Overarching Learning Goals

I seem to have fallen off of the blogging band wagon recently. It has also been pointed out to me recently that I should try to deprivatize my practice more. And so, I am resolved to blog about my assessment practices (including failures and questions) and hope that I can spark conversation, collect some feedback, and crowd source some ideas. So I have one request - if you are reading these entries, please share them with someone else and/or comment at the bottom and join the conversation. :)

I have blogged a couple of times about creating and starting to use Overarching Learning Goals. The most recent one can be found here. If you are not sure what I am referring to please check that out (which also links to the first time I blogged about it - this one is where they are explained).

I am trying to build on my understanding and use of OLGs as the semester progresses. Sometimes this means simply thinking ahead to future semesters and things I hope to attempt, sometimes it means trying something new right now. I will blog about some of these specifics in the near future. Here is where I stand right now.

I see OLGs as a starting point for everything. I see it as having the potential to drive my backward design, influence my daily assessment practice, revolutionize my evaluation strategies...the list goes on.

I have been able to create OLGs for a few courses now and am feeling more comfortable with the idea. One thing I have learned (and I believe my colleagues would echo) is that it is a work in progress. As soon as I introduce it to my class and start to think about actual changes I realize there are things I do not like or think are missing. But perhaps this process is really the most valuable part.

Here is an image showing the OLGs that I came up with for SPH 3U along with some of the "rough work" that shows part of my process/thinking.

If you are a physics teacher I would appreciate your thoughts/ideas/feedback/questions about these OLGs as I have not had the chance to collaborate with other physics teachers around them yet.

Here is an image showing the Learning Map I created from our department SNC 1D/P OLGs. This is one potential application of coming up with OLGs. This rubric could be used to inform all course rubrics used for evaluation and could also help me determine a students final grade. This is great particularly if you are a teacher who is interested in joining the "Teachers Throwing Out Grades" (#TTOG) movement.

I would appreciate feedback/questions/comments/ideas from any subject/grade teacher about this one. This is my first full attempt at a full learning map.

To anyone still reading at this point, I would greatly appreciate you joining this discussion to help in my journey and/or to pass this blog entry onto a colleague who might be interested. I am still very new to all of this and am hoping to collect as many ideas as possible. Particularly as I will be presenting at OAME this Spring around these ideas.

Also, if you are interested in this process it is based on the book Rethinking Letter Grades. I have also recently read Myron Dueck's Grading Smarter Not Harder that I think every educator should read. Both books are by teachers for teachers out of British Columbia.

Week 40: Reflecting and Looking Forward

Another delayed post based on a list I wrote myself weeks ago. This one is probably the most important (and the list was actually written in the last week of the school year while it was fresh in my mind). Here is the annual reflection of my practices based on things that I want to work on in the future:

1. It was made evident to me (largely by conversations with a couple parents of my Grade 10 students) that many of these kids are still not really equipped to handle the flipped classroom on their own because of two major things: They have never view videos for homework before really; and Many of them have inadequate note-taking skills (i.e. they do not know when to hit pause because they have seen something important that needs to be written down).

I had tried to tackle these issues in the intro to my classroom but clearly I am not even doing an adequate job. Step 1: admit you  have a problem, right? I had been doing the first couple of videos as a class and had tried to show them that they should pause and record rewind if needed - and I do go through a list of "video guidelines" that they should follow for effective learning. Peers have shared that they will have a student be in charge of the mouse during these types of class video viewings so that a kid is in charge of pausing, rewinding, etc but either I am going about it wrong when I do this, or the kids are just too shy to really do what they need to do. I must find a way to better model this process. I think that perhaps I should model note taking myself even...and probably do the videos in class for a few more days than I have been.

2. Further to the note-taking issue, I have been grappling with the idea of losing textbooks as resources altogether and providing them with notes - this may happen if I return to the math department as this is the direction our new department head wants to take (if we have our own resources it does not make sense to pay for textbooks). Another possibility for working on modelling note-taking would be to provide students with outlines that they have to fill in as part of their homework/lesson.

Food for thought. Potentially time consuming. (especially with a new prep to worry about this semester)

3. Working as a flipped classroom teacher the focus is supposed to be on the in-class "stuff" that is assigned to really move the learning forward, allow for individual assessment/feedback time, and really engage the students in the topic and the learning. This has been a big adjustment...just what do you do with all the TIME!? It is, of course, the biggest blessing of this coaching style (I do not really call it teaching anymore - I am a guide to their learning...a facilitator if you will).

I want to make this part a better focus for me next semester. To continue to find engaging and meaningful things for students to do in class while resorting to "do these problems" less and less. Again, finding these many resources, ideas, etc is time consuming. But it has to be the most rewarding...the biggest bang for my buck (if the buck is time). I plan to continue accessing the many resources I have found (which include fellow bloggers, interactive websites/apps, project based learning, inquiry - and to hopefully harness the most effective things as often as possible (and if I can engage in PBL and inquiry this will be newer territory for me in areas that have intrigued me for awhile). I have even thought a bit more about the "genius hour" idea - and really liked the way Matthew Oldridge outlined it in his blog entitled "The Road to #GeniusHour Math"! (I recommend the read if you are math/science and want a starting point for implementing this type of task into your class).

4. I started to repurpose by Twitterchats from many moons ago to use as in-class discussion starters. This was a focus on physics CONTENT (not problem solving) and is supposed to serve as a way to get more effective conversation going in my classroom. My reflection on this is how I want to continue to use this next year (and beyond) by really establishing Accountable Talk practices (conversational norms) for students to use and make habit going forward. I discussed these ideas broadly here.

Looking forward I want to help students create conversational skills that will make them:
Clarify what they think the other person understands.
Asking another person to repeat what they think they just heard (i.e. engaging other group members).
Seeking the opinions of others by asking them if they agree or disagree AND why.
Engaging others and seeking all ideas by asking if there is anything they would like to add.
Using wait time to allow others to think. Not rushing the discussion.

