Weekly Menu

For the second week I am participating in the #Flipclassflashblog!  The topic today is

What is one thing (a tool, technique, pedagogy, app) that makes your #flipclass work better?


Right now my whole mantra is Keep it SIMPLE! My videos are super simple screencasts of me modeling a problem in my notebook. When they get to class they do an "Enter Ticket" and based on those results are put into groups. I work with the students who do not get it and release the others.


My biggest challenge was how to organize classwork and classtime, since my students are really needy and look for constant direction and assurance of what they should be doing. I decided the best way for me to plan everything and keep them accountable and give them a few choices or at least make them "think" they are having some choice was to make a Weekly Menu. Below is an example of this weeks menu for 6th grade.

It is still a major work in progress.  The first box of the day tells them the lesson we are working on, next up is the required practice work.  After they do the Enter Ticket I will usually pull out a small group to work on the first set of problems and do a gradual release.  The rest of the class can just go on and get to work on the requried items.  I also give each table a set of red, yellow and green cups for students to use to communicate with me if they need help.  If the cup on top is green, they are ok and should be silently working. If its yellow, they are asking each other for help and red means they need me.   This really works well (after they got used to it!) at first they would go straight to red, or put it on yellow so that they could talk about anything.  Took some training, but now it really serves its purpose.

The next three items is where their choice comes in.  They have to complete at least 3 Coach book lessons for the week, the Tenmarks assignments that I preset, open -meaning they can work on retakes,extra practice, Versatiles or IXL.  I usually can get about 12 devices and my class size is 18.  I haven't had any issues yet with not having enough devices.

I don't grade this weekly sheet, but I do make them turn everything in on Friday and I record any quiz grades from the week and then they get them signed.  I also use a Pink Slip system for behavior issues which for me is mostly students being unprepared and having to go back to their lockers.  I attach any pink slips they recieved during the week as well.

Oh and in my classroom each student has a folder they keep all of the work in. So they don't lose their weekly sheet. 

In Love with Flipping Again!

Friday I gave my second quiz since fully flipping my classroom and I am pretty impressed and excited by the results.  This is just one class, but it was the exact same in my other 3.

There are so many positives I am seeing that just pop out to me, particulary since I have more teaching experience now,

Although I am embarrassed to show my videos, I can tell they are getting better than they were the first time I flipped, I know that when I make them I can concentrate more and present the concepts much better than when done "live".  As far as the student side of it goes, I totally see the benefits they are getting from taking the notes at their own pace without the distractions of the class.  The nice thing too is that since we use google classroom, they feel comfortable asking questions right away.  So if they are watching a video they won't think twice about popping into classroom and asking for clarification on something.  I love it!  Another thing I notice is that it seems getting the lesson the night before gives students time to let the ideas marniate before jumping in and using it.  When they come to class there is such an improved focus and they are asking wonderful questions.  I really need to blog more about the day to day observations to really document it all. 

There are tons of things I need to improve, but I am really excited to work on this more and more!  I am also super excited to see how our 3rd benchmark exams go in February!  

Flash blog!?? Getting Unstuck

Its funny how things work.  I just in the last two weeks started flipping again and decided to drop into the #flipclass chat tonight.  I have been wanting to get blogging again, but trouble starting.  So I couldn't believe it when Cheryl Morris (@guster4lovers) suggested this flash blog thingy.  Not really sure what it is, but I think I am supposed to be writing for 25 minutes about where I am stuck in my practice and what I'm doing about it.

So cool!  Since that is why I'm back to flipping again.  Not sure how I was "stuck" I was just not happy with how my classes were going and knew that I wanted more work time in my class instead of me lecturing.  I had visitors in my class today who wanted to see a lesson and so I decided to go the traditional way and although it went well, it was today that really showed me I am so much more comfortable with flipping the lesson.

Some of the reasons I think it is working for me better now than it did two years ago is that I have access to iPads and Chromebooks now that I didn't really before.  Also my students seem to have more access to the internet and technology in general.

I am keeping it super simple as well.  I just record my lessons by writing notes in my own notebook under the document camera and record the screen using the free version of Screencast-o-matic.  I upload to youtube and then post on Google Classroom.  Nothing fancy at all, the videos are about 5 minutes, and its basically me modeling a procedure.

The next day, I give a do now ticket that I use to sort the students into groups.  If they get it, they go off to do classwork, if not or they are a little shaky they stay with me and we work on it together until they are released to do the classwork.  I give another exit ticket, leveled for the two groups.

So that is where I am at, I feel like such a newbie again, but a little more comfortable newbie.

