MHF Cycle 1 Reflection

As mentioned in a post early first semester we made an attempt to spiral the MHF4U0 curriculum at our school. I will try to create some more posts to share more details, so for now this post will just focus on the first cycle we used.

If you missed the planning post, you can find it here.

I personally started off with a couple of classes where we did some collaborative problems solving. I wanted to introduce my intention to use visible random grouping (VRG) and vertical non-permanent surfaces (VNPS) in the class. I used this with a couple of fun tasks (such as the Tax Man problem) and then continued with them working on the boards while having them do some review problems together (factoring, radicals). It was a rough beginning. My madness was very new to the students, particularly since I was completely new to the school.

Here is the plan that we used for our first cycle.
(Most of the activity credits go to Alex Overwijk and his team in the Ottawa-Carlton District School Board and to Jamie Mitchell and Steph Girvan in the Halton Disctrict School Board - Thank you for sharing your resources - including your blood, sweat and tears guys!)

The textbook references made above are for the Nelson Advanced Functions book. I very rarely assigned work from the book but students were given the sections as a reference for if they needed it or wanted to do extra practice.

Part way through the cycle (probably about 2/3rds of the way through) I asked the students for some feedback. They were struggling with my use of Desmos Activities and lack of "traditional lectures". We added some more structure to the daily work we were doing. At the start of class we went back to the previous day's lesson (took any questions, which we were already doing) and then co-constructed success criteria based on what they had done. This criteria was added to the lesson plan that the students had access to. I also made a pointed effort to make them read that day's learning goal and asked if anything needed to be clarified. This seemed to help students realize that they were learning.

In retrospect, the vast changes they were going through were a lot. I would create brief google forms for each Desmos Activity the next time to help students consolidate their learning (which would have helped them build their functions portfolio we had asked them to do), essentially they would be exit tickets of some sort. I could collect data for myself while giving students a chance to reflect. And the form could be attached to student documents via DocAppender so that they could have a copy of their own responses.

Our formal evaluation for this cycle was a large group stations task. Students were in groups of 3-4 such that there were 8 groups in one class. There were 8 stations in total (we did 4 per day) that were designed to last approximately 15 minutes each. Of course there turned out to be some they spent more time on than others. Students were to use the time in their groups to work through the problem (i.e. match a graph, table of values, and equation and justify the match) and then record their answer in their own words on their answer sheet.

Students found this to be a very valuable learning tool and, for the most part, the results seemed to align with what we, as teachers, thought that student had shown they knew and could do. They were not big on the fact that it was the only formal evaluation we had done in the first 6 weeks of the course, but appreciated that it was less stressful than a unit test.

In retrospect, the task was too huge for the teachers to deal with all at once. We each had 2 sections x 2 days worth of tasks to go through. It took a lot longer than we anticipated. I would love to do something similar to this again, but would definitely consider splitting it up somehow so that it is not all happening at once. Suggestions are welcome if you have any!

Reflections on cycle 2 to come!

Triangulating Evidence - Formal Interview Attempt

I have been distracted from blogging but am trying to catch up and am back to trying 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. :) The first entry from this series can be found here.

I this entry I would like to share my first formal attempt at integrating conversation (via an interview) into my class.

As part of the Peel Teacher Assessment Working Team (PTAWT) we discussed triangulated evidence and worked together to create something to use this semester. At the time my Grade 9 students were in the middle of their Ecojar labs and had been asked to write a lab report and to do some research about the impacts they were studying in the local ecosystems. It was getting late in the semester so decided it would make sense to take the research part out of the report and try it as an interview.

I worked with a couple of others at the PTAWT meeting and we checked the Overarching Learning Goals (OLGs) that the assignment aligned with, pulled out the specific learning goals, and then created a Google Form to use to record the interviews. It was a good experience and it gave me another chance to use my Learning Map to make sure we were doing things that would align with our plan. Below are the questions that I used:

1. Student Name (in the future I would do this with a drop down menu so I can reuse and use an add-on to get the data to go into a student file instead of an assignment file to make reporting easier)

2. Wondering?
What are you wondering as a result of working on this lab?

3. Observations
Would you change the observations you chose? Why or why not?

4. Research - Pros/Cons
What have you found out about your impact in Ontario? What are we doing? Do things seem like they may change in the future?

