math superstars overnight - I just expect them to try their best and work hard in class.  We will keep working...

Sharing and Collaboration: Staff Presentation 

I presented My Flipped Classroom to my entire staff (teachers, admin, counselors, etc) at our Delayed Start PD this week.  Overall, the response was very positive.  I will be blogging later this weekend about their thoughts, questions, and concerns based on a Google Forms survey I gave them. (Pre-presentation and Post-Presentation survey)  So far, I have about 40 responses to each survey, which is about half our staff. 

Our Principal also told me I may be getting visitors from three nearby school districts who want to see my Flipped Classroom in action.  One of her mentors, a retired Principal, sits in on many of our Leadership meetings and discussions and was there for my first presentation of the flipped classroom last week.  He liked it so much he told some of the other Principals that he works with and they want to learn more about it.  Hopefully I will be able to blog about that soon!

I did get a call from one of our Assistant Principals on Friday.  He got an email from a concerned staff member about student use of electronics in the classroom.  We have a very strict policy regarding cell phones, iPods, etc.  Students are allowed to "have them" on campus but they should not be visible at any time they are on campus.  He asked if I allowed students to use iPods or other devices during class.  At this point, I told him no.  Because I have three laptops, students have been able to use those if they needed to watch the videos.  Only a few students have the videos loaded on their iPods or have 3G and can stream them. I do have a few, however, who will be in my classroom outside of school hours (before school or after school tutoring) and will use their personal electronic devices to watch videos on.  He said he was fine with that, and he was even fine with the students using them during my class time with my monitoring and under the system I have in place.  I was glad to hear of his support for an issue that will probably come up at some point in the year.  It also reminded me, though, that there will always be others who will not be supportive of any "changes" or "modifications" of the rules, even if it leads to increased student understanding, engagement, and involvement in their learning.

Other Thoughts

 I did have one issue in Math Analysis on Wednesday with a student frustrated with the Flipped Classroom.  At the end of the period (last 2 minutes), I called the class back together to summarize where they should be and to remind them of the expectations that are set on them to guide and take charge of their own learning.  Without any prompting, one male student shouted out "I Hate the Flipped Classroom! I want to go back to Traditional!".  This led two female students to say, "Yeah, I want traditional!".  After quickly making it clear that this was not discussion time and their behavior was not appropriate, I went on to remind the students of what I needed to say.  I pulled the 3 students aside to my back room after class to discuss with them the incident that just happened.  The male student is one of my highest achieving students and was very visibly frustrated, and I think almost embarrassed that he got himself in "trouble".  The other two girls are the ones who have been complainers all year and no matter what we do, they have something to say about it.  I called them back to basically tell them that they are entitled to their opinions, but there are mature and appropriate ways to express their opinions and what just occurred was not one of them.  I reminded them that I am the professional educator and I make decisions based on what I think it best for my students as a whole, and the Flipped Classroom is the model that I am using.

That evening, I actually ran into the young man again at the Library Late Night I mentioned earlier.  I pulled him aside individually and talked about why he was feeling the way he was.  Before this, I had discussed with one of my colleagues how I should deal with the situation, and she said "It sounds like those three students are just trying to give you solutions for a problem, but they haven't even told you what the problem is!".  I agreed - they were all trying to tell me what to do, but they hadn't told me why they were dissatisfied with the Flipped Classroom.  The young man expressed to me that in the past, he was able to get his math homework done in his other classes during the day and never had to bring any of it home.  Now that his homework is watching videos, he has to do math homework and home and that is frustrating to him.  He finally stated the problem!!!  With that, I was able to come up with a suggested solution for him.  I am going to allow him to work at his own pace (mainly working ahead) and not feel tied down to the pace I have set up for the rest of the class.  Ideally, this means that he would take maybe one or two nights a week to watch all of the lessons for the week, and then he could use his time in class (and in other classes) to get done what he needs to get done.  This, coupled with the "waiver" feature I talked about earlier, will hopefully solve his frustrations.  We will see.

As far as the two girls go, I have not talked with them further about their outbursts.  I did change their seats the next day because they were actually sitting right next to each other, and we all know how much easier it is to complain when we have someone to complain with.  We will see how it goes...