5. I have also blogged this year about using Mathalicious with my Grade 10 math class. I would love to work on implementing these tasks the next time I teach a math course. They are a great foundation to math applications and a more authentic look at the subject, but are not always easy to implement in a way that engages teenagers. I need to work on relating the task to them more AND definitely making sure there is a strong foundation with the math tools needed before assuming it is a feasible task in the time-line I lay out.


Well I think that about covers it. I always have ideas for myself that turn out to be ambitious and maybe not achievable goals but I would way rather have too much I want to accomplish than to become complacent and not have enough.

I think it is safe to say that my priorities in this reflection are 1, 3 and 4. Goal 1 is my focus to help most with continuing to implement my flipped classroom and to build better relationships with students at the start (and parents, by extension). Goals 3 and 4 will be the focus I set out for myself for in-class throughout the semester - if I only do 2 significant things this time around I hope they are to actually create this conversational atmosphere in my class and to try new tasks/ideas/etc as often as possible.

If you have read to the end of this and have any reflections, ideas, questions, thoughts, etc that you would like to share please comment below. Would love to hear from you :)

Week 30: Trying New Things in #flipclass

This weeks #FlashBlog for #flipclass is about innovation. We are supposed to share something new that we are trying that might be helpful for others in their classroom.

One thing that I am trying to be more mindful of is the use of conversation in class to help students process and talk through any confusion. There is a big push for numeracy in Ontario these days and one thing we have introduce (or really, reminded people of) at our school is Accountable Talk.

So I have been trying to create more opportunity for communication as a way to help kids work through their thinking and model for others. I cannot say I have gotten to the point where I am using these specific conversation prompts, but my plan for next year is to start the semesters off with them written on tent cards at each group so that we can create norms and start off on a good foot.

One thing I have been doing that has been pretty effective is recycling some work I did a couple of years ago and re-purposing it to create conversation. I used to hold twitterchats with my Physics class. usually about 3 per unit and I would use them to get students to give concise answers and to get them to focus on the concepts (the tendency is for them to focus on problem solving too much - I have blogged about this and will add the link to this later).

In the last couple of weeks I have been opening up the files that have my questions/prompts in them and using them to start class each day. I highlight 2-5 questions for them to discuss in their groups and then walk around to eavesdrop. It has been a great way to get them talking about the material and identifying points of confusion early on. And I will eventually make use of this to take conversation notes of what specific students understand to use for assessment practices (one day).

I don't necessarily look at this practice as being all that innovative, but it is a new thing for me - and so far I am finding it very useful.

Week 28 - Grades in #flipclass

In recent weeks the weekly twitter chat for #flipclass has become a #flashblog where the topic that is being discussed at the beginning becomes the topic of a blog that we go off to write (and then return to share). This weeks topic is grades/assessment (and since I am Canadian I must add to that list, marks).

I have been trying to work toward a classroom culture that limits the emphasis on marks. Both of the classes that I run using a flipped classroom model (and wish I could do a mastery model) I have been trying to create this type of culture in. About two semesters ago I stopped including a marking scheme on my in-class quizzes. I now only give descriptive feedback on them and return them to students. This has allowed me to create more discussion around them and to try some new things.

The first semester the focus was on getting students to make corrections without me simply posting an answer key. This made sure that students actually had a good reason to read through the feedback I had given and put some thought into going back to that material that was unclear to them. Students bought into this idea fairly easily and it seemed to work well overall.

This semester I had a quiz for my physics class that lead me to find some common mistakes. I used this idea to create homogeneous groups based on their results and then throughout that class visited each of the groups to discuss what their next steps should be. The feedback from students was that they enjoyed being put into different groups like this and that I should do it again. It is kind of funny how often they appreciate new groups but they never switch it up on their own (even though this class choose their own groups).

I am always seeking new ideas to try to work on this culture some more. I am also doing a lot of work around my assessment practices in general and hope to work more with learning goals in the future (and then make info available to students showing them their learning level of each of the goals so that they can see what I think they need to work on whenever they need).

If you have ideas, please share!

Happy Spring!

Week 12 - POEs in a #flipclass

Every Monday at 8pm there are two Twitter chats that I often like to participate in. #cdnedchat is where I get to discuss some general teaching related topics and connect with other Canadian educators, and #flipclass is where I get to discuss things people are trying in their flipped classrooms and connect with other like-minded educators. I use social media a lot for the sake of connecting with the like-minded. If you are one of the many, many teachers on twitter you probably understand the draw to do this - as there is nothing more daunting than trying to be a pioneer in education without a bunch of support around you.

This week in the #flipclass chat we were discussing ways to engage students in the all-important in-class portion of our blended classrooms and I mentioned that I make use of the idea of POEs to tryo to engage students and attempt to address misconceptions in physics. The concept itself is not new, but I am finding myself doing it more often now than i used to, and using virtual demonstrations to do it as much as I am. So for those of you who are wondering "what is a POE" I will attempt to explain.

POE stands for Predict, Observe, Explain. It was my physics instructor in the Queen's B.Ed. program that introduced me to this. You can do this formally where students record the process or do it informally as a whole class out loud. The formal process usually uses a page split into 4 boxes. In the top left they predict what is going to happen (drawing and/or explanation), top right they explain why they think that is going to happen, and then after we actually watch the demo they record what they observed (bottom left) and we work to explain why it happened (bottom right). The first few times doing this I often have the class help me form a list of possible predictions by posing a question such as "if a Grade 6 walked in right now what might they say is going to happen?" so that we can get a broad list and so that students feel safe offering any possible option.

