Money is always a topic of conversation when it comes to implementing new tools in a classroom. There a tremendous amount of grant opportunities out there, and two of these may be very realistic for me in my classroom. The first is going to my district’s Education Foundation. The Olathe Public Schools Foundation (OPS Foundation) offers grant opportunities for a variety of uses. To quote from their site: “The Olathe Public Schools Foundation awards grants up to $1,000 for innovative classroom projects, $2,000 for visual arts programs, and up to $5,000 for projects impacting multiple classrooms, grades, or schools.” This opportunity can make an impact immediately when implementing the flipped class in my classroom since devices are needed to make the flips work, including the equipment to make the flips and the computers for kid’s use.
Another site worth looking into is Donors Choose. I had the privilege of seeing this organization in action at my previous high school in Bonner Springs, Kansas. The grant was for a flat-screen TV for the “Brave Cave”, the student lounge run by the Business Department and the Entrepreneurship classes. One of the donating businesses provided the TV for the lounge and the business program took photos of their setup and showed the organization how they were using the donation. This is an incredible way to gain access to some pricier options for the classroom, which again would include several laptop devices for my class for student use.
Once more, the options are abundant with the multitude of websites out there willing to offer up grant money. This will be something I will be looking into this next semester, for certain.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Collaboration in the Classroom
From a professional standpoint, I’ve used Twitter for the last several years to develop a strong PLN (Professional Learning Network). Twitter utilizes the nature of social media, with it’s far reaching abilities, and blends with the professional needs of an educator. I’ve followed and gathered useful tools from administrators, teachers in my subject, teachers within my grade level, technology resources, and many more, all in developing a well-rounded PLN where I can go at any time to gather information on a multitude of topics. At any time I can post directly to another educator for advice or questions, or post a comment or question to a variety of groups (or hashtags) I follow, such as #edtech, #flipclass, and #sschat, to name a few. Great resources are found in the members I follow such as Cybraryman, FreeTech4Teachers, and Edutopia. Check these out!
When directly talking about the class, there were a couple of collaborating tools which come to mind. First, Edmodo is the LMS (Learning Management System) I use in my class, and it’s likeness to Facebook allows students to post comments tot he wall of the class. This enables a tremendous amount of collaboration within the confines of my supervision, and creates a safe environment which is password protected. Students can collaborate at any time of the day, using mobile apps on their phones and tablets, as well as any computer. The service is free and incredibly user-friendly. The second service is Google Drive, the very popular service provided free from Google. The ability to share a document with other users and modify the document in real time whenever any student is logged on allows collaboration at it’s highest point. These both create easy, user-friendly methods for students to collaborate with each other.
When directly talking about the class, there were a couple of collaborating tools which come to mind. First, Edmodo is the LMS (Learning Management System) I use in my class, and it’s likeness to Facebook allows students to post comments tot he wall of the class. This enables a tremendous amount of collaboration within the confines of my supervision, and creates a safe environment which is password protected. Students can collaborate at any time of the day, using mobile apps on their phones and tablets, as well as any computer. The service is free and incredibly user-friendly. The second service is Google Drive, the very popular service provided free from Google. The ability to share a document with other users and modify the document in real time whenever any student is logged on allows collaboration at it’s highest point. These both create easy, user-friendly methods for students to collaborate with each other.
Gaming
Getting students involved in a difficult subject is at the heart of teaching. Many of us in the profession know how difficult it is to get students to do something even if they ARE interested! However finding the medium between fun and learning is still at the essence of teaching, and gaming has become an important tool in this process. Teaching Social Studies class has always had it’s fair share of games, such as using RISK or Monopoly board games to teach about imperialism or economics, however computer programs are allowing the tool of gaming to be more interactive and more readily available to students whenever they have time to play and learn.
One of the most popular websites at my middle school in Olathe is CoolMath-Games.com. After having so many students asking to go to it when they finished their assignments, I decided to check it out and see if I could get anything out of the site. To my surprise there was an entire section dedicated to maps and geography, and the kids started playing these on their OWN! The best part (besides being free)... they didn’t think geography was boring any more, it was as fun as putting together a puzzle, only this time the puzzle was timed. The more the students played, the better their map skills were getting, and I realized this was a great opportunity to implement this site into a lesson.
The students now write down their times, trying to beat their previous best (and the rest of the class’s times), and repeating the learning until they got it right. Many students are enjoying this site on their own time outside of school, making the learning continue. This site has allowed no down time during a lesson for those who take a little more time on assignments, since they can always go here and play (LEARN!). We will be using this site the last couple of days before winter break to finish up on several units of study, and I hope the playing will pay off!