5. Research - Appropriate?
What sources did you use to find your info? Why did you choose them? (What have you found out about your impact in Ontario? What are we doing? Do things seem like they may change in the future?)

My Favourite Things: A December #BlogHop

Hello #peel21st & other readers!

We are writing this month to share 5 of our favourite things related to education. The list of contributors to this blog hop can be found at the bottom of this post. Here goes! (In no particular order...basically the first 5 things that came to mind tonight!):

1. For creating video lessons I choose Explain Everything

This is an app for iPad that is fairly user friendly and has had quite a few features added to it this past year (i.e. I can now add mathematical equations). You can upload your videos to a large variety of places from the storage on your iPad to YouTube to Google Drive.  It does have a cost to download, but it has been well worth it for me. I know that some schools have paid to have it put on school devices for student use as well.

2. For a LMS I will be switching to Google Classroom (either next Semester or in Sept)

A lot has been developed for this system since it was first introduced. I currently use Edmodo and while I like to be able to give parents the option to have a connected account (and while they have added Microsoft online, which is a bonus) the fact that students in my board already have google accounts means this change makes sense at this time. There are a lot of connected apps that you get immediate access to by switching to Google. Though I must admit, I do not look forward to redoing my online assessments...again. But such is life!

If you have google apps/add-ons to suggest please comment below or catch me on Twitter :)

3. For organization I live off of Evernote

I use this app on all of my devices (it is cross platform and can be accessed on their website) and use it instead of using bookmarks on my browser - mostly to save education related resources - because you can tag each item with as many tags as you would like. I also use it to go paperless at home (i.e. keeping car repair/maintenance records), save recipes, and it is where I note-take when I attend PD (this is handy when it comes time to update my resume, or I need to review something from past conference, etc).

4. For teacher-directed PD I am often found on Twitter

I participate in formal chats on twitter with groups of like-minded educators. It is usually through these times that I undergo the most professional growth. I am able to get ideas from others, ask questions, share resources, and work on discovering new things on my own time, at my own pace. I have found that in many circumstances, finding like-minded people is more valuable than finding people close by. Of course there are times when face-to-face meetings are more beneficial, but I have done most of my learning around tech and flipped learning online.

5. For reading/assessment professional learning - Rethinking Letter Grades

This has been the driving force behind a lot of my work with #AssessPeel to go back to focus on backward design (by creating overarching learning goals) and letting this inform all assessment decisions - from creating a course learning map to learning goals/success criteria, and evaluations. I have blogged about this resource and our work earlier in the year. The entry can be found here.

Please check out the other blogs below!

Jason Richea	http://beyondangrybirds.blogspot.ca/2015/12/a-few-of-my-favourite-things.html
Heather Lye	http://teachinginspirations.blogspot.com/2015/12/my-favourite-things-december-bloghop.html
Amit Mehrotra	http://mramitmehrotra.blogspot.ca/
Jason Wigmore	https://jwigmore.wordpress.com/2015/12/15/a-few-of-my-favourite-things/
Melanie Mulcaster	http://valleyslearningcommons.blogspot.ca/2015/12/five-of-my-favourite-things.html
Jonathan So	http://mrsoclassroom.blogspot.com/2015/12/5-favourite-things.html
Jim Cash	http://makelearn.org/2015/12/15/a-few-of-my-favourite-things/
Tina Zita	https://misszita.wordpress.com/2015/12/16/peel21st-blog-hop-a-few-of-my-favourite-things/
Maggie Fay	https://www.dropbox.com/s/vusno76viphg63c/My%20favourite%20things%20post%20%20for%20Peel21st.mov?dl=0
Pam Taylor	http://mindfulauthenticity.blogspot.ca/2015/12/december-peel21st-blog-hop-few-of-my.html?spref=tw
Gina Loutrianakis	https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fp2u3s801ZLXGnGOS6h2gtYkYPDaya-b1rbFjPdnn5Y/edit
Laura Smiley	https://t.co/Z5yxQU6kyU

Digital Citizenship: A #flipclass Flashblog

This week on our #flipclass chat we are discussing digital citizenship - what we teach (or don't) and what students need to learn.

I have always been a big supporter of the need to USE technology with students so that they have a change to learn about being positive digital citizen, to be safe, and to learn to cite and respect the work of others. I am sure I have blogged about some of these ideas in the past particularly when I was developing my ideas for doing formal Twitter chats with students as review. Essentially my point of view is this - if kids are usually ahead of their parents online, then if we do not teach them, who will?