In the process of doing this you can often help students identify their misconceptions in physics (this process helped me see my own, even in my BEd year!). The POE demo you choose should be relatively simple to explain and do and should focus on one idea or concept. This process also allows students to practice the hypothesis part of the scientific method as they are forced to try to think about the physics in order to make their prediction (since they must explain their choice).

Here are some examples:

Refraction: put an object in a tank of water and aim a meter stick at a specific spot. As students to predict what will happen when you put the meter stick in at that angle.

Relative Motion: try something like Frank Noschese has here (my students loved it)

Conservation of Energy: use a YouTube video that shows two balls released down two tracks that start and end at the same heights but do not have the same path in between

I would love to hear other ideas from people - so if you have suggestions or ones you have tried please post them in the comments section. Specifically I am always looking for ideas for 1D and 2D motion, 1D and 2D forces, work and energy, waves, and introductory electromagnetics.

Happy demos!

Week 11 - "Welcome to Teaching"

I cannot count the number of times I have said "welcome to teaching" to my student teacher this week. She continues to integrate fairly well into my flipped physics class (she is getting to know students, coming up with things to do in class in addition to textbook work, making attempts to engage students in the learning process, etc) and has now taken on my Grade 9 academic science class (which is essentially not flipped).

Watching her dive into teaching two classes reminds me of my first couple of years of teaching. Time spent overwhelmed, unsure, but full of potential and excitement. I am always in awe of my colleagues who have young families at home and still manage to do so much for our school, but I cannot imagine starting this career with a young family already going. This is the situation my student teacher is in. She has a family at home and has decided to go to school to become a teacher. I admire her, but I can also see how difficult this balance is going to be for her, especially as she is learning a new school system (she was educated elsewhere).

This week was especially hectic in our building. We knew that her physics instructor from OISE was going to come on Nov 11th, which also involved a modified schedule because of the Remembrance Day assembly, and we were interrupted throughout the day for the meningitis clinic. This was probably our biggest "welcome to teaching" moment. We constantly have to be flexible in a school environment. I get called out of classes to attend to first aid situations unexpected. Changes in the schedule pop up with less notice than we would like. It reminds us that we have to be flexible in our classes as well. Not every class is going to get through the same material, the same way, in the same amount of time. We have to know out students and the class well so that we can implement assessment practices into our daily classes effectively and with purpose.

This week she also got to experience a chance to guide students through a research project. It was the grade 11 course so they generally do not need as much support, but it reminded me that it was a chance to spend a bit of time supporting the international student and remembering that those students did not have the same experiences when they were younger that the rest of my students have had. These students still need to be introduced to database resources and be taught the importance of citations, plagiarism, and appropriate sources

One of the most interesting moments of the week for me was when the student teacher sparked an interesting debate in our grade 9 class. They had watched Bill Nye's Food Webs video and she was reviewing some of the content afterward when the question arose "is a farm an example of an ecosystem?". This got them thinking about what a food web has to have and actually looking at whether those things existed on a farm. It was a simple question, with complex ideas that has a lot of potential in a classroom. Hopefully I remember this one for later!

Week 9 - A Student Teacher in Flipped Physics

Now that I am in my sixth year of teaching I am able to host a student teacher in my classroom. I was lucky enough to get one this semester that is an aspiring physics teachers but this also meant that I had to think about how I would approach having a student teacher in my flipped classroom.

When I thought about my experiences as a student teacher (both good and bad), I realized that I could provide her with a safe environment to try some new things and still be able to give her that basic feedback that someone needs their first time teaching a class.

I didn't want to interrupt the routines of my classroom so I have asked her to maintain the flipped classroom. In the meantime I did not want to overwhelm her (because I knew how hard it was for me to flip the first time, nevermind being a brand new classroom teacher) so I asked her to use the videos I have decided on in advance but that I would have her create the embedded questions for each video using educanon. This way she still has to prepare the core of the lesson and can then focus on coming up with something she wants to do in class with the students. This way it still becomes HER class, but I can be confident that the integrity of what I have created is not compromised.

She has been with me for a week at this point and has already told me that she has learned a lot and has enjoyed being exposed to various strategies. The first thing I tried to impart to her was this - we are human! and students need to be reminded that we are human and it is okay if we screw up, because it can always be fixed! (This of course lends well to the discussion going on in the school about growth mind set, but I will leave that for another post).

The part that I was looking forward to about having a student teacher was that I knew it would bring forth some new ideas and give me an opportunity to add to my resources and to think about how I approach certain things. It is never a bad thing to add some "new" to your classroom :)

We will see what the next three weeks will bring!

Happy November!

Week 7 - Stations Lab for Newton's Laws & A Science Tech Symposium

A week late, but still worth sharing.

Through the connections I have made on Twitter I have come across some very interesting ideas, concepts, people, and many fun moments. In a recent #flipclass twitter chat (Mondays 8pm ET) someone questioned how a flipped physics class can address misconceptions and it lead to Katie Lanier mentioning activities/labs that they do for this specific purpose. She was nice enough to share the one that she uses for forces and I used it after introducing Newton's 3 Laws. The students enjoyed doing it and said the next day that it was helpful for clarifying the ideas. I took some videos of them and have linked them with brief descriptions below. Some of the video is better than others (i.e. sometimes I asked students questions, and sometimes it is a just a shot of them doing it). [Please let me know if the links are not working]

Station 1: Flick a piece of cardboard off of a beaker that has a penny sitting on it.

Station 2: Determine which of two boxes is heavier without picking them up.

Station 3: Balance a metre stick (weighted on one end) on your palm.

Station 4: Pull the "table cloth" out from under the "dishes".

Station 5: Try to pull only one square of toilet paper off using one hand.

Station 6/7: Use a "tapping device" to move a ball (one is starting it moving, another based on changing its direction and controlling how far it goes).