THINGS I'VE HEARD THIS WEEK THAT I LOVE:

"I used to not be able to explain anything I had learned in my own words, but now I am getting much better at it and I feel confident I could explain anything I've learned to a partner"

CHANGES I'VE MADE THIS WEEK THAT I LIKE:

1. Students actually have to write down the answers to the questions they ask.  This ensures that their question does get answered, and it forces students to practice using academic language in writing.

2. Picking a place and sitting on my stool for a while, helping if needed, but listening in and guiding the group along.  

IDEAS I'M STILL CONTEMPLATING & EXPERIMENTING WITH:

1. "Waiver" for assignments once students have shown mastery on a quiz (see notes, comments, and things that make me nervous in the Math Analysis post above)

Thoughts, comments, ideas, your own experiences? Please share!!! 

All Reflections from This Year can be Found Here. 

What would YOU say? (part 1)

I have so many things I want to write about, but I don't have too much time.  I'm keeping a list and I'll get to them :)

So today's post is called "What would you say?" 

I would love to hear what YOU would say to these comments, ideas , and suggestions.  Some are ones I've actually heard, some are ones I just thought up...most are from a student's perspective, some are from a teacher's perspective.  Some of them I think I have answers to myself, others I really don't know what I would say.  For today, they are "complaints" I have heard about the Flipped Classroom model from students and "questions" I have heard about implementing the model from teachers.  Before I speak my mind in a later post, I would love to hear from everyone else...

Read my answers to these questions here

STUDENT PERSPECTIVE (How would you respond to these complaints?):
1. "I want to go back to a traditional classroom!  I used to be able to do all my homework for math in my other classes during the day and I wouldn't have any when I got home, but now I actually have to watch a video at home and I can't just be done during school."

2. "I would rather have you teaching in front of me, live.  I pay attention more when you are in front of me than when I watch/listen to you on video."

3.  "It takes too much time to watch a video and write my summary, and coming up with a question is really hard to do.  Why do we have to do that?  Why can't we just come to class with the video watched and that's it?" [refer to My Favorite WSQ for what I have my students do nightly]

4. "I'm used to traditional teaching. That's how it's always been.  That's how I want it to be."

5. "It's really hard for me to put into words how to do the math problem.  I'm able to do it on my own - why do I need to be able to explain it?"


TEACHER'S PERSPECTIVE (How would you answer these questions?):
1.  "If I can't get my students to do regular homework, how am I going to get them to watch a video for homework?"

2.  "How do you teach students to be responsible for their own learning and actually watch the video and not just 'watch' the video every night?  How do you hold them accountable?"

3.  "How do you make sure that students don't just copy the notes from a classmate, just like they would copy homework?"

4.  "How do you actually make this happen time-wise the first year you are doing it?  How do you make it do-able AND successful?"

5.  "If I don't want to fully flip, but want to try it, how do I pick the lessons that I want to 'flip' and how does it work with consistency in completion, expectations (in and out of class) when students aren't doing this nightly?"

Please join in the conversation, whether you have thoughts about ONE of these questions, or ALL of them.  All points of view are appreciated :)  I will post my answers to the questions and complaints in an upcoming post.

Presentation #2 - Coming on Wednesday, February 8th!

I got asked today to present my flipped classroom to our entire staff at our Delayed Start PD meeting this Wednesday!  I am very excited and didn't expect to be able to share it with everyone so soon!  One of the teachers that heard my presentation last week already started flipping and is LOVING it, so he will be able to share a bit as well!  If you haven't seen my Prezi yet, check it out!

 My Flipped Classroom Prezi

Reflections on Week 1 (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)

The first week of the semester is now over, and it's time to do a little reflecting of how things went...

This week we started keeping track of our homework on "WSQ" charts, so I had a place to sign off their progress and their work. In an ideal world, I would never check homework every day. I hate doing it. It is probably the thing I dread most as a teacher and I feel like it is a waste of time. However, if I don't check it every day, the kids don't do it. They are not to a place in their lives where they are self-motivated enough to do it because it is good for them and will help them. That is one of my goals as a teacher, to get kids to understand that. At this point in the year, it's just not happening with most of my students. Some of my Math Analysis students are there, but most of my Algebra 1 students are far from it.