Since I have stopped using those chats the need to explicitly teach the first two has dwindled. Since I am teaching science teaching the third one comes hand in hand with any research project we do. Creating research notes and reference lists are a much and is scaffolded throughout our department's program.

Our board uses a BYOD (bring your own device) model and my school often has a student run day somewhere around the topics of bullying/self-esteem, so aspects of digital citizenship often get touched on. I wish I had a photo of the poster most of us have up in our rooms to share with you. It uses the acronym THINK to help remind students to think before they post. Here is a link to a PDF of it instead. The description is also below:

True?
Hurtful?
Illegal?
Necessary?
Kind?

When instances for a teachable moment come up in class (or on our online classroom) I always cease them to discuss - sometimes with a particular student, and sometimes with the whole class. But maybe I should do more. I would love to have some kind of simulation I could run. Where students are participating in an online chat and they get spammed with inappropriate comments or something...then we could discuss what they could do, etc.

Food for thought, anyway.

Trying Some New Things

Since meeting with my department to hash out some overarching learning goals (OLGs - which are described in this entry) for Gr 10 science I have been able to start working on something else - true student self-evaluation and reflection.

The first piece we could do overall without the OLGs (but it may be less effective without them). I have created class OneNote files so that there is one file that has all of my students in it, but do not have to worry about other students in the class looking at each others reflections. And no more paper! Hooray!

Students have three tabs in the file. The first is an ePortfolio where I am asking them to take snapshots of their learning and evidence of learning so that they can track their progress. That is the hope, anyway. Basically I got this under way last week and it took a bunch of time away from other things, but I am hoping that now that they are familiar with it they will be able to do this more effectively and with less guidance. Students can create pages within this tab and have been told they can choose how they want to organize their portfolio. For example, my Gr 10s were asked to take a photo of their formative quiz, something they were proud of, as well as at least parts of their test (minimum of one part of the test they were proud of/improved on and one part they wanted to improve on). They also had to include a photo of their self-evaluation (described below). I am hoping that this can help them see their own improvement and give me a place to go to check details when writing reports or talking to parents. I could even open the file to show a parent if needed.

The second tab is for reflection. Students have a page with their SMART goal from the start of the semester and now have a page where they did a reflection on their learning skills for the progress report. I referenced this when doing their progress report cards, taking their evaluations of themselves into consideration. This can also allow for some conversation with individual students if needed who may not be self-evaluating as accurately as I would like so we can find misconceptions about what the learning skills mean. The third tab is for notes, and students can choose to use this as a place to store notes if they would like to.

The next big thing I am trying is to use the OLGs explicitly in class. The Gr 10 OLGs are written (permanently) on the board at the front of the room and have been posted on our class site for easy access. I am trying to make reference to them in various classes in conjunction with a specific learning goal to help give the class direction and meaning. I will also reference specific ones for every project or evaluation we do so that the students know what the appropriate big ideas are.

After the first chemistry test I was inspired to create the students a checklist relating back to the OLGs and specific learning goals. When I returned they marked test to them they were given this checklist (as a met/not yet met list) and they had to use my comments, etc to help them evaluate themselves to identify what they should continue to work on. This forced students who would usually just look at the mark, or who might even recycle their work without giving it much thought, a reason to actually look at it carefully and start to self-regulate.

What I hope to do with this for future evaluations is to give them the checklist BEFORE the evaluation to do in pencil and hand in, and then I will return it to them after to go through the same process so that we can hopefully identify areas to work on more effectively. If nothing else I am hoping it will help some students put some focus into their studying, as many students do not spend study time wisely.

Would love to hear about other ideas you are trying out there with OLGs, learning goals, and self-evaluation!

My Marking Hacks & Things to Come

(Sorry my American #flipclass friends, but whenever you see "mark" you will have to think "grade"..It's a Canadian thing)

There are two main things that I do that contribute to (hopefully) speed up marking a bit.

1. Using EduCanon to embed questions and note-taking suggestions into video lessons. This app is connected directly to Edmodo (and also to Google if you use Classrooms, so students only need one login) and I can log in to look at my "monitor" page and can see how my entire class did on one screen. I immediately see which Ss are struggling on an individual topic and/or if a Q gave a whole chunk of the class issues. Students can also go back and write explanations that I can read and give them credit for. Love that added communication piece.