I would definitely do this again and would love to find more of these types of activities for other units (even if they are simulation based) to help with other misconceptions. These are exactly what you hope to find time to do by flipping a class :)

One thing I might do differently would be to make at least some of them a bit more PEOE style (predict (explain) observe explain) so that they have to put thought into it BEFORE trying instead of just after seeing it.

Thank you Ms. Lanier!

Last Saturday my board posted a Science & Technology Symposium. There were some interesting topics discussed and it seemed like everyone walked away with something new in their minds (which is all we can ask really). I went to a session that was about getting students to use concepts and ideas to come up with research projects that relate to the curriculum that will also involve primary research and then actually coming up with community action to create awareness about their topic. The second keynote speaker was a professor that he had worked with that was doing research on students using this process so it was a nice tie in and made me wish that I was teaching Gr 10 Science so that I could try it myself. Maybe I can convince my colleagues to try it themselves ;)

Week 4 & 5 - The Passion for Teaching

As a proud Queen's University alumnus I eventually read through all of the issues of the Queen's Alumni Review that make it to my mailbox. I have been inspired by a couple of articles over the years about a couple of stellar professors there that are using more modern teaching styles that are more student-centred than the typical lecture. In the 2014 Issue 3 edition there is a letter from the Principal, Daniel Woolf who talks about his experiences as a teacher. He talks about teaching coming natural to some but always felt he had to work at it. One of my favourite lines in the letter:

"Having now been on the instructor's side of the desk for three decades...and having taught dozens of courses I have noticed huge changes in technology and pedagogical methods - the overhead projectors I used for years are largely a thing of the past in the era of Moodle and YouTube. One thing, however, hasn't changed. Effective teaching depends less on delivery methods, or technology, or even outright mastery of the material, than it does on a passionate enthusiasm for the subject and ability to arouse the same interest in students."

I have to say, he has hit the nail on the head - and people still recognize this. Two weeks ago I hosted an info night about the flipped classroom, a few different families were in attendance from one of my classes and a class of my colleagues, and by the end two of the mother's summed it up nicely "It is obvious that you are passionate about this method of teaching, and that probably makes you a better teacher when you use this method, and that is all we can ask for." It was the highlight of my night, and made all of the questioning worth it.

I have seen this a lot in the other teacher who is using the flipped model (on a smaller scale at this time) in one of her classes. She could have retired a few years ago and is so excited to be trying something new. She is so excited that even her fears of trying it before I was teaching the same course as her could not stop her - she is diving in and her students are loving it. Today we were talking about a PLC and she said to me - "My friends keep asking me why I am doing this, and I tell them that I was tired of doing the same thing for 26 years. I needed a change, and I feel passionate about it again."

The only surprising part of what she said was the indication that she had started to lose her passion - as she has always been a very dedicated teacher. I love getting to work with her and it seems as though we are beginning to influence more teachers in our department to look at using parts of the flipped model in their classes. I love that I can find in teachers, at various point in their career, what I hope to find in myself at all points of my career. I keep saying that the day I am not trying to get better, the day that I don't want to try something new, is the day I will retire (but hopefully, it will be the day before that happens). :)

Here are some in-class highlights from the last two weeks:
- tried PowToon to have students communicate a choice between two job options
- observing student discussions about physics (i.e. correcting quizzes without seeing an answer key collaboratively)
- Grade 9/12 activity day (a quite successful one I must say)
- using Gizmos to develop an understanding of adding vectors
- using examples to dispell misconceptions about relative velocity
- trying Prodigy Game for the first time
- super ball investigation (using a bouncy ball to measure the height of a tall room)

Happy October everyone!

Week 3 - Students Recognize Need for Timely Feedback

In my Grade 11 Physics class I have had the chance to see how well they are capable of working together. I am seeing students helping each other with concepts, asking one another questions, and working through problems together. They are often asking their questions in pairs or groups - which is great. There are still kinks to work out and some of them are not completing tasks for homework consistently, but that seems to be changing slowly.

The neatest thing that I am seeing so far is students desire for as much formative feedback as they can get. We are using educanon so they are getting a chance to try to process while they are watching the lessons and many if them are taking advantage if the chance to type in an explanation when they get an incorrect answer. I allows me to read their explanation and give them credit for the question if the explanation is correct (which is an awesome feature if the website).

I have barely heard a single complaint when I announce a quiz coming up (my version of a quiz means that students get a chance to be in a test like situation and have me mark it, but there is no mark put on the paper). I have been using Edmodo to do some multiple choice, fill on the blank, and matching that is marked right away for them and then they do some more involved parts in class on paper. The students really responded to getting feedback without the mark and were given time to try to make corrections to their quiz before I posted the answers (and by then most of them did not need to check). I love that the flip class model gives me time to do something like this (or to have me come up one at a time for personal discussion about their results).

We have been through this process once now and they have a second quiz coming up. They seem to be less stressed about it than I have experienced in previous years and I am really seeing students try to focus on concepts and going back to passed lessons as needed. We have also done two labs that involved analysis with graphing and when I gave students the option to hand it in and have me write descriptive feedback or have them swap papers and us do it as a group so that we could do it right away, they chose the latter. 

I was pleasantly surprised by their choice and am hopeful that we can use this process to get them to analyze their own lab work more critically in the future. My intention is to have them work in pairs (not their lab partner) and end up with two labs from different groups that they will look through together.

Wish me luck!

Week 2 - Students Settling Into Their Needs

I have had the chance to see many of my students start to settle in and figure out some of their learning needs. I tried to accentuate my reasons for using a flipped class model, one of those reasons being that I want them to make the learning environment into their own - that they should explore and figure out what works best for them.

The first week or two is often hard for the new Grade 9 students. They are given more freedom then they are used to, but there is also more demand put on them in their classes. Not to mention they are in a new, bigger building and some are in classes where they do not know anyone. I have started to see them realize the importance of attendance and homework already and they are adjusting well to the use of Edmodo (although I would like to see them use it more as a classroom community outside of school hours).

