Flipping my unit….Head exploding

Make your own error messages: https://atom.smasher.org/error/

I reach up and my head is still attached.  No one has suggested counseling or visiting doctors.  I must be faking sanity quite well.

This Course 5 unit rewrite is stressing me out.  You all know we teachers never have enough time.  Never.  When does a teacher ever really have free time?  I don’t.  As the trimester ends with massive grading and report writing not to mention a myriad of other stressors and the new trimester begins with what is supposed to be this unit for Course 5, I’m wondering if I bit off more than I could chew.

After working on a timeline for the rest of the school year blocking out my unit lessons, labs, and assessments, I would like to say I collapsed in a heap but that would just be me being dramatic.  I actually felt a mixture of relief and horror.  In this last trimester we have less than 30 class periods to cover the material due to spring break and our week-without-walls program.  That caused the horror.  The relief came from making a good crack into the planning of this unit and the realization that perfection does not have to be the goal.

I realized that I just can’t do everything I was thinking and do it well.  I constantly have to remind myself thinking I can achieve perfection the first time out of the gate is really just setting myself up for failure.  So I’ve changed my mind on some things.  I’ve decided that I can always improve on this unit next year.

So here is where I am at –

I will:

I will create flipped videos of last year’s already prepared presentations for notes.  I will give the students  the opportunity to work ahead if they like.  I will give them a timeline of labs and assessments so they understand when they must have the work done.  I will give them spare time in class to work on their 20% project.  I will connect the book Wonder to our work with Punnett Squares.  

I will work on:

I will work on giving choice in evidence of learning.  It won’t be what I thought it would be – substituting quizzes and other assessments with choice of assessment – but I will work on giving choice as often as possible in my class activities.

I won’t until next year:

I won’t try to give standards based feedback until next year.  For real, I just need to learn a lot more about it to feel comfortable with something like that.  Feedback is not something I want to muddle around with.  I want to be clear in my feedback.  I won’t press a unit based project until next year.  I have been wondering if what I need to do is break down this 20% project into 3 parts.  First Trimester – free choice of topic under the umbrella of Life Science; Second Trimester – the Ecology Project that we just implemented integrating with the Humanities classes; Third Trimester – 20% type project but focused on life cycles, genetics, heredity, DNA, cloning, etc.

I am really excited about the fact that not only my students but also the other 7th grade science students will be trying this out.  I currently am working with a long-term sub who is happy to take on whatever I’m doing and give it a try.  I think it will give me a great opportunity for feedback from a broader audience than just my own students.

Still, I find myself repeating a mantra paraphrased from the book Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh:

Breathing in I calm myself – Breathing out I smile

Just keep breathing….

Course 5 – A Jump Start

So I’ve been thinking about Course 5….

One of the things we are looking at as a school is moving toward standards based reporting.  I have been thinking of how as part of my personal journey with this, I would include some trial with standards based reporting for my Course 5 project.

So I started building this website for the course.  I took the science standards and the tech standards that will be the focus of this unit and put them in a google site.  I borrowed some proficiency levels from a school I found online.  I know I should credit them here but I will have to look that up first.  I left a place for either myself or the student or both to rate the student for proficiency of each standard as well as a place to link evidence of learning for each standard.

I think this is going to work.  I’ve sketched out a few other pages and will continue to build this over time.  Please take a look at give me feedback.  I would really appreciate it.

 

Considering Redesigning

The Contemplation – Where I make a decision that isn’t too hard to make

Well, as I contemplate what unit I would like to revamp for Course 5 I feel I only have one option:  Life Cycles (aka Sex).

Click here to see my ThingLink for this unit with my essential questions. Photo by LL

This year I teach both math and science, but next year I’ll only be teaching science.  If I’m going to put a great deal of effort into this project, it better be something I’m going to use again next year.  So there is only one choice as we do a unit a trimester and I’m halfway through this one on Ecology.  Actually, Ecology is the one I would choose had this been the beginning of the school year.  But that’s okay.  Next year, I’ll tackle Ecology from the ground up.