2. More discussion, less grading. Evaluation comes later. During the semester verbal and written feedback is much more valuable than marks themselves. I do everything in my power to get kids to stop thinking about the mark and start thinking about the learning. This is where I want their focus to be, and when I have to do something with an actual mark they will hopefully be better prepared (and, as a result, do better). If I could throw out grades entirely, I would.

Then there are the things that I want to do. I have (what we call in Ontario) my AQ (additional qualification) in assessment & evaluation. I am a bit of an assessment nerd, but my practiced do not yet match my beliefs/values (I am working on it).

Ontario has a policy called Growing Success that was published in 2010. Apparently we were one of the first provinces to have such a document and it is both vague and detailed. There is a lot in there that we should/have to do that we are still working to put into practice.

I am currently working on making better/more accurate use of Overarching Learning Goals (OLGs, this is a board term...they are similar to what some books call Big Ideas or Enduring Understandings) and learning goals in my classes. On my lesson plan (that is posted online for all to read) I give a learning goal (and am working on shifting them to more student friendly "I can" statements) that Ss can use to self-assess. Last week I had release time with some department colleagues and we created OLGs for Gr 9 and 10 science. I am planning to reveal these to my Grade 10s and make a point of referring back to them often.

Here is the ultimate goal - all assessment and evaluation will be developed with the OLGs in mind. In other words, the OLGs will serve as my starting point for backwards design. One of my colleagues has switched her "tests" in one of her courses to be much less traditional. Instead of having a bunch of (potentially insignificant) questions, she only has 4 questions on each test. One for each OLG as it relates to that "unit" of study. I love this idea. It seemed like the biggest issue was training Ss to answer the types of Qs she was using. Basically to UNtrain them of their previous habits of "studying content" to making connections and communicating well.

First Cracks at Accountable Talk, Note-Taking, and Video Watching

I have some relatively significant goals this semester and have tried to get them going as early on as possible. I am going to try to reflect on them as often as I can to try to keep myself on task. Here are my thoughts after the first week:


Day 1: I set out to accomplish two things the first day of school. 1. Make use of Accountable Talk strategies to start to work on collaborative, effective discussions between students (student to student, not teacher to student) as I continue to seek a more student-centered classroom. 2. Start the semester off with someone that would make students want to come back tomorrow!

I created tent cards for student groups of desks to help introduce a variety of Accountable Talk strategies and tried to model a couple of them while I was introducing the ideas. So far students seem to have a mixed reaction to them. But I will continue to try to get them to focus on self-improvement in communication as a life skill, not just a classroom skill.

I used activities from Spark101 that were scientifically relevant and engaging to each course to use for the first day. Students seemed to have a lot of fun in those discussions and got to attempt to solve a real-life problem using their current knowledge and info shared in the video.


Day 2: Another goal for this year is to do a better job of helping students become better note-takers (and by extension, better at watching educational videos for my flipped class). I found a College Geek video that introduced effective strategies for note-taking and create a note-outline for students to use to take their first note (that was a model of the first strategy mentioned).

I also modeled a strategy for video watching by pausing thee video after each note-taking method was shared to allow them to record their thoughts/ideas. We also discussed pros and cons of each method and where different people might choose to use each one. I also stressed one of the lines in the video "You are a STUDENT, not a dictating machine!" and the importance of actually PROCESSING information while you are learning (so that you are learning not just writing down something to learn later).

This lead to a fun start to the next day because I got to show them some electronic note-taking apps and organizers. A couple of students have even started using a couple of the apps and trying one of the note-taking methods already!


Day 3: Continuing the goal of helping them become good video watchers (and needing to introduce them to one of my main reasons for switching to a flipped class) I had them watch a video as an entire class, while taking notes, without touching the pause button. The effective one was a Crash Course I picked for my Grade 10s to watch. He speaks pretty quickly in general and it was introducing some things that they did not know yet (but was related to something they did last year).

The frustration in the students was very evident. Some gave up entirely. Some were madly note-taking the whole time. Some gave me exasperated looks when I just smiled at them when they said "can't we pause???" Afterward we shared some feelings/adjectives to describe the experience and I promised them that they should NEVER have to feel this way again because their learning would be in their control. A point a used to remind them that this involves them communicating with me - a lot (I can't read your minds, really!) - if they do find themselves feeling this way again.