Grade 11 students are also making an adjustment as they are now considered senior students and their academic demands are often higher than they were in Grade 10. There is an expectation of them being more mature and making better academic decisions. By introducing the flipped class to my students they are getting a chance to focus on things that they need to work on. For some of them this is the realization that their past work ethic is not going to be good enough to get them through a physics course. For others, they have a bit more freedom to focus on an earlier lesson for a bit longer so that they can feel more confident in the material. And for others they are realizing the need to work on skills as basic as note-taking and organization.

On Wednesday we worked on the concepts of displacement, position, and distance. In class I gave them the task of coming up with an example where all three were equal, and one where all three were not equal (thank you Noschese 180 for the idea!). They worked in groups to try to come up with ideas and used iPads to record the idea and take a screen shot to post onto Edmodo. It was great to see them struggle to start with and then find starting points that lead them to understand what aspects they might be missing. It seemed to be a good start and the next class where they had to match "stories" to d-t graphs they did quite well and, as it turns out, was not enough work for them to do!

Next week I am meeting with some of the Grade 9 parents to give them more information on the flipped class (and the following week with some of the Grade 11 parents).

We're Baaaack!

A new school year always comes with new ideas, new excitement, new students, and new personal goals. One of my goals this year is to blog more often! I have probably said this before, and I don't know if I will be able to keep up with what I would like to do, but I am going to give it a go.

This semester I am teaching Grade 9 Academic Science, Grade 11 University Physics, and Grade 11 Workplace Math (Math for Everyday Life). I am continuing to work on my flipped class this year with the two former classes mentioned and am hoping to build on things that I tried last year. My Grade 9s are working with some videos that have questions embedded via EduCanon (this is new for me) and I hope to developed a lot more in-class tasks for my Physics kids this time around. I have all three of my classes on Edmodo this year as well. I really liked the idea of the kids having App access to our class website. So far so good.

This week I introduced the concept of the video lesson and put a focus on note-taking and the importance of taking the time to process the learning by summarizing and questioning. My Grade 9s had the opportunity to watch a couple of videos and note take in class as well as doing one at home (they won't likely have this concentration of "lessons" throughout the semester) and my 11s got to work at their own pace this week through a scientific numeracy introductory unit.

I am trying to gamify my workplace math class somewhat this semester to engage the group of students more effectively than I did last semester. I made use of Kahoot on the first day of class and hope to use this more in the future. I am also trying to turn the class into a "Game of Life" of sorts - each week I am hoping to come up with 6 scenarios related to what we have learned that week and they will roll a die to see what happens to them. They created avatars this week to introduce themselves to the class including their goals for after graduation. They were very honest about what they wanted and posted the resulting link to our Edmodo site. Here is one of them.

One last big change I have made in my approach to the flipped class this year is that I am hosting a parent info night early on in the semester so that parents can come in to get more information and voice their concerns before we get too deep into the semester.

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions your input would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers to a great new year!

Next Time My Class Would...

Here is a much needed update and reflection on semester 1. I honestly felt like I was a second year teacher all over again. Granted I did have a new prep (and this semester I have 2 new preps), but it was definitely more to do with the new methodology than it was anything else. You can see which classes I decided to "flip" and the reasons, etc at the post here.

Some of the highlights included:
- the bulk of students performing at the level I had anticipated based on the past performances
- a small group of students showed improved results and actively showed their engagement in the way the class was run
- I knew my students better this semester than I ever have before - I was able to write detailed report card comments with less referral to written/technological records
- the freedom to help students that needed it in class
- having conversations with students about math, school, post-secondary, etc that were valuable

Some of the low-lights included:
- students that did not connect with me and ask questions (a smaller group of students with weaker math skills that ultimate resisted the changes I had imposed on them), despite other students being fine with asking questions (though this is not necessarily much different than any class)
- ELL students that still did not work with others as often as I would have liked
- students not using the check-in questions I created for them to check their understanding
- repetitive nature of class (particularly in physics) became boring

Some of the things I might do differently when I get a chance to do a senior class this way again:
- use Office 365 or Twitter to try to create a more interactive nature outside of class instead of using Angel (means I can no longer use the quiz aspect of Angel but could make use of something like Google forms that the video could be embedded in and contain questions for students to answer and submit)
- for Physics make sure to have a demo/simulation/additional "fun video" to go with every lesson so there is always something to do in class beyond "the work"
- create critical thinking tasks to be done in class (for same reason as demo/simulation need)

- provide students with a "shy" way to say "i need help" (though I did try creating online discussion boards with the ability to most anonymously and that did not seem to help)

I am doing some "flipping" (which I would much prefer to call shifting) in my Grade 9 Science class this semester. It has allowed me to talk explicitly about note taking this semester and I hope to keep that up. The idea being to create a bit of additional time so that I can give them a bit more time to work on assignments in class and so I can check on their progress in class more often.

Good luck Semester 2 everyone!

Reflecting on 2 Flipped Classes

I figured that it was time that I took a few moments to formally reflect on the practices that I am using this semester. As mentioned in my last post I am implementing a "flipped class" model in two of my classes (a hybrid "flipped-mastery" model in one to be more specific). Approximately 3 weeks into the semester I asked my students for a START, STOP, CONTINUE feedback form about how the class was being conducted. Partly I wanted to see how the views had changed (if at all) and partly I wanted to have something to show them to try to get them to become more communicative about their needs as students.

The feedback was varied and helpful on both accounts and showed me that some more of the students were enjoying the model and were finding it helpful to spend more time problem solving in class and be able to rewatch the lessons as needed. It also showed me the maturity of a few of the students who had modified the model to fit their own needs (which is, of course, the overall purpose). 