I do think Life Cycles will be an interesting unit to rework because it can potentially be the least interesting or engaging of the units, despite the focus on sex.  There are a lot of facts to learn, a lot of processes to understand, but there is so much room for exploration when it comes to genetics, cloning and the potential use and mis-use of both.

The Brainstorming – Where my thoughts fall willy-nilly onto the blog

brainstorm by Graela, on Flickr

So here are my rambling thoughts and ideas at this moment.  I won’t claim them to be well thought out but really, I’m just in the brainstorming phase and refuse to judge myself.

A. Personalization / Individualization / Differentiation

Learning Goals. Learning Activity.  Assessment of Learning. Technology Selection. 

Maybe I can Flip Mastery this bad boy

Giving myself enough pre-planning time (I have half a trimester to work before the unit starts), I could potentially build the resources, videos, texts, references that students will need to understand the content knowledge.  If it is there, they can access it at their own pace, in their own way.

Of course I will also need to design or sketch out ways in which students can then demonstrate their mastery of the content knowledge.  This is kind of exciting.  I’ve been wanting to mix it up with how students demonstrate learning.  One size fits all is such a boring model of assessment besides the fact that it doesn’t always work or isn’t best practice.

B. Agency / Control / Ownership / Choice / Interest / Passion

Talk Time. Work Time. Interest-Based. Technology Usage. 

Having done the “ultimate free choice” model of project based learning with my 20% Project, I would really like to try something a little different for this unit.  I want students to have choice in this unit but I think I’m really going to limit the choices this time.  What if I picked 4 or 5 different topics/issues to pursue and they choose between those?  I could entertain modifications or substitutions.

C. Communication

Audience. Communication Technologies. 

Okay, so I’m thinking blogging tied to their e-portfolios would be great.  I would love to make those e-portfolios more of a “work in progress” and less of a “put some evidence of progress” space.  I see their audience being their classmates, the students on their team, and the students in their grade level.  I’m not so sure I’m ready to reach out beyond that for now.  I would love to get them set up with real life scientists doing real life science related to the topics and hopefully I can make that happen in this lead up time.

D. Collaboration (co-working, co-creating; more than just communication)

Collaborators. Collaborative Technologies. 

Okay – here’s the vision that is coming together in my mind:  Students are spending part of class time on individually paced learning/mastery of the unit knowledge.  Then there are times when small groups working on an exploration of one of the issues meet to work on a project that hopefully has some kind of useful outcome.  The dream scenario would also have some people outside the school community being collaborators as well.  Besides using their e-portfolios for blogging, perhaps I could get them interested in Twitter.  Not sure.  We’ll see.

E. Authenticity / Relevancy

Real or Fake. Contribution. 

Hmmmm……I don’t know.  Look, in the Ecology Unit that I’m tweaking there is a real, authentic, relevant contribution that the students can make.  At this moment, I feel like that would be a stretch to say for the Life Cycles Unit.  I think there is plenty of relevant research they can do but as for a contribution beyond their class, I’m not so sure about that.  Some more thought will have to be had.  I’ll put that pot on simmer.

F. Discipline-Specific Inquiry

Domain Knowledge. Domain Practices. Domain Technologies. 

This is easy.  The unit already has essential questions, standards, and skills written.  I will have to think about and add the relevant technology standards.

G. Critical Thinking (HOTS + metacognition) / Creativity / Initiative / Entrepreneurship

Deeper Thinking. Creativity. Initiative. Metacognition. 

Isn’t this always the goal?  I will admit to it sometimes slipping away as time becomes an issue (especially at the end of the year which is when this unit will be), but I hope to always be pushing the students to be creative, critical thinkers.  Perhaps I can build in more time and expectations for reflection.  How about weekly podcasts?  Something different than writing.  Maybe just a little iMovie where they can record their thoughts.