One of the most popular websites at my middle school in Olathe is CoolMath-Games.com. After having so many students asking to go to it when they finished their assignments, I decided to check it out and see if I could get anything out of the site. To my surprise there was an entire section dedicated to maps and geography, and the kids started playing these on their OWN! The best part (besides being free)... they didn’t think geography was boring any more, it was as fun as putting together a puzzle, only this time the puzzle was timed. The more the students played, the better their map skills were getting, and I realized this was a great opportunity to implement this site into a lesson.
The students now write down their times, trying to beat their previous best (and the rest of the class’s times), and repeating the learning until they got it right. Many students are enjoying this site on their own time outside of school, making the learning continue. This site has allowed no down time during a lesson for those who take a little more time on assignments, since they can always go here and play (LEARN!). We will be using this site the last couple of days before winter break to finish up on several units of study, and I hope the playing will pay off!
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Vodcasting in the Flipped Classroom
I have found in my flipping experience that my lectures must be authentic. I originally looked through a ton of the materials available from Khan Academy, however none of these videos satisfied what my goals were for my lesson, and for several reasons. First, Kansas history is not common, therefore not readily available in Khan Academy. Originally designed to help in higher mathematics and sciences, there isn’t a focus on Kansas that was meaningful. Second, I found creating my own lectures was far more effective to my student’s learning, since I used common terminology and references from my class, current events, and book which aren’t available from anyone else but me. Khan has it’s place, but I haven’t found it’s place in my classroom.
I have used short documentary-styled videos in replacement of my lecture, usually using a set of questions to go along with the video as prompts for thinking and synthesis. Once these questions are answered, students bring these to class (or the notes I had them take, either way) and we perform a task. Again, specific Kansas related videos are difficult to find, however YouTube.com has some short clips pertaining to my specific subject matter which have been helpful.
SchoolTube.com and TeacherTube.com are two other sources where I can find information and very specific subjects, such as Bleeding Kansas, John Brown, and the Dust Bowl. By using these sources any teacher knows they have safe, educationally appropriate content, however the sites aren’t as popular yet with other platforms. For instance, many of my flips use the website TedEd.com (CLICK for my lesson), a break-off of the very popular TedTalks.com lecture series website. Using TedEd, teachers can embed YouTube videos directly into the site and have corresponding questions with the video. This site is specific to YouTube currently, and will not allow access to either TeacherTube or SchoolTube (I’ve tried both). However, the school specific nature of both of these sites is a plus for the classroom.
I have used short documentary-styled videos in replacement of my lecture, usually using a set of questions to go along with the video as prompts for thinking and synthesis. Once these questions are answered, students bring these to class (or the notes I had them take, either way) and we perform a task. Again, specific Kansas related videos are difficult to find, however YouTube.com has some short clips pertaining to my specific subject matter which have been helpful.
SchoolTube.com and TeacherTube.com are two other sources where I can find information and very specific subjects, such as Bleeding Kansas, John Brown, and the Dust Bowl. By using these sources any teacher knows they have safe, educationally appropriate content, however the sites aren’t as popular yet with other platforms. For instance, many of my flips use the website TedEd.com (CLICK for my lesson), a break-off of the very popular TedTalks.com lecture series website. Using TedEd, teachers can embed YouTube videos directly into the site and have corresponding questions with the video. This site is specific to YouTube currently, and will not allow access to either TeacherTube or SchoolTube (I’ve tried both). However, the school specific nature of both of these sites is a plus for the classroom.
Why I Started Flipping
I started flipping some of my lessons last January in hopes of creating a new energy for my classroom. I had no idea what I was doing, but being new at my school and teaching my first semester ever of Kansas history I felt it was a good time to gamble. By participating in this new movement in education, I was opened to a new learning model which changed my approach to the classroom.
But there were certainly obstacles. My first concern, and the first question asked by anyone who I talked with about flipping, was how to solve the problem of kids without access to the flips, which were mostly videos I created, but sometimes videos from YouTube or even infographics with information on our topic. My solution was to contact as many people in my school district and beg, plead, and borrow technology. I got two Mac desktops from the art room, two more PC laptops from the library, and two final laptops from our district technology coordinator. This was a long process, which took the first semester to set up, but it was the reason for the success of my flips.