I have come to realize that my stuggles to be creative are more pronounced in my Physics class than in previous semesters with the flipped model - students are craving more demo time and realistic explanation and I have struggled to bring that to light (especially in the kinematics unit where demos are harder to come by). This is something I would work on more the second time that I teach this course in this manner and am working to do more with the other units (Forces was a lot easier to talk about examples in real life and to show them ideas).

I am still struggling to get my International students (ELLs) communicating and collaborating more with each other. I don't think they are used to the idea of working together to improve collectively and are not always using the time productively (that part depends on the individual student across the board, not just the ELL students of course). Overall the seniors students use the class time well.

My Grade 12 math students are getting better and better at knowing what will work for them individually and are consistently working together to solve problems. They are getting better at informing me when they are struggling and they constantly keep me on my toes. The procrastinators are starting to see that they are going to be at a disadvantage if they continue with their usual ways, so I am hoping that the quiz completion rate will increase (as some are not doing it or are not far enough into the chapter to complete it within the "window").

I have done some comparison of my students results to their Grade 12 results and so far things are about on par as a class average and most students are working toward improving themselves as students. There are of course a select few who do not seem to be self motivating despite needing he credit and likely needing the mark for their university applications. I will be comparing my Gr 11 marks to previous semesters teaching this course to see if there is a difference between their results to determine the effect (if any) of the changes to my teaching method. I am looking forward to coming up with ideas to continue to improve the work that I have started and continuing to try to help students become more self-aware, independent learners.

Here We Go! It's Flip or Flop Time.

A couple of years ago I started hearing about the concept of a flipped classroom. I wanted to work toward finding ways to make this concept possible in my classroom but knew I had to take steps toward it before throwing myself into it. I started by trying to shorten my physics lessons to give students more class time to problem solve, etc along with giving them access to the lesson notes online (pre-lesson notes with blanks and then posting the completed ones after the fact) - and before you ask, no, this did not lead to students skipping class but it did allow ones who missed class for specific reasons to stay caught up. I then moved this idea to using a protected class management site (in my board we currently use Angel) so that I could easily organize what I was posting, send students messages, etc. This process allowed me to get more comfortable with the course/teaching (I am currently in my 5th year of teaching) and to integrate more technology into my class without overwhelming myself.

Now I have taken the plunge and am "flipping" my Grade 11 Physics and Grade 12 Advanced Functions (math) classes. As a first time "flipper" I am making use of other people's (public) YouTube videos in addition to making my own so that I am not spending all of my time creating video lessons. I spent a couple of weeks in the summer looking through a couple of specific YouTube channels to find some lessons that I liked (i.e. followed formats that I would use, taught in a similar way, etc) and making note of which lessons I would have to create my own for (or would use investigations, labs, etc instead of direct instruction for).

I will blog on some more of the specifics of my new classroom in the near future (I just wanted to introduce how my technology integration has been/is a work in progress). If you have any parts of it that you would like to read about, let me know by commenting, etc (I am more likely to blog when someone else gives me an idea anyway). For now I would like to comment on something related to these ideas that I have mentioned in the past. I still very much believe that students are not getting the instruction related to technology that they need - I feel that many of us are assuming that children are so comfortable with technology that we are not teaching them (leaving students that aren't naturally inclined toward it behind).

Early on this semester I wanted to try Socrative (emails you a report in excel format), so I created a "quiz" (that was actually a survey) so that I could collect data on student technology use. 16 of my Grade 11s participated and 18 of my Grade 12s and the results were as follows:
- Most have reliable internet access at home (5 of the Gr 12s said "sometimes")
- Most usually or always have a personal electronic device (PED) available in class (6 said rarely or never)
- The majority that have access to a device is a Smartphone or iTouch (small screen - important to know, not effective for creation but fine for viewing with good eyesight)
- The majority of those devices are Apple products
- About half of my Gr 11s (fewer Gr 12s) would prefer to read on a device than from a paper book
- They admit to having a variety of learning styles, but the majority choose "doing" as their main source of learning (fits right into the flipped class idea)
- 7 of the students admitted to finding technology difficult and rarely convenient OR just plain scary

I felt that these results left me with some food for thought and have reminded me how important it is to make sure students are aware that there are options (i.e. it is possible for me to give them copies of electronic lesson plans on a USB, if needed I could download the videos and put them on a USB or DVD if needed, etc). A couple of them are taking me up on the first of those possible ideas and will make the flipped classroom less stressful for them as they will not have to stress over the use of Angel as much. They are also getting used to the fact that the "teacher computer" at the front of the room is available for use during class (since I am up helping people out most of the time) and they have learned that I am fairly knowledgeable in helping them figure out how to get their PEDs on the wifi and opening various files. Which has led me to wonder if there are not teachers and other students who have not been able to get past these difficulties - these problems could easily create barriers to using all sorts of technologies in the classroom.

Anyway, I have digressed a bit - the ultimate purpose of this post was to reflect on the technology use in the classroom (specifically as it relates to the flipped classroom) and how it affects students. And in the end, this week has led me to think that in order for more of us to teach students how to use the technology more of us need to be comfortable using it on our own (this part of the revelation also brought to you in part by the sentiments expressed by colleagues in their new school board blogs) and perhaps I can offer my services with some "drop in times" to ask questions about devices on the wifi and various apps and websites that I am familiar with.

Fellow teachers - would you take advantage of someone offering this idea? If not, why not (i.e. what is stopping you or what else do you need in order to want to)? If yes, what kinds of things would you want to come to ask about? (I would like to compile a list of ideas/suggestions for those that might not have their own initial idea).

Please comment or sent me a Tweet @TchngPassion

Changes on the Way to My "Flipped" Classroom

If you are an educator you are probably already familiar with the concept of a flipped classroom. For the benefit of anyone who doesn't know you can check out this blog, it explains it quite well.

After reading this article (and then watching the 60 minutes clip with the Khan Academy founder) I promised that I would blog about the attempts that I have been making to change the way that I teach.