H. Technology

Technology as Means, Not End. Technology Adds Value. Meaningful Technology Usage. 

I feel like this is a no-brainer.  There is never a moment in my class where I don’t consider technology and how it will be best used.  There are plenty of ways it will be used meaningfully.  I’ll be more specific when the rest gels in my mind.

I. Assessment

Alignment. Authentic Assessment. Are students creating real-world products or performances? Assessment Technology. 

Oh Assessment!  As we move toward Standards Based Assessment at our school, I guess I would like to take a look at how that might look for this unit.

Beyond that, I would like to give choice in assessments for showing proof of knowledge as I stated before.

Obviously each small issue group will have to produce something.  The same thing?  Probably not.  Highly unlikely actually but something that meets a common standard of presentation.

The Next Steps – Where I try to make a plan

by qmechanic, on Flickr

There is obviously a lot to do.  In the next three weeks, I plan on resting my weary brain by being overstimulated on a trip to India.  On my return, my mind will be ready for creating something orderly like a unit.  I’m sure of it.

It’s about the Connections

I read this very interesting article, Year of the Backlash by Peter Stokes and Sean Gallagher, about the backlash regarding MOOCs.  It really got me thinking.  With any idea there is an evolution involving continued trial and error.  MOOCs sound like the future to me but perhaps we are at a point of important mutation or refinement in the evolution of online education.

Navigating the University of the People website got me so excited.  I wanted to sign up for courses!  What an amazing opportunity.  What an amazing time we live in that now anyone with an internet connection and some intrinsic motivation can get an education.  The world is at our fingertips.  That is so trite to say, I know, but this is a pivotal moment in human history where the half-life of knowledge is shrinking at a pace that thrills me and also heightens my anxiety.  How crazy good that knowledge is growing by leaps and bounds/How am I ever supposed to keep up?

I’m currently in my 19th year of teaching.  (Twenty, if you count that year I took off and subbed most days.  By the way, that was one of my favorite years of teaching and I highly recommend it to everyone.)  When I think back to my first job teaching on Guam in public schools in a new school to open on island where all the resources were books other schools were discarding, to my current job where every one of my students has a laptop connected to the world and we have a huge library full of resources, I am overwhelmed.  The resources available to my current students is exponentially larger than what was available to my first students.

There is so much potential that education has to change.  Of course it does.  There is no room for going back to the way things were……except I’m thinking there might be something from the past that is worth hanging on to….

Cordova School (now a photography studio) by The Bouncing Czech, on Flickr

From Kindergarden to 5th grade, I attended a one-room school.  Yep.  One teacher and between 9-13 students any given year covering all of those grades.  I had 2 other girls in my class and so we were a big grade level at 3.  There were so many great things about this but I’m going to focus on what I think is most important and most relevant:  connections.  We learned from each other.  The older students helped out the younger students.  The younger students listened in to the older students’ lessons.  We all studied the same topics together in some cases.  We were a community of learners.  Tight.

What I wonder is that if the biggest concern and cause of the backlash of MOOCs is the potential lack of a tight community.  It is what concerns me most, that’s for sure.  Over and over looking through the articles, I read that we will need to know our students and what motivates them.  We will need students to be super participatory.  The M in MOOCs is more than a little concerning when it comes to this point.

I want to be able to reach out to the ever expanding universe of knowledge but process that with a small connected community.

M31, the Andromeda Galaxy by write_adam, on Flickr

My hometown – Population 147 fine people – A small connected community

It is so exciting to think about where the next 20 years of my career will take me.  But regardless of how the technology changes the face of education, what will always remain, what has always been true, is that connecting to others is a key element.  It was true in my own elementary education in a one-room school.  It was true in my first classroom on Guam with the thrown away books.  It is true in my hyper-connected classroom in a big international school now.