After the lesson I did today I met with the visitors to my classroom (actually it was all the math teachers in my school plus an outside coaching consultant.) I shared with them how I've been using video lessons so  this lesson didn't really represent what was happening in my classroom. We talked about it a little bit and I shared one of my videos.  Well, the consultant asked "Where did you hear about this???" He never heard of it before and I was surprised.  I thought everyone knew about it.  Later he told me he was taking notes and was going to tell every teacher he sees about it.  Then he suggested I run a session at the regional charter school convention in April.  Holy cow!

My Flipped Classroom 2.0

After posting my thoughts on Minds on Mathematics: Chapter 5 "Discourse" ,Sherrie Nackle, who is organizing this really great book study here, commented on how would I implement the workshop model and flipping.
"I am very interested in hearing more about how you will incorporate your flipped teaching into workshop model. I've seen other teachers do flipped learning, but the videos were strictly skill based. How do you get the deep conceptual understanding with a video? I'd love to hear more about this."

So I started to respond, but it turned out to be more of me working out my thoughts of the way I wanted to start planning for next year.  I'm not quite ready to do that yet since I am not finished with the book and am taking another online course (a really great one by the way!  Check it out here.) But I did think it would be better for a blog post in order to organize my thoughts since they were flowing pretty well!

Ok, so back up a bit. Last summer I "discovered" the flip classroom, hence the name of my blog!  I really thought this was going to be the key for my students and my motivation behind it was to encourage more higher order thinking in my classroom by having more time to do so and also I won't lie, I thought it might help with behavior.  I figured the less time they had to sit quiet and listen to me lecture in class, the less time they had to act up.  In some ways it worked well, my videos were mostly just vocabulary notes and a very quick example of what we would be doing for that concept.  It was a way for kids to copy the notes without doing it in class.  They could go at their own pace and didn't have to wait for others to finish etc.  I never really "taught" on the video and they never took ownership of the learning.  I still had to teach in the classroom, they just had less notes to copy!

So, I still thought (think) the flipped model is beneficial, I just needed to work at it more, of course I didn't think I would get it perfect the first year.  I saw that Dr. Lodge McCammon and Katie Gimbar were offering their online "Flipped Classroom Training Program" so I applied and got accepted into it.  I really like their method of filming one take videos with the teacher in them, opposed to screencasts (which I was doing originally) and I thought that taking the course would help me become better at this. 

During the course, I realized that the way I like to teach is with questioning and feedback from students.  It was very hard to teach to a video camera!   Dan Myer even questioned my motivation for flipping with his comment on my blog:

Dan MeyerJune 22, 2013 at 2:02 PM

"I have got to learn to jazz them up since I am so used to interacting with my students during my lessons and I use a lot of questioning instead of telling during my lessons."

But isn't this an argument against flipping the classroom? You're saying you're trading "questions and interactions" with "telling and jazz" and it seems you're feeling troubled by that. So what else do you (or your class) get in that trade that makes the flipped classroom worthwhile?

I have to say that made sense, I agreed with that comment, but something was still holding me on to the flipped classroom.  That is what really made me think about what I need to accomplish in my classroom and how the videos were going to help me achieve those goals. 

Finally, this is what leads me to my thoughts on flipping with workshop:

What i have learned so far with all of my PD this summer is that kids need to get their hands dirty working with those complex open ended problems, they need to construct their own understanding of the math.  However, I know my kids and I know some of them need to first get those basic lower level skills down and have them modeled for them before they start playing with it.  Some don't.  That is why I am thinking that my videos will teach very basic "procedures" of a concept, along with trying approx 5 of those basic problems for homework. You know those very basic computation problems the textbook starts out with.  When they come to class we will work on the workshop model in order for them to construct meaning for why we do those procedures and when to apply them.  I am really looking forward to finishing the book and start digging into my planning!  

My Flipped Classroom

At the end of last year I discovered "the Flipped Classroom" by stumbling on a recorded webinar by Crystal Kirch (forever thankful for that day!) and over the summer researched and planned and surfed and tweeted and watched webinars all in an effort to better differentiate and engage my students.  

I had lots of different visions of how my classroom was going to "look" and the actual procedures that I was going to teach them the first week.  However, I was bringing in a lot of new elements-flipping, ISNs, and layered curriculum!  I was a nervous wreck...I truly believed that these things were sound, solid ideas that would benefit my students, but I wasn't 100% convinced that I could pull it all off (especially being only a 2nd year teacher.)

Now I have to preface this blog post with the fact that it is still the beginning of the year, and I don't know how this will all translate to actual student results which is the only way to gauge if this is a success or not.  But I can tell you what I have let this evolve into feels so natural and RIGHT that I want to share a few things that I am doing.