Here is the sample WSQ chart from this week for Algebra 1.


Here is the same WSQ chart from this week for Math Analysis.


These charts told the students what Video they needed to watch, and then had a place for me to sign off that they had Watched it, summarized it, asked a question, and completed the corresponding assignment in class.

The way I decided to grade was with signatures.
A BLUE signature means they completed it fully ON TIME
If it is not completed fully, on time, they get a RED/PINK line
Once they complete the late assignment, they get a RED/PINK signature.
If they never complete the late assignment, the line just stays.
At the end of the week, a BLUE signature is worth 2 POINTS, a RED signature is worth 1 POINT, and a RED line with no signature is worth 0 POINTS.
"WSQ charts" are collected on Fridays and input into the students' grades.


The Good: Math Analysis

My students in Math Analysis started off the semester well. They are watching the videos, writing their summaries, asking good questions, and doing fairly well in class. I'm happy with how things are going. We are just starting the tough part of the chapter, so I hope this continues. Most of the WSQ charts looked like the ones below:

Perfect! This student did everything well and on time.

Almost perfect, but got the late summary signed off before the end of the week.

Almost perfect, but still didn't complete summary for C1 by the end of the week.

Not so good...

This student watched all the videos but didn't finish any of the classwork.


The Bad: Math Analysis (again)

With every good thing, there are some places for improvement. One of the reasons why I think the students are doing so well is because of the WSQ charts I have been using. I did not check homework much first semester because I just don't like to take the time in class to do so. Thus, a lot of students did not do their homework very often or completely, unless they were self-motivated. With this new system, these students are very motivated to get their "blue signatures" and to show off that they have gotten the work done. I like the excitement, but I hate the time it takes me to check every day. Instead of being able to walk around freely answering questions and helping, I have to spend upwards of 20-30 minutes of the class period going around and checking off homework. Yes, I make it around to every table and am able to answer a few questions, but nothing like I want my flipped classroom to be like.

I don't have a perfect solution, but I think I know where some of the problem lies. Because students can get "red lines" for work they don't complete on time, they want to get the "red signature" the next day. It takes a lot of time to go back through the make-up work than to just check off the stuff that is supposed to be due. I think I could probably do that in less than 10 minutes total. So, my idea that I am going to try for this next week is that during class I only check off the "on time" work. If students want to get late work signed off, they have to come in on their own time (before school, seminar, lunch, after class, after school, etc) to do so. That way they don't take away from me being to help those that have questions and they have some sort of other motivation to get it done on time (they don't want to have to come in on their own time). We'll see how that goes this next week.


The Ugly: Algebra 1
This week we just reviewed Chapter 6 (systems of equations) because we didn't have time to finish it before finals and I didn't want to just jump right into a test. The three videos they were assigned to watch were all review videos covering some example problems from a new worksheet. Then, in class they were supposed to come together and go over a few more of each type of review problem to prepare for the test.

Here are some samples, starting with the GOOD and ending with the BAD... I'll explain more below.

A student who did everything she was supposed to ON TIME.

This student just had one assignment not complete on time, but she still completed it.

This student had a lot of things not done on time, but she did get most of them done. How she wrote her summary and question for C4-6 without watching the video is above me, but I guess I just didn't look close enough when I was trying to sign off.

This student did all the "homework", but didn't finish any of the assignments. They have the whole class period to work on the assignments, and if they don't finish a few problems they have to do them at home by the next day. This student not only did not have them done on time, he didn't even finish them by the end of the week (after multiple days).

This student didn't do much, and what she did do was late.

This student did hardly anything all week. Watched the first few videos, but that's it.

This student did nothing all week. Out of my 112 Algebra 1 students, I probably had 10-15 of these.