We build connections, we share ideas, and our knowledge grows exponentially.  Exciting stuff.

 

Flipping Over the Flip!

doing a flip by Frankzed, on Flickr

I love the idea of flipping.  I love it so much.    Last summer, I attended FlipCon13 with a couple of other COETAILers.  I was so excited to go and prepare myself for a year of flipping.    Of course it is never as easy as all that, is it?

Both of the subjects I teach lend themselves to reverse instruction.  Math and Science are full of fact giving and note taking that can be done outside of the classroom.  When I’ve had the opportunity to take the time to make the flip happen, it has worked wonderfully.  The students are happy to take notes for homework and feel like that is something they can all do successfully at home without help.  Of course there are always students who don’t do their homework, but the vast majority of them do.  As a matter of fact, I haven’t done any tracking of this but I would say that more students do the homework when it is flipped instruction than when it is a more traditional types of homework.

This is my first video and notes sheet that I used to reverse instruction in my science class.  (Please have low expectations for any videos I post like this because, really, it is just better that way.  I’m not lighting the world on fire with these videos.)  It went well.  The students came to class and were engaged in the conversation right away.  I made a point in the discussion to use phrases like “As you know from the video…” and “Who can remind the class about _______….” so that they were reminded that the expectation is that they have done the homework. 

Notes Observation Inference

I have also been using e-text chapters that I have modified from ones found on ck12.org as a method of reverse instruction.  Instead of me making a video, students are required to read the e-text chapter (I email them a pdf) and use Adobe to highlight it, make notes, jot down questions, and answer a set of questions before we discuss the topic in class and do more in-depth activities based on the knowledge.

You know the Yiddish proverb: Man plans.  God laughs.

To-Do List by john.schultz, on Flickr

Well, there was probably a lot of laughter when I was making plans for how much I would get flipped this year.  I had big plans of making my science class follow a flipped mastery model posting videos and e-text chapters and choice-based assignments to show knowledge and understanding.  And then life happened and most of those plans had to be put on hold.

This year, I have come to truly understand that not everything can or has to be done right away.  Good things take time to do well.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.  (I feel like I’m relying on clichés in this post but they are the wisdom of the ages.)  I’ve come to the realization that my flipped master class can take a year to develop and that is okay.  Next year I will only be teaching science.  I am so excited with the idea that I can focus on one class and really building this flipped mastery approach up.

My main motivation for doing flipped mastery is the time that it frees up for students to pursue their own interests in science.  Those of you who have read my blog in the past know about my little passion – the 20% project.  I am just very excited to see where this path leads me.

 

Gamification – meh

Meh by obeyken, on Flickr

I’m so sorry to say that this topic just did not light a fire under me.  As a matter of fact, I was kind of turned off when reading some of the posts saying COETAIL should be gamified.  It just isn’t for everyone and I’m afraid I’m one of those people.  The Christmas my brothers and sister and I got the first Atari (Yep, that’s how old I am.), I built the Lego castle my little brother got while the rest of them learned the ways of Space Invader and Pong.  This feeling goes way way back.   I’d rather play with my hands, I guess.

I even had a discussion with my homegroup students one morning about it.  I totally did not show my bias and asked them what they thought about using gaming for educational purposes.  They were surprisingly not into it.  One of the biggest concerns they had was how they get so into a game that they look up from it having spent hours in it and feel they’ve accomplished nothing – even as far as progressing in the game.  Kind of a time suck.  So I worry about quality learning vs. quantity of time spent.

Now it’s not that I can’t see some benefits or uses.  Remember I'm more Meh than Dislike.  I eventually learned how to avoid some of the lasers on Space Invader (but seriously never had the eye-hand coordination to keep up with Pong).

dislike button by Sean MacEntee, on Flickr

Look, I use IXL Math constantly and there are definitely gamily elements to that.  It was highly motivational for the students.