I think some of them were annoyed that the "note" ended up being futile, but most of them appreciated the resulting honesty and seemed to feel like they would be in the driver's seat in my course. Maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part though.


Day 4/5: I have now started to introduce students to watching educational videos individually and taking notes effectively. We are using class time to watch lessons at this point in the year and I am making sure they are taking notes and trying to give them feedback about the notes themselves. This is probably the hardest part for me...I do not feel like I am an expert myself. But I am trying. I am doing my best to encourage them to (at the very least) have examples/visuals when possible, and to show they processed by taking NOTES not recording every word.

My Grade 10s are being introduced to EduCanon right away so I am trying to use the embedded questions to get them to focus on important things and forcing them to pause at various points. Hopefully we can work together to pare back on my forced pauses by the end of the semester knowing that they will do it on their own. Fingers crossed.

Any advice/ideas/etc that you have for me on this topic would be greatly appreciated!


Still to come (i.e. something I have not started yet but hope/plan to) - student ePortfolios and reflections

Week 20 - Setting up MPM 2D

Here I sit trying to set myself up to teacher MPM 2D this semester (OK, really it was 5 months ago...but I fell of the blog bandwagon and am playing catch up) with way too many ideas of what I think is needed going through my head. How am I going to set up my LMS? What gamification ideas am I going to try? Where am I going to source my videos from for my flipped lessons? What will my classroom routines be? (See - so many decisions to make! The next time someone accuses teachers of being lazy I think I will read them this opening paragraph). Here is what I am hoping to accomplish:

1. Use Edmodo to set up an online area where students can access resources, connect to each other, and have one account to do multiple things. I use EduCanon (which allows me to embed questions into YouTube videos for my flipped lessons and students automatically have an account for when using Edmodo) and am hoping to make some use of the cK-12 resources for online practice and quizzes.

2. Badges on Edmodo for a bit of gamification. I struggled with this last semester. My efforts often peter out and students cannot see what badges they have not earned yet so there is no added drive for them really. I will make use of the badges to connect to the University of Waterloo Problem of the Week - I am going to post this problem every week and for each month there will be a badge for 2 things

• attempting at least one problem that month and submitting a solution
• completing a min of 3 problems that month with a consistent effort and mostly correct results

3. Make use of a known YouTube channel (alrichards314) for some of my flipped lesson videos and search YouTube for at least one other with a lesson style that I like. Here is the one I ended up using because the lessons are usually set up so that an explanation is given for the tool/skill/concept before examples are used to show how to use it.

4. Every class will start with a 10 minute warm up that is developed to help students work on core numeracy skills to improve confidence (i.e. multiplication, division, fractions, etc). I hope to attempt to make sure what we do here is somehow related to that days work but feel it is important regardless. I am planing to focus on one skill per week where the difficulty builds up and Fridays will have some kind of game component.

5. Tracking student achievement using an excel tracking sheet for learning goals throughout the course (recording what learning level the student is at based on what I hear/see/mark - the long term goal being the observations/conversations piece of triangulation of data, for now I just want to get used to using this so that it can be a tracking method in the future). I also hope to have the individual student have access to this in the future so they can see what areas they should keep working on. I have also started using a OneNote file to track student work and am hoping to keep doing this (I soon realized that while this was doable first semester with a small class it was not feasible to do myself with 28 students - I made an attempt to get students to do this for themselves as an eportfolio but did not follow up well - now a goal for the future!).

Yikes!

Week 19 - Taking Risks

Well if it is not obvious this is a very delayed post as the school year is technically done, but image for a second instead that first semester is just ending and second is around the corner. I had been thinking a lot about taking risks at the time - both from the perspective of taking chances as a teacher, and the perspective of getting students to take risks in the classroom.

My own psyche fascinates me as I seem to be able to take risks in my teaching (both in class and online) despite having trouble with this in my everyday life. Perhaps it is something to do with my comfort in my profession and my confidence in the support I get from my PLN, colleagues, and admin. If it is not that, then I really do puzzle myself. This is not to say in any way that the risks I am taking do not feel that way - many of them do.

In my classroom I am always trying to do something a little different. Trying to come up with things to engage students in my flipped classroom (which could mean a new lab, different investigation, new attempt to use manipulations to teach a concept, or using a new strategy altogether) means that I am taking a risk with what students are going to learn (or if they will learn) which always feels like a personal risk. I think that most of that personal risk is related to pride. I feel thankful that this first semester had some good students so there was more room for me to take personal risks or my ego (I find it a lot harder to do that when I am having a rough semester already).