When I started teaching Grade 9 Science the course was already designed with a lot of student-centred ideas. I still teach lessons from time to time, but for the most part they explore, investigate and complete practice work that gets taken up and assessed. I manage to do most of this in class time (there are phases where they have homework, mostly related to major assignments) and the course is designed with a large emphasis on the lab process, lab writing, and the research process (we also use mind maps to support curriculum content). I also started using an online course module as part of my classroom this year which has allowed me to post online homework quizzes so students can monitor some of their progress.

What I would change going forward: the homework that is assigned that is content related in the future would be to learn the content. This would allow me to continue to spend as much time focusing on what we have agreed is important at my school and would hopefully allow me to even out the time spent on each unit (as it stands Space and Biology are on the neglected side). In the long run I think this would support the projects done in each unit.

My grade 11 class is the one that I made a conscious effort to make some changes to my teaching method. My first year I taught math and got into the "teach for the majority of class and give a few minutes of homework time" rut. When I got the chance a year later to teach 3U Physics I decided that I wanted to try to set my class up a little differently. I had two goals - provide students the opportunity to make use of lessons as it suits their learning styles; give as much in-class work time as possible.

These goals led me to:
- Assign readings the day before a lesson (this one is hard to motivate them to do)
- Try to shorten my "lessons"/notes as much as possible and make them example focused instead of content focused
- Post outlines of my lessons the night before (students can choose to print and follow along if desired)
- Post complete versions of each days lessons afterwards (students can listen to the lesson and print it out later)
- (Some choose note to print note and hand write the days lesson themselves)
- Provide as much class time for concept and practice exercises as possible
- Arrange the classroom to allow students to sit in groups

I find that this forces my students to think about what type of learner they are and choose which note method works best for them. As the semester progresses I also find that students use their class time more and more wisely (as they have now discovered that the course is not easy and that they are in Grade 11 and HW is actually a good idea). Having the students in groups (that they usually choose) promotes group work and encourages them to ask each other questions before they ask the teacher. Usually when I am asked questions now it is to clarify their understanding or find a math mistake in one of their solutions.

(I also use class TweetUps for this course, which I blogged about here if you are interested - this is used to encourage concept based discussion since class time is primarily used for problem solving.)

If I get the chance to teach the course again I will probably use videos (and reading so they can have a choice) as assigned homework to encourage them to do this part - which means I have have even short "lessons" (aka try an example or 2 as a class). I already post a link to videos done by the physics department at Earl Haig Secondary in Toronto (I did my placements with them) on my course website as a resource for extra help and I would like to explore the physics videos offered by Khan Academy.

Let the changes continue.

Hopefully I do end up back teaching some math in the near future of my career. And hopefully I can continue to make my classroom as student-centred as our current system allows.

And in case I don't post again in the next couple of weeks,
Merry Christmas!

Let the Technology Shine!

Here we are one week into the new school year and semester. I have the opportunity to teach more or less the same semester as last (with the exception of an applied section becoming an applied ESL) so I am trying to try some new things. Here are some of the ones I am excited about:

1. A new blended e-learning website for two of my classes
- Now I have a password protected site
- I can have my students complete online quizzes
- I can create discussion boards
- Contains a messaging feature (student to student and teacher to student)
- Is board approved, etc
- I can choose to monitor their use/access to things on the site

2. My department's new technology
- We were previously the most behind department in technology at the school
- We were able make use of our renovated rooms that include ceiling mounts for projectors, I no longer have to bring a cart into my science classroom to use a projector - great time/effort saver
- We have 4 document cameras to share within the department
- I have used the projector with my laptop at least once every day so far

3. Using Tweetups with my 3U Physics class from the start of the semester
- Last year I began this part way through the semester
- I will be able to start with more organization
- Students will be introduced to the tweetchat.com webapp a colleague pointed me to that refreshes quickly and inserts the hashtag into it automatically
- Students will continue to have a say in the dates and times of the Tweetups

I am sure there are others. I am excited to see where these things take me and to reflect on their use and helpful nature (I hope).

Any comments, questions, concerns/feedback about any of the above from the ed world would be greatly appreciated.

Happy teaching!

A Tweetups Reflection

I reflected on the first TweetUp that I did with my SPH 3U0 class a few months ago (you can read it here) and have neglected to come back to talking about it since, mostly out of not finding the time and inspiration to write. The end of the school year often does that. I decided I should come back to it and help myself reflect on where the decision to use TweetUps led me.

After the initial chat and then feedback from my students I decided that I was not going to allow the negative feedback to deter the idea. I wanted to give it a chance starting in a new unit and including multiple TweetUps to allow us to spread out the topics and have more focused conversations. So at the start of the unit we decided on three chats (they had to participate in at least one contributing at least 3 questions and/or answers to collect communication marks that would be integrated into their test, an alternate assignment was offered to the few who could not (or would not) participate) which also allowed us to lay out the unit and decide (roughly) on quiz and test dates.

This time around the "I wish" feedback I received from the class was more to the effect of wanting more questions answered, more people to participate, etc instead of finding it disorganized or confusing. They liked that it was more frequent and was review before quizzes but some did not like that they last one was the night before the test.

Overall it felt beneficial. It gave a chance for the more introverted student to ask thoughtful questions (and one in particular asked some great ones) and provided an outlet for a large senior class (29 students) to ask individual questions and find the misconceptions in their learning.

There were a number of students that participated above and beyond the requirement for their communication marks, which indicates that they found it helpful and enjoyed participating. There were also some that lacked the responsibility to remember when the chats were and claimed they really wanted to be there.

I continued to use the chats with the class in the energy unit, but it was more difficult to fit three in based on the structure of the unit (mini seminars involving research). The last chat was supposed to be a debate about energy sources (based on some of the seminar topics) but most of the class forgot about it - which was unfortunate considering they sparked the start of an interesting conversation in class right before the bell.