Screenshot of IXL website

The score keeps going up, there are ribbons to show achievement and you “win” pictures on a gameboard (honestly, I don’t pay attention to that part and neither do most of my students.  Every once in awhile I’ll hear someone say “I got a trombone, ” but it isn’t what they are working for.)  I will highly endorse the use of IXL  for math practice.  Not only does it give great repetitive practice, but there are awesome reports that I use as a teacher with the kids and with parents.  I love this “gamification” of math practice for sure.

By Bobamnertiopsis

So maybe that’s just it.  I don’t see the need to gamify everything.  I don’t want to personally participate in a lot of gamified situations for my own learning.  But there are ways that are highly motivational uses of gamification that work for me.  My point being that we have to find the game that works for us individually.  I’ll never choose to play Pong but I am obsessed with Dots during traffic jams and on long flights.  It works for me.  And IXL works for me in my classroom.  I am sure I will find other ways gamification will work in my classroom, but I’m not jumping on the bandwagon full force.  I’ll take my time and make sure it is worth it.

 

 

 

Where am I? How did I get here? Attempting to Regroup

SAMR – TPACK – Samsung – Amtrak?  Where am I? How did I get here?

SAMR_koping by eggib, on Flickr

Is it just me or does anyone else just get lost in the lingo?

I’m just going to stick to SAMR and work through my thinking.

According to Too Cool for School?  No Way!, Lee Shulman, felt that “Teaching requires the transformation of content in ways that make it intellectually accessible to students.”  I really like this.  For me, this is what sums it all up.  What we need to do as teachers is make the content accessible to students.

From time immemorial, teachers have used technology to make the content accessible to students for learning to happen. 

I love this video that I stumbled on while looking for a little inspiration.    This is what it is all about, isn’t it?  Not asking everyone to do the same thing but allowing for creativity and collaboration to learn something more than even the teacher imagined.  This is the goal.

Currently working through mediocrity – Heading toward a revolution

When looking at the SAMR model, I feel like most of my activities fall solidly in the Augmentation to Modification area.  I have taken my formerly printed out lab report documents and uploaded them and converted them to Google Docs.

Doctopus – The script that is changing my life

Using Doctopus (Doctopus is currently changing my life) I pass out the lab report, student do the lab, insert pictures of their observations during the lab replacing sketches, label those pictures, make data tables, write conclusions.  Sometimes this is done individually and sometimes it is a collaborative effort.

Goobric and Doctopus go hand in hand

Then I grade the lab reports using Goobric (another life changer).  It hasn’t changed much from the paper and pencil technology but the small ways it has changed are significant.

First – there are all kinds of housekeeping issues taken care of like no one can “lose” their homework.  There are no digital dogs running around the Google Drive devouring docs.  It may seem small but how many times have I had to chase down missing homework and lab reports?  Too many times to count.  That’s how many.  It really is something that saves me time in the long run and time is like gold in my life.

But more importantly is how the learning is changed/augmented/modified.  I’ll listen to your argument on why it is important to sketch in the science lab but I’ll get better images that students can learn from with a quick shot from Photobooth or a digital microscope.  Then there is the feedback!  Goobric embeds the rubric with my comments and scoring at the end of the document.  No rubrics were lost in the grading of these lab reports.  Feedback is as quick as it can get.

I have a lab I do later on in the year that is dissecting a flower.  I feel like I might have blogged about that before here.  One of the great things about that lab is the collaborative nature of writing up the lab report.

My closest thing to the illusive Redefinition would have to be my 20% Project.  Students are keeping blogs with their research, they are using online data bases and research tools, they are going to write up their data collection and experimentation using Google Apps, and in the end they will have some kind of electronic presentation – a multitouch book, a Google Presentation, a podcast, an iMovie, an infographic.  I’m working on finding experts for them to reach out to and contact in an non-annoying, purposeful way.  The technology is a platform for their self-directed learning.  I am about ready to call that Redefinition.  Not sure if I’m there yet but I would say it is darn close.