These risks lead to a feeling of vulnerability. Every time a teacher posts a blog, admits to defeat, publicly asks a question on Twitter she is risking feeling vulnerable or judged by others. Now it is not very common to be challenged by another educator, as there is a mutual respect and desire for personal growth and learning, but in doing so our thoughts and ideas are published for everyone else to see (students - current and former, - parents, and community members sometimes monitor what we do as well) and I have experienced first hand how these things can be misunderstood or twisted out of context to make them seem something they are not.

This has become a bit more of a ramble than I had intended, so if you are still reading I thank you.

The other side of the idea of risk taking is trying to get students to take risks in the classroom. I will be the first to admit that I have had a lot of trouble getting this to become more common in my classroom. Teenagers often carry with them an innate desire to fit in (and for many to blend in) and risk taking in front of their peers may be the last thing they wish to do. But it is with these risks that learning comes from. We learn by making mistakes, by making new connections. I have challenged myself to come up with a time that I made a mistake that I did not learn from...and could not come up with one.

For now one of my goals is to try to use conversation in the classroom more as a means to get students to start to talk about their thinking, to admit when they are unsure, to work through problems together. I have tried giving students an online place to do this as well to give them 24 hours access to things, but have not had much luck. One thing I do know is that if these things do not get initiated by students that usually are not authentic enough to get them to use it. I have tried even giving them anonymous ways to post online to ask questions and still have had no luck.

If you have any ideas to share for in class or online risk taking for learning please leave a comment below!

What 21st Century Learning Means to Me

Over the past year or so there has been a lot of talk about 21st Century Learning. Recently it was suggested that "what does 21st century learning mean to you?" should be used as the next #peel21st blog hop so I decided to jump on. You can find the links to the other bloggers participating tonight below. Here goes!

When we talk about 21st century learners we’re often referring to student learning, but it is just as important to look at our own – it makes it possible for our students to do the same. 21st century learning means taking learning into our own hands. Formal PD is no longer the primary source for learning.

I participate in organized twitterchats such as #flipclass, #cdnedchat and #peel21st. I have been able to connect with like-minded people for ideas, growth, and support. Furthermore, I have attended board EdCamp network meetings and city-wide, full-day EdCamps so that I can discuss these topics in person.

I feel better prepared to interact with the learners in my classroom when I embrace myself as a learner in this technological age.

Check out what my colleagues have to say on the topic :)

Susan Campo @susancampo
Jim Cash @cashjim
Shivonne Lewis-­‐Young @SLewisYoung
Greg Pearson @vptechnodork
Phil Young @_PhilYoung
James Nunes @jameseliasnunes
Donald Campbell @libramlad
Ken Dewar Bestbefore2030
Graham Whisen @grahamwhisen
Lynn Filliter @assessmentgeek
Debbie Axiak @DebbieAxiak
Alicia Quennell @AliciaQuennell
Jonathan So @MrSoClassroom
Jim Blackwood @jimmyblackwood
Jason Richea @jrichea
Tina Zita @Tina_zita
Sean Broda
Donald Campbell
Josh Crozier
Engy Boutros @mrsboutrosSean Coroza @SRCoroza

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 8 - Rethinking Ionic Compounds & Taking a Field Trip

I have been teaching SNC 1D for a number of years now. It is a course that we have developed fairly well and then it took a back burner for me for awhile while I was focusing on my teaching style and some new courses I was teaching. We have taken a skills-based approach to this course (lab, lab writing, research & organization, mind mapping) and sometimes that has meant that I do not rethink how I am teaching concepts.

This time around it dawned on me that I was doing students a disservice with the way I was teaching ionic compounds. I was already putting a focus on the octet rule and using Bohr-Rutherford diagrams to see patterns in the electrons on the periodic table, but I was making the mistake of using the "criss-cross rule" which I realized was not teaching them anything...they were memorizing not understanding.

This time around I tried to make use of the compound modelling they did to make connections to everything else. I put one of the wooden spheres under the doc cam and compared it to an element that it might represent by drawing its BR diagram and discussing the idea of each "hole" in the sphere and needed/extra electron as shown in the BR diagram and the ion values they could figure out from the BR diagrams an the patterns in the periodic table (group numbers).