I was very very very disappointed by this week in Algebra 1 in terms of the effort my students made with the flipped classroom. I was hoping that with the excitement of being able to start fresh with a new semester and wanting to do well on the first test of the new semester may bring some intrinsic motivation. I still have to grade those tests from today this weekend, so we'll see how they do. [update: I've graded them.  They were the worst tests I have seen all year.  Out of 96 students taking the test, I had 17 A's (18%), 12 B's (13%), 5 C's (5%), 5 D's (5%), and 57 F's (59%).  The students who did what they were supposed to did very well.  The students who did not watch the videos or finish their assignments did horribly, even as low as 2% on a test where I felt I had at least 20% of the points as "gimmes".  Remediation, reteaching, and retaking are in progress!]  If they end up doing well, that will give me something to think about. However, I'm not really looking forward to grading them with the effort I saw on the homework this week.

One thing that I think may have affected this week was the fact that I told this kids this was "trial week" with the new WSQ system and our normal school-wide punishments of "Missing Assignment Cards" progressive discipline for not doing homework assignments would not be in effect until NEXT week. So, I think most of them just took that as a sign that they could just do nothing this week because they wouldn't receive the punishment. This is an issue I am hoping my students will learn by the end of the year: doing their assignments because they will be beneficial to their learning and not just to avoid punishment.

If the flipped classroom is going to work well, students have to make the effort and want to learn. I still only have 2-3 available computers in my class (with talks in to the tech guy at our school to have a few more within the next few weeks), and some students who show up not having watched the video don't say anything to me until I find out about halfway through the class period! I've got to find a solution to this. I think once I have more computers it will be better. I will also need to buy headphones for most of the computers because most of the kids (surprisingly, with all the iPods that most kids have these days) don't have them. I would be frustrated if kids consistently came in and had to watch the video in class because they are missing out on the help and support available (one of the biggest reasons I am doing this!!!). However, I think I'm more frustrated that kids aren't watching the videos and then don't say anything about it or make any effort to watch the video at the beginning of class! This apathetic attitude is affecting the success in my Flipped classroom in Algebra 1.

We are only in our third full week of Flipping, and with Finals last week, this is really "week 1" where the students need to be trained all over again. We'll keep going and see how it goes!


All Reflections from This Year can be Found Here. 

What Technology to use when "Flipping"

I would like to start a new page on my blog with a list of different technologies that work to use when creating the media (video, podcast, etc) that goes along with flipping. Please take a few minutes to share what you use like the two examples below. Once I gather enough in the comments, I will create a new page up top so teachers interested in flipping have a place to start. Thank you for helping to build our Flipped Class Professional Learning Network!

Please share:
1. What technology you use to record
2. What technology you use to edit (if any)
3. Where/How you upload it online
4. How students can access it offline
5. Any links to software, apps, technology, etc that you mention
6. Any tips you can give for using this technology (pros, cons, etc)
7. A link to a sample of your videos

EXAMPLE 1 (ME)

1. I use an Avervision 300AF+ document camera that hooks right into my Mac via a USB. The software that comes with the doc cam saves the videos as MOV files straight to my desktop.
2. I do any editing with iMovie, or straight on the YouTube editing screen if they are simple things
3/4. I upload the videos to YouTube and SchoolTube, and have them in a folder to drag onto other student's USB's as needed.
5. Avervision can be found here - http://www.amazon.com/AVerMedia-VIS3AFPLS-Avervision-300AF/dp/B000X1274I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328157810&sr=8-1
6. It is very easy as I just get to write underneath the camera and can use pencil, pen, highlighter, etc to get everything I want across to the students.
7. A sample of my videos can be found at www.youtube.com/crystalkirch


EXAMPLE 2

P.V. comment on last post.

We have smart boards therefore I just use the smart recorder and a USB microphone to record lessons. We use moodle as a classroom interface and I also upload all to youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNmOAupf6Us is an example. I have also used a flipcam and a tripod and done the same thing although it is a bit more cumbersome.

EXAMPLE 3
Check out this blog post with a pretty descriptive example
http://community.prometheanplanet.com/en/user_groups/flipped/b/weblog/archive/2012/01/17/flipped-math-classroom-professional-development-diary-day-96.aspx

Presenting the Flipped Classroom (part 1 - presentation to teacher leaders)

Today I got the amazing opportunity to present my flipped classroom to about 25 teacher-leaders at my school.

