A Flipped Classroom

The main purpose of a flipped classroom is to allow the teacher and student to spend more time interacting during class time rather than just the teacher lecturing. In many cases, this is done with the use of the Internet so that the students can watch teacher created videos when they are outside of the classroom. The videos, which are called vodcasts, are preparing the students for what is to come during the next class time which is why it is considered, “flipped.” The lecture part of schooling is now done during “homework” time (at home). The “lecture” time is now spent doing homework type material (hands-on practice in the classroom) with teacher guidance. 

After reading the article, The Flipped Class: What it is and What it is Not, by Jonathan Bergmann, Jerry Overmyer, and Brett Willie, I found that there are a lot of benefits to having a flipped classroom. A few examples are...

• the increase in personal contact time between the teacher and the student
• students learn to take responsibility for their learning
• the teacher works as a facilitator not a lecturer
• it allows for differentiation in instruction

However, there are some common misconceptions. Some are... 

• students are working in isolation and spend to much time staring at the computer
• it is basically an online course
• students have no structure 
• the teacher is replaced by videos

Although it is clear why people may get some of these ideas, it is incorrect. All assignments and learning done outside of the classroom is in fact structured and assigned/created by the teacher, therefore, the teacher is not replaced. Also, time spent and information documented on the computer is not necessarily a bad thing. Students of this generation should be efficient in computer use and it allows for students who may be out sick or gone for other personal reasons to always have access to missed information. Most of all, the students are not isolated, they become responsible for their learning but this does not mean they do not have class time to get additional help from their teacher. 

After reading an excerpt from, Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day, by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, I thought the most interesting reason that a flipped classroom is a good idea is because it speaks to today’s generation of students. The youth now has grown up with frequent exposure to technology, Internet, YouTube, Facebook, etc. Video learning will most likely not be something new to them and if it is, it may be something they should be learning anyway in order to remain up to date. 

The flipped classroom can also be very beneficial to teachers. The time that the teacher will spend as a facilitator rather than a lecturer will allow the teacher to see more specifically where each student is at. Because no learner will always learn at the same pace, this will give the teacher more time and opportunities to help struggling students, or to allow students to work collaboratively to help one another. Another great thing for teachers is that although they should be making their own videos for students, there are many Flipped Classroom resources where teachers share ideas by uploading created videos, and asking questions for guidance through forums. 

References

Bergmann, J. Overmyer, J., & Willie, B. (2012). The flipped class: Myths vs. reality. The Daily Riff. Retrieved from http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-flipped-class-conversation-689.php

Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2012) Flip your classroom: Reach every student in every class every day. (chapter 3). International Society for Technology in Education World. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/Flip-Your-Classroom.aspx

Overmyer, J. (2012). Flipped classroom. Retrieved from http://flippedclassroom.org/

Overmyer, J. (2012, July 15). Vodcasting and the flipped classroom. Retrieved from http://www.flippedclassroom.com/

Podcast #2

              

              The last few episodes of the Math Dude: Quick and Dirty Tips to Make Math Easier podcasts I have been listening to are all about multiplication. Just as the last few episodes were in this podcast, this multiplication section all lined up with each other. I listened to one that introduced the basic concepts of multiplication, one that discussed multiplying double digits, and one that debated whether or not multiplication can be considered repeated addition. The podcasts talk about making multiplication more interesting because you can use a  lot of visual representations and  non-traditional techniques when multiplying. For example, a “Ken Ken” puzzle. Click here to see a video on how to use a Ken Ken puzzle.

             

               The most interesting of the podcasts was the one that debated whether or not multiplication could be considered repeated addition. I knew from past podcasts that the narrator likes to make math fun but also likes to make you think. This section was initially a little confusing. He gives detailed explanations on how the statement, “multiplication is repeated addition,” could be true. He even gives examples of simple problems such as 3 x 2. He makes the problem interesting because he explains how people typically view this problem, 3 is the quantity of 2, 3 times. In other words, this is 2 + 2 + 2. When this discussion is over, you are convinced that the answer to this debate is that multiplication is in fact repeated addition. However, he throws you a curve ball when he starts discussing a column he read called, “It Ain’t No Repeated Addition.,” by Keith Devlin. He settles the listeners confusion at the end with saying that this is truly an unsettled debate. The importance is that you are able to use the tool of multiplication while doing math. 

          In the most recent episodes of Science: New Teacher Survival Guide, there are guest speakers along with the narrator which I found interesting. In some episodes there is a woman who is the county’s early childhood specialist. In many of the episodes there is a woman who she considers an expert in science education. She records these podcasts almost as an interview with them but also adds to their ideas. 

The main idea of the last few episodes has been about Science as Inquiry in the elementary level classroom. They began this series of episodes by emphasizing how beneficial this podcast could be to teachers who think that teaching science is out of their league. The goal of these episodes is to increase confidence in these teachers.