I then showed them that when we make compounds the charges have to balance in order for all of those bonds to be satisfied, thus giving us a stable molecule, by using ion notation and adding ions until a balance was achieved. It took some of my students a couple of times of seeing this before is started to sink in, but I believe that more of them actually understood the concept in the end as opposed to having memorized some rule. Hopefully it will benefit them more as they move into Grade 10 science and Grade 11 chemistry.

My colleague and I also got to take our Grade 9s on a field trip this week to introduce the Biology (Ecosystems) unit. The Credit Valley Conservation crew showed our students how to plant trees and exposed them to invasive species in their own neighbourhood. This will make a great connection for us when we introduce their research project that requires them to figure out how an ecosystem will be effected by a specific invasive/endangered species and how that connects to human interactions with that ecosystem. One of the conservation workers had come into our classes the week before to introduce what they do and how we impact our local ecosystems. Some of my students had done a similar trip with their Geography class earlier in the semester, and they still enjoyed it. I would highly recommend it :)

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!

Why I Don't Use Remind 101

Since the invention of the smart phone my memory (for my life schedule) has become a lot worse. Sometimes I miss the days of the hanging calendar in my parents house colour-coded for my sister and my schedule for the many sports and activities we were involved in. Somehow it seems like I was able to keep better track of my life. But I slug on and continue to use the calendar in my phone, setting reminders for myself so that I hopefully don't miss a beat. What I don't seem to do is check the calendar for upcoming events, I rely on these reminders (if I somehow miss it or have forgotten to set the reminder, then I might forget altogether). My new phone often puts that day's event onto my home screen, which is nice and does make me open my calendar more often.

Maybe the above was pointless, or maybe it has lead you to the point I want to make about Remind 101 (with respect to high school classes). It is my strong belief that we have to graduate students who can fend for themselves in the world - and if I have come to struggle with the above, imagine those who never learn to find their own way to remind themselves?

I think there are some great reasons for Remind 101 to exist and it definitely has its place. It is just my opinion that using something like this gives my students an excuse to miss something if I forget to remind them - but it is there job in the first place to remember homework, tests dates, etc so I want my students to come up with a system that works for them. I encourage them to use their device's built in calendar, find an app they like, or purchase a paper agenda if they prefer. I also post important dates on my LMS if they need to access a calendar or are away from school.

I am sure there are many amazing teacher that use the Remind 101 service successfully and for great reason, and this post is by no means an attempt to spark a debate. Just some thoughts that have come up a few times that I felt the need to write down. In the end, the purpose of a teacher in the classroom is to have an educational philosophy and to use that to decide on purposeful things to try to teach students to make them successful, contributing members of society.

And so, we try.

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

Monitoring Back in the Classroom

I think that monitoring has taught me a lot this semester. Scratch that, I know it has. Joining the student success department involved a fairly steep learning curve. I have learned a lot about what a monitor does, how it can impact students, how the process of getting a student identified might go, how the ILC works...the list goes on. But I am ready to get back into the classroom.

On one hand, I learned a lot of valuable things that I can take back to my classroom as part of my overall perspective of student. On the other hand, I got into high school teaching because I loved teaching and still wanted to be intellectually stimulated. Funny that we don't generally associate emotion with intelligence (let me tell you, it was impossible not to at least feel emotionally attached to the stories I heard).

Here are some of the things that I think will be a lasting impression on me as a classroom teacher:

1. There is almost always more to the story behind a student's absences and/or lateness and/or late/missing assignments. It can range from school engagement to issues at home and beyond - but there is often something there and as a classroom teacher we have to remember this and be willing to investigate further (or at least seek out the resources that can do this and inform teachers).

2. It is possible to monitor a student and support them academically without removing them from their "less important classes" (I refused to pull a student some tech or gym - I do not see a benefit to making engagement more difficult).

3. I had the chance to be working and taking an AQ and diving into professional ideas that I want to bring to my classroom in September (a definite bonus).

4. We need to spend more time in high schools providing learning opportunities for learning skills, test-taking skills, etc if we want our students to become more successful. The sole resource of an academic monitoring teacher cannot do this alone!

5. Our failures are NOT personal. We cannot help everyone, no matter how much we would like to. We can keep them from falling through our cracks, but if the student and/or the guardian are not on board with the plan, it may fail. All we can do is keep trying. Keep supporting. Keep hoping.

