What's Your Excuse?

Let me start by telling you a little about myself: I am fifty-something years old.  I always have to ask my husband how old he is, then I know I'm one year younger.  I think I began forgetting how old I was in my mid- forties.  Nothing earth shattering happened; I just always seemed to be off 1 year whenever anyone asked me how old I was.  Anyway, I tend to go off on tangents. Some of my friends tell me I need medication.  I prefer to think of it as being able to multitask, which I found out recently is impossible to do. (That was another tangent). I don't consider myself to be technologically gifted; even though I guess I have learned a lot about technology within the last 2 years. I just learned how to take a screenshot on an iPad this year!

What I do possess, however, is a deep driven desire to learn. The last course I took someone actually asked me why was taking the class. I was the oldest person there.  Even older than the instructor.  It was obvious that I could retire from teaching in 2 years and here I was taking what was a grueling 2 year course to get my math endorsement.  I must admit I even asked myself that question more than a few times as the course went on.  "Why am I doing this?"

I'll tell you why I took that course and it's the same reason I started flipping my class two years ago.  I absolutely LOVE teaching and making a difference in the lives of  the children I teach!  I always want to be able to offer my students the best that I have.  And sometimes that means I have to do better.  Sometimes that means I have to stretch myself.  Sometimes that means I have to ask someone else how to do something.  Even if no one in my school building is doing something that I know is good for children, I need to find a way to find out how to do it. 

I was talking with another educator friend of mine and she shared that some teachers were not flipping because no one in their school was doing it and they did not have anyone to show them how.  People, your Professional Learning Community has got to be larger than the building you work in. So if no one in your building is flipping their class, and you really believe it would be best for your students, then you have got to go to the places where it's happening. So, what can you do to get started?

• Join the Flipped Learning Network Ning. This site has different communities you can join to learn more.

• Read other teacher's blogs who flip their class.  Even though I teach 5th grade, I learned a heck of a lot about flipping from reading  Crystal Kirch's blog.  I also learned a lot from Delia Bush. I have never met either of these wonderful teachers but I feel like I know them well. There are lots of other teachers who blog about their experiences flipping. 

• Follow other educators on twitter who are flipping their classes.  Another friend of mine said he would join twitter when Jim Trelease is on twitter.  "Jim Trelease, why aren't you on twitter?" 

• Go to Sophia and take their course to get Flipped Certified. They also have free webinars to help you get started flipping. Right now you can go to Sophia and register to attend a webinar with Crystal Kirch on March 11. 

  So I ask again:  What's your excuse? 

Snow Days - It's No Problem!

Snow Jam 2014

Between snow days, furlough days, and President's Day, my students will have missed 6 consecutive days of school. Not to mention the fact that we are giving the Writing exam in 3 weeks!
Yes! Just 3 short weeks. But I can get by with a little help from my friends. Who are my friends you might ask? They are: Edmodo, Google Drive, Remind101, and Learn Zillion to name a few.

In January our class started using Google Drive during writing workshop. Students shared their writing folder with me and gave me permission to edit their work. I can view their writing "real time" and make comments as they are writing. For several of my students, I can have a virtual writing conference. For others, They will sit beside me and we go over their writing together. They are looking at their work on their iPad and I am looking at it on my laptop/iPad. I can highlight places that I want them to focus on and they can make the necessary changes to their work while I am there.

Not wanting to waste any instructional time, I sent out messages to the students via Edmodo and gave them a writing assignment. I also posted a video from Learn Zillion about using "show don't tell" for them to watch. I usually use the math videos from Learnzillion but they have awesome Language videos as well.  Just to make sure everyone was on board, I sent out a message to the parents on Remind101 telling them to have their child check Edmodo for their writing assignment. Once they completed their assignment I asked them to send me a direct message on Edmodo and I would review their work.

So far, so good. I have already held 5 virtual conferences. Yes, there are some students that may not check their messages. I just might have to make a phone call to those students! Did I mention we only have 3 weeks and I'm feeling the pressure?

The neatest thing just happened.  I clicked to view a student's essay while she just happened to be working on it so were were able to use the chat feature to talk back and forth as she was writing.  Ba Da Ba Ba Ba, I'm Lovin' it!

What is a Flipped Classroom?

Initially, when I was going to write this post it was going to be about how I had just done a short presentation about what happens in my class for the Cobb Chamber of Commerce Business-Education Committee, which is a group of about 30 members made up of Business and Educators in our local area. The presentation was to happen on February 5, Digital Learning day.

I was really excited about the thought of sharing the magic that happens in my classroom on a daily basis.  Well, as you have probably guessed by now that didn't quite happen.  To make a long story short, I began to feel sciatica pain on Sunday morning, three days before I was supposed to present.  Each day the pain got progressively worse until I found myself in the emergency room the night before the scheduled presentation begging for something, anything to take the pain away.  My relief was soon found but sadly I was in no shape to present the next morning.

So, In the true spirit of the Flipped Classroom, I did what any flipper would do; I sent my video along with my co-presenter to speak for itself. So, here's a look at what happens in our Flipped Classroom. Oh yea, I forgot to mention that the video was made and edited by my students!

Science Anyone?

Flipping in Fifth

Last year was my first year flipping and I only flipped math lessons on a consistent basis.  Yea, I threw in a couple of content videos here and there but my main focus was math.  Hence the name:  "Mostly Math  . . . Sprinkled lightly . . ." This year I have noticed that I am assigning science and social studies videos on a more regular basis.  It seems that watching the videos at home or even independently in class has allowed me to make better use of my face-to-face time with my students. 

 Granted, I am using videos from Discovery Streaming, Wonderopolis, and  Study Jams to help teach content.  Discovery Streaming allows you to set up a class and give each child a username and password.  Last week I assigned a video about electricity and provided my students with guided notes to fill in as they watch the science videos.  I think the guided notes helps them to identify the important concepts they need to focus on as they are watching the video.