One topic discussed throughout an entire podcast is simply why it is so important to incorporate science into the elementary classroom. The elementary specialist talks about how important science truly is to the children’s lives. She talks about how when children are exposed to new things, science will be what gives them a basic understanding of our complex world and will give the children the skills they need to explore it. Making sure that students have these skills young will make their future in science education much smoother. 

The most repeated topic throughout these podcasts is teaching inquiry based science. The science expert talks about how students will be more engaged, develop better language, and develop better social skills, simply if they are exposed to inquiry based learning. She discusses how it is natural for children to be curious and this sort of learning will cater to that. 

The most important podcast I thought was specifically about how to do inquiry based learning in your classroom. They talk about how in order to run your classroom this way, teachers need to view themselves as a supporter who finds opportunities for learning rather than a giver of information. The teachers job in this sort of classroom is to feed to students curiosity and to give them the skills they need to search for answers. An awesome resource that this podcast gave is called Net Frog. This program allows students to virtually dissect either a earth worm, frog, sheep brain, cat, fetal pig, or cow eye. This is a way to do inquiry based learning even if your school does not provide the resources. 

Podcast

         During the last couple of weeks, I have been listening to the podcast titled, Math Dude: Quick and Dirty Tips to Make Math Easy. The narrator, Jason Marshall, explains math issues and problems in a way that is fun and entertaining not just for kids, but adults too. Most of his podcast are between 5 and 8 minutes. This is a great length so that people do not loose interest during one podcast, but can still grasp a good amount of information. He will do his lessons in a series. For example, a series that really stood out to me was one on “How to Memorize Numbers.” This section was divided into 3 parts. Each part of the section helps you understand and implement techniques a little further. 

In this section he makes the task of memorizing numbers exciting because he uses a real life analogy to help you understand. He has the listener understand the importance of memorization by having them imagine that they are a “secret math agent” who is able to save the world by deactivating a bomb, the only problem is they have to memorize a ten digit number code to do so. This fun aspect of the podcast is what makes it exciting to listen to with each episode.

He introduced the Mnemonic Major System in this series. To the right is a picture 

with how this system is supposed to work. Although there is a lot of aspects to it, he describes it in a way that makes sense. In order to memorize numbers, you are turning digits into consonant sounds. Websites such as PhoneticMnemonic and Rememberg are great resources to help understand this as well. You learn the basics of this process in Part 1.To the right is a chart of what the numbers typically represent, although it is just as beneficial to make up your own system. Once you begin listening to Part 2 and 3, it becomes more clear how to put the technique into action. He begins to give example and sample problems to the listener. He then shows how vowels can be integrated to help make a word. An example he uses is the number 123. The number 123 would equal to d-n-m. If you add the vowels i and e to this, you could make the word d-e-n-i-m. 

I have also been listening to the podcast titled Science: New Teacher Survival Guide. The narrator, Christie Bohman is from the Ohio Resource Center and her podcast is directed towards all teachers, not just first year teachers. She only has a total  of 7 episodes but they are very informative and specific. Most of her episodes are fairly long, the longest being 25 minutes. Initially, it sounds as though her podcast was strictly for teachers in the state of Ohio because it discusses the Ohio state assessments in particular for quite some time. However, in the end they are still very beneficial for getting teaching tips. 

There is a lot of tips on how to help students prepare for assessments in general even though they are using sample questions from the Ohio state tests. For example, she discusses that it would be a good idea to give students a problem that may come up in science, then give them the answer. Once you give them the answer, they need to reflect, analyze, and write in their science journals why that answer is correct and why the other answers are wrong. This is changing the cognitive demand of the questions they will be getting on the test helping them to think cognitively and grasp concepts better. She gives a lot of other great examples as well in Episode 1. 

In further episodes, she even goes into more specifics. For example, she discusses doing science in a lab. She talks about where to get data sheets and materials necessary to run a successful lab experiment with students. The most specific podcast I listened to was about Plants and Animals. She gives tips on how to incorporate real plants and animals into your classroom. She mentions that the standards say that hands-on learning is a necessity, but also mentions how to do this safely and appropriately. 

Technology in My Classroom

Throughout the semester we worked with numerous technological tools for education. Each tool was unique in it’s own way and provided many benefits for a classroom teacher. However, two of them really stood out to me, Glogster for Education, and Animoto for Education. Both of these are websites that are free to use. Although other tools such as Activinspire, Camtasia, Turning Point, etc. had very useful finishing products, I found them time consuming for me to make and there were some problems downloading the programs to my computer. The reason I really enjoyed Glogster and Animoto is because they were both easily accessible and simple to use websites that helped me create beneficial classroom tools in a reasonable amount of time. 