I am really looking forward to being able to put my new perspective into the classroom and looking forward to trying new assessment and teaching styles. My most recent inspiration to work toward my flipped classroom comes from the "confession" from Eric Mazur, a Harvard Physics professor. It is an 80 minute video, but if you have an interest in this kind of idea it is worth watching. He started using this Peer Instruction style classroom in 1991!

Student Support

This semester I have been put into a new role - I am on the student support team. I still consider myself a new teacher (been at this less than 5 years...but my how time flies) which comes with learning in itself, but I would have to say that I have learned more in the past two months than in any other two months in my career (such as it is). Having a role that is not classroom teaching has shed a new perspective on educating teenagers, I have found it more emotional (you have more contact with students with sad stories) and, at the same time, has the potential to be more rewarding.

As a transitions monitor (I track at-risk Grade 9s - and a few 10s) I have the opportunity to have some time to try to engage students in an individual way and create success plans. Some of them have emotional needs (usually due to family circumstances) which leads me to work closely with our counselors and social worker to try to engage them in school and take an interest in controlling their future while others have academic struggles that are rooted in poor work habits. As an ILC (Independent Learning Centre) teacher I work to find ways to help students complete credits in recovery and support students through independent courses. Both of these roles have shown given me a chance to see more of the Learning to 18 initiative first hand.

The most interesting part has been outside of this entirely. My admin has been giving me opportunities to get involved in some broader projects.
- Lead teacher for OSSLT support for non-identified students & moderated marking
- Working on planning process for Boys Night In
- Being asked to consult in planning meetings for our Early Release Day (technology PD)
- Attending various PD sessions (i.e. DI for ELL and Bullying and the Bystander)

I would like to write in more detail about some of my experiences, so if you are reading this and have any questions (about the above or the topics listed below) please comment and let me know. Here are some potential future entries:
1. Monitoring strategies (possibly to become useful as a classroom teacher?)
2. OSSLT prep
3. Technology PD (providing workshops/support for colleagues)

I look forward to writing about the technology piece in the near future. I still think it is ironic that I am seen as a technology "expert" in my school - at least my more technology adept friends think it is funny.

BYOD, Equity, and The Shrinking Computer Labs

I last blogged about the idea of the flipped classroom and what I was already doing to work my way toward the increasingly student-centred classroom that I have envisioned. Since then many weeks have gone by where I have continually thought that I needed to take the time to sit down and reflect on these ideas more and try to put into words what I envision our future classrooms looking like.

My school board has had huge announcements this school year with the intention to make all schools wireless (we are now in those first stages, working out those beginning kinks) and their ideas behind BYOD (bring your own device). There are mixed feelings on every level, especially on the equity piece.

It is true that many of our (high school) students nowadays come to school armed with a smart phone or iPod touch which have wifi capabilities and can contain many useful apps. We are armed with the ability for students to, at the very least, do simple research at the touch of a button - no computer lab necessary. But we are not armed with students who are going to want to type an assignment on their phone. We are not armed with students who are going to have devices capable of using the full abilities of a complex website that we might use to post assignments or edit work. So there is a ways to go.

Here we are at the brink of all of the new "21st century learning" and I have had the opportunity to use an iPad for the first time (I am involved in an action research project whose funding was used to purchase two iPad minis). Now I have actually been able to find and use some apps that I could see being useful (and have reason to do a bit of research and seek out people who can recommend things). But I have also run into the same equity piece - even if I were to find an app that could function in similar ways to something like turnitin.com (where students can self and peer evaluate and I can comment and evaluate) I would then have to make sure one exists for blackberry and android devices as well: or expect that my students can do this. I see this as quite the barrier. As our computers come off of warranty and have an issue they are no longer being replaced or fixed, so our computer labs are shrinking. What will I do in a year when I teach grade 9 science again and cannot take them to a lab to peer evaluate - a part of the process I have come to find valuable (but only if I get them to do it in class - at least the first time or two).

I am sure there are solutions to my concerns, but I don't have them. Hopefully somewhere down the road someone does.

P.S. There are some great, easy to use, apps on the iPad for the idea of a flipped classroom. Record lessons and post! Check out explain everything ($2.99) for enhanced functions (i.e. add photos and videos) or educreations for a free more simple experience.