However many of the videos I used were my videos (I used Screencast-O-Matic.com because of it's easy use, although I tried iMovie, too. I didn’t want my students hearing another person’s voice and version of events for my history class. Instead I wanted my voice to be heard, including the phrases I chose to use when teaching certain subjects in history. Math teachers can relate to this, for instance, since there are several ways to verbally cue students on how to cross multiply or do the order of operations. I used this as my reasoning for making videos, plus the fact that many people on the blogs and message boards I belong to advised everyone to create their own unique videos to form this relationship with our students.
Here's one example of Explorers in Kansas
The experts typically say that flipping isn’t about the videos. I found that creating the videos were a one time hassle, since I will have them for the next semester of Kansas History. I found out they were right, the real advantage of doing this isn’t for the sake of using technology. In fact, I rarely use technology following the flip for the big purpose of application and synthesis. The real benefit to flipping is the new use of my class time with my students. Instead of lecturing in a secondary class for 3 days over the Reformation (for example), I can now have them watch the video, come in to my class and do incredible enrichment activities, such as writing scripts and acting out interviews as if they are Martin Luther and his reasons for his 95 Theses. This is authentic learning, and nothing can be cut and pasted from a website. The kids understand the subject, primarily because they are having an active part in the learning, as opposed to the passive sitting and listening of the traditional lecture classroom.
I’m gearing up for a series of World Geography flips over the next couple of weeks, with a new set of kids than those who experienced the flips from last year. I’m hoping they experience the same positive learning my other classes enjoyed from last year, since it rejuvenated my own passion for teaching.
But there were certainly obstacles. My first concern, and the first question asked by anyone who I talked with about flipping, was how to solve the problem of kids without access to the flips, which were mostly videos I created, but sometimes videos from YouTube or even infographics with information on our topic. My solution was to contact as many people in my school district and beg, plead, and borrow technology. I got two Mac desktops from the art room, two more PC laptops from the library, and two final laptops from our district technology coordinator. This was a long process, which took the first semester to set up, but it was the reason for the success of my flips.
However many of the videos I used were my videos (I used Screencast-O-Matic.com because of it's easy use, although I tried iMovie, too. I didn’t want my students hearing another person’s voice and version of events for my history class. Instead I wanted my voice to be heard, including the phrases I chose to use when teaching certain subjects in history. Math teachers can relate to this, for instance, since there are several ways to verbally cue students on how to cross multiply or do the order of operations. I used this as my reasoning for making videos, plus the fact that many people on the blogs and message boards I belong to advised everyone to create their own unique videos to form this relationship with our students.
Here's one example of Explorers in Kansas
The experts typically say that flipping isn’t about the videos. I found that creating the videos were a one time hassle, since I will have them for the next semester of Kansas History. I found out they were right, the real advantage of doing this isn’t for the sake of using technology. In fact, I rarely use technology following the flip for the big purpose of application and synthesis. The real benefit to flipping is the new use of my class time with my students. Instead of lecturing in a secondary class for 3 days over the Reformation (for example), I can now have them watch the video, come in to my class and do incredible enrichment activities, such as writing scripts and acting out interviews as if they are Martin Luther and his reasons for his 95 Theses. This is authentic learning, and nothing can be cut and pasted from a website. The kids understand the subject, primarily because they are having an active part in the learning, as opposed to the passive sitting and listening of the traditional lecture classroom.
I’m gearing up for a series of World Geography flips over the next couple of weeks, with a new set of kids than those who experienced the flips from last year. I’m hoping they experience the same positive learning my other classes enjoyed from last year, since it rejuvenated my own passion for teaching.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Mobile Technology in the Classroom
The concept of integrating mobile technologies in the classroom has picked up steam over the past several years, yet the divide between the old guard in education and this new concept still remains distant. The idea of having students bring their phones into classes, when the opposite is probably the desired outcome, takes a drastic change in philosophy and practice. After reading several items recently, there can be relatively useful purposes for having cell phones in the class environment, however the implementation may take some getting used to (primarily by the teachers!).
One method picking up steam is the use of cell phones as an instant polling device, using websites such as PollEverywhere.com. The practical nature of getting instant feedback by way of a formative assessment can be very appealing, especially when students can be actively engaged in the assessment, as opposed to static creatures in a desk. Collaboration can happen at it’s fullest, and students can answer questions individually or in groups to important content questions. Teachers will know instantly on the screen as students text in the right and/or wrong answers, allowing more review to occur on certain necessary subjects, while avoiding the subjects the class already understands. This can be a more realistic alternative to Clickers when funds are tight, simply because this is a free service and the students can bring their own devices.