So that’s pretty much where I am in this moment in time.  A heavy tech user who wants to, slowly but surely, keep the train moving toward redefining how technology can work as a revolutionary tool in education.

CC-BY-SA-3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Life is a Re-Mix

Whenever I hear the word remix, I think of Girl Talk who I blogged about once upon a time in Course 2.  Girl Talk has got to be the most talented remixer I know.  The man is a legend.  So, of course, when thinking about writing about remixing, I wanted a little video or sound clip of  “This is the remix.”  What I found instead made me so happy.

Someone else remixed the remixer.  You can and should start your journey reading about it here at Pitchfork and then let that lead you to the Girl Walk All Day page where you can watch the whole movie.  Here is the first chapter:

 

So okay, all that aside, I’ll go back to my original point – Life is a Remix.

I can’t get through a day without using 8 different people’s ideas.  Okay, I don’t count but I use ideas I get from people on SmartExchange, images from a creative commons search, something my partner teacher told me she was doing that she got from somewhere like Project Wild, an artist or a blogger or a Youtube channel that inspires me, and for sure an idea gleaned from one of these courses.   I mean, it just doesn’t end.

I’ve long given up reinventing the wheel and fully embraced the remix in my work and in my life.  The last original thought I had turned out to be one that tons of people have already had and done quite well with.  But okay.  What’s important is how I take it and shape it to make it work for me in my situation.  How do I remix what I find to make it further whatever I am doing?  That is the ultimate question and that is where the creativity sparks, burns and spreads.

So thank goodness for the culture of remixing.  And thank goodness someone had the creativity to take Girl Talk’s album and make a movie out of it.  And hopefully we, as teachers, can serve as inspiration for remixing and provide a respectful outlet for it happening in our classrooms.

Final Video Project – Course 3

In my blog post Digitally Telling the Story of Learning, I posted a presentation I use with my Digital Photography elective to introduce the idea of telling a story with photos.  Here I present to you my final video that I will use in Trimester 3 when I teach the elective again.

The process of changing this from a Google Presentation to an iMovie was both fun and frustrating.  I have some experience with iMovie but constantly find myself fiddling with that darn Ken Burns and my timings.   I hadn’t played around with the sound effects in a long time.  Usually I just throw in a song from my iTunes (I don’t suppose I should but they make it so easy).  I hadn’t realized I could layer sound effects and so could have the Concrete Jungle sound playing at the same time as  Jungle to get the effect I wanted to tell my story – a combination of city and nature.

If there is one thing I have learned these past few months while playing around with digital storytelling tools in my classroom, it is that most times, the time is worth the result.   However, an equally important lesson has been that this kind of creativity takes a lot of time.  However tech savvy my students may be, quality work takes time

Science + Infographics = Integration!

Wow!  Infographics!

I’m so ridiculously excited about infographics, I can’t even tell you.  This is lighting a spark that is going to grow into a raging fire soon.  I mean, I’ve seen infographics around of course.  I’m not living under a rock, but I hadn’t really considered the idea of my students making them to present their research until right now.

Our 7th grade team has been working on building our first real integrated unit centered around Ecology.  This alone has been exciting to have the focus be what we are learning in science.  My science teaching partner pitched the idea and it is thrilling to see the other subject area teachers on the team get on board.  Our next meeting will be to firm up the idea of what is the product(s) the students will be producing.  POW!  It hit me when I started looking at Visual.ly – The students can organize their research by making an infographic!  At the very least it can be an important part of of their project.  I think the kids will be really motivated by creating Infographics and the beauty of the integration gives more time over both Science and Humanities classes to get the job done.

I’m excited to get the students on to tools like Piktochart and see what they create.

I’ll start by showing them these infographics to inform and inspire.  I’ll be looking for more all night!

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

 

 

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

 

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

 

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.