Watching the videos independently frees up more class time to devote to completing projects and conducting labs.  I have wonderful parents (we call them our Science buddies) who come in on Fridays.  After we briefly discuss the concepts from our video, the students spend their class time involved in hands-on activities.  I am finding that I have a lot more time to devote to labs than I did in previous years.  The kids love it!

The biggest change has been in my attitude about what it means to be a teacher. I find myself constantly telling my students I am not the "Keeper of Knowledge".  They understand there is a world of knowledge at their fingertips.  I give them a list of the content standards at the beginning of each unit which they keep in their interactive notebooks.  I let them know it is perfectly okay for them to find information on their own. I encourage it.  They don't have to wait for me. It's nice to see them taking the lead in their own learning.

Change

This is the time of the year when people begin to think about changes they want to make in their lives.  People make resolutions, break resolutions, and some avoid resolutions altogether. I don't even want to talk about my resolutions to live a healthier life and loose weight. After reading a blog post from Pernille Ripp, I was was inspired to reflect on my changes for the next year.  For some reason I am better at making changes related to my classroom routines. So I'd like to share two changes in my class that I will begin once we get back to school.  The changes I am implementing involve classroom management and writing workshop.

Classroom Management
I have used "Class - Yes!" from Chris Biffle's Whole Brain Teaching for several years as a way to get my students' attention.  Basically whenever I need to get their attention I say a version of  "class" and the students respond by mimicking my tone with a "yes". The kids love it!  I try to add variety by saying "class, class" different ways. Depending on how they respond and whether or not I have everyone's attention, students can earn or lose points which translate into earning or loosing a privilege.  In our class we typically work towards earning extra recess.  

So what's the change?  Instead of keeping track of the tally marks on a chart, I will be using a number line with positive and negative integers to keep track during the day.  When the class earns a point, a student will move the arrow to the right.  Lose a point and the arrow moves to the left.  Even though negative integers is not in our standards, I think this is a great way to introduce this concepts.  The number line is posted near the door, so before we leave for recess it will be easy to take a quick look to see where we stand.

Here is a video explaining how "Class-Yes" works.



Google Drive
The second change involves using Google Drive during writing workshop.  I have been fortunate to attend a couple of technology conferences this year where I attended sessions about integrating technology during Writer's Workshop.  For some reason I just didn't think I was ready for that change before. It just sounded too complicated.  Then literally one day during the last week of school before winter break, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  The students were already typing their essays and then submitting them to me on Edmodo or ebackpack to review.  (Click here to read my previous post about ebackpack.)  If  they typed their essays using Google Drive and then shared that file with me, then I would be able to see what they were typing as they typed and I could write comments that they could instantly see.  At least that's what I remembered from the sessions I had attended. 

So I tried it out with a couple of students who were helping out in my room after school.  I shared with them what I wanted to be able to do during writing workshop.  My students' parents had already set up Gmail accounts for them so all they had to do was use their Gmail account to begin using Google Drive. We had already downloaded the app but hadn't begun using it.

Since we got our iPads this year my students have become comfortable with the idea of trying something out to see how it works. We were working on informational writing so they just typed their introductory paragraphs using Google Drive.  The students then shared their file with me by entering the address I had created specifically for our class.  With the click of a button I could see what they were typing and  I was able to make comments and edit their writing.  When I told them we would have to show the rest of the class how to do this, they suggested we make a video.  So off they went to make the "How to" video for the rest of the class.

Lessons learned 
Somewhere I read "The only person who welcomes change is a wet baby".  I guess that could be true.  Change challenges us.  Change can be hard.

But change does not have to be a grand gesture.  It could just be a little tweek here and there to make something you are already doing work better.  Change for the sake of change is unnecessary but change that results in a better you or a better me is well worth it! What changes will you be making when you return to school next year?

What's the Matter?

 
We are studying matter this nine weeks.  Instead of using valuable class time to watch a Brain Pop video, Property Changes,  and a Bill Nye video States of Matter, the students watched them independently. If you have a  subscription your students could also watch Flocabulary's  States of Matter. Students were able to watch the videos at their own pace on their iPads. Then we were able to take time to complete these two labs.

For the first lab we were investigating that mass of an object is equal to the mass of the sum of its parts.  The students used Legos to construct different objects. What fun!  

They found the mass of their total object.  Next they separated their objects into smaller parts and weighed the individual parts.  Then they compared the total mass to the mass of the sum of the smaller parts.

The students took pictures of their work in progress and used PicCollage to share their finished work.  Thanks to our wonderful Science Mom, Mrs. Carter, for bringing in tons of Legos!

  For our next lab we used pheynol red, baking soda, and calcium chloride to investigate the difference between chemical and physical changes.  The students could actually see evidence of a chemical change taking place:  color change, change in temperature, and gas was formed.  All inside the safety of little baggies.  If you Google Sunset in a Bag you can easily find the directions for this lab online.

Every Child Deserves 1 Hour!

Coding.  It is at its basic root a 4 letter word! But it doesn't have to be.  
December 9-15 is Computer Science Education Week.  Sign up to host an Hour of Code.  There are self-guided video lessons that you can use with laptops, tablets, and smart phones. You can even use the Smartboard for whole group instruction if you prefer. No technology? No problem. There are lesson that you can use without computer access.  I tried some of the lessons. They are really fun!  Oh, Did I mention the first 100,000 educators who sign up to host an hour of code will receive 10GB of free DropBox storage?

Make sure you have a DropBox account before your sign up for the Hour of Code.  So sign up to participate. No one is paying me to promote this.  I just think that every student deserves at least 1 hour!  Don't you?