Another benefit to student phones comes in the form of apps. Many useful classroom tools have mobile apps, and their availability to the students is increased with mobile devices. Important apps include a variety of subjects, but all have classroom use. Edmodo has a classroom app which allows students to access most of their information from the classroom website. Many of the features are included, including the ability to post and ask questions, check grades on assignments, and view multiple groups and classes. Evernote has a mobile app, and the ability to take pictures of student notes and post them to a student’s account makes taking notes more available to the user. Finally, Dropbox has a mobile app, which will allow students the ability to access their prized documents wherever they are, allowing learning to continue even if the student is not in front of a computer. There are many other ideas found on TeachHub.com on how the cell phone can be used by teachers in the class, so check it out.
One method picking up steam is the use of cell phones as an instant polling device, using websites such as PollEverywhere.com. The practical nature of getting instant feedback by way of a formative assessment can be very appealing, especially when students can be actively engaged in the assessment, as opposed to static creatures in a desk. Collaboration can happen at it’s fullest, and students can answer questions individually or in groups to important content questions. Teachers will know instantly on the screen as students text in the right and/or wrong answers, allowing more review to occur on certain necessary subjects, while avoiding the subjects the class already understands. This can be a more realistic alternative to Clickers when funds are tight, simply because this is a free service and the students can bring their own devices.
Another benefit to student phones comes in the form of apps. Many useful classroom tools have mobile apps, and their availability to the students is increased with mobile devices. Important apps include a variety of subjects, but all have classroom use. Edmodo has a classroom app which allows students to access most of their information from the classroom website. Many of the features are included, including the ability to post and ask questions, check grades on assignments, and view multiple groups and classes. Evernote has a mobile app, and the ability to take pictures of student notes and post them to a student’s account makes taking notes more available to the user. Finally, Dropbox has a mobile app, which will allow students the ability to access their prized documents wherever they are, allowing learning to continue even if the student is not in front of a computer. There are many other ideas found on TeachHub.com on how the cell phone can be used by teachers in the class, so check it out.
Monday, November 4, 2013
Digital Citizenship
Digital citizenship is a crucial aspect of today’s technological classroom. Many of the research methodologies used in the past cannot be transferred directly into the technological realm due to problems such as cutting and pasting information and the abundance of information available to students through a simple internet search which would have taken several hours in a traditional library. Along with these concerns comes the issue of appropriateness for the classroom, ranging from discussion student’s using slang and social media language to bullying using technology. These issues must be addressed head on.
One of the primary methods in this approach is my video showing the correct way to post messages and assignments on Edmodo, my classroom website. Many students see the format of Edmodo, since it mimics the setup of Facebook, and use the website as if they’re on a social media website. Slang, non-classroom related conversations, and overall misuse of the website are covered in the video I created on the website Animoto. Both Edmodo and Animoto are free for educators, with Animoto having several restrictions on their free educator service, but the quality of both services is very high, and no cost to the school or me is a bonus when finding a quality product.
The students view the video at the beginning of the year and after winter break in January to serve as a refresher. Many of the issues discussed in the video happen occasionally, such as slang, misuse of capital letters or punctuation, and classroom inappropriate conversations, so bringing up the rules from the video and showing the poor use of Edmodo to the class is done immediately. Students are now policing the website on their own and will remind their classmates to keep conversations appropriate and educational. Their reminders to each other are proof they know one of the varied ways to show digital citizenship.
One of the primary methods in this approach is my video showing the correct way to post messages and assignments on Edmodo, my classroom website. Many students see the format of Edmodo, since it mimics the setup of Facebook, and use the website as if they’re on a social media website. Slang, non-classroom related conversations, and overall misuse of the website are covered in the video I created on the website Animoto. Both Edmodo and Animoto are free for educators, with Animoto having several restrictions on their free educator service, but the quality of both services is very high, and no cost to the school or me is a bonus when finding a quality product.
The students view the video at the beginning of the year and after winter break in January to serve as a refresher. Many of the issues discussed in the video happen occasionally, such as slang, misuse of capital letters or punctuation, and classroom inappropriate conversations, so bringing up the rules from the video and showing the poor use of Edmodo to the class is done immediately. Students are now policing the website on their own and will remind their classmates to keep conversations appropriate and educational. Their reminders to each other are proof they know one of the varied ways to show digital citizenship.
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