I did not use them in the waves/electromagnetics units, mostly out of getting busy and feeling that the waves unit would not lend itself as well to a TweetUp as Motion, Forces or Energy did. Perhaps I was wrong, but with our stellar week of raising money for Camp Oochigeas as a school in there and all of their classes being busy I felt it was for the best.

I would definitely try this again for this class. Next semester it appears that I have a much smaller class so I am not sure of the use I will make of it. I will have to see how the semester starts. I may use the hashtag within class for students to pose questions or comments during lessons that can be addressed within the class instead (or try an app I heard about that allows for this anonymously instead). The decision is still to be made. Any thoughts, ideas or opinions on this would be more than welcome!

Happy summer everyone!
And Happy Canada Day!!!

Tweet Chat 1

I followed through with the steps from my previous post and the SPH 3U0 class had a Tweet Chat on Motion two days before their unit test. We had picked a date and time as a class. The day before I showed them some basics on twitter (how to write a tweet, what a hastag was, searching, following, dealing with spam and other safety concerns) and we talked about the importance of using the hashtag and internet safety. I also posted an online resource on Netiquette onto our class website. I ended up with approximately half the class logging in and indicating that they were at least watching the chat.

Here are some of the things we did and that I noticed during the chat:

- Some people made themselves known but many were hesitant to participate in the chat
- I started them off with 4 or 5 starter questions. They used a couple of them and added a couple of their own (or modified ones I had used)
- A few of them were very comfortable with twitter already
- They were respecful when answering a question or correcting someone's thought/idea/answer
- They got confused if I did not acknowledge a correct answer

Here is some of the feedback I got from the students the following day (in an "I learned, I liked, I wish" format):

- some had trouble following the conversation and got confused
- some liked the conversation as a whole and found it helpful
- some would rather just do it in class
- some liked the clarification especially related to the idea of "negative acceleration"

Here is some of the things I have interpreted and want to use going forward:
- more instruction is needed on using the reply function on twitter and only trying to follow one or two questions/lines of conversation via the hashtag - especially the idea that it is OK to get into a side conversation and not read the rest!
- I recently downloaded TweetDeck and LOVE it: I can follow both of my accounts at the same time (my professional handle is @TchngPassion); you can customize the columns it shows, the order they are in, and how many you use; AND it updates live (which is more than I can say for browser and smartphone apps I've used so far)
- I am going to show my class TweetDeck and recommend it's use - I think it will help them follow the tweets better since they live updates instead of appearing in chunks
- future tweet chats will be for part of the communication section of the corresponding unit test - there will be multiple chats per unit (which should make them less dense/confusing) and they have to post at least one question or answer in a set number of the chats to get full marks for it

I think there is going to be some resistance to the continued use of tweet chats for the time being (even though there was a chunk of positive feedback given to me by some of them) but I am hoping that with time passing and the modifications that I am going to make that it will go in a positive direction.

I have my VP on board with the process. I update her on what is going on (i.e. sent her the archives of the chat so should could see the conversation, participation and how the class handled some inappropriate comments) and hopefully we will get this to a place where she will be comfortable allowing me to share the endeavor with my colleagues. It is such a positive use of social media and has been a way for me to model its use to teenagers who know so much more about it than their parents do. If we, as educators, don't start to do this we are going to end up with a generation of our population that never grows to use the internet in a positive light and the cycle will have started with the next generation.

It is up to us. And we have to act now.

--- An aside
There was a phenomenon the week before March break on Social Media with a video link to "Stop Kony 2012" that went viral (the narrator even stated in the video that it was a social experiment). These are the types of things that are teachable moments in our classrooms. I had some great discussions with my students about responsible use of the internet and the idea of not taking everything you read/here/see to be truth without doing your own research. We discussed at length the idea that you have to know what you are sharing/tweeting/etc before you do it and about the media reports that "only 31% of the funds raised were actually going to the cause" (so we also talked about statistics and how they can be manipulated especially if we don't know what to compare them to)!

Here are the links I used as part of the discussion if you are interested
- Twitter hashtag search
- Invisible Children's website
- George Stroumboulopoulos' Blog (which had been updated to March 8th at the time)
- and the music video for Black Eyed Peas "Where is the Love" (as a wrap up we discussed social justice and how there are many causes, we have to decide what is important to us and fight for it)

Happy teaching!

Inspiration has Returned!

I promised myself that I would head to bed at 10pm last night (I stayed up to watch the Oscars with my mother last night and still had to drive home and organize myself afterward) and then the inspiration bug hit.

I actually came home from work, completed some of the work that had to be done, had dinner, and found myself listening to a colleague's take on her tweetchats with her Grade 11 Biology class on an ed pod cast. I have been following her on twitter since meeting her at a Smarter Science conference last June and had taken an interest in the idea - so I was excited to find out she had done this podcast. I think it was the perfect time to get myself reconnected with the online ed world and engage in something new. I had been feeling particularly disengaged from the passionate teaching world recently and somehow tonight made a turn for the better.

In past posts I have vented about technology in schools and how discouraged I felt about being technical and using it to connect with my students. So often we are discouraged by our union and school board about taking these paths, but the fact of the matter is - it is here to stay, and there are ways to do it safely! @EurekaTeacher is active proof - and I want to be a part of it.

Step one - tomorrow I will speak with my admin and make sure they are behind my initiative - to get my 3U Physics class on twitter and discussing concepts, without the numbers, from home (or anywhere on their smart phones!).

Step two - find out if there is a way I can access twitter from school so that we can discuss the idea of internet safety, twitter itself, protected tweets, spam, etc

Step three - host the first class tweetchat on motion!

Wish me luck! And please let me know if you have ideas, comments, questions, or concerns. It will be a learning experience and I will appreciate what others have to say on the topic.