Glogster is an online poster maker. What makes this website so unique is that the posters are interactive. Whoever is creating the Glogster has the ability to use images, text, animation, and videos, to help deliver whatever lesson they are trying to teach. The other fantastic capability is that you can have links on your Glogster that will send you to another Glogster page, making the options of how many pages are stemming out from the main page endless! In fact, here is an example of a Glogster page that a educational technologist from Fort Rucker Primary school made on how to use Glogster! Click here... Because Glogster is such an interactive website, I would love to use it as a tool in my classroom. would have my students complete some sort of assignment while they are also following the directions on the page. To the left is an example of what a main page would like for a Glogster I would use in my classroom. I created this one as a way to teach students the four seasons. The student would click on the name of each of the four seasons at least once which will take them to another page which has information entirely on that season (weather/holidays/activities/etc.). Their task would be to gather information from each seasons page. When they are completed gathering information, the students would make a collage for each season demonstrating that they understand what each season entails. Another great idea for a Glogster would be to teach the life cycle of a butterfly or frog. The main page would be a a large representation of the life cycle with the name of each stage underneath the corresponding picture. Each picture on the life cycle would bring the student to a separate page with information on that particular stage. The students assignment throughout the interactive part of the task would be to draw the life cycle themselves and list underneath each stage what is occurring during that particular stage.

Animoto is an online movie maker. It is easy to access and an extremely beneficial tool for a classroom. I was immediately very impressed with Animoto. What impressed me the most was the easy access (ability to sign on at any computer if you have the internet) and simple to use directions (the program doing most of the work for you). Making a video with this website is as easy as selecting a theme, selecting pictures, selecting music, selecting a small amount of text, and uploading this information to the site, the final piecing together step is done for you! I know that Animoto is something I will be utilizing in my future classroom in more than one way. Because functioning the website is so simple, students could make videos of their own for different assignments. For example, an "about me" video at the start of the school year would be fun and beneficial for a new classroom. Other ideas for student use would be to have them make videos on a review of what they learned in a specific unit, reflect on a service learning project, make quick videos during class to share with their peers during a "jig-saw" type assignment, etc.  Not only would this be a great comprehension tool for students to use, but teachers as well. Below is an example of an Animoto video I made myself. I would use a video like this as an introduction to an art unit. Short and intriguing videos like these help the students to get motivated to learn and to get prepared for what is ahead. History would be another great subject to make introduction videos on. The teacher could easily create a short video to introduce a history topic with key facts and events, how they've affected the world today, and pictures. Another great idea would be to make a video as a review. The end of a math unit would be a great time for a review video. As a teacher I would construct a video with different measurements/formulas accompanied with real-life pictures to make connections that will help jog the students memory before moving on to another unit.  To read about why Lori Griffin, curriculum director of LIbrary Video Company, believes that using videos in a classroom is a great tool too, Click here. 

iPads in Education

With no surprise, the iPad has made its way into the education field. Not only does it have benefits for 21st century students, but provides huge help to the educators as well. It’s easy to believe that iPads would only be beneficial for upper elementary, junior high, and high school grades, but this is not true. The iPad has begun to show huge benefits in the lower elementary classrooms as well. 

Apple Inc. has made applications specifically designed for education. They have a wide selection so there are numerous options to choose from for all ages. One interesting thing they have done for the lower elementary grades is separate the applications into more specific categories such as learning to read, phonics, vocabulary, etc.  

An elementary school teacher, Laura Wright, has given a list of iPad applications she found especially helpful in the classroom.  One application that could be really effective in lower elementary classrooms would be “iWrite Words.” It is an easy to use application for young students that focuses on letter recognition and handwriting. To make it more appealing for young students, it is accompanied by fun sounds and images. 

Teachers have proven to benefit from using the iPad in their classroom for many reasons. It allows easy ways to stay organized, take attendance, etc. An article written by Samantha Miller gives a large list of 20 applications that could be useful for educators. Many of the applications in this article are geared for the teachers use. When teachers are more organized and prepared, they are able to give their students more attention in the right places. 

The application titled “Sundry Notes,” is one that would really help with organization. However, the application also serves a purpose other than simply organizing. The application has the capability to open pdf files, use search engines such as Google and Wikipedia, make recordings, download pictures, etc. Elementary math teachers especially find this application useful because it has virtual graph paper to work on. On top of all the other benefits, it’s free! Some other free applications that would help with organization are “Teacher Tools,” and “Teacher Pal.” There are even applications that cost as little as 99cents. For example, “Attendance,” a virtual way to keep track of attendance records and even match each student with a photo identification. 

Educators at High Point University have already began to use iPads to enhance their teaching experience. The university has even helped students in the local community at Montlieu Elementary by donating iPads for the school to use, learn, and grow. They even have staff that will be helping the school utilize the iPads for the rest of the year. High Point University is one of the many institutions in the nation that recognizes the importance of iPads in the classroom and there will surely be more following soon.