I took a poll via a Google Forms survey before the presentation so I could see where my colleagues were coming from in terms of knowing about the flipped classroom. 16 of the 25 teachers replied, and this is what they said:

Have you heard of the flipped classroom?

Yes, and I know what it is 7 - 44%
I've heard the phrase but don't know what it means 1 - 6%
No, never heard of it 8 - 50%

Only four of the 16 teachers that responded had tried something they thought was "flipped classroom" in the past. This is what they said:


Chemistry teacher:
I have a lecture that I record and have the students view before coming to class. Then we use class time to work on problem solving instead of lecturing. My students did not like it because they like the interactions that we have during lecture.


AP English teacher:
I've tried in my AP Language class to get kids to do the close reading at home so that we can do the writing about it in the classroom. However, I've only done it on a limited case as I've found our kids are not as used to doing "homework" in English (as they are in Math) so they do not do the preparation necessary. I haven't tried to fully implement it at all, but have read about it from other AP teachers (AP English listserve).


Music/Choir teacher:
"ex.1 Sudents are asked to find video examples of a performance of a piece we are working on. They are asked to list adjectives they would use to describe the performance, as well as to decide what aspects of the performance might be helpful to be used in our performance.


ex.2 Students are asked to prepare different sections of a piece. They are to come back as an ""expert"" on that section. In class, they are to teach their section to their group."


P.E. Teacher
Methods of video taping have been going on in Physical Education for years. A flipped classroom is just a new name for video taping your lessons or classrooms, the idea has been around since 2004. With the use of utube the idea of a flipped classroom has made the process easier to get your ideas or lessons presented.


With that knowledge, I was very excited to share with my staff what I was doing with flipping my classroom. I presented the prezi that was posted yesterday.



The response to the flipped classroom presentation was phenomenal. Most of the teachers were very interested and intrigued, and even those that had "heard" of it before saw the "flipped classroom" in a new light for what I think it is really meant to be. Our principal asked the group if this was something that should be presented to the whole staff, and most of the teachers said "definitely!". So, I may be able to continue to share this teaching strategy with even more teachers! I love being able to share things that are "working" in my class with others! What great collaboration!

Most of the questions after the presentation were with regards to:
1. What technology can make this happen?
2. How do make sure students watch the videos/how can you hold them accountable?
3. How much time does this take?

I also gave all the teachers the links to several sites, including
#flipclass on twitter
flipped-learning.com
flippedclass.com
flipteaching.com
cybraryman.com/flipclass

I sent out another Google Forms survey this afternoon that asked three simple questions:

1. After hearing about it, what do you think about using the flipped classroom in your classroom?
2. What are your biggest concerns about flipping your classroom?
3. What questions do you have about the flipped classroom (as specific to your content area/grade level or as general as just the concept overall) do you still have after the presentation today?


I will post the results of that survey with some comments once I receive most of them back (I've only got 5 right now since I just sent the survey out after school today).


Here are just a few teaser comments:

Math teacher: I'm waiting for a great training so I can get this revolution started!!

English teacher: Crystal, your presentation on the flipped classroom was inspiring and awesome! I can see why the students would love this AND I can't wait to try it myself!!!

English teacher: I'll need to find some examples of how this would work in an English classroom for some of the content I'm teaching. Just taking some time to find examples, which I'll do on my own.

Music teacher: Flipped classroom lends itself well to music classrooms, and can be used in different ways. I wish I had thought about it when I was teaching AP Music Theory because the students were at so many different levels, and it was truly difficult to get past the teaching of content and to actually apply the concepts.

MY QUESTION FOR YOU...
Please comment with all the TECHNOLOGIES you use to make your flipped classroom happen. I would like to generate an extensive list to be able to share with my staff (and other readers). Along with listing the name, if you could include a short description and/or a link to a website that explains how to use it, where to download it, buy it, etc. In addition, if you could provide a link to one of your sample videos created with that technology, that would be great! Thank you for your time!!

Until next time (with some more comments and feedback)...