My Take on Flipping

So first off, my homework is not a video lesson.  The video homework consists of only a very important concept (stolen from Katie Gimbar) which is the big idea of the concept, the main vocabulary and a quick example.  I screencast a powerpoint and even tell the kids that it isn't a terrible thing if they don't listen!  All they have to do is copy the slides onto the right side of their interactive student notebook! Basically I wanted to free up that portion of class time.  Some copy slower than others, some don't pay attention etc. and I wanted to make sure they had an organized notebook to study from later.

The next day I put up a do now based on the concept.  Remember I didn't "teach" them how to do it. I allow them to work out the problem by themselves and they can use the notes they took, usually a few of them have no problem and they share with their table.  When most are done we go over it.  I have one of the kids who got it right away "teach" it by sharing what they did. 

Table Talk

Next I have them spend 5-10 minutes discussing the topic from the video, how it relates to the do now, and what difficulties they might be having with it.  I walk around and listen and ask each table some questions, including having them show me how to do a similar problem (may introduce white boards next week)

We did a foldable type activity with both grades, but what I noticed is it only works if I have 1:15 with them. I only get that one day a week for each class on different days.  So I will be planning something for each concept but only those whose 1:15 falls on that day will do it and the other classes will do their first practice set on the left side of the notebook.

Layered Curriculum

After the talk it is off to work!  They have folders where they keep the assignment sheet I posted here and all of the work they are working on.  As they are working I check their ISNs to make sure their notes are taken and complete (homework check) and then start asking the higher order questions, meeting with students to assess and discuss their progress.  This is the real golden part of the class.  This is the time where I pulled that kid from my other post and got to work with him.  And that was only one class, there were other successes that day in other classes too, just being able to guide the students and really head off any misconceptions right away was so wonderful.  The tiered assignments are really great too.  I have kids that work at so many different paces and levels and to have stuff ready for them to start working on is awesome, like I said they are just working their butts off the whole rest of the time!

Some of my concerns:

• They are focused and working hard-is it just because its the beginning of the year and this is new?
• Will everyone get their assignments done by the end of the unit?-its still too early to tell.
• I feel like I am reaching my 8th's at a deeper level than my 7th's is this because they are smaller classes or because I know them already?
• Finally, will this result in retention of the concepts which I have found to be the biggest problem with my students?  I actually had a student tell me "aw Mrs. Nehila, I washed that outta my hair two weeks ago!"-I was like "What???!!!!") 

That's where I'm at so far.  I'd also like to say that not everything was a 100% perfect.  There were some things in there last week that didn't work, mostly with timing like the foldable activity and a video mishap that I don't even want to share!  I guess that is why we reflect and revise constantly!

Goals for the 2nd Week

Start of the 2nd week and I am feeling a little more at ease.  What an exciting year this is going to be with all of the new tools I am implementing!  I say exciting to be positive, but actually I am so nervous!  I have to keep reminding myself that if everything is not perfect, its OK, I will improve and the things I am doing are going to be so much better for my kids than what we did last year!

So my goals for this week are: 

1. Introduce the first real math video and class format.  We've been doing procedures and assessments so far.  I had them watch a video to learn how to sign up for Edmodo, and they seem to really like Edmodo :)  and I've had them working in groups since the first day.  All of these things are working nicely.  I had to put them in rows today for the assessments and I hate it!  Can't wait until Wednesday!
   
2. Make sure they get the hang of the ISNs.  So far we have the table of contents and their expectation/policies pages done.
   
3. Hope I don't overwhelm them with the Assignment Sheet outlining all of the assignments that they need to do in the next 2 weeks!  I quickly showed them the sheet last week and they seemed a little stunned. I will be controlling it for a while until they get used to it, then I hope to release more choice to them when I see they are ready.  

I keep going back and forth with how I am going to make my videos, I really like the idea of the one take videos using the 6 whiteboard slides, but found out that I really can't do it at home.  So, even though I didn't want to do this, I downloaded the Camtasia Studio 8 trial and of course fell in love with it.  I kept it totally basic and just recorded a screencast of a powerpoint.  Since my laptop doesn't have a microphone, and I am literally broke until 9/15, I figured out that I could record the audio on my tablet and just add the wav file to the recording!  It worked great!  Now I just have to get better at it.  I made a 7th grade video 1st and then the 8th grade video.  I totally sound like a robot in the first one, much more relaxed and the way I want to sound in the second. I will finish up the rest of the videos for my 2 week unit tomorrow during my prep.  I am keeping my videos EXTREMELY basic so I should be able to crank them out quickly.  

Finally - 1st Four Days!

I've been stressing over my first week.  Last year, we all went to see Harry Wong, and I was sold on doing nothing but procedures and routines the first 2 weeks.  I still agree with the fact that the routine and procedures and getting to know the kids are the most important goals, however, I also think that it is equally important to set the tone that the subject is important too!
So I've been trying to figure out how to include both, without jumping too far into the "curriculum" to really let them know that BOTH are equally important.  I am so excited that I finally came up with something!  I have to preface this with a warning though, I am an EXTREME steal-er.  I am an expert google-er and steal almost everything I use in class from other teachers!   So part of this is stolen (my summer project) the rest is my idea and I'm so proud of myself!
Let me also start off by saying I teach in a very small charter school, my 8th graders are my last year 7th graders -so I know them inside-out, and my new 7th graders I've had in homework clubs, field day, etc and pretty much know at least everyone's names. So I don't have to do that much "getting to know you" stuff.  I did give my incoming 7th graders a survey that was due before the end of the year and got them all back (ONLY 1 student does not have access to technology at home!! Most had WAY more than me!!!)
Ok back to the plans:

What I want to cover the first week:
Rules: Come to class prepared and ready to learn
           Listen and follow all directions
           Respect yourself, you classmates and your teacher

Procedures: Entering and leaving class
                   Turning in work
                   Leaving seat (bathroom, nurse, garbage, supplies)
                   Working as groups  (sometimes they will be working together, other times the work is expected to be done individually but they are able to collaborate)
                   Emergency (Fire Drills, Lock Down, etc)
                   When I need whole class attention

We will go over these starting from the first day explain and practice.  I will make videos of these and homework for the first week will to be just watching these videos.  The next day we will have discussions based on the videos.  I like this because this will ease them into the videos without the stress of learning math from them.  The rest of my procedures will come on an as needed basis. These are the ones that I think are the most important for getting started...am I missing anything?

Ok, now for the fun mathy stuff!  I made the summer assignment for both 7th and 8th grade a Math Scrapbook.  This part I totally 150% stole from somewhere online and I am sorry but I don't know where. If you recognize this and it is your work please tell me and I will probably send you a gift certificate for a coffee or something!
               
Anyway, hopefully you can get the gist of my project from the picture.  I asked 7th grade to do 4 pages and 8th grade to do 6 pages.

The first day I will have students share their project with their group.  Now, I know from experience that everyone won't have their project the first day.  The students that have them get to be the stars of the day!  So what happens is they are only sharing with their groups (4 and 5 students in each of my groups) they are getting feedback from group members that it is complete, the others are checking the project against the checklist I provided, and making sure it is "A worthy",  these students are going to be allowed to make corrections before they hand it in!  I will be circulating the groups talking getting reacquainted with everyone.  I will let those who don't have theirs to be sure to bring it tomorrow so they can get feedback tomorrow!

The next day  we will start with discussion of the video (rules and procedures) then back to our projects, starting off with those who didn't have them yesterday. If for some reason they ALL had them ready, they can use the time to "fix" them up with help from their support group.  The goal is that everyone is getting an A on their summer project.

3rd day-start off the same way, then this day we are going to have a little competition, each group will have to decide on their best scrapbook from their group including making a presentation why it is the best.  At the end of the day we will pick the "best of the best"

4th day- start off the same as the previous 3 days then those who never finished their projects will spend the rest of the class time working on them-EVERYONE will hand in their summer project by Friday.  The rest of the class will be viewing and voting on the BEST of the BEST from all classes and decorating the room with the rest of the projects.

I am so excited about this plan.  Some of the things I wanted to improve was giving my students a real taste of our motto "Failure is not an option!" and I feel like this plan starts the year off with that message, considering their summer project is a test grade.  Second, I was horrible about displaying student work and my bulletin boards, so my Friday activity gets work up and the kids involved.  Thirdly and most importantly I hope that this gets them taking about math and gives them a real feel of how I want my class to work this year...no more silent rows and boring lectures!

                     

Start Hard

It may be because I am a new teacher that I think I have this great idea, but I am super excited about an idea for more student engagement.
I have been taught to teach math using the I Do, We Do, You Do method. Starting out with easy computational problems and moving to word and multi-step problems once they "get it".
My brilliant new to me idea is to pose that difficult word problem first. My thinking is that when I model the math to them there will be an interest in why we are doing it in the first place. Duh when I write this out I feel so stupid for not doing this already.
The other part to this is how do I get them thinking about the question beforehand. What I've come up with is that will be the last thing we do each day, and they will have 10 minutes to write about the problem in their notes, it could be anything from writing down what they know to solving it if they know how. Then their next video will be on that topic and at the end of the video I will give the solution to the previous day's problem.

Cleared for takeoff!

Talked to my math coach and my principal today and got the go ahead to give it a try!  So excited.  Going to put a lesson together for next week to give it a "test drive" before I spend the whole summer putting this together!  Also handed out a questionnaire to all the incoming 7th graders about their access to technology at home :)